5th blog

A few weeks ago in class we had talked about interaction. Within that there are three types; 1)human - computer 2)computer - computer 3)human - human. The one that is most interesting to me is human - computer, for many reasons. I found a really cool website that is for a college you can attend for a major of human-computer information. For my second bachelors degree I might take a route like this. http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/

The human-computer interaction is the study of interaction between people, or users, and the computer. It's often referred to as the intersection of computer science or behavioral sciences. The location of the interaction between the user and the computer takes place at the interface, which is both software and hardware. Software shows up on the monitor from your input using the hardware. The hardware is the peripherals such as the keyboard or the mouse.

The most important thing you can get from human-computer interaction is making a user satisfied to the max. Attention to human-computer interaction is important, because poorly designed human-computer interfaces can lead to many unexpected problems. An example would be something else we covered briefly in class; the Three Mile Island accident.

Human–computer interaction

Last class, the professor talked about human- computer interaction (HIC). HIC helps build a close relationship between people and computers.

And there is a system called user- centered design.It's a modern, widely practiced design philosophy. It is rooted in the idea that users must take center-stage in the design of any computer system. One interesting thing is that scientists should study ethnography of the environment, because the users will be interacting with the system.

When I was doing the team paper, scenario 4, I found it is widely used in fashion industry for designing. A fashion designer need use both software and hardware. Those software and hardware make up an user interface, which to realize his or her compose. For fashion industry, the system is called computer-aided design (CAD). It is used of computer technology for the design of objects. CAD can be used to design curve and figures in two-dimensional ("2D") space; or curves, surfaces and solids in three-dimensional ("3D") objects.

interaction

After class on Tuesday, I started thinking about how interaction with computers has changed over the years. Years ago when interacting with a computer was a lot more difficult that what it is now. 20 years ago, you had to tell the computer exactly what you wanted it to do. It required a lot of typing and was very time consuming. The computers then used a big 5-1/4" floppy disk and a green screen. Nowadays we have big 21" LCD monitors and small jump drives. Yeah, you still have to give it instructions but its minor compared what we did years ago. Thanks to technology, we have all types of things that make using a computer simple. The mouse was an excellent addition to using a computer. But now we have computers that have a touch screen monitor. HP has a computer called the HP TouchSmart. On this computer, basically the mouse has been eliminated and you use your finger to open buttons instead of clicking on them with a mouse. This is a new form of touch interaction. Its been around for a while, just not on PC screens. You can find touch screen interaction on cell phones, grocery stores, kiosk in the malls, ATM machines, and just about everywhere you use a credit card.

Interaction

We interact everyday. We do human to human interaction and human to computer interaction all the time. When you have a converstation with a person, you are interacting human-to-human. When you use a computer, you are interacting human-to-computer. The last interaction is computer-to-computer which includes telecommunication.

In society today Human-to-computer interaction feels like it is most common. Just writing this blog is an interface of human-to-computer interaction. The interaction occurs through an interface. These interfaces have been produced in a way that makes it easier for humans to use. The design of the web page is layed out in an way that will appeal to out eyes and make it easier and essentially quicker for us to use.

As I write this blog the interface is set so the important items are set to the left and are in bigger print. Things that seem of less importance (or less used) and in the upper right. The reason the interface of the blog and many other sites are set up like this is beacause in the English language we are taught to read from right to left, top to bottom. There for the more important things (like titles) will be at the upper right. This is the first thing we will read and determine if we are interested in continuing the reading.

People have done studies on this to make their web pages more effiencent to users. In the research they discovered what is called the F pattern. In the F pattern it shows that we read web pages in an F formation. Top, to right side, Middle, right side again. (Middle picture shown.)

This pattern varies on cultures through out the world.