When did you come up with "Human Computer Interaction"? Was it heading into university or during? Were you already sort of on that path before making it explicit or was this a path you envisioned ahead of time?
It was while I was at my college. I wanted to study Cognitive Science, but to study that, I had to create an interdisciplinary major. I decided to take a CS class my freshman year because I thought about a double major. I found out that you could not double major with an interdisciplinary, so I had to come up with a way to combine everything.
At first I thought I was going to do Artificial Intelligence as my major, but I couldn't find enough courses, so I went with HCI.
I like to think that Human Computer Interaction is taking into account the fact that our products are being used by other people. I feel that it is the coding of a great user experience that is inclusive.
I wish that someone was in charge of this on an engineering team. I think it usually falls to a Project Manager. I wish that more engineers thought about it, but it doesn't always happen.
I recall reading a pretty interesting anecdote about how Google's project at Stanford, which arguably was one of the most important engineering projects in the history the world, was kind of scoffed at because it was "soft computing", e.g. the part where the human interacts with the machine. It seems like their peers thought that anything that the humans touched with was for non-hardcore engineers to work on.
I think the opinion has shifted away from this extreme a bit. Anyway, do you have any thoughts on this anecdote or have you experienced this sort of thing?
It's funny you say this. I looked at going to a big tech school, and Computer Science was their "softest" major.
I think some companies are working on making more inclusive and diverse work forces which helps a lot. When an engineer makes a product they make it so that it works for them (left or right handed, etc.). Having a more diverse workplace gives more eyes on a product from different backgrounds.
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When did you come up with "Human Computer Interaction"? Was it heading into university or during? Were you already sort of on that path before making it explicit or was this a path you envisioned ahead of time?
It was while I was at my college. I wanted to study Cognitive Science, but to study that, I had to create an interdisciplinary major. I decided to take a CS class my freshman year because I thought about a double major. I found out that you could not double major with an interdisciplinary, so I had to come up with a way to combine everything.
At first I thought I was going to do Artificial Intelligence as my major, but I couldn't find enough courses, so I went with HCI.
What does that "Human Computer Interaction" comprise of? Who is chiefly in charge of thinking about these sorts of concerns in an engineering team?
I like to think that Human Computer Interaction is taking into account the fact that our products are being used by other people. I feel that it is the coding of a great user experience that is inclusive.
I wish that someone was in charge of this on an engineering team. I think it usually falls to a Project Manager. I wish that more engineers thought about it, but it doesn't always happen.
I recall reading a pretty interesting anecdote about how Google's project at Stanford, which arguably was one of the most important engineering projects in the history the world, was kind of scoffed at because it was "soft computing", e.g. the part where the human interacts with the machine. It seems like their peers thought that anything that the humans touched with was for non-hardcore engineers to work on.
I think the opinion has shifted away from this extreme a bit. Anyway, do you have any thoughts on this anecdote or have you experienced this sort of thing?
It's funny you say this. I looked at going to a big tech school, and Computer Science was their "softest" major.
I think some companies are working on making more inclusive and diverse work forces which helps a lot. When an engineer makes a product they make it so that it works for them (left or right handed, etc.). Having a more diverse workplace gives more eyes on a product from different backgrounds.