About Human-Computer Interactions and how its evolution is going to change the face of our future tech!?
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) studies the design and use of computer technology particularly on interaction/ interfaces between the computer and the humans.
HCI came into existence in the early 1980s in computer science field espousing cognitive science and human factors engineering. It has been expanding pretty rapidly for the last three decades and has made its way into other industries as well such as human-centered informatics.
Until late 1970s, the only humans that were interacting with the computers were professional workers at big firms, computer enthusiasts or scientist. They used to interact with computer on a command line based interface.
It wasn’t until personal computers such as the Macintosh and the IBMs were launched that a rapid research in this field of human computer interaction was conducted. Gradually all homes had personal computers and the demand for better and more natural ways of interactions with the computer were growing. Cognitive science was the major field that was providing with the most appropriate tools for the development of this technology, HCI was the first example of Cognitive science.
These interfaces have developed a lot over the years and we have now reached a stage when they are more interactive than ever. Computer vision and voice recognition based HCIs are currently in use from all personal to industry level devices.
Difference between HCI and UX design:
UX designing is more industry focused, it is used in developing products and services for the industry such as applications, websites etc. On the other hand HCI practitioners are more inclined towards academics. They are involved in more scientific research and developing solutions based on needs of the user. We can say that UX design is a sub branch or a smaller division of the HCI industry.
