Introduction to Human Factors in Information Systems

Dr. Cindy CorritoreCreighton University

ITM 734Fall 2005

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The key• 3 legged stool

– Content– Appearance– Usability

• Folks involved:– Graphic artists– Designers– Developers– Domain experts– HCI experts

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Usability• The Human

– Single user, groups, I/O channels, memory, reasoning, problem solving, error, psychology, perception, attention, cognitive resources

• The Computer– Desktop, embedded system, data entry devices, output

devices, memory, processing, PDA, cell phone, Blackberry, ….

• The Interaction– Direct/indirect communication, models, frameworks,

styles, ergonomics

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HCI and Human Factors• Human-Computer Interaction• Concerned with design, evaluation and

implementation of interactive computing systems for human use.

• Interaction Design rather than Interface Design• Usability vs. “easy to use” or “user friendly”

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Field of HCI• HCI is an interdisciplinary field

– Computer science (technology, applications)– Psychology (human capabilities, how humans

interact)– Sociology (interaction between people,

collaboration, groups, work)– Anthropology (how people work, interact with

their environment)– Industrial Design (interactive products,

engineering design)

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History• Douglas Engelbart,

1962 “Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework”

• In 1968, workstation with a mouse, links across documents, chorded keyboard

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History

• XEROX Alto and Star– Windows– Menus– Scrollbars– Pointing– Consistency

• Apple LISA and Mac– Inexpensive– High-quality graphics– 3rd party applications

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History• Invention of machines (cars, electronic

devices) taxed people’s sensorimotor abilities to control them

• Even after high degree of training, frequent errors (often fatal)

• Result: human factors became critically important.

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Problems• However, designers still often consider cost

and appearance over human factors• Software development issues• Bad design not always visible but sometimes

blatantly obvious.• Demand today

– Product differentiation– More demanding consumer– “… just fix that with training …”

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Today’s state

• How many of you can program or use all aspects of your– digital watch? – Fax?– stereo system?

• “… no need to understand the underlying physics … (or code) of everything – simply the relationship between the controls and the outcomes” – Donald Norman

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Problems

• Computers far more complex to control than most physical devices

• Most computer applications require component that provides for direct interaction with user.

• This component typically represents more than half a system’s lines of code.

• Goes way beyond intuition.

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HCI goals• easy to learn• easy to use/efficient• user satisfaction

– enjoy it– meet goals with it

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Human factors overview• Main topics:

– Senses: vision, audition, touch, taste– Perception– Memory– Attention– Language– Metaphor– Cognition– Reasoning

• Design• Evaluation

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What do humans do well?• Sense low level stimuli• Pattern recognition• Inductive reasoning• Multiple strategies• Adapting• Hard and fuzzy things

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What do computers do well?• Counting and measuring• Accurate storage and recall• Rapid and consistent responses• Data processing/calculation• Repetitive actions• Simple and sharply defined things

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So ….• Let humans do:

– Sensing of low level stimuli

– Pattern recognition– Inductive reasoning– Multiple strategies– Adapting– Creating

• Let computers do:– Counting and measuring– Accurate storage and

recall– Rapid and consistent

responses– Data processing– Calculation– Repetitive actions

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Evaluate user interfaces

• Evaluate user interfaces whenever possible• Analyze interfaces that are annoying or

troublesome - why? bad design?• Watch other users of the interface• Test with actual users

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references• websitesthatsuck.com• http://www.hcibib.org/hci-sites/• http://www.acm.org/sigchi/