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Field

Human-computer interaction (HCI)

Studies how people use computers and other digital systems, and how to design them to fit what people perceive, remember and are able to do.

In Spanish
Interacción persona-computadora
Origin
Roots in the 1970s; Card, Moran and Newell (1983) popularized the name

What it studies

How to make technology adapt to people and not the other way around. It gives design methods for evaluating interfaces and knowledge about the limits of the people who use them.

Principles

  • People first

    Design starts from how people perceive, remember and move.

  • Test

    With real people, instead of assuming.

  • Back and forth

    What is learned from testing goes back into the design.

Applications in design

  • Use it like this

    Test the interface with people before calling it done.

  • Avoid

    Designing around how the team itself uses the product.

  • Don’t fall for it

    An interface that is easy for its designer can be hard for someone seeing it for the first time.

Theories and concepts

Concept

Usability

How well specific people achieve what they want with a product, without extra effort.

Concept

Presence

The feeling of really being in a virtual place, even though you know you aren't there.

Concept

Calm technology

Technology that informs without demanding attention, staying in the periphery until it is needed.

Concept

Cybersickness

The dizziness, nausea or discomfort caused by some headset or moving-image experiences.

Concept

Affordance

What an object lets you do, and whether you can tell at a glance.

Methods and tools

  • MethodHierarchical task analysis (HTA)Breaks a task down into goals and subgoals, with the plan that says in what order they're done.
  • ApproachUser-centered designDesigning systems around the tasks and abilities of the people who use them, testing early and often.
  • MethodCognitive walkthroughWalking through a task step by step as a newcomer would, to see where they'd get lost.
  • MethodUsability testingWatching real people attempt tasks with the product to find out where they get stuck.
  • MethodSystem Usability Scale (SUS)A ten-statement questionnaire that gives a 0 to 100 score for how easy something is to use.

Connections

Campos cercanos

Used in

Authors and works

  1. 1983

    Stuart K. Card, Thomas P. Moran and Allen Newell

    Popularized the name of the field and grounded it in cognitive psychology.

  2. 1993

    Jakob Nielsen

    Brought together methods for measuring and improving usability throughout development.

Sources

Original sources

  • Card, S. K., Moran, T. P., & Newell, A. (1983). The psychology of human-computer interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Nielsen, J. (1993). Usability engineering. Academic Press.

Last reviewed: