Ergonomics

It evolved over the 1950s and 1960s. The research focused on the development of home appliances and automobiles that are easier to use.

Ergonomics evolved during the 1950s and 1960s, after the end of the war, with research mainly focused on the development of easier-to-use appliances and automobiles (ibid.).

However, the basis for the emergence of the IHC began during World War II, with the discovery, by scientists of the British Air Force, that some failures that occurred during the use of sophisticated aircraft, even by experienced pilots, were caused by non-adaptation to needs and characteristics of users, and that these flaws and errors could be reduced with more intuitive and logical controls. In order to study this issue – the adequacy of equipment, machines and products to the needs of users – the discipline of ergonomics emerged (Amaral & Nascimento, 2010).

During the 1970s and 1980s, ergonomic researchers began to take an interest in cognitive psychology, seeking to adapt it to user interface projects (Moraes & Rosa, 2008). Thus, researchers began to create new methodologies, methods and techniques to identify problems related to the use of systems (Amaral & Nascimento, 2010). During this period, with the emergence of monitors, personal computers and a wave of interactive computing technologies, new challenges and specific paradigms for interactive interfaces emerged (Preece et alii, 2005).

With technological evolution and given the need to focus on studies of new interactive technologies and challenges, the term HCI is adopted, with a broader focus than ergonomics and addressing communications or interactions between users and computers (Rebelo, 2009; Baranauskas & Rocha, 2003).

At the end of the 1980s, in addition to cognitive psychology, which enabled the emergence of cognitive engineering, studies on ethnomethodology, activity theory, and other research on cognition were used, seeking to understand the interaction of the human with the computer (Silva & Barbosa, 2010 ).

Human-Computer Interaction

Origin between the decade of 1970 and 1980.
Union of the disciplines of Computer Science, Psychology and Ergonomics.
(Moraes & Rosa, 2008; Amaral & Nascimento, 2010).

It is related to the design of computer systems that help people so that they can perform their activities productively and safely.
(Heloísa V. da Rocha and Maria Cecília C. Baranauskas, 2003)

The date of emergence of the IHC is not known for sure, however, it is customary to establish the origin of this field of study between the 1970s and 1980s, with the joining of the disciplines of Computer Science, Psychology, and Ergonomics in order to understand how the use of computers could improve the lives of users (Moraes & Rosa, 2008; Amaral & Nascimento, 2010; Baranauskas & Rocha, 2003).

The HCI area is concerned with studying “how” we interact with computer systems presented in the most diverse facets, trying to make the interaction simple and natural.

Area of ​​ergonomics that studies ways to increase the compatibility between human behavioral characteristics and the processing/representation of the information through the computer. (Scapin, 1993)

Heloísa V. da Rocha and Maria Cecília C. Baranauskas, from UNICAMP’s Computing Institute, comments in their book Design and Evaluation of Human-Computer Interfaces, available on the website of the Núcleo de Informatica Aplicada à Educação (Nied), which the IHC has as a goal to produce systems to be usable, safe and functional, developing or improving their safety, usefulness, effectiveness, and usability, helping people to carry out their activities productively, safely, without having to radically change to suit the system, as it is the system which must be designed to fit the requirements. For this, the IHC seeks the social and practical acceptability of the system.

The interdisciplinary field of study aims to understand how and why people use (or not) information technology (Santa Rosa and Moraes, 2008)

“IHC is a discipline that concerns the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computer systems for human use in a social context and with the studies of the main phenomena that surround them.“

Thomas T. Hewett, 1992, ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-computer Interaction

The IHC is a multidisciplinary science that encompasses several areas such as Computer Science, Cognitive Psychology, Organizational and Social Psychology, Ergonomics and Human Factors, Engineering, Design, Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, Linguistics, and Artificial Intelligence. (PRESCE, 1994)

Also according to the authors, “the IHC studies human capabilities and limitations, that is, it studies the human side of interaction with computer systems, the psychological processes of people when interacting with computers.” Therefore, the IHC is a multidisciplinary field that involves psychology, ergonomics, human factors, computing, linguistics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, engineering, and design.

IHC is related to Interaction Design and User Experience (UX, User Experience). According to PREECE (2005, p. 28), Interaction Design creates “experiences that improve and extend the way people work, communicate and interact”, not necessarily using computers. UX is concerned with how the user relates to the product, or the information, whether it is an object, a service or software.

The interface is responsible for promoting interaction stimuli so that the user obtains answers related to their activities. On the one hand, it works as a data input device, and on the other hand, it is responsible for sending responses to users. In other words, the promoted stimulus will make the user develop an interactive process that means the execution of actions to carry out the tasks. For each action, a new response is expected from both sides: system and user.

It is used, for example, for some manipulations of computer peripherals and large machines such as airplanes and hydroelectric plants.

Preece (1994 apud Rebel, 2011) pays attention to an important fact that occurred in the evolution of the IHC; currently, HCI is the abbreviation for Human-Computer Interaction, however, due to the history and misinterpretation of the terms interface and interaction, HCI, by some actors, is mistakenly interpreted as Human-Computer interface. Baranauskas & Rocha (2003) warn that interface is a little broad term and does not consider human factors, therefore, interaction is the most appropriate term for the area of ​​HCI, although interface and interaction are interconnected and cannot be studied separately.

For users, the interface is the program

Part of the system with which the user comes into physical, perceptive and cognitive contact.

(Moran, 1983)

System image.

(Norman, 1986)

Virtual environment for interactivity.

(Laurel, 1993)

Designer’s message to the user.

(de Souza, 1993)

“We see, then, that the interface is both a means for user-system interaction and a tool that offers the instruments for this communicative process. In this way the interface is a communication system.”

Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza, 1999. User Interface Design, Cognitive and Semiotic Perspectives