1.6 Discipline; Engineering; and Human-Computer Interaction

Footnotes

(F1) A discipline here is to be distinguished from the community, which practises it.

(F2) The scope of a problem is the domain or range over which it operates.

Citations

Long and Dowell (1989)

(C1) ‘First, consideration of disciplines in general suggests their complete definition can be summarised as: ‘knowledge, practices and a general problem having a particular scope, where knowledge supports practices seeking solutions to the general problem’.’ (Page 9, Lines 9-14)

(C2) ‘Most definitions assume three primary characteristics of disciplines: knowledge; practice; and a general problem.’ (Page 11, Lines 27 and 28)

(C3) ‘All definitions of disciplines make reference to discipline knowledge as the product of research or more generally of a field of study……. Knowledge, therefore, is a necessary characteristic of a discipline.’ (Page 11, Lines 29 and 30)

(C4) ‘Consideration of different disciplines suggests that practice is also a necessary characteristic of a discipline.’ (Page 11, Line 38 and Page 12, Line 1)

(C5) ‘Further, a discipline’s knowledge is used by its practices to solve a general (discipline) problem……’ (Page 12, Lines 1 and 2)

(C6) ‘Clearly, disciplines are here being distinguished by the general (discipline) problem they address.’ (Page 12, Lines 8 and 9)

(C7) ‘Taken together, the three necessary characteristics of a discipline (and the two basic properties additionally concluded), suggest the definition of a discipline as: ‘the use of knowledge to support practices seeking solutions to a general problem having a particular scope’.’  (Page 12, Lines 26-32)

Footnotes

(F1) Engineering here is to be contrasted, for example, with Science.

(F2) Although Principles are critical to engineering knowledge, in contrast to other disciplines, it comprises a wide range of different types of knowledge – models; methods; etc.

Citations

Long and Dowell (1989)

(C1)’The discipline of engineering includes the engineering practice addressing the general (engineering) problem of design.’  (Page 12, Lines 3-5)

(C2) ‘The discipline of engineering may characteristically solve its general problem (of design) by the specification of designs before their implementation. It is able to do so because of the prescriptive nature of its discipline knowledge supporting those practices – knowledge formulated as engineering principles.’ (Page 24, Lines 11-14)

Footnotes

(F1) ‘Using’ here contrasts with simply ‘interacting.

(F2) ‘Something’ here is intentionally very general. The contrast is, again, with simply ‘interacting’ – see (F1).

(F3) ‘As wanted’ by, for example, the user; the client; the users’ organisation; or indeed all of them (and more).

Citations

Long and Dowell (1989)

(C1) ‘The  (discipline) framework expresses the essential characteristics of the HCI discipline, and can be summarised as: ‘the use of HCI knowledge to support practices seeking solutions to the general problem of HCI’.’ (Page 9, Lines 16-19).

(C2) ‘HCI concerns humans and computers interacting to perform work.’ (Page 13, Line 1)

(C3) ‘Taken together, these implications suggest a definition of the scope of the general (discipline) problem of HCI. It is expressed, in summary, as ‘humans and computers interacting to perform work effectively’.’ ( Page 13, Lines 10-12). (C4) … the general problem addressed by the discipline of HCI is asserted as: ‘the design of humans and computers interacting to perform work effectively’.  (Page 13, lines 19-21).