Teaching and Learning
Human-Computer
Interaction: Past,
Present, and Future
Elizabeth F. Churchill
eBay Research Labs | churchill@acm.org
Anne Bowser
University of Maryland, College Park | abowser1@umd.edu
Jennifer Preece
University of Maryland, College Park | preece@umd.edu
Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use
and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.
—Thomas T. Hewett et al., 1992
March + April 2013
interactions
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
as a field of inquiry necessarily
evolves in response to changes
in the technological landscape.
During the past 15 years, the speed
of change has been particularly
dramatic, with the emergence of
personal mobile devices, agent-
based technologies, and pervasive
and ubiquitous computing. Social
networking has also profoundly
changed the way people use tech-
nology for work and leisure. Who
would have predicted a decade ago
that (smart)phones would offer con-
stant access to the Web, to social
networks and broadcast platforms
like Facebook and Twitter, and to
hundreds of specialized apps? Who
could have anticipated the power
of our everyday devices to capture
our every moment and movement?
Cameras, GPS tracking, sensors—a
phone is no longer just a phone; it
is a powerful personal computing
device loaded with access to interac-
tive services that you carry with you
everywhere you go.
