A Look Into the Present & Future: Humans, Friends, Devices, and Yes, Also Computers

 

When the phone rang, Jack was driving home from work on a busy Los Angeles highway.

Jack heard the voice of his boss through the car speaker system. ”Please come to my office as fast as you can. I have group of potential customers and we urgently need your advice in person. I know that you are on the road probably going home, but this is important!”

Jack made the first available U-turn and pulled over briefly to send a text message to some colleagues and social media friends in New York. Back at the office, he grabbed his iPad to check an internal Facebook-like company network. Sure enough, he found the background material on the customer that he had asked his New York co-workers to send. He used the tablet to “skype” one of his colleagues and social media friends and asked some follow-up questions. After a brief conversation, Jack was ready for the meeting.

Such a scenario is becoming less imaginary each day. Thanks to advances in computing, consumer electronics and social and new media, we are starting to see some of the extraordinary capabilities of the latest personal devices integrated into our ordinary business day and personal lives. 

In the past, we used to have just computers, but now instead, there are computing elements in many of the devices we own – watches, smart phones, tablets, pedometers, music players, etc., etc.  In the “old” days, we used to interact with the computer mainly by ourselves and with colleagues and friends by serial email.  Now, we are connected to and interact in parallel with many people and with many pieces of information both simultaneously and asynchronously using social and new media and a continuum of devices. Moreover, our devices could interact with each other by themselves or with our assistance. 

The Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community could use its proven capabilities and imagination to do some valuable work in this post-PC world (mobile, social, location, real time, and yes, also computers). The success of this community in innovating & advancing this new world should depend on learning the use of these new media and provisions (i.e., by using them personally) and on how much we can free ourselves from the chains of the old world.

"What's in a name?" A question is how much does the name “Human-Computer Interaction” represent this new environment?  Keeping the old name, “Human computer Interaction” (HCI), might cloud our thinking and tie our minds to old concepts, to old metaphors, and to the way things used to be.  So, what should the new name be? Human-Device Interaction? Human-Computing Interaction? Humans-Computing Interaction? Or,…? This is not an easy task, since the situations with computing devices and their use change every day. 

Suggestions?

 

Comments

[Nahum Gershon]

Judy Hammond (Australia) has commented via email:

Interesting article.

Need to define "chains of the old world" as some would see that as 'freedoms of the old world' and the new world as being in 'chains' - of work and not whole of life living.

If we are going to find new names for HCI then Human-Computing Interaction would be my first thought, as it is specifically talking about aspects relating to computing technology, and not to life experience outside of this - assuming in the future we do have a life outside computing :)

[Nahum Gershon]

Judy,

Thanks for your comment.

I agree with you that not only there are chains of the old world, but the new world has chains too. What I meant by the chains of the old world is looking mainly on human computer interaction like we did 10-20 years ago, where the "computer" is a desktop or a laptop and not also on the continuum of mobile devices plus computing devices in all kinds of objects (like watches, cameras, cars, cloth, etc.). The other aspect of the "chains of the old world" include regarding communication using mainly email and not including social media and location services.

Chains of the new world include, for example, getting alerts (new email, a Skype call on the tablet), etc.) while reading a book on a tablet. This is contrasted with the ability to peacefully read a book made of paper without interruption.

The HCI community could use its capabilities to go beyond occasional papers dealing with the new aspects to fully embrace the changed environment to study these new interfaces in a big way and innovate in these areas.

As for a new name for this enhanced HCI, like you, I also tend to prefer Human-Computing Interaction, since it embodies all kinds of devices that use computing and not just traditional computers. An advantage of Human-Computing Interaction is that it also retains the acronym HCI.

Again, thanks for your comment, Judy.

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