Reflections on Weeks 5 & 7 Readings

In Weeks 5 & 7 we discussed two closely related topics:  Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and the means of determining how well said humans and computers interact, Usability Testing.  I probably would not have thought of HCI as a "discipline" until I read Rachit Gupta's introduction to the field, but it made perfect sense to me that this is a field of study unto itself when Gupta discussed how we are in the area of ubiquitous computing, with many computers to one person.  As I sit in my home office typing on my relatively new laptop, iPhone buzzing next to me, and a desktop computer, old laptop, and iPad all within reach, it is easy to see that HCI is an important aspect of modern daily life!  Though Gupta uses some terminology that feels clunky to lay-folk like myself (adaptive, configuration, unimodal), the concepts he describes make sense to anyone who uses computing devices daily.  For example, his discussion of visual (ex. facial recognition), audio (speech recognition), and sensor-based (mouse) HCI easily recall for users the many ways we interact with computers. 

Moving beyond the theoretical, usability testing examines how users (or potential users) interact with a particular system as designed.  As a librarian-in-training, I found Nancy Turner's study of librarian and student users of the Syracuse University Library Web Portal to be particularly interesting.  Turner found, not surprisingly, that librarians were able to find the materials requested with greater speed and accuracy than the student users, and were more likely to look beyond their initial results and use tools other than the basic search box tool.  Though it would be easy to conclude that "librarians do it better," Turner instead characterized her findings as "librarians do it differently," and rather than condemn students as lazy or unfocused, Turner avoids value judgments and describes the two groups as working from different "mental models."  This strikes me as important for anyone designing an information system.  Forcing users to adopt a system that does not comply with their expectations may mean that users avoid the system, or burden designers with their difficulties.  Of course, the fact that different library users (librarians vs. patrons) have different expectations seems to be one of the greatest challenges of designing library systems!

Sources:

Gupta, R. (2012). Human computer interaction: A modern overview. International Journal of Computer Technology and Applications, 3(5), 1736-1740.
Turner, N. B. (2011). Librarians do it differently: Comparative usability testing with students and library staff. Journal of Web Librarianship, 5(4). 284-298.