Human is the user or the whom computer system is design to assist.

The requirement of the user should therefore be our first priority

Humans are limited in their capacity to process information, this has important implications for
design
The information is received and responses given by a number of input and output channels that
includes visual channel, auditory channel, haptic channel and movement.
This information is stored in memory which can be sensory, short-term and long -term.
Once it is stored, it will be process and applied through reasoning, problem solving, skill and
error.
Emotion also influences human capabilities. Users share common capabilities but individual has
differences which should not be ignored.
Vision is the primary source of information for the average person.
So we can divide a visual perception into two stages:
1. Physical reception of stimulus - from the outside world, yung physical properties of the
eye and the visual system mean that there are certain things that cannot be seen by the
human.
2. The processing and interpretation of stimulus – the interpretative capabilities of visual
processing allow images to be constructed from incomplete information.
We need to understand both stages as both of them can influence what can and cannot be
perceived visually by a human being which intern directly affects the way that we design
computer system. So, we will begin by looking at the eye as a physical receptor and then go to
the processing involve in basic vision.
Vision begins with light and we can say that the eye is a mechanism for receiving light and
receiving for electrical energy.
Light is reflected from objects in the world and their image is focused upside down on the back
of the eye which is the retina (light sensitive and it contains of two types photoreceptors which
is the rods and the cones) Rods - highly sensitive to light and allows us to see a low level of
illumination and a low light vision (e.g. temporary blindness) - Active and saturated by the
sudden light, there are approximately 120 millions of rods per eye which are mainly situated
towards the edges of the retina. Rods dominate the peripheral vison. Cones - less sensitive to
light, it can tolerate more light than the rods. This allows color vision. The retina also has
specialized nerve cells called ganglion cells which has two types: X cells – responsible for the
early detection of the pattern and Y cells – are responsible for the early detection of the
movement. Early distribution of cells means that while we may not able to detect the changes in
pattern and a peripheral vision, we can perceive movement.
Perceiving the size and depth, even in describing such a seen we can easily identify the size and
the distance. So our visual system is easily use to interpret the images which it receives. We can
identify similar objects regardless of the fact that they appear to us in a different size. In fact, we
can use this information to judge distances. We must consider on how the image appear on the
retina. The size of the image specified as a visual angle. Visual angle indicates how much of the
field of view is taken by the object. If the visual angle of the object is too small, we will be
unable to perceive it all. Visual acuity is the ability of the person to perceive fine detail. There
are a number of measurements that has been establish to test the visual acuity and most of which
are included in the standard eye test. Assuming that we can perceived the object does its visual
angel affect our perception of the size. Given that the visual angle of the object is reduce as it
gets far away, we would perceive the object as smaller. The perception of the eye in the object
remains constant (law of the size constancy). It indicates that our perception of size relies on the
factors other than the visual angle.
Perception of Brightness – a subjective reaction to levels of light, it is affected by luminance.
Luminance is amount of light that is emitted by an object, dependent on the amount of light that
reflects on object including its reflective properties. It is a physical characteristic and it can be
measure by a photo meter. Although brightness is subjective response, it can be described in
terms of the amount of luminance that gives a noticeable difference in brightness.
Perception of Colour – usually regarded as being made up of three components: Hue, intensity
and saturation.
Hue – is determine by the spectral wavelength of the light. Blue have the short wavelength and
green has medium and red has long wavelength. We have 150 different use that can be
discriminated by the average person.
Intensity – brightness of the color
Saturation – amount of whiteness in the color
The human eye perceives color because the cones are sensitive to light of different wavelengths.
There are different types of cones and each are sensitive to different colors (blue, green and red).
Cones are sensitive to blue light that is why it is the lowest and acuity. We should remember that
8% of males and 1% of females suffer from color blindness and most commonly being
unable to discriminate between the red and green.
In considering the way in which we perceive images, we have already encounter some of the
capabilities and limitation of the human visual processing system. It involves the transformation
and interpretation of a complete image from the light that is shown from the retina. It
compensates for the movement of the image on the retina which occurs we move around and as
the object we see moves. Although the retina image is moving, the image that we perceive is
stable same with the brightness of the color which perceive as constant despite of its changes in
luminance.
We can create optical illusion, yung linya sa taas appears like a concave edge while yung nasa
baba is like a convex edge.

Top line appears longer because of the distance effect although both lines are at the same length
Illusion – demonstrate that our perception of size is not completely reliable
Ponzo Illusion – similar illusion
Reading
There are several stages in the reading process: visual pattern of the world is perceived and the
final stage of language processing include syntactic and semantic analysis and operate on phrases
or sentences. During reading, the eye makes jerky movements called saccades – a quick
simultaneous movement of both eye between two or more phrases. Fixation – the eye moves
backwards over the text as well as forwards in what are known as regressions. If the text is
complex there will be more regressions. Adults can approximately read 250 words a minute
unlikely that words are scanned serially, character by character. Words can quickly recognize as
single character. Instead familiar words are recognize using word shape – removing the word
shape clues e.g. capitalizing words is decremental meaning it will cause harm to reading speed
and accuracy. Experiments have shown that the standard font size of 9 to 12 points are equally
legible.
So given proportional spacing between lines. And similarly, line lengths of between 2.3 and 5.2
inches are equally legible. However, there is an evidence that reading from a computer screen is
lower than from a book. So this is thought to be due to the number of factors, including a longer
line length, fewer words to a page orientation and the familiarity of the page. A final word about
the use of contrast in visual display is then negative contrast or dark characters on a light screen
so it provides higher luminance and increased upward equity and in a positive contrast. So this
will in turn increases that legibility.
The sense of hearing is often considered secondary to sight. But we tend to underestimate the
amount of information that we receive to our ears. So the auditory system can convey a lot of
information about our environment, but how does it work. Just as vision begins with light
hearing begins with vibrations in the air, or sound waves. So the ear receives this vibration and
transmit them through various stages to the auditory nerves. So the ear comprises three sections
commonly know as the outer ear, the middle ear, and inner ear. So, the outer ear - visible
part of the ear and it has two parts, which is the pinna, which is the structure that is attached to
the sides of the head, and the auditory canal along which sound waves are passed to the middle
ear. So the outer ear serves two purposes. First is to protect the sensitive middle ear from
damage the auditory canal contains wax, which prevents, dust, dirt, and insects are
reaching the middle ear. So it also maintain the middle ear at a constant temperature. Secondly,
the pinna and the auditory canal serve to amplify some sound. The middle ear is a small
cavity connected to the outer ear by the tympanic membrane or eardrum to the inner ear by the
cochlea. We have seen sound is changes or vibration in air pressure and so it has a number of
characteristics which we can differentiate. So number one is the pitch, which is the frequency of
the sound so low frequency produces a low pitch. Then a high frequency produces a high pitch.
So loudness is proportional to the amplitude of the sound. So the frequency remains constant.
And the timbre relates to the type of the sound. In which sounds me have the same pitch and
loudness but me made by different instruments and timbre so we can also identify a sound
localization and since two ears likely receive different sounds. The human ear can hear
frequencies from about 20 hertz to 15 kilohertz. So it can distinguish frequencies changes of
less than 1.5 hertz at low frequency, but it is less accurate at high frequencies. So the auditory
system performs some filtering of the sound received, allowing us to ignore the background
noise and concentrate on important information. We are selective in our hearing. It is usually
used as a warning sound and notification. So the exception is multimedia which may include
music voice commentary and sound effects.
The third and the last of the senses, is the touch or the haptic perception. So although this sense
is often viewed as less important than sight or hearing, imagine life without a tool such provides
us with vital information about our environment so it tells us when we touch something hot or
cold and can therefore act as a warning so it also provides us with feedback when we attempt to
live an object. So for example, considered of picking up a glass of water so if we could only see
the glass and not feel when our hand made contact with it, or feel it, shape, the speed and
accuracy of the action would be are reduced. So this is the experience of users of shaping the
virtual reality game so they can see the computer generated objects which they need to
manipulate but they have no physical sensation of touching it. Watching users can be an
informative and amusing experience.
Touch is therefore an important means of feedback and this is no less so in using computers. We
should be aware, although for the average person haptic perception is a secondary source of
information, but for those whose other senses are impaired. It may be vitally important so for
such users’ interfaces such as Braille. So the apparatus of touch differs from that of sight and
hearing. The skin contains three types of sensory:
Thermoreceptors which response to the heat and cold
Nociceptors which response to the intense pressure, heat and pain
Mechanoreceptors that response to pressure
Then we have Kinethesis, which is the awareness of the position of the body and limbs so this
perception affects both comfort and performance. So for example for a touch typist awareness of
the relative positions of the fingers and feedback from the key words are very important.
Movement – a simple actions such as keeping a button in response to a question involves a
number of processing stage. So the stimulus of the question is received through the sensory
receptors and it is transmitted to the brain.
Movement time is dependent on the physical characteristic of the subject so example is their age
and fitness.
Reaction time may vary according to the century channel, to which the stimulus is received, so a
person can react to an auditory sign in approximately 150 ms to a visual signal, verifying 200
ms answer pain is 700 ms two, however, a combined signal will result in the quickest response.
So factors such as kill or properties can reduce the reaction time end, but they can also increase
it.
Second measure of motor skills is accuracy. So one question that we should ask is whether the
speed of reaction results in reduced, accuracy, so this is dependent on the task in the user. So in
some cases are requiring increased reaction time or reduces accuracy. So, this is the premise
behind many arcade and video games were left skill users failed to level up a play that requires
faster response. However, for a skilled operator, this is not necessarily the case studies of
keyboard operators have shown that although the faster operator we're up to twice as fast as the
others. The slower ones made 10 times the error. So the speed and accuracy of movement are
important consideration in the design of interactive system, primarily in terms of the time taken
to move to a particular target on the screen so the target may be about on amino item or an icon
so for example, the time taken to hit a target is a function of the size of the target and the distance
that has to be moved. So this is formalized in the Fitts’ law. So there are my many variation of
this formula which have varying constants, but they are all very similar so one common is the
movement time.
Memory - the idea is that each player has to recount a list of objects and then add one more to
the end. Some games rely on our ability to store and retrieve information. This is the job of our
memory system. Indeed, much of our everyday activities relies on memory, as well as storing all
our factual knowledge. So our memory contains our knowledge of actions or procedure.
Memory - it allows us to repeat actions to use language, and to use new information received by
our school. So it also gives us our sense of identity by preserving information from our past
experiences. So we need to understand some of the capabilities and limitations of human
memory, your memory is the second part of our model of the human as an information
processing system.
Let's first discuss the sensory memory or this is an act as buffers for stimuli received through
the senses so your sensory memory access for each sensory channel includes the iconic memory
for visual stimuli, echoic memory for aural stimuli and haptic memory for tactile stimuli
touch. So this memories are constantly overwritten by new information coming in on this
channels.
Iconic Memory for example, moving a finger in front of the eye. So, can you see it in more than
one place at once.
Echoic memory allows us to have a brief playback of information.
Attention is the concentration of the mind, on one out of a number of completing stimuli are
taught so it is clear that we are able to focus our attention selectively. We choose to attend to one
thing rather than another this is due to the limited capacity of our sensory and mental processes.
Because if we do not actively attend to the stimuli that is coming to our senses are my mental
processes. Because if we do not selectively attend to the stimuli that is coming to our senses are
overloaded. So, and this choice is governed by, to an extent by our arousal or our level of interest
or needs. So, the information received by sensory memories is quickly passed into a more
permanent memory store or overwritten and loss.
Short Term Memory (STM) can be accessed rapidly in the order of 70 ms however it's also
rapid decays that the meaning and the information can only be held temporarily in the order of
200 ms and short-term memory has a limited capacity and there are two basic methods for
measuring the memory capacity. The first one is it involves determining the length of a
sequence, which can be remembered in order and the second one is it allows items to be freely
recalled in any order.
Long Term Memory (LTM) is our main source memory. We store factual information
experiential knowledge procedurally rules of behavior. In fact, everything that we know is stored
in the long-term memory. It differs from the short-term memory in a number of significant ways.
So first is, it has a huge capacity. Secondly, it has a relatively slow access time of
approximately, a 10th of a second. Thirdly, forgetting, slow decay of course more slowly in
long term memory. So long-term memory is intended for the long-term storage of information
which information is placed there from working memory through rehearsal. So unlike working
memory, there is a little decay. So, the long term, recall after minutes is the same as that after our
score.
Episodic Memory - it represents our memory or events, and experiences in a serial form. So, it
is from this memory that we can reconstruct the actual events that took place at a given time in
our lives.
Semantic Memory in a man is a structured record of facts concepts and skills that we have
acquired the information in semantic memory is derived from the onset episode of the memory.
So, we can learn new facts or concepts from our experiences.