This document provides an overview of the Human Centered Computing course IFI7172. The course aims to understand how computer technologies impact and are impacted by society. It takes a multidisciplinary approach and focuses on human, social, and cultural aspects of technology. The course covers topics like sociotechnical systems, technology acceptance, and innovation diffusion through lectures, activities, discussions, and case studies. Students are assessed based on participation, readings, discussions, case studies, and a final presentation. The goal is to study how technologies affect humans and society using human-centered methodologies.

1. Human Centered Computing
IFI7172, Lesson 1
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2. ifi7172.wordpress.com
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3. Contextualization
• Computing technologies are increasingly affecting
and transforming
– Almost every aspect of our daily lives
• Unfortunately, those changes are not always positive
• knowledge and communications are
• 2 major pillar of society
– the ways we perceive and handle information, go
about
• Our work and life, create and
• Maintain our social relations, or
• Use our cultural context.
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4. To make things worse,
• The access to the information
– Is through technology we developed
• Without considering
– The local sociocultural context
• The cross disciplinary issues
• Cultural differences
– Values
– Behaviors
– Habits
• The human abilities and needs
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5. To whom
• Teams with a multidisciplinary background
– Computer science, engineering, graphic design,
industrial design;
– Sociology, psychology, and cognitive science
• Because it takes into account
– Personal, social, and cultural aspects;
• And, addresses issues related computing
technology
– Human information, human-computer, and human-human
interaction;
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6. The course
• The focus…
– Understanding the ways humans, adopt, adapt,
and organize their lives around computational
technologies.
• Both as individuals and in social groups,
• The goal…
– Study a set of methodologies to
• Focus on understanding how computer technologies
affected and are affecting society and vice versa.
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7. The Schedule
05.09 – Introduction to Human-Centered
Computing (3h)
03, 17 and 30.10 – Sociotechnical systems (9h)
31.10, 13 and 14.11 – Technology acceptance
(9h)
27, 28.11 and 11.12 – Innovation diffusion (9h)
12.12 – Presentations (3h)
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8. Class format
• Almost every class will have the following format:
– Lecture; followed by
• in-class activities;
– Discussion about inspiration and reading; followed by
• In-class mapping ideas; or
– In-class case-study; with
• Report and presentation.
• Course blog and eliademy
– ifi7172.wordpress.com
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9. The assessment
… – Participation in class activities (10%)
4 – Individual reading assignments (20%)
… – Discussion activities (20%)
3 – Case study assignments (30%)
1 – Report and presentation (20%)
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10. Readings assignments
• There will always be 1-2 required readings tasks
– Those are individual tasks
– And of course those will be followed by discussion
sessions about
• What you read;
• The Blog post request will be basically reactions
to the readings
– Half of page max, about
• What did you learn,
• how does it related to your life or your case-study?
• There may be 1+ optional readings if you fell need
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11. Required Materials: Blog
• Post should be added to your own class blog
• My expectations of you
– Arrive to class on time
• Let me know if you will be late or absent
– Turn in assignments on time
• Let me know 24 hours before the deadline if you won’t
make it and need a new deadline
• Be willing to spend 6 hours every other week
to this class (outside of lecture)
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12. Case studies
• There will be 3 case studies
– One about Sociotechnical systems
• Due date is 31.10
– Another about Technology acceptance
• Due date is 27.11
– And a final one about Innovation diffusion
• Due date is 12.12
• Case study assessment
– It is to be made in groups up to 3
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13. Case study one
• The aims is to use the
– Sociotechnical systems theory
• As a framework for
– Analyzing how a work organization functions are
• Reflected in a particular system design process;
– Reflect on a possible impact such system
• has to a particular society; and
– Preview future tendencies.
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14. Case study two
• The aims is to use the
– Technology acceptance model
• To study the effects of certain system
characteristics
– On user acceptance of computer-based information
system
– Main purpose is to
• Understand the user acceptance process;
• Perform a user acceptance evaluation tests to
– Measuring user’s motivations to use this particular system; and
• Report the likelihood of this system to be successful.
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15. Case study three
• The aims is to use the
– Innovation diffusion theory
• To explain
– how, why, and at what new ideas and technology
• Are spread through cultures.
– Main purpose is to understand
• Decision-making process;
• How certain technology was adopted; and
• It impact in present society.
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16. Fundamental notions
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17. Human Centered Computing
• Research encompasses many areas of
knowledge
– But… All have in common
• The HUMAN and it relation with computing.
• Focus mostly on the HUMAN as…
– Individual, Organizations, a group, or a society.
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18. Other Relevant Terms
• Information Architecture (IA)
– How should content be organized?
• User Experience
– Design and evaluate user interactions with technology
• Usability
– Evaluations of Technology
• Ergonomics
– Design of equipment and work environments to fit the human
body using
• physiology, psychology, industrial engineering principles
• Human Factors
– The knowledge concerning the characteristics of human beings
that are applicable to the design of systems and devices of all
kinds
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19. HCC research focus…
• Encourages the research
– How Humans,
• in various roles and domains
– Perceive computing artifacts and how they use them
– To solve current social problems
– To develop technology that works smoothly with
human behavior
• Habit, preferences and abilities.
– To learn how to design and implement computing
systems that
• Supports people’s activities.
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20. HCC definitions
• On 1997, some researchers define HCC [1] as
– “a philosophical-humanistic position regarding the
ethics and aesthetics of the workplace”;
– “any system that enhances human performance”;
– “any system that plays any kind of role in mediating
human interactions”;
– “a software design process that results in interfaces
that are really user-friendly”;
– “a description of what makes for a good tool –the
computer does all the adapting”;
– “an emerging inter-discipline requiring
institutionalization and special training programs”.
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21. HCC definitions
• According to Foley et al. [2],
– HCC is “the science of designing computations and
computational artifacts in support of human
endeavors”;
• For Canny et al. [3],
– HCC is “a vision for computing research that integrates
technical studies with the broad implications of
computing in a task-directed way.
– HCC spans computer science and several engineering
disciplines, cognitive science, economics and social
sciences.”
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22. HCC definitions
• According to Hoffman [4]
– HCC can be defined as
• The development, evaluation, and dissemination of
technology that is intended to amplify and extend the
human capabilities
– This is to:
• Perceive, understand, reason, decide, and collaborate;
• Conduct cognitive work;
• Achieve, maintain, and exercise expertise.
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23. So, what is really HCC
• Focuses on all aspects of human-machine
integration:
– humans with software,
– humans with hardware,
– humans with workspaces,
– humans with humans.
• As well as aspects of machine machine
interaction (e.g., software agents)
– if they impact the total performance of a system
intended for human use
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24. What differentiates
• Human Computer Interaction and HCC
– Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is the
discipline
• Concerned with the design, evaluation, and
implementation of interactive computing systems.
• Human-centered design usually
– focuses on problems that traditional (HCI) does
not generally address.
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25. What differentiates
• But…They are very Connected
– Both focus on enhancing the experience of using the
technology in
• Workplace , at our homes and in everyday lives; and
• In studying how this has changed our culture.
– They started to touch each other when
• The Second Wave of HCI meets Third Wave Challenges [5]
• Major difference is that one focus on
– The Human-centered Vs User-centered perspective
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26. What differentiates
• HCC is not just about the
– Interaction, the interface, or the design process.
– It is more about knowledge, people, technology
• And, everything that ties them together.
• The emphasis is not only
– in the computer but, simultaneously, in
– Understanding
• How the experience of use affects humans behaviours
• How this technologies are affecting social values
• In what way they are changing the society as we know
– Digital natives, digital immigrants [6]
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27. HCC (assumptions)
1. People design new technologies for
– Other people to use
• When designing they anticipate
– Others will enjoy and use it;
– Their benefits; and
– Learn about their outcomes of use.
2. IT and Humans (as society) co-evolve
– Transforming each other in the process.
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28. HCC (assumptions)
• As so, in near future
– People can translate that knowledge into
• A next generation of systems.
3. Humans and the information processing devices
are seen as a couple
– Co-adapting within the same context.
• Therefore,
– system design must then regard the Human
• As one aspect of of a larger and dynamic context,
– Including the team, organization, work environment.
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29. Consequences
• IT design must be sensitive to
– Human values and preferences; and
– Take advantage of the full benefits of computing, and
– Bridge the gap between Humans and technologies;
– Integrate concepts from other areas besides computer
science
• Areas that might help when exploring the relations among
– Humans and their social surrounding; and their computing
technology
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30. Initiatives covered
• Include issues that focus on understanding
– Humans as individuals, and as societies;
– Computational models of behavior;
– Social and cultural issues
• diversity, culture, group dynamics, and technological
change.
– Economic impacts of IT
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31. Initiatives covered
• Aiming to transforming and merging
– The Human Computer Interaction experience and
make it
• As much natural as it can be.
• Transforming it in a tool
– That empowers users to work, in school, home,
play; and at the same time
• Facilitates natural and productive collaboration.
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32. Topics of research
• HCC subsumes topics like
Digital Society and Technologies;
Human-Computer Interaction;
Universal Access.
– Systems for problem-solving and Collaboration;
– Multimedia and multi-modal interfaces;
– User modeling, and information visualization;
– Models for effective computer-mediated
• Human-human relations; and
• Methods to support social interaction
– Frameworks to address special needs of particular
communities; and
– Social dynamics modeling and socially aware
systems.
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33. As said before
• Human-Centered Computing, more than being
a field of study, is a set of methodologies that
can be applied to any field that uses
computers
– In this course we are going to focus in the
following theories
• Sociotechnical systems
• Technology acceptance
• Innovation diffusion
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34. In-class Activity
• Form groups of 2 or 3 people
– Groups brainstorm for 10 minutes, each gets 90
seconds to present
• Describe your "dream team" for each of the
– Following projects, and what skills you expect them
to have/learn.
1. Improve accuracy of electronic voting systems for older
adults
2. Enable individuals in rural Africa with electronic banking
3. Build a collaborative platform to comfort and foster
children with Autism to communicate with the outside
world
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35. In-class Activity
• Second request
– Form a group to work with you throughout the
course
– Choose a product to study
• Conditions
– The aim is to Study the system and understand how social
organizations are affected by it.
• You should choose a system that has an
important role in society nowadays
– Like government agencies or corporations.
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36. Conditions
• You will be asked to
– Focus on understanding people, by studying the
ways they adopt and adapt computational
technologies in their lives,
• Both as individuals and in social groups.
– This is done by using 3 distinctive methodologies
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37. Conditions
• Needs to be
– Large Sociotechnical system
• Social web
– e.g. Facebook, Instagram
• Peer production platform
– e.g. Wikipedia, Wordpress
• eGovernance solution
– e.g. Estonian eHealth, eVoting system
• Electronic banking
– e.g. SEB, Swedbank
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38. First assignment
• Why? because there is so much good stuff out
there!
– Read and write a summary about the HCC (80-120
words)
– Describe why the social Human-Centered
Computing perspective is relevant to HCI (50-80
words)
• Due on: 19.09.14
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39. References
[1] Jaimes, A., Sebe, N., & Gatica-Perez, D. (2006, October). Human-centered
computing: a multimedia perspective. In Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM
international conference on Multimedia (pp. 855-864). ACM.
[2] Clarkson, E., Day, J. A., & Foley, J. D. (2006, April). An educational digital
library for human-centered computing. In CHI'06 Extended Abstracts on
Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 646-651). ACM.
[3] J. Canny, “Human-center Computing,” Report of the UC Berkeley HCC
Retreat, 2001.
[4] Hoffman, R. R., Roesler, A., & Moon, B. M. (2004). What is design in the
context of human-centered computing?. Intelligent Systems, IEEE, 19(4), 89-
95.
[5] S. Bødker, “When Second Wave HCI meets Third Wave Challenges”,
Nordichi 2006.
[6] M. Prensky, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”, On the Horizon (NCB
University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, 2001.
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