Software engineering for human computer interaction
Christopher Johnson, Michael D. Harrison · ACM SIGCHI Bulletin · 1994
Human computer interaction (HCI) as a research field is a loose federation of connected topics. These topics are united by a need to assess the ease or reliability with which users, pilots, drivers etc., can operate their systems. As a bye-product of this activity, interfaces have been evaluated according to a range of different criteria. One impetus is to assess the ease with which a computer system may be integrated into a work environment. This often involves experimental methods that have been derived from the behavioural sciences; psychology, sociology and anthropology. Another impetus is towards the development of exploratory environments which ease the prototyping or development of interactionally rich systems. These environments are intended to aid the discovery of novel interaction techniques or interface metaphors. A further impetus aims to integrate 'usability' requirements into the software engineering of interactive systems. This strand of research provides the context for the following collection of position papers.