Human-computer interaction

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study of interactions between people and computers. It is an interdisciplinary field, relating computer science, psychology, cognitive science, human factors engineering (ergonomics), sociology, library and information science, and other fields. One of the goals of the field is to make computers more user-friendly.

Although much of the practical work in HCI revolves around the design of graphical user interfaces, HCI is concerned with a number of topics, including

• Interface design methods
  • user-centered design
  • participatory design
  • value-sensitive design
  • rapid prototyping
  • iterative design
• Usability testing
  • user testing
  • heuristic evaluation
  • keystroke-level modelling (KLM)
  • cognitive walkthrough
  • cognitive dimensions of notation
• Technologies
  • GUI toolkits
  • software architecture
  • input and output devices
  • computer vision
  • speech recognition and natural language processing
• Computer accessibility
• Laws and theorems
  • Fitt's Law
• The Internet
• Computer-supported collaborative work
• Software agents and intelligent interfaces
• Information retrieval
• Information visualization
• Virtual reality
• Ubiquitous computing
• Wearable computers