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Key developments in human-computer interaction: Past, present and future
Bai Ziming 2020.8.28
Introduction
The development of human-computer interaction (HCI) has enabled us to understand and express information with computer better. The importance of HCI embodies in various aspects: from the individuals perspective, it can help people to use the machine more easily; from a commercial point of view, it can improve internet products to benefit companies; from the perspective of technology development, HCI can promote the development of various technologies, including software, hardware, and even neuroscience. In the early stages of this field, it focused on ergonomics to improve the adaptability between human and machine (Harrison et al., 2007). Later, the main concepts of HCI transferred to the cognitive psychology (Harrison et al., 2007), and companies focused on achieving high usability (Hartson, 1998). Today, the field has focused on the phenomenological understanding of user experience (Sampson, 2019) by intelligent technology. HCI can be defined as a cross-disciplinary for researching the cooperation between computers and users in decision-making and control of complex situations, which including ergonomics, cognitive psychology and so on. This essay aims to review past of HCI and analyse the research status and future trend of this field, by summarising and evaluating key developments of this field in critically way. Firstly, I will describe some original theories and models of HCI. Secondly, a review and evaluation of recent developments in HCI will be demonstrated. Afterwards, I will consider the future direction of this field including some potential techniques, such as the gesture recognition technology and neuroscience approach. Finally, I will summarise these theories and analyses in my conclusion to emphasis the continuous impact of HCI.
Historical background
In history, HCI shifted from ergonomics to a cross-disciplinary guided by cognitive science (Harrison et al., 2007), and finally expanded to experiential quality of interaction. These three development transitions are regarded as the three paradigms of HCI.
In the beginning, HCI was a branch of ergonomics, its studies were limited to the actual interface, which refers to the equipment or system that can input or output information. Ergonomics can be defined as a subject that studies the reasonable relationship among human, machinery and environment, so as to ensure people to work safely, healthily and comfortably with high work efficiency. In 1959, Shackel delivered a paper of ergonomics on computer console design, which is considered to be the first paper on HCI. In 1960, a concept named “man-computer symbiosis” was proposed, which believed that computers should cooperate with human in decision-making and control of complex situations, this theory is regarded as the enlightenment point of HCI (Lesh et al., 2004).
In the 1970s, an event that prompted the development of HCI was “software crisis”. To begin with, for solving the problem that software complexity was too high to manage, some non-functional requirements like usability, maintainability were emphasized (John, 2013). Moving on, computer graphics emerged, the possibility and importance of usability in interactive systems were recognized (John, 2013). As a result, “the entire field of HCI shares the single goal of achieving high usability for users of computer-based systems.” (Hartson, 1998, p.103).
From 1980 to 1995, HCI turned to focus the theoretical guidance of cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology is a discipline which studies the operation of mental processes related to perceiving, attending, thinking, language, and memory. At that time, many theories of HCI came from cognitive psychology (Hartson, 1998). For example, from cognitive engineering, Norman proposed a theory of action expressed the human task performance in interaction with computer (Anderson et al., 1988), which had a profound influence.
Since 1996, the research of HCI has focused on phenomenological understanding of user experience (Sampson, 2019), which involved intelligent interaction, multimedia interaction, virtual interaction and so on, these are related to some current studies.
Recent and current developments
Current studies of HCI can be distinguished from the perspective of theory and application. The research of theory has focused on the experiential quality of interaction (Harrison et al., 2007), and the recent main applications of HCI have included gesture recognition and neuroscience tools.
For development of theory, after the first and second paradigms, namely ergonomics and cognitivism-based HCI, an important event is the third paradigm of HCI proposed by Harrison. In the third paradigm, interaction between user and computer can be regarded as a form of meaning creation based on user experience (Harrison et al., 2007). Later, Sampson (2019) emphasised the concept of experience capitalism, and broadened it to all three paradigms. In my opinion, the third paradigm actually focuses on the context use and user experience learning, and the concept of experience capitalism coincides with the thinking of machine learning (ML) in artificial intelligence, which aims to classify and learn the past operations of users so that predict the future operations. For example, it has been proved that forgotten experiences can be used in the context of HCI through ML (Sampson, 2019). Therefore, artificial intelligence has played an important role in the development of HCI. But, from my standpoint, the experience capitalism is overstated, AI should be regarded as a tool for optimizing HCI, not as a guiding principle. Nevertheless, more paradigms can benefit whole field of HCI, they can provide more perspectives about interaction in research and design, and that is the advantage of a cross-disciplinary.
For development of application, gesture recognition and neuroscience tools are two important applications. Since 2013, with the introduction of many depth-based cameras, more applications of gesture-based interfaces has been emerging. By now, the mainly types of applications include 3D modelling, assistive application, data authentication, navigation, and touchless control (Vuletic et al., 2019). Some of these gesture applications have emerged in our lives, we can obviously feel the convenience they bring, like touchless interaction using dirty hands, or adjusting the comfort function of a car without looking away from the road (Vuletic et al., 2019). Another direction of HCI application is neuroscience tools, which can drive the HCI to a new level. Until relatively recently, what HCI requires is still a tool which can provide access into the brain, but theoretical research is also in progress. Important one of them is to “demonstrate that a neuroscience approach to HCI adds value beyond what can be gleaned from behavioral studies alone.” (Minnery and Fine, 2009, p.73). Besides, it was recognized that the issues of promoting contemporary cognitive neuroscience research also involve HCI (Minnery and Fine, 2009). I strongly agree with these points, in my opinion, the development of hardware and other related fields are crucial, the applications of HCI are guided by HCI theories but tend to be engineered and diversified.
Future directions
The future of HCI development can be split into two categories: those that are certain to advance like gesture research and virtual reality (VR) research, and some studies that are potential to gain importance, like brain-machine interface.
Since the interest of gesture research rose in 2005, the heat has continued to today (Vuletic et al., 2019). The gesture based interfaces has been proven as an effective method to diminish the complexity of the HCI process, and it also can improve the feeling of immersion for VR (Vuletic et al., 2019). Therefore, I can be sure that there are more products using gesture technology. It is highly likely that the devices such as laptops and mobile phones will have gesture functions by 2025. In the future, the main chances of this field include creating a standard framework, the match between gesture classes and speci?c applications, and the gestures separated from speech (Vuletic et al., 2019).
VR technology can be regarded as an important area of HCI. In VR world, the HCI is more direct by 3D user interface design, not requiring the screen as a medium. From my opinion, the VR technology will certainly become another focus, with the forecast growth of the market (Liu, 2020). By 2025, VR technology will have a high probability to enter the families of the people. In the future, a theory research of HCI about the contradiction between realistic and magical interaction will be a challenge, that is ,whether 3D interaction should be as realistic as possible (Bowman, 2013). Other research directions of VR mainly focus on technology.
Another research of HCI that is likely to advance is the brain-machine interface related to neuroscience. This is a nascent field which aims to help user use the brain to control an external device, and the related research is ongoing (Minnery and Fine, 2009). In my view, although it is currently difficult for this technology to achieve the effect of combining with HCI, it is conceivable that this vision will come true within two or three decades.
Conclusion
The purpose of this essay is to review past of HCI and analyse the research status and future trend of this field. Firstly, this study reviewed the origin of HCI and summarised some important events of the last century in HCI, this section demonstrated the shift of HCI from human factors to cognitive science. Secondly, in terms of research status, an important event is the emergency of third paradigm, and I argued that the importance of AI in HCI development. In this section, I also reviewed applications of gesture recognition and neuroscience, and argued the diversification and importance of engineering in HCI. Finally, for the foreseeable future, there will be a certain development of gesture technology and VR, and their future challenges were specific, there might be a brain-machine interface technology to improve the HCI to a higher level, which will require a long-term effort. We can expect the HCI will become more important combined with other various fields like AI, VR and neuroscience, it will benefit the protection of the disabled, medical care, life services, education and so on. Therefore, HCI will have a continuous and significant impact on the world.
References
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