Basic Components of Human Computer Interaction

Introduction:
The Components of Human Computer Interaction comprise the
Interaction models that concern translation between the user
and the computer system, Ergonomics that describe the
physical characteristics of interaction, the Interaction styles that
express the nature of user and system dialog and finally the
context of the social, organizational and the motivational aspect
of interaction.
This study session, briefly describes each of these components
with a desire of
giving an overview of the general requirements for the design of
human computer
interaction systems.
• The Interaction Models
• The interaction models comprise
• The terms of Interaction,
• The Donald Norman Model
• The Interaction framework
• Terms of interaction
• Domain: This is the area of work under study e.g. a graphic design.
• Goal: This is what you want to achieve e.g. to create a solid red triangle.
• Task: Concerns how you go about doing it, ultimately in terms of operations
or actions e.g. select the fill tool, click over the triangle.
Donald Norman's model:
These are in seven stages as follow:

Donald Norman’s Model

• Interpretation:
• Goal:
• - The user establishes the goal
• Execution:
- The user formulates intention.
The user specifies actions at interface.
- The user executes the action.
• Evaluation:
- The user perceives the system state.
- The user interprets the system state.
- The user evaluates the system state with respect to
goal.
• Donald Norman's model
• Norman's model can be applied through:
• Gulf of Execution that evaluates the user's formulation of actions where
actions
• are allowed by the system.
• Gulf of Evaluation where the user's expectation of changed system state
represent
• actual presentation of this state
• Interaction could harbour some human errors which may be slips and mistakes.
• Slips may include lack of understanding the system and goal, incorrect
formulation
• of action, incorrect action and mistake of not even having the right goal!
• To fix slips, better interface design should be carried out while to avoid mistakes,
• one should better understand the system
• To avoid some of the Human errors, Abowd and Beale framework is adopted.
• Abowd and Beale framework is an extension of Norman model and it has 4 parts
namely:
• . The user,
• ii. The input,
• iii. The system, and
• iv. The output, while each framework has its own unique language.
• If interaction is the translation between languages, and if there are problems in
• interaction, then there would be problems in translation.
Using Abowd & Beale's model
• The user intentions could be translated into actions at the interface, translated
in to
• alterations of state, reflected in the output display system or interpreted by the
user
• himself.
• The general framework for understanding interaction are that interaction is not
• restricted to electronic computer systems alone, all major component involved
in
• interaction should be identified. The comparative assessment of systems should
be
• allowed. The framework also considers as abstraction.
• Ergonomics
This considers both the physical aspects of interfaces and the industrial
interfaces.
• Ergonomics is the study of the physical characteristics of interaction. It is
known as human factors. Ergonomics is good at defining standards and
guidelines for constraining the way we design certain aspects of systems
Examples of Ergonomics include:
i. Arrangement of controls and displays such as the controls grouped
according to function, frequency and sequence of use.
ii. Surrounding environment such as the seating arrangements
adaptabletocope with all sizes of user, health issues such as the physical
position,
environmental conditions (temperature, humidity), lighting, and noise.
iii. Use of colour such as the use of red for warning, green for okay, and
awareness of colour-blindness etc. The user interacts with real world through
interface issues, feedback and delays.
Common Interaction styles
• Two major classes of interaction styles will be considered,
they are:-
Dialogue Style of Interaction between computer and user
Distinct styles of interaction
Both are expressed in the following common forms of
interfaces:
i. Command line interface
ii. Menus
iii. Natural language
iv. Question and answer, and query dialogue
v. Form-fills and spreadsheets
vi. WIMP
vii. Point and click
viii. Three—dimensional interfaces
• Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are sophisticated variations of form-filling in
which grid of cells contain a value or a formula.
• The formula can involve values of other cells e.g. sum of
all cells in this column.
• The user can enter and alter data in spreadsheet to
maintain consistency.
• The first spreadsheet introduced was VISICALC, followed
by Lotus 1-2-3.
• MicroSoft Excel is the most common today
WIMP Interface
This interface comprises Windows, Icons, Menus, and
Pointers or Windows, Icons,Mice, and Pull-down menus!
The interface is the default style for majority of interactive
computer systems,especially PCs and desktop machines.
• Elements of the WIMP interface
The elements include windows, icons, menus, and pointers. In some other
cases they may be buttons, toolbars, palettes, and dialog
boxes.Understanding the concept of 'Look and feel‘
WIMP systems have the same elements: as windows, icons, menus,
pointers,buttons, etc. but have different window systems that behave
differently. For example, Macintosh Operating System (MacOS) Compared
with Windows menus.
The combination of the appearance and the behaviour is the 'look and feel‘
• Windows: Windows are areas of the screen that behave as if they were
independent. They can contain text or graphics and can be moved or resized.
They can overlap and obscure each other, or can be laid out next to one
another(tiled)
• Icons: Icons are small pictures or images that represent some object in the
interface. They appear often as windows or as actions.
Windows can be 'iconised' that is closed down. They are small
representations that fit many accessible windows. Icons can be many and
various. They can be highly stylized with realistic representations.
Menus: These are choice of operations or services offered on the screen
The required option is selected with the pointer. However, this takes a lot of screen
space.
This problem is partly solved when a pop-up menu appears when needed.
Kinds of Menus
• i. Menu Bar at top of screen (normally), menu drags down.
• ii. Pull-down menu - mouse hold and drag down menu.
• iii. Drop-down menu - mouse click reveals menu.
• iv. Fall-down menus - mouse just moves over bar!
• v. Contextual menu appears where you are
• vi. Pop-up menus take actions for selected object.
• vii. Pie menus are arranged in a circle such that it is easier to select item over larger
target area. Selection is also quicker because it can move same distance to any
option. Pie menus are not widely used!
• Menus design issues
In order to design an effective menu, the following issues should be considered:
i. Which kind to use
ii. What to include in menus at all
iii. Words to use ( in action or description)
iv. How to group items
v. Choice of keyboard accelerators
• Palettes and tear-off menus
i. Palettes are little windows of actions shown or hidden via menu option in
available shapes in drawing package
ii. In tear-off and pin-up menus, menu 'tears off' to become palette
• Pointers
• Pointers are important WIMP style components that point on and select.
They are activated by the use of mouse, track pad, joystick, trackball, cursor
keys or keyboard shortcuts. They are in wide variety of graphical images.
• Point and click interfaces: Point and click interfaces are used in
multimedia, web browsers, and hypertext. You just click something such as
icons, text links or location on map. It requires minimal typing.
• Scrollbars: Scrollbars allow the user to move the contents of the window up
and down or from side to side.
• Title bars: Title bars describe the name of the window
• Buttons: This is an individual and isolated region within a display that can
be selected to invoke an action.
• Toolbars: These are long lines of icons with fast access to common actions
and are often customizable.
• Dialogue boxes: These are information windows that pop up
to inform of an important event or requested information, for
example 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.
• Context Analysis: Context analysis includes: understanding
the technical, environmental and social settings where the
information systems will be used. It examines whether and
how the interaction between physical and social environment
and the physiological and psychological characteristics of the
user would impact users interacting with the system. There
are four aspects in Context Analysis: physical context,
technical context, organizational context, and social and
cultural context. Overall, context analysis can provide ideas for
design factors such as metaphor creation, selection and
patterns of communications between users and the system.
• In Conclusion, The knowledge of the basic
components of human computer interaction aids
ingiving direction, focus and human
considerations pertaining to interactive
design.There are variations of interaction models
of the interface established between theuser and
the computer system. These models are
presented as a loop in theexecution and
evaluation of an interactive design. These
interaction modelstogether with the human
ergonomics, the interaction styles, and the social
andorganizational contexts are basic components
of human computer interaction.
Critical Evaluation of Computer Based Technology.
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