Wollo University

Kombolcha Institute of Technology

College of Informatics
Department of Information
Technology

Human-Computer Interaction
(HCI)

Chapter Four
Interaction

Instructor : Habtamu Abate

Email: habate999@gmail.com

1
 The Interaction
• Interaction models
– translations between user and system
• Ergonomics
– physical characteristics of interaction
• Interaction styles
– the nature of user/system dialog
• Context
– social, organizational, motivational
 Why study interaction models?
• Help us to understand what is going on in
the interaction between user and system
• Help us to identify problematic areas within
the design
• Address differences, if any, between what
user wants and system does

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 What is interaction?
Communication between the user and
the system
user system
Models of Interaction
Terms of interaction Norman
model Interaction framework
 Some terms of interaction
Domain – the area of work under study
e.g. graphic design
Goal – what you want to achieve
e.g. create a solid red triangle
Task – how you go about doing it
Intention – ultimately in terms of operations or actions
e.g. … select fill tool, click over triangle
Note …
– traditional interaction …
– use of terms differs a lot especially task/goal !!!
 Donald Norman’s model
• Seven stages
– user establishes the goal
– formulates intention
– specifies actions at interface
– executes action
– perceives system state
– interprets system state
– evaluates system state with respect to goal
• Norman‘s model concentrates on user‘s view
of the interface
User establishes the goal Move a sentence from one paragraph to
another paragraph in a WORD document

Formulates intention Use Edit menu to move a piece of text from one
paragraph to another (Shortcut keys can be used)

Specifies actions at (1) Highlight the text by moving & clicking a

mouse (2) Click the cut button, (3) Move the
interface cursor to new position and (4) Click the paste
button

Executes action Execute the actions

Perceives system state User observes changes on the screen

Interprets system state User sees the text in correct position

Evaluates system User knows that the goal has been completed
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Execution/Evaluation loop
Goal

Execution Evaluatio
n
System
• User establishes the goal
• Formulates intention
• Specifies actions at interface
• Executes action
• Perceives system state
• Interprets system state
• Evaluates system state with respect to goal
Execution/Evaluation loop
Goal
Execution Evaluatio
n
System
• User establishes the goal
• Formulates intention
• Specifies actions at interface
• Executes action
• Perceives system state
• Interprets system state
• Evaluates system state with respect to goal
Execution/Evaluation loop
Goal
Execution Evaluation
System
• User establishes the goal
• Formulates intention
• Specifies actions at interface
• Executes action
• Perceives system state
• Interprets system state
• Evaluates system state with respect to goal
Execution/Evaluation loop
Goal
Execution Evaluatio
n
System
• User establishes the goal
• Formulates intention
• Specifies actions at interface
• Executes action
• Perceives system state
• Interprets system state
• Evaluates system state with respect to goal
 Using Norman’s model
Some systems are harder to use than others
Gulf of Execution
user‘s formulation of actions
≠ actions allowed by the system
Gulf of Evaluation
user‘s expectation of changed system state
≠ actual presentation of this state
 Gulfs of execution
• Mismatch between user‘s intention and actions allowed
by the system,
E.g.,
– The system does not support the user‘s goal
– Sequence of actions is invalid
• Does the interface allow us to carry out the actions
required by the intention?
E.g. Goal is to save a file
– Intention is to use the file menu
– Action is to click the save option
– Is there a save option in the file menu?
 Gulfs of evaluation
• Mismatch between system‘s presentation and user‘s
expectation, e.g.,
– Failure to notice current system status
– Poor feedback from system
• Given a particular interface design, how easily can
you:
– Determine the function of the device?
– Determine whether the system is in the desired state?
– Determine what actions are possible?
– Perform the action?
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Human error - slips and mistakes
Slip
understand system and goal correct formulation
of action
incorrect action

Mistake
may not even have right goal!

Fixing things?
slip – better interface design
mistake – better understanding of system
 Abowd and Beale framework
Extension of Norman…
their interaction framework has 4 parts
– user
– input
– system
– output
Each has its own unique language
Interaction  translation between
languages
problems in interaction = problems in
translation
 Using Abowd & Beale’s model
user intentions
 translated into actions at the interface
 translated into alterations of system state
 reflected in the output display
 interpreted by the user

General framework for understanding interaction

– not restricted to electronic computer systems
– identifies all major components involved in interaction
– allows comparative assessment of systems
– an abstraction
 Ergonomics
 Physical aspects of interfaces industrial
interfaces
• Study of the physical characteristics of interaction.
• Also known as human factors – but this can also be
used to mean much of HCI!
• Ergonomics good at defining standards and
guidelines for constraining the way we design
certain aspects of systems
Ergonomics - examples
• arrangement of controls and displays
e.g. controls grouped according to function or frequency of use,
or sequentially
• surrounding environment
e.g. seating arrangements adaptable to cope with all sizes
of user
• health issues
physical position, environmental conditions
e.g.
(temperature, humidity), lighting, noise,

• use of colour
e.g. use of red for warning, green for okay,
awareness of colour-blindness etc.
Industrial interfaces

Office interface vs. industrial interface?

Context matters!
office industrial
type of data textual numeric
rate of change slow fast
environment clean dirty

… the oil soaked mouse!

Glass interfaces ?

• industrial interface:
– traditional … dials and knobs
– now … screens and keypads
• glass interface
+ cheaper, more flexible, Vessel B Temp
multiple representations,
precise values 200
0 100
– not physically located,
loss of context, complex 113
interfaces
• may need both
multiple representations
of same information
Indirect manipulation

• office– direct manipulation

– user interacts
with artificial world system

• industrial – indirect manipulation

– user interacts
with real world
through interface
interface plant
• issues ..
– feedback immediate
feedback
– delays
instruments
 Interaction Styles

dialogue … computer and user

distinct styles of interaction

Common interaction styles

• command line interface

• menus
• natural language
• question/answer and query dialogue
• form-fills and spreadsheets
• WIMP
• point and click
• three–dimensional interfaces
Command line interface
• Way of expressing instructions to the computer directly
– function keys, single characters, short abbreviations, whole
words, or a combination

• suitable for repetitive tasks

• better for expert users than novices
• offers direct access to system functionality
• command names/abbreviations should be meaningful!
Typical example: the Unix system
Menus
• Set of options displayed on the screen
• Options visible
– less recall - easier to use
– rely on recognition so names should be meaningful
• Selection by:
– numbers, letters, arrow keys, mouse
– combination (e.g. mouse plus accelerators)
• Often options hierarchically grouped
– sensible grouping is needed
• Restricted form of full WIMP system
Natural language

• Familiar to user
• speech recognition or typed natural language
• Problems
– vague
– ambiguous
– hard to do well!
• Solutions
– try to understand a subset
– pick on key words
Query interfaces
• Question/answer interfaces
– user led through interaction via series of
questions
– suitable for novice users but restricted
functionality
– often used in information systems
• Query languages (e.g. SQL)
– used to retrieve information from database
– requires understanding of database structure and
language syntax, hence requires some expertise
 Form-fills
• Primarily for data entry or data retrieval
• Screen like paper form.
• Data put in relevant place
• Requires
– good design
– obvious correction
facilities
 Spreadsheets
• first spreadsheet VISICALC, followed by Lotus 1-
2-3
MS Excel most common today
• sophisticated variation of form-filling.
– grid of cells contain a value or a formula
– formula can involve values of other cells
e.g. sum of all cells in this column
– user can enter and alter data spreadsheet maintains
consistency
WIMP Interface

Windows
Icons
Menus
Pointers
… or windows, icons, mice, and pull-down menus!

• default style for majority of interactive computer

systems, especially PCs and desktop machines
Point and click interfaces

• used in ..
– multimedia
– web browsers
– hypertext

• just click something!

– icons, text links or location on map

• minimal typing
Three dimensional interfaces

• virtual reality
• ‗ordinary‘ window systems
– highlighting flat buttons …
– visual affordance
– indiscriminate use
click me!
just confusing!
• 3D workspaces … or sculptured
– use for extra
virtual space
– light and
occlusion give
depth
– distance
elements of the wimp interface

windows, icons, menus, pointers

+++
buttons, toolbars,
palettes, dialog boxes

also see supplementary material

on choosing wimp elements
Windows
• Areas of the screen that behave as if they were independent
– can contain text or graphics
– can be moved or resized
– can overlap and obscure each other, or can be laid out next to one
another (tiled)

• scrollbars
– allow the user to move the contents of the window up and down
or from side to side
• title bars
– describe the name of the window
Icons

• small picture or image

• represents some object in the interface
– often a window or action
• windows can be closed down (iconised)
– small representation of many accessible windows
• icons can be many and various
– highly stylized
– realistic representations.
Pointers

• important component
– WIMP style relies on pointing and selecting things
• uses mouse, trackpad, joystick, trackball, cursor keys or
keyboard shortcuts
• wide variety of graphical images
Menus
• Choice of operations or services offered on the
screen
• Required option selected with pointer
File Edit Options Font
Typewriter
Screen
Times

problem – take a lot of screen space

solution – pop-up: menu appears when
needed
Kinds of Menus
• Menu Bar at top of screen (normally), menu drags down
– pull-down menu - mouse hold and drag down menu
– drop-down menu - mouse click reveals menu
– fall-down menus - mouse just moves over bar!

• Contextual menu appears where you are

– pop-up menus - actions for selected object
– pie menus - arranged in a circle
• easier to select item (larger target area)
• quicker (same distance to any option)
… but not widely used!
Menus extras

• Cascading menus
– hierarchical menu structure
– menu selection opens new menu
– and so in ad infinitum

• Keyboard accelerators
– key combinations - same effect as menu item
– two kinds
• active when menu open – usually first letter
• active when menu closed – usually Ctrl + letter
usually different !!!
Menus design issues

• which kind to use

• what to include in menus at all
• words to use (action or description)
• how to group items
• choice of keyboard accelerators
Buttons

• individual and isolated regions within a display

that can be selected to invoke an action

• Special kinds
– radio buttons
– set of mutually exclusive choices
– check boxes
– set of non-exclusive choices
Toolbars

• long lines of icons …

… but what do they do?

• fast access to common actions

• often customizable:
– choose which toolbars to see
– choose what options are on it
Palettes and tear-off menus

• Problem
menu not there when you want it

• Solution
palettes – little windows of actions
– shown/hidden via menu
option
e.g. available shapes in drawing package
tear-off and pin-up menus
– menu ‗tears off‘ to become
palette
Dialogue boxes

• information windows that pop up to inform of an

important event or request information.

e.g: when saving a file, a dialogue box is

displayed to
allow the user to specify the filename and location.
Once the file is saved, the box disappears.
 interactivity

easy to focus on look

what about feel?
Speech–driven interfaces
• rapidly improving …
… but still inaccurate
• how to have robust dialogue?
… interaction of course!

e.g. airline reservation:

reliable ―yes‖ and
―no‖
+ system reflects back its
understanding
―you want a ticket from New
York to Boston?‖
Look and … feel

• WIMP systems have the same elements:

windows, icons., menus, pointers, buttons, etc.

• but different window systems

… behave differently
e.g. MacOS vs Windows menus

appearance + behaviour = look and

feel
Initiative

• who has the initiative?

Old: question–answer – computer
Today: WIMP interface – user

• WIMP exceptions …
pre-emptive parts of the interface
• modal dialog boxes
– come and won‘t go away!
– good for errors, essential steps
– but use with care
Error and repair

can‘t always avoid errors …

… but we can put them right

make it easy to detect errors

… then the user can repair them
hello, this is the Go Faster booking
system what would you like?
(user) I want to fly from New York to
London
you want a ticket from New York to Boston
(user) no
sorry, please confirm one at a time
do you want to fly from New York
(user) yes
………
Context

Interaction affected by social and organizational context

• other people
– desire to impress, competition, fear of failure
• motivation
– fear, allegiance, ambition, self-satisfaction
• inadequate systems
– cause frustration and lack of motivation
Managing value

people use something

ONLY IF
it has perceived value
AND
value exceeds cost

BUT NOTE
• exceptions (e.g. habit)
• value NOT necessarily personal gain or
money
Weighing up value

value
• helps me get my work done
• fun
• good for others

cost
• download time
• money £, $, €
• learning effort
General lesson …

if you want someone to do something …

• make it easy for them!

• understand their values

Paradigms

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 Why Study Paradigms?

Concerns
– How can an interactive system be developed to ensure its usability?
– How can the usability of an interactive system be demonstrated or
measured?

History of interactive system design provides paradigms for usable designs

What are Paradigms?
• Predominant theoretical frameworks or scientific world views
– E.g., Aristotelian, Newtonian, Einsteinian (relativistic) paradigms in
physics
• Understanding HCI history is largely about understanding a series of
paradigm shifts
– Not all listed here are necessarily ―paradigm‖ shifts, but are at least
candidates
– History will judge which are true shifts

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Paradigms of interaction

New computing technologies arrive, creating a new

perception of the human—
computer relationship.
We can trace some of these shifts in the history of interactive
technologies.

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 The initial paradigm

• Batch processing
Complete jobs processed individually.

Impersonal
computing
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Example Paradigm Shifts

• Batch processing
• Time-sharing

Interactive
computing
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Example Paradigm Shifts

• Batch processing @#$% !

• Timesharing
• Networking

???

Community
computing
Example Paradigm Shifts

• Batch processing C…P… filename Move this file here,

dot star… or
• Timesharing was it R…M?
and copy this to there.

• Networking
• Graphical displays % foo.bar
ABORT
dumby!!!

Direct manipulation
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Example Paradigm Shifts

• Batch processing
• Timesharing
• Networking
• Graphical display
• Microprocessor

Personal computing
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Example Paradigm Shifts

• Batch processing
• Timesharing
• Networking
• Graphical display
• Microprocessor
• WWW

Global
information
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Example Paradigm Shifts
• Batch processing • A symbiosis of physical and
electronic worlds in service
• Timesharing of everyday activities.
• Networking
• Graphical display
• Microprocessor
• WWW
• Ubiquitous Computing

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Exercise

• Discuss the advantage and disadvantage between

command language and visual interface ways of
interactions. Describe the major paradigm used in
each.