P1 - Describe the impact of HCI on society, economy, and culture

Task: describe the impact of HCI on society, the economy and culture.

Development History

GUI (Graphical User Interfaces) – When GUI’s where first introduced into computers many years ago, they were extremely basic, as expected. Only people with technical experience knew how to use the interface as it was extremely confusing to get to grips with, due to the weird colours, the way everything was laid out, etc.

This meant that general members of the public couldn’t use this unless they were familiar with the interface, meaning that less PC’s were being sold. So, this sparked an interest for other PC companies to create bigger and better GUI’s that would allow the public to use easily.

Compared to 20 years ago, the GUI’s are easy to use nowadays. An example of this is Microsoft Word. MW has changed over the years like most things. Back when MW was first developed, the interface was extremely basic and there compared to today, there wasn’t much you could do on it apart from type. On the modern versions, you can upload to the internet, mail you work to people, save in multiple formats, change colours, fonts, and much more. And even know there is more to do in modern day versions, it is still easier to get to grips with then older version due to everything being simple and easy to find.

WUI (Web User Interface) – Most webpages have stayed the same in terms of layout. This is because there is no need to change something that is already extremely effective and what people are already used to. For the majority of webpages, the search bar is generally top right corner, along with sign in features or help. Now, if you were to move this search bar to another location on the webpage, it can get confusing for users, especially for the visually impaired and the elderly, and they would have to spend time looking for it which could stress them out if they cannot find it.

Another familiar feature on a webpage is the navigation bar or buttons at the top of the page. Now these are the gateways to the main pages on the website, taking you to the store, contacts us, or whatever it may be. If these buttons where to be small, unreadable or simply placed in an awkwardly, users may find it hard to navigate your website, meaning they either waste their time trying to find it, or the simple click off and find a new site.

By having the same layout on a webpage, it means the users can browse easily, website designers can use this design and base there site around it, and it meant that webpages can fit the screen size and resolution to its optimum.

Society:

HCI has affected this generation more than any other due to the technology available these days, it has changed the way people live their lives, especially for disabled users and people with needs. You can now use text-to-voice or vice versa, so that people who cannot speak, can type what they want to say and the other person can hear it. A good example of this is when I went on holiday to Turkey. The waiters in a restaurant we went to, used ‘English to Turkish translator’ on their phones, to understand what we were saying, allowing us to communicate with each other, even though we couldn’t physically speak to each other.

Touch screens - touchscreens are the norm these days due to the user friendly interface and the simplicity it gives. Before touchscreen phones, tablets, etc, phones used buttons to control the device. Only until recently, I had a phone with buttons because I found typing on a touchscreen annoying due to the fact that I continuously pressed multiple letters at once.

Touchscreen only need you to tap on the screen. For phones that use buttons, you need to press multiple combinations of buttons to get what you want. This makes phones easier to navigate around.

Controllers - Controllers are used for many game consoles nowadays. People like to hold something when they are controlling a game, unlike PC games where you use the keyboard and/or mouse. Many different types of controller have been created for specific needs, for example, small controllers have been made for -7 year olds due to their hands being smaller.

SCUF controllers have made their controllers especially for Call of Duty players, due to the fact that they have a different button layout on the controller. And of course, extra-large controllers have been made for people with larger hands. For people with disabilities, special controllers have been created by many different people, for example, you can not only use your hands as a controller but you can use your eyes, face, body etc.

Mobile Phones - over the years mobile phones have changed a lot, from phones the size of bricks, to small, light, and thin smartphones. Phones are now more user-friendly than ever, allowing your phone to fit nicely in your pocket, and weigh virtually nothing. Until only a few months ago, I had the old flip phone Motorola. By having a smart phone, not only can it make calls and receive texts, it can also browse the internet, use apps, play games, and much more, on such a small device.

Heads-up Display - Heads-up display were first used in aircrafts to tell the pilot what altitude and speeds he was going at. They are even now used in cars, allowing the driver to see what speed they are going and to even give them a Satnav on the windscreen. The benefit of this is that it doesn't involve the driver from looking away from the screen to check what speeds they are going, etc. Looking away from the screen for a split second could mean life or death in some cases, so by having it on the screen, it's already there.

Google Glass is virtually a HUD on a pair of glasses. You can Skype your friends as you walk down the street, bring up a Satnav, and even browse the internet using your eyes. This is helpful for disabled users as it means that you don’t have to be sitting at a PC to do these things.

Domestic Appliance Displays

This allows things such as, Kettles, Irons, Fridges, Ovens, Microwaves, to have a HUD on it or a touchscreen. In my point of view, there is not a huge rush to go out and buy everything with a HUD on it, unless of course you have the money to, but the old way (having to use buttons), is still basically the same as using a touchscreen, apart from you press a little harder, and they don’t get damaged as easily.

The only thing it does is make it look more modern. I suppose if you take into consideration whether it uses more or less energy, then depending on if it’s more of less you can choose the one appropriate.

The HUD on appliances would consist of things like: Date & Time, temperature, countdown timer, settings etc.

Specialised Interface

As technology grows, they are becoming more and more disabled friendly. OS on just about everything has implemented the ability to change things like, text size (for the visually impaired), language, colours (for people with colour blindness), and so on. This allows people to optimise their PC, phone, tablet, to fit their required needs.

Interface for Hostile Environments

Many people have created technology for inaccessible/dangerous parts of the world. Many robots have been designed to withstand excessively high or low temperatures that humans would otherwise not survive in. For example, they have been designed to go into volcanoes to find certain minerals and to tell when it may erupt next, they have been to the deep depths of the sea to find new species of animal, bacteria, and plant, and the military use UAV’s, which are controlled by Xbox’s in some cases, are used to fly over enemy terrain and look for incoming targets, giving us an advantage.

Economy:

HCI has improved our economy dude to the amount of money being made from it, buying and selling, but not only is it good, it’s also bad. For example, the use of machines in businesses has obviously increased because they are more efficient, easy to maintain, and cheaper to maintain, that humans doing the work, therefore people are being let off from their jobs creating an increase in unemployment levels, meaning that there is less money being spent on products because they can only afford basic things like food and clothes. A good example of this is in a car assembly line, 50 years ago, humans would have to physically build the car, piece by piece, nowadays, machines have been built for this kind of job.

Mobile phones are advancing rapidly with every week. In 2012, over 700 million smartphones were sold making it the No.1 piece of technology sold to the public. This generated a huge amount of money for the economy, and in-turn, helped the public. Many people buy phones for other things, such as, the Internet, music, E-books, GPS. 15 years ago, these things hadn’t been thought about in a phone, but now, everyone wants the best phone possible, which means, you are looking around the £400 mark, for a popular and decent phone. Not only does the phone industry generate a heap load of money, it also creates jobs as well. Jobs have been getting harder to find as time goes on, so as a big industry, there will be hundreds of thousands of jobs for people.

Culture:

HCI has only been used in culture just recently but like the others there are positive and negative points to make.  For the countries that are trying to develop their economies, for example Africa, they are finding it hard because all the rich countries are depositing their waste there and poisonous chemicals and diseases are being spread around from country to country.

Music is a massive thing in this day in age, and the internet, ect, has allowed the world to share each other’s music. If you go on holiday to a foreign country, you will often find yourself listening to English music. Even bands tour the world, going to concert to concert to share their music with other countries and to give the people a taste of what music from their country sounds like. I think that this helps the friendships between nations, and allows us to understand a little more about how they live and their culture.

It’s the same with movies as well. Before a few years ago, I had no idea what was happening in other countries and how some countries had it extremely worse than other. Movies, TV programmes, and documentaries, has allows people at home to get a small idea of what’s happening in other countries. A few years ago, a movie called Slumdog Millionaire came out, before this movie I had no idea that people were living in slums, in such bad conditions yet they still made the most out of it. TV has allowed us to understand this, which is why charities advertise to help these third world countries.