The reasoning behind most of the designs which involve human interaction is to improve the user experience as well as making the interface effective and efficient. For instance, the use of metaphors to help people to use different components of the computer. Over the years, there have been significant changes in the practices and concepts applied in human-computer interaction. In human-computer interaction, there are commonly accepted practices, for instance, beyond the desktop. Beyond the makes consideration in the context of the user in terms of the social, environmental and emotional context. Different theories have been put in place on the different ways to improve the user expectations, performance and enable them to accept a given interface. Cognitive being part of the theories considers aspects such as the limitations of memory, the operations to be conducted and the social acceptance of a given design. A change in technology has changed the perception of human-computer interaction.
Technological evolution has resulted in improved designs in human-computer interaction. Some of the notable paradigm shifts in HCI include batch processing, networking, graphical displays, world wide web, microprocessors, time-sharing and ambiguous computing. Batch processing is a technique of possessing where data is processed in a large group instead of it being processed individually. During the batch processing, a system conducts its operations without user interaction. The users interacted with the system by the use of punch cards the computer automatically read the cards. To exploit the benefits provided by the systems since they were slow and also limited in supply, the organizations had them running for most of the hours of the day. The technology provides limited interaction between the user. Most of the interactions are mainly physical; for instance, placing the cards on the card reader for them to be read.
Batch processing is one of the most efference methods of integration between computers and human beings; it has some flaws. The method of the handling could allow the program to run at a given time and also be operated by a single person at a time. With the changes in technology, the problem was solved through the introduction of new interaction devices such as the keyboard and mouse, time-sharing, which allowed different operations to be conducted on the same mainframe. Users would not interact with the system while it was running. The problem was solved later with the interaction multi-access interactive computer.
Time-sharing makes use of multiprogramming and multi-tasking, enabling people to share resources of a given computer at the same time. For example, the processors time is shared among the different users. Time processing helped to solve the problems that existed in batch processing enabling various programs to be run at the same time and also provide user interaction. Time-sharing provided a way in which the user would interact with computers directly.
Networking provides a connection between different endpoints—for example, the relationship of computers in one department to another computer such as a server. Community computing was a result of networking which able people share resources. As a result, the user gets access to low-cost computer and internet. The users were able to share so some ideas over the network.
Graphical displays provided an interaction interface between humans and machines. The product of user interaction was displayed on the screen. Input devices were used to enter commands into the computer. Direct manipulation was introduced with the introduction of graphic displays. Metaphors were used to represent icons or elements that are familiar to human beings. Based on the cognitive theory, people tend to understand better when objects that they are familiar with are used. Interaction is an essential element in meaning construction (Harrison, Tatar, & Sengers, 2007). Video displays played significant changes in computer interaction. The screens provided a suitable medium for presenting data than paper.
Personal computing made systems to be easy to use by the user. Robust systems are considered easy to use by a user.
A direct manipulation interface
should have the following features visibility of objects, replacements of complex commands languages with actions to manipulate directly, visible objects, static correctness of all activities, reversibility of all actions so that users are encouraged to explore without severe penalties and incremental of action at the interface with rapid feedback.
Conclusion
Human-computer interaction has changed over the years due to the inputs introduced by technology. Some of the reasons behind the advancements made in HCi include improving the user experience, being effective and increasing the availability of the system. The user interaction with the computer system at the initial stages, such as batch processing, was limited, which was later solved by time-sharing. Users, several users could interact with the same system at the same time. The use of codes to interact with computers with a computer was replaced with the use of input devices and output devices where the output was displayed on a graphical interface. Users can interact with other devices with the help of the network and the invention of the world wide web. The processing power of the previous slow computers was increased with the introduction of microprocessors.
References
Harrison, S., Tatar, D., & Sengers, P. (2007, April). The three paradigms of HCI. In Alt. Chi. Session at the SIGCHI Conference on human factors in computing systems San Jose, California, USA (pp. 1-18).