Human Computer Interaction

My 2010 Spring semester starts with IST 649, Human Interaction with Computer.

I always consider myself have a huge interest in HCI, especially user experience, I can always recall and recognize the differences and specialties among software and applications, however, when given a sheet and asked to write down my understanding of HCI and why it is important, I didn't know what to say. Definitely, HCI course is right for me!

Something I learned today:

Slogan: To users, the interface is THE system.

The psychology of everyday things:

• Functionality. "The collection of an object/system’s operations or services available to users". Refer to the intended functions.
• Affordance. The object/system can be used/acted upon, could be intended and unintended function.
• Visibility. Make the functions visible to end users.
• Natural mapping. The natural way/implication of the functions and controls.
  

For the visibility, you really cannot design a perfect function without letting the users know its existence. I read a post several days ago, introducing some excellent features in Windows 7. One of them is PSR, Problem Steps Recorder. You can access it by typing PSR in Start menu. But what if you don't know there is PSR? You need to go to Control Panel - All Control Panel Items - Troubleshooting - Get Help From a Friend. Congratulations! You finally see the "Problems Steps Recorder". Obviously, Microsoft developers do NOT make such useful tool visible.

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Some of my recent experiences regarding HCI.

Windows search

Recently, I have installed Windows 7 on my laptop and found it excellent. However, it seems there is a setback in Windows search in the new system, from the user-friendly aspect.

In Windows XP, when search in a specific folder, you will have options to define several search criteria, including file format, modified time, and you can choose to search in the file name or a word/phrase in the file. You will see similar screens as the ones one the left:

While in Windows 7, first difference you may discover is that it seems offering no option to search for the file content, only the file name, very inconvenient. In Windows explorer, go to Organize-Folder and Search Options, you can see the two options:

• In indexed locations, search file name and contents. In non-indexed locations, search file name only.
• Always search file name and contents. (This may take several minutes).
  

I'm not sure which locations are "indexed", only know that Desktop is definitely one of them. And I think offering the option to choose "search file names and contents" for every specific search while providing the default option as "file name only" is more user friendly. Needless to mention that not everyone could discover the search option when they need to search for the contents.

For other search options, when I search in Desktop, I could see four criteria, Kind, Date modified, Type and Size, while in other locations, there are only two options, Date modified and Size. I guess it is "indexed" V.S "non-indexed" again. But I'm not sure if there is significant improvement of search performance with such limitations.

Updated: Drew told me that I could go to Control Panel - All Panel Items - Indexing Options to decide which locations should be indexed. And of course, you can type "indexing options" in start menu to access it.

Thanks for your help with the post, Harry, Nick and Drew.

Updated Feb,4, 2010:

According to feedback from Prof. Ping Zhang, Affordance in psychology of everyday things could include both intended and unintended function. The distinction between functionality and affordance is that functionality is about what the artifact has, regardless whether perceivers/users can see or know about while affordance refers to the latter concept. Thanks Prof. Zhang for clarifying it!