Human Computer

Interaction
Lecture 2

The Human

The Human
Think of human as an information
processing system, which contains
input/output, stores information and
processes information
We will therefore consider three
components of this system: inputoutput, memory and processing

The Human
Information i/o
visual, auditory, haptic, movement

Information stored in memory

sensory, short-term, long-term

Information processed and applied

reasoning, problem solving, skill, error

Emotion influences human capabilities

Each person is different

Vision
Two stages in vision
physical reception of stimulus
processing and interpretation of
stimulus

The Eye - physical reception

mechanism for receiving light and
transforming it into electrical energy
light is reflected from objects
images are focused upside-down on
retina
retina contains rods for low light
vision. Rods are responsible for vision
in darkness. Approximately 120
million rods.

The Eye - physical reception

Retina also contains cones for colour
vision. They are responsible for vision
in light.
Cones are concentrated on fovea and
rods are concentrated on retina
Blind spot contains neither rods nor
cones.
Ganglion cells (brain!) detect pattern
and movement

Design Focus
A user concentrating on the middle
of the screen cannot be expected to
read help text on the bottom line.
So if an error message is to be shown
to user, what to do???

Design Focus
A user concentrating on the middle
of the screen cannot be expected to
read help text on the bottom line.
So if an error message is to be shown
to user, what to do???
Better use flashing error message
What about clever moving icons.

Interpreting the signal (cont)

Brightness
subjective reaction to levels of light
affected by luminance of object, which is
the amount of light emitted by an object
Contrast is luminance of object and
luminance of its background
visual acuity increases with luminance
as does flicker.
High display luminance systems are
seen to flicker even above 50 Hz.

Interpreting the signal

(cont)
Colour
made up of hue, intensity, saturation
Hue is determined by the spectral wavelength of the light
Approximately 150 different hues can be discriminated by the average
person

Intensity is the brightness of color

Saturation is the amount of whiteness in color

Cones are sensitive to colour wavelengths.

Three types of cones (red, green and blue)
blue acuity is lowest, because only 3-4% of
the fovea is occupied by cones which are
sensitive to blue light
8% males and 1% females colour blind

Interpreting the signal (cont)

Our expectations affect the way an
image is perceived.
Context is used to resolve ambiguity
However, Optical illusions sometimes
occur due to above factors

Optical Illusions

the Ponzo illusion

the Muller Lyer illusion

Reading
Several stages:
visual pattern perceived
decoded using internal representation of language
interpreted using knowledge of syntax and
semantics

Reading involves saccades(jerky movements)

and fixations
Perception occurs during fixations
Word shape is important to recognition
Negative contrast (dark character on a light
screen) improves reading from computer
screen

Design Focus
Standard font sizes of 9 to 12 are
equally legible, given proportional
spacing between lines.
Similarly line lengths of between 2.3
and 5.2 inches (58 and 132 mm) are
equally legible.
Nevertheless, reading from a computer
screen is slower than from a book.
However, this fact can be controlled by
careful design of textual interfaces.

Hearing
Sound can convey a remarkable amount of information
Provides information about environment:
distances, directions, objects etc.

Physical apparatus:
outer ear
middle ear

protects inner and amplifies sound

transmits sound waves as

vibrations to inner ear

inner ear
chemical transmitters are released
and cause impulses in auditory nerve

Sound
pitch
loudness
timbre

sound frequency
amplitude
type or quality

Hearing (cont)
Humans can hear frequencies from 20Hz to
15kHz
less accurate distinguishing high frequencies than low.

Auditory system filters sounds

can attend to sounds over background noise.
for example, the cocktail party phenomenon.

Sound could be used extensively in interface

design to convey information about the system
state

Touch
Provides important feedback about environment.
May be key sense for someone who is visually
impaired.
Stimulus received via receptors in the skin:
thermoreceptors heat and cold
nociceptors
pain
mechanoreceptors pressure

Some areas more sensitive than others e.g.

Fingers and hair

Movement
Fitts' Law describes the time taken to hit a screen
target:
Mt = a + b log2(D/S + 1)
where: a and b are empirically(gained by means of
observations) determined constants
Mt is movement time
D is Distance
S is Size of target

targets as large as possible distances as small as

possible

Memory
There are three types of memory function:
Sensory memories
Short-term memory or working memory

Long-term memory

Sensory Memory
Buffers for stimuli received through senses
iconic memory: visual stimuli
echoic memory: aural stimuli
haptic memory: touch stimuli

Examples: Move your finger fastly before

you, sparkler trail Continuously
overwritten
Information is passed to STM by attention

Short-term memory (STM)

What is the result of 35 * 6???
Scratch-pad for temporary recall
rapid access
rapid decay
limited capacity - 7 2 Principle

Examples
21234827849320245456
21234 482784 932024 5456
03323583302
0332-35-83-302
ATM Card example