The HCI Design Practice Conception pre-supposes an associated HCI Discipline having three primary characteristics: a general problem; practices, providing solutions to that problem; and knowledge supporting those practices. (C5) The general HCI problem is: to design people’s use of computers to do something as wanted. (F1)
The HCI Conception, then, is unequivocally one of design practice and its support by knowledge. (C1) HCI design practice is the product of research and practice, both of which solve HCI design problems. (F2) (C2) Such practice may be private or public, formal or informal. It may assume a number of forms, for example, codified; experienced; proceeduralised; demonstrated; exemplified as in methods; skills; theories; guidelines; heuristics; rules-of-thumb; principles; hints-and-tips etc. (C3)(C4)
HCI design practice may be maintained in a number of ways: for example, it may be expressed in journals; example solutions to design problems; methods; learning systems; communities; good practice; procedures; word-of-mouth; tools etc. HCI practice is, therefore, a necessary characteristic of the HCI discipline, its practices and its design problem. (F3)
This wide range of HCI design practices is matched by an equally wide range of HCI design knowledge, together seeking, specifying and implementing solutions to the HCI design problem. Such design practices include: ‘specify-then- implement’ (specification precedes implementation); ‘specify-and-implement’ (specification and implementation proceed together); ‘implement-and-test’ (implementation occurs without specification, as in ‘trial and error’ and ‘implement and iterate’). In addition, all of these practices may include iteration and test in a variety of different ways. (F4) (C6) (C7)
Key concepts are shown in bold on their first appearance only.
Footnotes and CitationsFootnotes
(F1) This definition encapsulates the basic characteristics of HCI: 1. that people not only use computers; but use them to do something (whatever that something may be); 2. That people not only use computers to do something; but to do something what and how they want.
(F2) HCI research solves design problems to acquire and to validate HCI design knowledge. HCI practice solves design problems to satisfy user and client requirements.
(F3) Some semblance of order can be brought to this plethora of types of design knowledge by supposing different approaches to establishing a discipline of HCI, for example: Craft; Applied Science; and Engineering (Long and Dowell, 1989).
(F4) Some semblance of order can be brought to this plethora of types of design practice by supposing different approaches to establishing a discipline of HCI, for example: Craft; Applied Science; and Engineering (Long and Dowell, 1989). See also F3 above.
Citations
Long and Dowell (1989)
(C1) ‘Second, the scope of the general problem of HCI is defined by reference to humans, computers, and the work they perform.’ (Page 9, Abstract, Lines 7-9) (
C2) ‘The 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)
(C3) ‘…….. Some would claim HCI theory as explanatory laws, others as design principles. Some would claim HCI theory as directly supporting HCI practice, others as indirectly providing support. Some would claim HCI theory as effectively supporting HCI practice, whilst others may claim such support as non-existent.’ (Page 10, Lines 12-17)
(C4) ‘All definitions of disciplines make reference to discipline knowledge as the product of research or more generally of a field of study. Knowledge can be public (ultimately formal) or private (ultimately experiential). It may assume a number of forms; for example, it may be tacit, formal, experiential, codified – as in theories, laws and principles etc. It may also be maintained in a number of ways; for example, it may be expressed in journals, or learning systems, or it may only be embodied in procedures and tools. All disciplines would appear to have knowledge as a component (for example, scientific discipline knowledge, engineering discipline knowledge, medical discipline knowledge, etc). Knowledge, therefore, is a necessary characteristic of a discipline.’ (Page 11, Lines 30-38)
Dowell and Long (1989)
(C5) ‘Most definitions of disciplines assume three primary characteristics: a general problem; practices, providing solutions to that problem; and knowledge, supporting those practices.’ (Page 1514, Lines 43-45)
(C6) ‘These four deficiencies are endemic to the craft nature of contemporary HF practice. They indict the tacit HF discipline knowledge consisting of accumulated experience embodied in procedures, even where that experience has been influenced by guidance offered by the science of psychology. Because the knowledge is tacit (i.e., implicit or informal), it cannot be operationalised, and hence the role of HF in systems development cannot be planned as would be necessary for the proper integration of the knowledge. Without being operationalised, its knowledge cannot be tested, and so the efficacy of the practices it supports cannot be guaranteed. Without being tested, its knowledge cannot be generalised for new applications and so the practices it can support will be inefficient. Without being operationalised, testable, and general, the knowledge cannot be developed in any structured way’ (Page 1517, Lines 3-13)
(C7) ‘The contemporary HF discipline does not possess either methodological or substantive engineering principles. The heuristics it possesses are either ‘rules of thumb’ derived from experience or guidelines derived from psychological theories and findings. Neither guidelines nor rules of thumb offer assurance of their efficacy in any given instance, and particularly with regard to the effectiveness of a design. The methods and models of HF (as opposed to methodological and substantive principles) are similarly without such an assurance. (Page 1520, Lines 21-28)