HCI History

1
HCI History

• Key people, events, ideas and
• paradigm shifts

2
Agenda

• Questions
• History of interactive breakthroughs
• Themes
• People

3
Why study HCI history?

• Interactive paradigms (change)
• What is a true paradigm?
• What has been influential?
• What worked?
• Learn from the past

4
Some additional resources

• Howard Rheingold Tools for Thought
• History of interactive breakthroughs, online at
  http//www.rheingold.com/texts/tft/
• James Landay Jason Hong The Past, Present,
  Future of Interactive Computing
• http//www.cs.berkeley.edu/jasonh/cs39i-seminar

5
Rough outline
?
WIMP (Windows)
User Productivity
Command Line
Batch
?
1980s - Present
1940s 1950s
1960s 1970s
Time
6
(Some of the) key technological advances /
paradigm shifts

• Sensor-based context-aware computing

• Time-sharing networks
• Video display units
• Programming toolkits
• Personal computing
• Windows
• Metaphors
• Direct manipulation
• Language vs. action (agents)
• Hypertext / WWW
• Multi-modality
• Ubiquitous computing

7
(Some of the) key people events

• People
• Vannevar Bush
• Douglas Engelbart
• Ivan Sutherland
• J.C.R. Licklider
• Alan Kay
• Ted Nelson
• Mark Weiser

• Events
• Founding of Xerox PARC
• Lisa / Macintosh

8
In the beginning Computing in 1945

• Harvard Mark I
• 55 feet long, 8 feet high, 5 tons

Jason Hong / James Landay, UC Berkeley Picture
from http//piano.dsi.uminho.pt/museuv/indexmark.h
tm
9
Computing in 1945

• Ballistics calculations
• Physical switches (before microprocessor)
• Paper tape
• Simple arithmetic fixed calculations (before
  programs)
• 3 seconds to multiply

Jason Hong / James Landay, UC Berkeley Picture
from http//www.gmcc.ab.ca/supy/
10
Batch processing

• Computer had one task, performed sequentially
• No interaction between operator and computer
  after starting the run
• Punch cards, tapes for input
• Serial operations

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Innovator Vannevar Bush

• Faculty at MIT
• Director of Office of Scientific Research
  Development
• Coordinate WWII effort with 6,000 scientists
• As We May Think - 1945 Atlantic Monthly
• Postulated Memex device
• Stores all records/articles/communications
• Items retrieved by indexing, keywords, cross
• references (now called hyperlinks)
• (Envisioned as microfilm, not computer)
• http//www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/comput
  er/bushf.htm

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Memex
Picture from http//www.dynamicdiagrams.com/design
/memex/model.htmdownload
13
As We May Think

• Futuristic inventions / trends
• Wearable cameras for photographic records

14
As We May Think

• Automatic transcripts of speech

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As We May Think

• Other visions
• Encyclopedia Brittanica for 5 cents
• Direct capture of nerve impulses
• Some have come true
• Increased specialization
• Flood of information
• Faster / Cheaper / Smaller / More reliable
• Some he missed or we are still waiting
• Microphotography?
• Memex?

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As We May Think

• Not so much predicting future as "inventing it"
  by publishing article
• hypertext
• wearable memory aid
• Use technology to augment human intellectual
  abilities
• New kinds of technology lead to new kinds of
  human/machine human/human interaction
• Be aware that science/engineering can impact
  society

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Technological advance / paradigm shift Networks
time-sharing

• Batch processing ? interactive computing
• Computers still too expensive for individuals
  timesharing
• increased accessibility
• interactive systems, not jobs
• text processing, editing
• email, shared file system
• There was need for HCI in the design of
  programming languages

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Innovator J.C.R. Licklider

• 1960 - Postulated man-computer symbiosis
• Couple human brainsand computing
  machinestightly to revolutionizeinformation
  handling
• 1968 The Computer as a Communication Device

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Computing in 1960s

• Transistor (1948)
• Timesharing (1950s)
• Terminals and keyboards
• ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency (1958)
• Computers still primarily
  for scientists and engineers

Jason Hong / James Landay, UC Berkeley
20
Innovator Ivan Sutherland

• SketchPad - 1963 PhD thesis at MIT
• Hierarchy - pictures subpictures
• Master picture with instances (i.e., OOP)
• Constraints
• Icons
• Copying
• Light pen input device
• Recursive operations
• Technological advance Video display units
• Start of Direct Manipulation

21
Innovator Douglas Englebart

• Landmark system/demo
• hierarchical hypertext, multimedia, mouse,
  high-res display, windows, shared files,
  electronic messaging,CSCW, teleconferencing,
  ...
• Invented the mouse
• All this took place before
• Unix and C (1970s)
• ARPAnet (1969) later Internet

22
Programming toolkits

• How do humans attack complex problems?
• Allowed for bootstrapping
• People could build complex systems more quickly
  and easily
• In later writings Collective-IQ

23
The dawn of the desktop Xerox PARC

• Established 1970
• Bob Taylor heads CSL - Computer Systems Lab
• 1971
• Laser printer (Gary Starkweather)
• 1973
• Ethernet (Bob Metcalfe)
• Alto personal computer (Chuck Thacker)

24
More from Xerox PARC

• Real-time windowing operations
• BitBlt
• Daniel Bobrow

25
Innovator Alan Kay

• Smalltalk
• Dynabook - Notebook sized computer loaded with
  multimedia and can store everything
• Technological advance Personal computing
• LOGO (Papert) enabled children to program using
  a simple language
• Computing more accessible to regular people

26
Paradigm WIMP / GUI

• Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers
• Graphical User Interface
• WIMP interface allows you to do several things
  simultaneously
• Has become the familiar GUI interface
• Xerox Alto, Star early Apples
• Computer as a dialogue partner

27
PCs with GUIs

• Xerox PARC - mid 1970s
• Alto
• local processor, bitmap display, mouse
• Precursor to modern GUI,windows, menus,
  scrollbars
• LAN - Ethernet

28
Xerox Star - 1981

• First commercial PC designed for business
  professionals
• desktop metaphor, pointing, WYSIWYG, high degree
  of consistency and simplicity
• First system based on usability engineering
• Paper prototyping and analysis
• Usability testing and iterative refinement

29
Xerox Star - 1981
(flop)

• 1st commercial PC
• 15k cost
• closed architecture
• lacking key functionality(spreadsheet)

30
Apple Lisa - 1982

• Based on ideas of Star
• More personal rather than office tool
• Still - 10K to 12K
• Failure

31
Apple Macintosh - 1984

• Aggressive pricing - 2500
• Not trailblazer, smart copier
• Good interface guidelines
• 3rd party applications
• High quality graphics and laser printer

32
Paradigm Metaphors

• LOGOs turtle
• Office desktop
• Mapping new interactions to existing, familiar
  concepts
• Others?

33
Paradigm Direct Manipulation

• 82 Shneiderman describes appeal of
  rapidly-developing graphically-based interaction
• object visibility
• incremental action and rapid feedback
• reversibility encourages exploration
• replace language with action
• syntactic correctness of all actions
• WYSIWYG, Apple Mac

34
Paradigm Language vs. action (agents)

• User understands system or interface translates
  for user
• Tradeoff between requiring the system to
  understand the user, and user to understand the
  system
• Tradeoffs between language and direct manipulation

35
Paradigm CSCW

• Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
• No longer single user/single system
• Many users, shared system, but now the users are
  interacting with each other
• Micro-social aspects are crucial
• E-mail as prominent success but other groupware
  still not widely used

36
Innovator Ted Nelson

• Computers can help people, not just business
• Coined and popularized term hypertext
• Xanadu

37
Paradigm Hypertext

• Think of information not as linear flow but as
  interconnected nodes
• Bushs MEMEX
• Nelsons hypertext
• Non-linear browsingstructure
• Hypermedia
• WWW in 93 was thereal launch

38
Paradigm WWW

• Two Key Components
• URL
• Browser
• Tim Brenners-Lee did both1991 first text-based
  browser
• Marc Andreesen created Mosaic (first graphic
  browser, 1993)

39
Paradigm Multi-modality

• Mode is a human communication channel
• Not just the senses
• e.g. speech and non-speech audio are two modes
• Emphasis on simultaneous use of multiple channels
  for I/O

40
Innovator Mark Weiser

• Introduced notion of Ubiquitous Computing and
  Calm Technology
• Its everywhere, but recedes quietly into
  background
• Was CTO of Xerox PARC

41
Paradigm Ubiquitous Computing

• Person is no longer user of single device but
  occupant of computationally-rich environment
• Many computers to one person
• Can no longer neglect macro-social aspects
• Off the desktop to the laptop, PDAs, cell phones,
  

42
Sensor-based context-aware computing

• Commanding a system ? implicit interaction
• Data used to make inferences about a situation
• Controversial still problematic