What Is HCI?
Human
Computer Interaction, the name of our course title and what we were introduced
too in the past lecture. In our introductory lecture we were asked what HCI is,
the definition of it is to combine knowledge and methods from many different areas
of learning. These would include psychology, computer science, graphic design,
anthropology, sociology, human ergonomics and technical writing. When I think
about HCI, I mainly think of somebody sitting on a laptop or desktop computer
operating on Windows 8. Yes a little strange, but in reality, HCI occurs almost
everywhere every day. If you breakdown the words separately, you got Humans, interacting
or using computers, or devices containing computing. What do I mean by that? Well
in the lecture they referred to many things, such as cell phones, tablets,
televisions and almost anything. Within the lecture they also talk about
iterations, and how once you start a design and implement, you must then
evaluate what went wrong or what can be improved. If we look at HCI from an individual’s
perspective, we can think of many ways they interact with computers daily, such
as using something like Facebook or Twitter through laptops and phones. Since
we are game development students this is also a major area. Computer Interactions
are also used by medical industries and businesses for many different
functions. With me, I’m typically interested in gaming and entertainment.
My Life Experiences with HCI
Another
thing that pops into my mind when thinking about human computer interaction
from a family perspective is how I recently had to teach my parents who are
completely illiterate when it comes to technology about using computers and
phones of today. To be more specific, my father owns his own business and for
the longest time he had been working with paperwork, phone calls, and even
using an old school typewriter. Just recently in the past five years, he has
switched to keeping everything online, using word documents, excel sheets,
email systems. In the past week he had even somewhat been forced to learn how
to operate text messages and upgrade his flip phone to a Blackberry. The five
factors of usability evaluation can somewhat be seen here. It has taken him a
few years to learn how to use all the software on the computer properly, and he
can now operate things very quickly. When he does encounter problems, he learns
new things and how to fix them. My mother on the other hand, still is unable to
use a computer and is confused whenever she tries. Her business involves baking
and making cakes of all sorts. When her customers come to her asking to make
specific custom cakes, she usually turns to me of my father and asks us to look
on the internet. I usually go into Google image search and type in the very
basic form of what she’s looking for, and she’s amazed. She one day went on her
own and opened the internet like she had once seen me do, and since Google was
the homepage, she typed in what she was looking for and did a regular search.
The first thing Google showed her was the images, and she clicked them and it
led her to the image search. My point with this little story is that in most
cases these days, a lot of basic computing needs are extremely user friendly,
and if someone so unfamiliar with technology is able to interact with it, it is
evident that a lot of focus is done on ensuring that all kinds of humans can
interact easily. User friendly can mean many things; it has different
variations of the same meaning such as easy to use, idiot proof, accessible and
comprehensible.
HCI in Gaming
Looking at it from a gaming
perspective and devices like Microsoft’s Kinect and the new Wii U, there are so
many different possibilities for the future of gaming. When I was originally
interested in video games, I had never thought that we’d ever be interacting
with video games through the use of our own body. I have forever been swayed to
love the use of controllers personally. This is because I generally play video
games to relax. A lot of new features these days however have really grabbed my
attention. One of my recent favourites is the old Wii’s use of the motion in
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, how I was able to do my own types of cuts
and stabs when defeating enemies. This was a massive improvement from the first
Zelda game on the Wii. From the start I had always been against the whole
motion interaction thing. But things like this really gave me an open mind when
thinking about the future. Other games that really converted me over to loving
the motion stuff would include Mario Party 8, Mario Kart and Wii Sports. My
story of adapting to Mario Karts HCI controls was somewhat forced. I had
brought my Wii system to Oshawa and kept it in my residence to play with my
roommates, and since it was his first time playing I tried to trick him into
using the Wii controls while I wanted to use the Game Cube controller. He was
very discouraged because he couldn’t really adapt to turning the wheel, so I switched
with him and I have now mastered the ability to use the Wii controls. Being a
sales associate at Best Buy as my part time job, often has me explaining
completely clueless customers the evolution of technology in terms of video
games. As of recent, a few customers have told me how they had only played the
original Nintendo and the Sega era, they would be as impressed by the Kinect as
their child played Kinect Star Wars. Universally usable computer systems were
mentioned also in the lecture. It generally means that the computer system can
be used by all kinds of human individuals, whether they are older or younger. Some
games that I think are universally usable in today’s era would be the Wii
Sports series, in my opinion it is simple for someone to know what to do when
they hold a Wii remote and are placed on the tennis court, it is also extremely
easy to operate the menu systems.
My long term dream in terms of
human computer interaction would be one day to see some of the technology that
has been seen in the Ironman movie in Tony Stark’s home. Almost every type of
motion or voice command that Tony Stark made or said in the movie brought up
some sort of futuristic technological interface. I always imagine some type of
system like this implemented in my home someday, though the costs would
probably be ridiculous.
Other things that had been gone
over in the in class lecture would include the discussion of our blogging
system. Things are definitely a lot different than last semester’s blogging
system. I feel like since there is less homework and prototyping involved for
this class, these blogs serve as small essays or assignments. Though a lot of
students have been complaining on how these things work now, I think it is
somewhat effective in ensuring that students learn the lecture material. I am
not too impressed with the criteria for these blogs, because there are some
things that students tend to focus on more than others. In my current post I have
used a lot of my own real life experiences and compared them to my thoughts on
Human Computer Interaction in general, whether this is what is expected or not I
am unsure. As a student in class said, I believe we will see how this system
works and hopefully we can improve it.
Image Citations
Touchscreen Picture
Zelda Skyward Sword Screenshot
Ironman Screenshot
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