Date of MSc: 1999/2000

 MSc Project Title:  :

 Navigation in Small Screen Devices

Pre-MSc Background:  

BSc Psychology

Pre-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics:

Have no idea of how knowledge from psychology can be applied to the design of technology but was very eager to find out. At the time, it all sounded a bit like magic – by understanding the human (psychology) we can better design computer systems that are user-friendly. Also, I did not think (at all) about the distinction between science and engineering but I have always viewed psychology (especially cognitive psychology) and computer science as sciences; and I guess my pre-MSc view of HCI was that it was an applied science.

Post-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics:

So, I discovered then HCI is not magic. Had trouble in making the link between what we know about psychology and the design of technology. It was the HCI methods (e.g. task analysis, evaluation techniques, etc) that were more useful when it comes to designing or redesigning technology – experience from the design week and the MSc project.

Slowly seeing the distinction between science and engineering but couldn’t get my head round the conception of an engineering discipline for HCI. Still saw HCI as an applied science because of the HCI psychology (e.g. GOMS) that we had learnt about.

Subsequent-to-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics:

My view of HCI as a discipline changed from applied science to engineering – this happened when I did my PhD at UCLIC (the successor of the EU). My research interest in HCI has always been in the scientific knowledge of HCI but the distinction between the science, design and engineering components of HCI has helped me to build my own HCI identity.

Additional Reflections:

I am not sure if I (will ever) understand the conception of HCI but it has helped me to build my HCI identity and see HCI as a discipline in its own right. I still have fond memories of the lectures on the D+L conception – they are very good at stirring debates (sometimes quite heated too) among some students during pub hours after lectures. We often get two main groups of students in the after-lecture pub sessions: one group would be the passionate (or argumentative) students who want to try to understand the conception by having a debate; or some think they understand and just want to debate about it. The other group would be students who just do not see the relevance of it or simply do not want to try to understand; and their reactions to having such debate in a pub usually comprise of expressions like “oh no”, “can we talk about something else?”, etc. Therefore, to the students, the lectures on the conception of HCI is a bit like marmite – you either love it or ate it.