HCI History
As has been well documented in a number of excellent articles [ 5, 7, 8, 9], HCI emerged in the 1970s as a
field of inquiry as a result of the increasing penetration of computers and computational devices into the
workplace. First came mainframe computers, which
required considerable training to use and much
maintenance, followed by the creation of the personal computer. PCs became increasingly available
in offices and were promoted for home use during
this time. Due to growing potential for computational
devices in all walks of life, and the awareness of the
difficulties people had using them, it was not long
before the need for “people-oriented computers”
was asserted [ 10]. And thus the field of HCI began to
emerge in the mid- to late-1970s, drawing researchers from disparate disciplines, including human factors and ergonomics, engineering, computer science,
and psychology. A problem-centered, applied area of
research, HCI needed this amalgam of perspectives
and opinions, viewpoints, and methods. More a guild
of researchers from various disciplines than a discipline in itself, the 1970s and 1980s saw a growing
need for this area of focus in research and development. Consequently, calls for courses to train people
in methods and for the development of a sensibility
around the complexities of understanding human-device interaction followed. During the late 1970s and
1980s, the field gained momentum through the publication of academic texts (e.g., [ 11, 12]), the establishment of university-level courses, and the creation
of professional bodies like ACM’s Special Interest
Group in Computer Human Interaction (SIGCHI)
and its associated conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems (better known to those who read
interactions simply as CHI). Of course, the establishment of interest groups and courses and conferences
on topics that could broadly be construed as HCI was
a worldwide phenomenon. Examples include the Interact conference, which was hosted for the first time
in London in 1984, underwritten by the International
Federation for Information Processing and chaired
by Brian Shackel; and the establishment of interest
groups like the British Computer Society’s HCI
group. Similar efforts emerged in France, Germany,
the Netherlands, and elsewhere.
SIGCHI was formed in 1982 by renaming and
refocusing an already existing special interest group,
the Special Interest Group on Social and Behavioral
Computing (SIGSOC). The first CHI conference was
held in Gaithersburg, Maryland in 1982 and was
chaired by Bill Curtis and Jean Nichols [ 13]. By the
mid- to late 1980s, core texts were being published,
broadening the field of HCI and discussing how to
more systematically consider people—users—in the
design of interactive systems. Examples include The
Psychology of Human Computer Interaction by Stuart
Card, Tom Moran, and Allen Newell, which celebrates
its 30th anniversary this year; User Centered System
Design: New Perspectives on Human-computer
Interaction, edited by Don Norman and Steve Draper
and published in 1986 [ 11]; and Ben Shneiderman’s
1987 book Designing the User Interface: Strategies
for Effective Human-Computer Interaction [ 12].
HCI now has a major role in developing products for what Jonathan
Grudin refers to as “
discretionary use” by everyday users [ 1].
HCI specialists still focus on the
issues that gave birth to the field:
Are technologies learnable, usable,
useful, reliable, comprehensible,
ethical? We are still concerned with
assessing whether technologies
serve, engage, and satisfy people
and extend their capabilities, or
frustrate, thwart, and confound
them. While HCI has always been
associated with “usability,” its
remit has always been broader and
continues to grow: Systems and
applications must also be aesthetically attractive and emotionally
appealing, and they must provide
the right level of challenge and
satisfaction for users. Further,
many devices are becoming fashion
objects: They lead, track, and follow the mercurial world of fashion.
Psychological, sociological, and cultural questions remain pertinent:
As the technological landscape
changes, which human characteristics, capabilities, and traits remain
stable and which do not? Which
technologies bring advantages to
some and disadvantages to others,
and how might we level the playing
field to provide access and success
for all? Which technologies and
interaction styles survive the test
of time and which do not?
The new issues emerging from
the development of new technolo-
gies and a continually expanding
user population require HCI progres-
sionals: practitioners, researchers,
and educators who are willing to
keep step with technological prog-
ress and master new design and
evaluation methods and new tech-
nical competencies while maintain-
ing the professional and intellectual
values, tenets, and perspectives that
are unique to our field. Universities,
professional bodies like ACM, and
professional trainers must keep
abreast of advances. At the same
time, an increasing number of com-
panies and universities in countries
across the world are embracing
HCI and welcome knowledge about
how HCI education is structured in
regions with an established history
in HCI education as an appropriate
starting point for building new pro-
grams molded to their own needs.