Human Computer Interaction, Cognitive Psychology

I have talked about Cognitive Psychology in many areas (Cognitive Psychology, Congnitive Psychology(The Psychology of Learning), Cognitive Psychology(Thought and Learning)) while discussing about Cognitive Science. To take a detailed look in to the subject domain, please refer the above mentioned links. In this series I will be covering the basics and things that i didnt talk about in the previous articles and will be focused mainly on how this subject domain ties up with Human Computer Interaction. so lets get started..

Cognitive Psychology

Study of how we gain knowledge, understanding, remembering, reasoning, awareness, acquiring skills, creating new ideas, etc.

Used in Human Computer Interaction

• Improve on ways user interacts with computers.
• Know characteristics of people interacting with computer or with other people.
• Identify/ know the target user, their needs, capabilities, goals, etc
• Explain why source interfaces are more successful than others.

Limitations

• Cannot provide precise rules for better design (only a guideline)
• Mainly applied on a single personal interaction with the computer, hence suitable only for single stand-alone user software.
• However people often work in corporation with other people interacting together with the system.
• E.g. group-base (video conferencing, electronic meeting)

Components of Human Computer Interaction

HCI (Human Computer Interaction) involves more than good interface design – input devices, output displays, dialogues, icons, graphics, etc.

HCI (Human Computer Interaction) also involves user environment, organizational factors, health, safety, comfort, etc; Personality, capabilities, past experience of intended users, etc.

HCI (Human Computer Interaction) covers knowledge from a large number of academic disciplines.

Computer Science.

Knowledge of the latest development in IT and methodologies used.
E.g. High-Level Languages, User Interfaces Management Systems, Protoyping tools.

Cognitive Psychology.

Knowledge about perception, attention, memory, learning, thinking, problem solving, of human brain.

Erogonomics

Design of artifacts to suit capabilities and capabilities of user to maximize user’s safety, efficiency, reliability, and performance confort.

Sociology

Studies of human behaviour

• How individuals behavior influence another.
• Impact of a group on its member’s attitudes and behavior.E.g how the introduction of a new system might affect working practice.
  

Artificial Intelligence.

Graphics Design

Social and Organizational Psychology

Human Computer Interaction, Usability Factors

Measure how well the specified users can perform the desired activities:

1. Learnability:

How easy to learn to use the system?
How well are the learned skills retained over time?

2. Throughput (Volume/ Result):

How quickly can the task be performed?
How many people needed to perform a task?
What is the user error rate?
How easily for user/ system to recover from errors.

3. Flexibility:

How suitable is the system for the expertise of the intended users?
Can system be customized to have different levels of expertise?

4. Attitude:

What is the user subjective satisfaction with the system?

5. Visibility:

What feedback is given to user to confirm the action of user or error occurs?

6. Transparency:Users do not need to know how a system works, but only the functions.
E.g. a driver can drive a car without knowing how an engine runs.

7. Affordance:

Define as the properties of objects.
What kind of operations and manipulating can be done to objects?

Consequences of Poor Interface Design

1. Increased mistake in data entry and system operation
2. Inaccessible functionality
3. User frustration – Low productivity, under utilization
4. User rejection of system.