The class this week, as well as upcoming ones caused by the Corona Virus, took place on the platform Zoom. We will use Zoom for our entire communication in the next few weeks due to the Corona situation. Although everything worked out, it was hard to focus on the lectures and get the point and the quintessence.
I think especially for us as an Interaction Designer, there are now lots of possibilities to see and recognize issues or better find the right solutions for situations like these.
nowadays class photo, Zoom conference, 16.03.2020
The topic was Human-Computer-Interaction (also known as HCI). Two classmates, Gian-Carlo and Alec, had the stage to hold their presentation.
Gian-Carlo started his part with historical background about HCI. It emerged during the 1980s and was formerly an exclusive field of computer science, primarily specializing in the development of personal productivity applications. Since then, it has continuously grown on diversity.
Nowadays, HCI is taught in many educational institutions and faculties in combination with many different disciplines.
HCI has an academic and research approach. It proposes different approaches to user studies.
“Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a multidisciplinary field of study focusing on the design of computer technology and, in particular, the interaction between humans (the users) and computers.” Interaction Design Foundation, 2020 Source (link)
HCI timeline in relation with other events (Screenshot from Gians presentation)
In the presentation from Alec, we discussed the cultural probes from today. We had to draw a possible cultural probe of nowadays. What are cultural probes? They are also known as diary studies, which are providing a way of gathering information about people and their activities. Other than by direct observation, the technique also allows the self-report of users. These probes are helpful in an early phase of a design process.