What Is Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) - Interaction Design Foundation

6/18/2018 What is HumanComputer Interaction (HCI)?
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Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

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Literature  Topics  Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
What is Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)?

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is a multidisciplinary 鈂eld of study focusing on the design of
computer technology and, in particular, the interaction between humans (the users) and
computers. While initially concerned with computers, HCI has since expanded to cover almost all
forms of information technology design.
Here, Professor Alan Dix explains the roots of HCI and which areas are particularly important to it.
The Meteoric Rise of HCI

HCI surfaced in the 1980s with the advent of personal computing, just as machines such as the
Apple Macintosh, IBM PC 5150 and Commodore 64 started turning up in homes and o霂ces in
society-changing numbers. For the 鈂rst time, sophisticated electronic systems were available to
https://www.interactiondesign.org/literature/topics/humancomputerinteraction 1/17
6/18/2018 What is HumanComputer Interaction (HCI)? | Interaction Design Foundation
society-changing numbers. For the 鈂rst time, sophisticated electronic systems were available to
general consumers for uses such as word processors, games units and accounting aids.
Consequently, as computers were no longer room-sized, expensive tools exclusively built for
experts in specialized environments, the need to create human-computer interaction that was also
easy and e霂cient for less experienced users became increasingly vital. From its origins, HCI would
expand to incorporate multiple disciplines, such as computer science, cognitive science and
human-factors engineering.
Powered by academic investigation, HCI became a crucial instrument in popularizing the idea that
the interaction between a computer and the user should resemble a human-to-human, open-ended
dialogue. Initially HCI researchers focused on improving the usability of desktop computers (i.e.,
practitioners concentrated on how easy computers are to learn and use). However, thanks to the
rise of technologies such as the Internet and the smartphone, computer use has increasingly
moved away from the desktop to embrace the mobile world, and HCI has steadily encompassed
more 鈂elds:
“…it no longer makes sense to regard HCI as a specialty of computer science; HCI has grown to
be broader, larger and much more diverse than computer science itself. HCI expanded from its
initial focus on individual and generic user behavior to include social and organizational
computing, accessibility for the elderly, the cognitively and physically impaired, and for all
people, and for the widest possible spectrum of human experiences and activities. It expanded
from desktop o霂ce applications to include games, learning and education, commerce, health
and medical applications, emergency planning
https://www.interactiondesign.org/literature/topics/humancomputerinteraction and response, and systems to support 3/17
and medical applications, emergency planning and response, and systems to support
collaboration and community. It expanded from early graphical user interfaces to include
myriad interaction techniques and devices, multi-modal interactions, tool support for model-
based user interface speci鈂cation, and a host of emerging ubiquitous, handheld and context-
aware interactions.”
— John M. Carroll, author and a founder of the 鈂eld of human-computer interaction.
The UX Value of HCI and Its Related Realms

HCI is a broad 鈂eld which overlaps with areas such as user-centered design, user interface design
and user experience design. In many ways, HCI was the forerunner to User Experience (UX) Design.
Despite that, some differences persist between HCI and UX design. Practitioners of HCI tend to be
more academically focused, and are involved in scienti鈂c research and developing empirical
understandings of users. Conversely, UX designers are almost invariably industry-focused and
involved in building products or services—e.g., smartphone apps and websites. Regardless of this
divide, the practical considerations for products that UX designers concern ourselves with have
direct links to the 鈂ndings of HCI specialists about users’ mindsets. With the broader span of
topics that HCI covers, UX designers have a wealth of resources to draw from, although much
research remains attuned to academic audiences. Also lacking the luxury of time which HCI
specialists typically enjoy, designers must stretch beyond our industry-dictated constraints to
access 鈂ndings that may harness key insights into achieving the best designs for their users. By
“collaborating” thus, designers can drive impactful changes in the market and society.
Learn More about Human-Computer Interaction

The Interaction Design Foundation’s encyclopedia chapter on Human-Computer Interaction, by
John M. Carroll, a founder of HCI, is an ideal source for gaining a solid understanding of HCI as a
鈂eld of study: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-
computer-interaction-2nd-ed/human-computer-interaction-brief-intro
Keep up to date with the latest developments in HCI at the international society for HCI, SIGCHI:
https://sigchi.org/
Learn the tools of HCI with the IDF’s course on HCI, taught by Professor Alan Dix, author of one of
the most well-known textbooks on HCI. You can 鈂nd it here: https://www.interaction-
design.org/courses/human-computer-interaction?ep=ditte-hvas-mortensen
LITERATURE ON HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION (HCI)

Here’s the entire UX literature on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) by the Interaction Design
Foundation, collated in one place:
FEATURED ARTICLE
A Brief History of Human Computer Interaction

Human Computer Interaction is the academic discipline that most of us think of as UI design. It
focuses on the way that interactions between human beings and computers interact to ever
increasing levels of both complexity and simplicity.
It’s perhaps easy to see that until the mid to late 1970s that this discipline wasn’t particularly
important. The few people who had access to computers were academics or professionals with a
few incredibly dedicated (and wealthy) hobbyists thrown into the mix. Without a broad base of
users; it wasn’t necessary to focus on how those users interacted with computers – they just
made do with whatever was to hand or created what they needed themselves.
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LEARN MORE ABOUT HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION (HCI)
Human-Computer Interaction - HCI
ENROLLMENT CLOSES IN
72%
3 BOOKED
days
View course
Take a deep dive into Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) with our course Human-Computer Interaction
- HCI.
Interactions between computers and humans should be as intuitive as conversations between two
humans—and yet many products and services fail to achieve this. So, what do you need to know so as to
create an intuitive user experience? Human psychology? Emotional design? Specialized design
processes? The answer is, of course, all of the above, and this course will cover them all.
Human-computer interaction (HCI) is about understanding what it means to be a user of a computer

(which is more complicated than it sounds), and therefore how to create related products and services
that work seamlessly. It’s an important skill to master, because it gives any company the perspective
and knowledge needed to build products that work more e霂ciently and therefore sell better. In fact, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the Computer and IT occupation to grow by 12% from 2014–2024,
faster than the average for all occupations. This goes to show the immense demand in the market for
professionals equipped with the right computer and IT skills.
This course provides a comprehensive introduction and deep dive into HCI, so you can create designs
that provide outstanding user experiences. Whether you are a newcomer to the subject of HCI or a
professional, by the end of the course you will have a deep understanding of what it means to be a user
and how to implement user-centered design for the best possible results.
This course is based on in-depth videos created by the amazing Alan Dix. You'll be in great company
with this renowned professor from Lancaster University, a specialist in HCI and co-author of the classic
textbook, Human-Computer Interaction.
ALL LITERATURE
Order literature by: Most shared in this topic
Ch 2: Human Computer Interaction - brief intro
Human-computer interaction (HCI) is an area of research and practice that emerged in the early 1980s, initially
as a specialty area in computer science embracing cognitive science and human factors engineering. HCI has…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 35: Data Visualization for Human Perception
Data visualization is the graphical display of abstract information for two purposes: sense-making (also called
data analysis) and communication. Important stories live in our data and data visualization is a powerful mean…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 1: Interaction Design - brief intro
The aim of the following chapter is to provide an introductory overview of the concept and the 鈂eld of interaction
design, loosely grounded in historical developments. This encyclopedia covers the full gamut of human-…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 30: Personas
The persona method has developed from being a method for IT system development to being used in many
other contexts, including development of products, marketing, planning of communication, and service design.…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 15: Usability Evaluation
Put simply, usability evaluation assesses the extent to which an interactive system is easy and pleasant to use.
Things aren’t this simple at all though, but let’s start by considering the following propositions about usability…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 44: Affordances
44.1 Abstract The concept of affordances originates from ecological psychology; it was proposed by James
Gibson (1977, 1979) to denote action possibilities provided to the actor by the environment. In the late 1980s…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 8: Contextual Design
Contextual Design is a structured, well-de鈂ned user-centered design process that provides methods to collect
data about users in the 鈂eld, interpret and consolidate that data in a structured way, use the data to create and…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 17: Disruptive Innovation
A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is an innovation that helps create a new market and value
network, and eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market and value network. The term is used in business…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 19: Visual Aesthetics
Visual aesthetics, as discussed in this chapter, refers to the beauty or the pleasing appearance of things. We
discuss the importance of visual aesthetics in the context of interactive systems and products, present how it…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 5: Visual Representation
How can you design computer displays that are as meaningful as possible to human viewers? Answering this
question requires understanding of visual representation - the principles by which markings on a surface are…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 16: Activity Theory
Foreword: Why activity theory? This chapter is about a theory that was developed decades ago. Some of the
basic ideas of the theory were formulated before the word "computer" was ever invented. Then why does the…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 23: Wearable Computing
Wearable computing is the study or practice of inventing, designing, building, or using miniature body-borne
computational and sensory devices. Wearable computers may be worn under, over, or in clothing, or may also b…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 32: 3D User Interfaces
Ever since the advent of the computer mouse and the graphical user interface (GUI) based on the Windows,
Icons, Menus, and Pointer (WIMP) paradigm, people have asked what the next paradigm shift in user interfaces…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 14: Context-Aware Computing
A tablet computer switching the orientation of the screen, maps orienting themselves with the user’s current
orientation and adapting the zoom level to the current speed, and switching on the backlight of the phone when…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 10: End-User Development
Computer users have rapidly increased in both number and diversity (Sca霂di et al 2005). They include managers,
accountants, engineers, home makers, teachers, scientists, health care workers, insurance adjusters, salesmen,…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 13: Requirements Engineering
Requirements Engineering is, as its name suggests, the engineering discipline of establishing user requirements
Requirements Engineering is, as its name suggests, the engineering discipline of establishing user requirements
and specifying software systems. There are many de鈂nitions of Requirements Engineering (Zave, 1995);…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 38: Human-Robot Interaction
This chapter introduces and critically re鐂ects upon some key challenges and open issues in Human-Robot
Interaction (HRI) research. The chapter emphasizes that in order to tackle these challenges, both the user-…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 22: Card Sorting
The term card sorting applies to a wide variety of activities involving the grouping and/or naming of objects or
concepts. These may be represented on physical cards; virtual cards on computer screens; or photos in either…
BOOK CHAPTER
Ch 4: Social Computing
As humans we are fundamentally social creatures. For most people an ordinary day is 鈂lled with social
interaction. We converse with our family and friends. We talk with our co-workers as we carry out our work. We…
BOOK CHAPTER
Design iteration brings powerful results. So, do it again designer!

The iterative design process is a simple concept. Once, through user research, you have identi鈂ed a user need
and have generated ideas to meet that need, you develop a prototype. Then you test the prototype to see wheth…
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6/18/2018 What is Human­Computer Interaction (HCI)?

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

YOU ARE HERE:

What is Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)?

The Meteoric Rise of HCI

— John M. Carroll, author and a founder of the 鈂eld of human-computer interaction.

The UX Value of HCI and Its Related Realms

Learn More about Human-Computer Interaction

LITERATURE ON HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION (HCI)

A Brief History of Human Computer Interaction

Show full article

LEARN MORE ABOUT HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION (HCI)

Human-Computer Interaction - HCI

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is about understanding what it means to be a user of a computer

Order literature by: Most shared in this topic

Ch 2: Human Computer Interaction - brief intro

Ch 35: Data Visualization for Human Perception

Ch 1: Interaction Design - brief intro

Ch 15: Usability Evaluation

Ch 17: Disruptive Innovation

Ch 19: Visual Aesthetics

Ch 16: Activity Theory

Ch 23: Wearable Computing

Ch 32: 3D User Interfaces

Ch 14: Context-Aware Computing

Ch 10: End-User Development

Ch 13: Requirements Engineering

Ch 38: Human-Robot Interaction

Ch 22: Card Sorting

Design iteration brings powerful results. So, do it again designer!

299 SHARES 1 MONTH AGO

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6/18/2018 What is HumanComputer Interaction (HCI)?