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Summary INF1520 Summarised Study Notes
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INF1520NOTES
,INF1520 – Human Computer Interaction
Notes by Louvaine Williams
Lesson Tool 1: Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction
Introduction
• Computers and software - created for people to use –design should allow intended user
to use it successfully for intended purpose with little effort
• To design a successful system, designers must:
o Know how to support tasks the user will perform with it
o Understand
▪ Why users need the system
▪ What tasks they will want to perform with system
▪ What knowledge they might have (or lack) that may influence interaction
with system
▪ How the system fits into user’s existing context
• Human-computer interaction (HCI)
o Adopted in mid-1980s
o To denote a new field of study concerned with studying and improving
effectiveness and efficiency of computer use.
o Today - multidisciplinary subject with computer science, psychology and cognitive
science at its core
o HCI became a domain of cognitive science research in 1970s – idea to apply
cognitive science methods to software development
o Sources used to guide design:
▪ Perception
▪ Motor activity
▪ Problem solving
▪ Language and,
▪ Communication
o Cognitive psychology knowledge - help designers understand capabilities and
limitations of intended users
o Human perception, information processing, memory and problem-solving are
some of the concepts from cognitive psychology that are related to people’s use of
computers.
The early history of computing can be traced back to the narrow aims of mathematicians,
logicians, and astronomers who had particular calculations that needed to be performed.
,The Historical Context
Middle Ages
▪ Persian astrologer Al-Kashi (1393-1449) - machine to calculate conjunction of planets
▪ German mathematician Wilhlem Schickard (1592-1635) - machine for simple addition
and subtraction
▪ French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1612-1662) – replicated Schickard's but only simpler
version.
▪ New developments stalled by war, famine and plague
▪ Machines only used by makers - no incentive to improve HCI
18th and 19th Century
▪ Agricultural & industrial revolutions in Europe increased trade, which increased the need
to produce accurate maps and navigation charts.
▪ Demand for nautical navigation aids fuelled development of computing devices.
▪ British mathematician & inventor, Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
o Difference Engine - calculate 6th degree polynomials - not completed.
o Analytical Engine – general computer, programmed using punch cards - viewed as
first solution to a user interface problem.
Early 20th Century
▪ People from Ireland & Scandinavia fled from famines to the USA.
▪ USA government wanted to monitor the immigrant population.
▪ Herman Hollerith (1860-1929)
o Developed computational device to calculate census statistics
o 1887: Punched card tabulating machine
▪ 200+ punch cards sorted per minute
▪ 1890 census 3 x faster than 1880 census
o 1911: Led to Computer-Tabulating-Recording Company
▪ First & biggest computer company
o 1914: Thomas J. Watson (Snr) joined & built it into International Business Machines
(IBM) corporation
▪ Economic & political factors created market for computing devices
▪ Term "computer" first used to describe people who manually performed calculations.
▪ Punch card instructions were added in batch mode.
, Mid 20th Century
▪ 1943: Alan Turing developed Colossus - break German encryption techniques during 2nd
World War
o First truly interactive computer
o Could type input via keyboard & get output via teleprinter
▪ 1945: American electrical engineer Vannevar Bush published "As we may think" in
Atlantic Monthly
o Starting point of Memex System – device to store all personal books, records,
communications retrieved rapidly via indexes, keywords & cross-references.
o User can annotate/comment text, construct a trail and save it.
o Led to idea of hypertext and the World Wide Web
▪ 1946: ENIAC machine - J.W. Mauchly and J.P. Eckert in America
o First all-electronic digital computer
o Impetus from military for ballistic calculations
o Had to physically manipulate 200 plugs in 100- 200 relays
▪ First machine languages were beginning to appear.
▪ Encapsulation of the machines began - hide the details of the underlying hardware from
programmers
▪ Early 1950s: Earliest electronic computers
o MIT: Whirlwind and SAGE air-defence command and control system - displays as
integral components
▪ 1957: IBM launched FORTRAN - One of the 1st high-level languages
o Created class of novice users who want to program without knowing machine
o Based on algebra, grammar and syntax - widely used for technical work.
▪ Mid 1950s: Discovered computers can manipulate images as well as numbers & text.
▪ 1963:
o Ivan Sutherland developed SketchPad system at MIT Lincoln Lab – first
sophisticated drawing package.
o Hardware developments in this time include “low-cost” graphics terminals, input
devices such as data tablets, and display processors capable of real-time
manipulation of images
o Doug Engelbart & Ted Nelson - dominant influences of the time.
▪ Elaborated on Memex system
▪ Nelson focused on links & interconnections, which he named "hypertext"
and implemented as Xanadu system
▪ Engelbart focused on hierarchic structure of documents
o Doug Engelbart published "A conceptual framework for augmenting human
intellect"
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