Lecture 2

HUMAN
HCI is a multi-disciplinary subject

§§ Psychology and cognitive science • §§ User’s perceptual, cognitive, and problem-solving skills

§§ Ergonomics • §§ User’s perceptual capabilities

§§ Sociology • §§ Help to understand the wider context of interaction

§§ Computer science and engineering • §§ Build necessary technology

§§ Graphic design • §§ Produce effective interface presentation

§§ Business • §§ To be able to market system

§§ And many more …

Overview

 2.1 The Human

 Vision, Hearing, …
 Memory, Thinking, Emotion
 Psychology and System
Design

 2.2 The Computer

 2.3 The Interaction

Overview

 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: The Eye

 First stage in vision: Physical reception of stimulus

 Mechanism for receiving light and

transforming it into electrical energy


Light reflects from objects

 Images are
focused upside-down
on retina
 Retina contains rods
for low light vision and
cones for color vision
 Ganglion cells
(brain!) detect
 Vision: Interpreting
the Signal

 Second stage in vision:

Processing and interpretation of stimulus
 Size and depth
 Visual angle indicates how much of view
object occupies (relates to size and distance
from eye)
 Visual acuity is ability to perceive detail
(limited)
 Cues like overlapping help perception of
size and depth
 Objects of different sizes and different distances
may have the same visual angle!
 Vision: Interpreting
the Signal
 Brightness
 Subjective reaction to levels of light
 Affected by luminance of object
 Measured by just noticeable difference
 Visual acuity increases with
luminance (as does flicker)

 Color
 Made up of hue, intensity,
saturation
 Cones sensitive to color
wavelengths
 Blue acuity is lowest
 Should not be used for important
detail in UI !
 Vision: Interpreting
the Signal

 The visual system compensates for

 Movement
 Changes in luminance

 Context is used to resolve ambiguity

I3 A I3C I2I3I4
 Optical illusions sometimes occur due
to over compensation
 Vision: Optical
Illusions

Ponzo illusion Muller Lyer illusion

Dragon Illusion HCI – 2.1.9

 Reading

 Several stages:
 Visual pattern perceived
 Decoded using internal representation of language
 Interpreted using knowledge of syntax + semantics

 Reading involves saccades and fixations

 Perception occurs during fixations

 Word shape is important to recognition

 Negative contrast improves reading from

computer screen
 Hearing
 Provides information about environment
 Distances, directions, objects etc.

 Physical apparatus:
 Outer ear – protects inner and amplifies
sound
 Middle ear – transmits sound waves as
vibrations to inner ear
 Inner ear – impulses in auditory nerve
 Sound
 Pitch – sound
frequency
 – amplitude
Loudness – type or quality
 Humans
 can hear from 20Hz to 15kHz
Timbre
 Touch
 Provides important feedback about environment
 May be key sense for visually impaired people
 Stimulus received via receptors in the skin:
 Thermoreceptors – heat and cold
 Nociceptors – pain
 Mechanoreceptors – pressure

 Some areas more sensitive than others,

e.g. fingers
 Kinesthetics
 Awareness of body position
 Affects comfort and performance
 Movement

  Time taken to respond to stimulus: reaction time + movement

time
 Movement time dependent on age, fitness etc.
 Reaction time – dependent on stimulus type:
 Visual ~ 200 ms
 Auditory ~ 150 ms
 Pain ~ 700 ms

 Increasing reaction time decreases

accuracy in unskilled operator but not in
skilled operator
 Memory

 Sensory memory
 Buffer for stimuli received through
senses
 Continuously overwritten

 Short-term memory or working memory

 Scratch-pad for temporary recall
 Rapid access: ~ 70ms
 Rapid decay: ~ 200ms
 Limited capacity: 7± 2 chunks

 Long-term memory
 Repository for all our knowledge
 Slow access: ~ 1/10 second
 Slow decay, if any
 Thinking

 Deduction
 Derive logically necessary conclusion from
given premises
 Example:
If it is Friday then she will go to work.
It is Friday. Therefore she will go to work.

 Induction
 Generalize from cases seen to cases
unseen
 Example:
All elephants we have seen have trunks.
Therefore all elephants have trunks.
 Unreliable, but useful
 Thinking

 Abduction
 Reasoning from event to cause
 Example:
Sam drives fast when drunk.
If I see Sam driving fast, assume drunk.
 Unreliable: Can lead to false
explanations
Deduction

 is the formation of a conclusion based on generally accepted statements or

facts.
 It occurs when you are planning out trips, for instance. Say you have a 10
o'clock appointment with the dentist and you know that it takes 30 minutes to
drive from your house to the dentist's. From those two facts, you deduce that
you will have to leave your house at 9:30, at the latest, to be at the dentist's
on time.
Induction

 In logic, induction refers specifically to "inference of a generalized conclusion

from particular instances." In other words, it means forming a generalization
based on what is known or observed. For example, at lunch you observe 4 of
your 6 coworkers ordering the same sandwich. From your observation, you
then induce that the sandwich is probably good—and you decide to try it
yourself.
Abduction-take away

 Basically, it involves forming a conclusion from the information that is known.

A familiar example of abduction is a detective's identification of a criminal by
piecing together evidence at a crime scene.
 In an everyday scenario, you may be puzzled by a half-eaten sandwich on the
kitchen counter. Abduction will lead you to the best explanation. Your
reasoning might be that your teenage son made the sandwich and then saw
that he was late for work. In a rush, he put the sandwich on the counter and
left.
 Errors

 Types of Error
 Slips
 Right intention, but failed to do it
right
 Causes: poor physical skill,
inattention etc.
 Mistakes
 Wrong intention
 Cause: incorrect understanding

HCI – 2.1.
 Emotion

 Emotion is a psychological response to a stimuli

 Emotion involves both cognitive and physical events

 The biological response to such

stimuli is called affect
 Affect influences how we respond to
situations
 Positive  creative problem
solving
 Negative  narrow thinking
 “Negative affect can make it harder to do even
easy tasks; positive affect can make it easier to do
difficult tasks” [Norman] HCI – 2.1.
Emotion
Implications for interface design

STRESS WILL INCREASE THE RELAXED USERS WILL BE AESTHETICALLY PLEASING

DIFFICULTY OF PROBLEM MORE FORGIVING OF AND REWARDING INTERFACES
SOLVING SHORTCOMINGS IN DESIGN WILL INCREASE POSITIVE
AFFECT
Individual Differences

Long term
• Physical abilities
• Intellectual abilities

Short term
• Effect of stress or fatigue

Changing
• Age

HCI – 2.1.
Thanks