An assessment of HCI: issues and implications

The focus of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is to generate an understanding of how people can best interact with computers, and then to design and build technologies and tools that facilitate that interaction. As a field, HCI draws on many disciplines and perspectives. The primary contributors have historically been psychology, computer science and human factors -- more recent entries include (among others) anthropology, communication, education, graphic and industrial design, linguistics, sociology, and systems science. The work being done in the HCI field is shifting rapidly in response to the influx of these new perspectives. A quick survey of the literature from the past ten years reveals some further trends, and even some unexpected paradoxes¹. Much of the work reported focuses either on theory [8], or on practice [3], although in many cases, work moves from theory to implementation and evaluation [4]. Papers are usually either technology-based [7] or user-based [11], but there is also work that approaches HCI problems from both of these ends of the interaction spectrum [12].