La Consolacion University Philippines

City of Malolos, Bulacan

Name: ROBINA A. MUTIA

Course: MaEd-CAI
Subject: CAI 207 – Advance in Computer Instruction and Training
Professor: Dr. Joseph Espino

EXERCISE 3: INTERACTION

1. What influence does the social environment in which you work have on your interaction
with the computer? What effect does the organization (commercial or academic) to which
you belong have on the interaction?

Social environment means the surrounding and influenced in some way by humans. The
design of computer interfaces and interaction methods is directly influenced by the social
environment due to the immediate physical surroundings, social practices, social
relationships, infrastructure and cultural practices.

The social practices are much influential to the design of the systems and how
individuals interact with computer systems. This can be defined as the day-to-day way of
doing things, daily practices which affect the interaction methods and design of
interfaces as well. A public system cannot be designed with audible negative feedback as
this might became embarrassments based of the society daily practices. A good example
is society like Borrowdale (Community where rich people resides) where people laugh
each other when they have zero balances in their account and ATM system designed with
audio feedback which speaks something like “Sorry your account balance is zero, please
recharge and try to make transaction again”. This becomes so embarrassing basing on
the social practices of that community but to some communities like rural area it might
not be that much embarrassing, therefore it affects the design of the interaction system.
Secondly, the difference in cultures has significant influence in the design of the human
computer interfaces and the way the people interact with the system. Every culture has its
own beliefs and expectations therefore when developing a system interface the
expectations of each and every culture should be taken into considerations. For example,
the Indians interact badly when using the system that have people with min skirts that
when system background images have people wearing long cloths, therefore the culture
deference have a great negative and as well as positive impact to the interaction style. In
a positive way, providing Indians with the system that have Indians in the background
would means increase of sales and better interactions of users with the system, thus the
company could benefit from just knowing the culture differences and expectations of each
culture.

The immediate physical environment can also be regarded as social factor that affects
the interaction of the system. A system that is designed to be used on the crowded must be
different to a system that works on less crowded places. This means the interaction
methods of people in a crowded areas differs to the way the people in less crowded areas
do, thus sound feedback are not effective in crowded areas due to noise. Indeed, the
immediate physical environment also includes the place in which the system is going to
work in, such like hostile environment or office system. A system designed to work in
offices or places near residents must be designed with less noise as the noise affect the
people in their homes unlike the industrial system where the noise is permitted. This
means that social factors such like how people in the community affect and got affected
by the interface of the system which have the effects eve to the final users.

Lastly but not least, the relationship of the system with other system also has interaction
influence to the users. Users have their mental models and they expect every new system
to be in line with those mental models that is within their own mind, failing to match they
react negatively in terms of interaction with the system. This means that, when designing
interface for the system the designers should try by all means to make the system similar
to other systems alike to it. A good example is when designing soccer game controls, and
 the kick ball button on your game is much different to one user are using in the already
soccer game available such as FIFA, then the users are likely to resist to change and
hold on to the old ways of playing games, thus less people are going to play your game
even if its better than the old game used to be played.

2. The typical computer screen has a WIMP setup. Most common WIMP arrangements
work on the basis of a desktop metaphor, in which common actions are likened to similar
actions in the real world. For example, moving a file is achieved by selecting it and
dragging it into a relevant folder or filing cabinet. The advantage of using a metaphor is
that the user can identify with the environment presented on the screen. Having a
metaphor allows users to predict the outcome of their actions more easily.

Note that the metaphor can break down, however. What is the real-world equivalent of
formatting a disk? Is there a direct analogy for the concept of ‘undo’? Think of some
more examples yourself.

The typical computer screen has a WIMP setup. Most common WIMP arrangements
work based on a desktop metaphor, in which common actions are likened to similar
actions in the real world. For example, moving a file is achieved by selecting it and
dragging it into a relevant folder or filing cabinet. The advantage of using a metaphor is
that the user can identify with the environment presented o nthe screen. Having a
metaphor allows users to predict the outcome of their actions more easily. Note that the
metaphor can break down, however. What is the real-world equivalent of format- ting a
disk? Is there a direct analogy for the conceptof ‘undo’? Think of some more examples
yourself. WIMP. Stands for "Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer." WIMP is an acronym that
emerged in the 1980s and describes the graphical user interface (GUI) of personal
computers. It includes both Windows and Macintosh interfaces, as well as other less
common operating systems, such as Linux and NeXT. While the term GUI and WIMP are
sometimes used interchangeably, wimp is technically a subset of GUIs. This means all
WIMP interfaces are GUIs, but not all GUIs are WIMPs. WIMP-based systems are
designed to be used with a keyboard and mouse, since the mouse controls the pointer (or
cursor) and the keyboards is used to enter data. Other GUIs may support different types
of input, such as touchscreen display. Modern GUIs, many of which have touchscreen
interface, are sometimes referred to as “post-WIMP” interfaces. Examples include iOS
and Android, which are popular smartphone and tablet operating systems. These
interfaces include icons, but often lack windows and menus. Since no mouse is required
for a touchscreen interface, there is no pointer.