Book Image

Learn Human-Computer Interaction

By : Christopher Reid Becker
Book Image

Learn Human-Computer Interaction

By: Christopher Reid Becker

Overview of this book

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is a field of study that researches, designs, and develops software solutions that solve human problems. This book will help you understand various aspects of the software development phase, from planning and data gathering through to the design and development of software solutions. The book guides you through implementing methodologies that will help you build robust software. You will perform data gathering, evaluate user data, and execute data analysis and interpretation techniques. You’ll also understand why human-centered methodologies are successful in software development, and learn how to build effective software solutions through practical research processes. The book will even show you how to translate your human understanding into software solutions through validation methods and rapid prototyping leading to usability testing. Later, you will understand how to use effective storytelling to convey the key aspects of your software to users. Throughout the book, you will learn the key concepts with the help of historical figures, best practices, and references to common challenges faced in the software industry. By the end of this book, you will be well-versed with HCI strategies and methodologies to design effective user interfaces.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
1
Section 1 - Learn Human-Computer Interaction
5
Section 2 - How to Build Human-Centered Software
11
Section 3 - When to Improve Software Systems

Applying usability for all users

Usability is a software design approach by which HCI designers determine how difficult a user task is to learn and accomplish when accessing an application. HCI software designers take into consideration many users when solving software problems and take into account that some may already be familiar with some Graphical User Interface (GUI) patterns. Usability is a goal for all your users, not just those that you focused on during the empathy phase. Usability is only attained through user testing but is affected by many factors. As we have discussed, humans are complicated creatures, and the ability of our users to learn and be trained over time affects how we evaluate and judge how usable a product is.

The essence of usability is that a user should not have to be forced to think like a computer to accomplish a software task; it should be the other way around. A computer should be designed to fulfill human potential by folding naturally into their everyday...