Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful
Human-Centered Design has become such a dominant theme in design that it is now accepted by interface and application designers automatically, without thought, let alone criticism. That’s a dangerous state – when things are treated as accepted wisdom. The purpose of this essay is to provoke thought, discussion, and reconsideration of some of the fundamental principles of Human-Centered Design. These principles, I suggest, can be helpful, misleading, or wrong. At times, they might even be harmful. Activity-Centered Design is superior.
Norman, Donald A. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design>Activity Theory
在设计界,以人为中心的设计已经成为一个占统治地位的主题,以至于它经常被界面和应用设计人员不加思考地加以采用,更不要说是用一种带有批判的眼光加以采用。这是一种危险的状态――当某些事情被当作是被广泛认可的知识来对待时。这篇文章的目的就是要引起人们对于以人为中心设计方法的基本原理的重新思考和讨论。我认为,这些原理可能是有益的,有误导性的,或是是错误的。有时候,它们甚至可能是有害的。以活动为中心的设计是更好的一种方法。
Norman, Donald A. uiGarden (2005). (Chinese) Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design>Activity Theory
HCD has developed as a limited view of design. Instead of looking at a person’s entire activity, it has primarily focused upon page-by-page analysis, screen-by-screen. As a result, sequences, interruptions, ill-defined goals – all the aspects of real activities, have been ignored. And error messages – there should not be any error messages. All messages should contain explanations and offer alternative ways of proceeding from the message itself.
Norman, Donald A. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design
很多人难以理解我的那篇“以人为中心的设计是有害的”文章。 (哈哈,下面这样说可能有些保守!关于这个问题,肯定有五百篇评论和博客文章。) 特别地,我没能够清楚地说明“以活动为中心的设计”是什么意思,以及它和“以人为中心的设计”是如何的不同。 一些人好像认为我彻底抛弃了我以前说过的话。另外一些人则简单地认为我疯了。还有一些人则急匆匆地出来解释我那样说的含义。
Norman, Donald A. uiGarden (2006). (Chinese) Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design
the European Thematic Network for the human-centered design of interactive technologies. Convivio supports and promotes the development of "convivial technologies", ICT products, systems and services that enhance the quality of everyday life and human interaction.
Convivio. Organizations>Human Computer Interaction>Interaction Design>Regulation
Evaluation is a fundamental part of human-computer interaction (HCI). Good HCI practice tells designers to evaluate: evaluate requirements, evaluate designs, evaluate prototypes. The purpose of evaluation is to improve the usability of a software system; that is to make it easy to use, easy to learn, effective and enjoyable. But what is usability and what makes one device easier to use than another? Traditional HCI theory has produced a number of evaluation techniques and guidelines. These are based on some basic psychological assumptions which date back to the sixties.
Benyon, David. ERCIM News (2001). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Information Design
Ten Ways Computers Manipulate People
My most recent captology course at Stanford focused on 10 ways computers manipulate people. In total, I've found about 60 strategies that software can use to change what people think and do.
Stanford University (2004). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Persuasive Design
Using Computer-Based Narratives to Persuade
Our lab has been investigating how computer-based narratives can change people's beliefs and behaviors.
Fogg, B.J. Stanford University (2004). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Persuasive Design
Persuading People via Computer-Based Narratives 
Computer technology opens new doors for researching, creating, and distributing WIN (interactivity and narrative) experiences. Increased insight in this area could create a potential to change people’s attitudes and behaviors in ways never before possible. For example, in researching WIN experiences, our online system can now test stories to identify which stories have an impact on specific types of people. Alternately in creating WIN experiences, a computer could glean information from an interaction in order to select a specific story from a large database of proven stories. From a distribution standpoint, WIN experiences could be delivered through mobile handsets, increasing reach beyond the desktop. The potential for impact is significant. Computer-supported WIN experiences could lead to large-scale interventions to improve health, enhance learning and training, boost workplace performance, and motivate participation in civic life.
Fogg, B.J., Angela Booker and Abbe Don. Stanford University (2004). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Workplace>Persuasive Design
Games To Explain Human Factors: Come, Participate, Learn and Have Fun!!!
Photo albums from previous presentations of Games To Explain Human Factors.
Shapiro, Ronald G. SlideShare (2008). Presentations>Human Computer Interaction>Information Design>Cognitive Psychology
Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
Human-computer interaction (HCI) is an area of research and practice that emerged in the early 1980s, initially as a specialty area in computer science. HCI has expanded rapidly and steadily for three decades, attracting professionals from many other disciplines and incorporating diverse concepts and approaches. To a considerable extent, HCI now aggregates a collection of semi-distinct fields of research and practice in human-centered informatics. However, the continuing synthesis of disparate conceptions and approaches to science and practice in HCI has produced a dramatic example of how different epistemologies and paradigms can be reconciled and integrated.
Carroll, John M. Interaction-Design.org. Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Interaction Design>History
Increase Conversions in Long Web Forms by Resolving the Accidental Back Button Activation Issue
The issue of accidentally activating the browser back button through the keyboard while interacting with a long web form is applicable to users across expertise levels. The time and effort wasted by the user can be said as proportional to the number of input fields filled by the user before accidentally exiting the page. Since no application feedback indicating cause of the error to the user is provided, depending upon user expertise, the user may or may not realize the cause of the error. Realizing what went wrong does not guarantee the possibility of reverting the error either. This leads to unnecessary loss in form conversions despite favorable user intent. A solution to resolve this issue (that the author hopes becomes standard practice) to plug the hole for lost conversion that translates to big numbers in absolute terms for high traffic websites is also provided.
Rautela, Abhay. evolt (2009). Design>Human Computer Interaction>Interaction Design>Forms
Designing for B2B and Enterprise Applications
It's not uncommon to hear people complaining about the poor user experience of some B2B and enterprise applications. Read through these top tips to help you design enterprise applications that offer a better user experience and increase productivity.
Baxevanis, Alexander. Webcredible (2009). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design>User Experience
When writing software, *please* don't give error messages that are only meaningful to developers of the software. Microsoft used to be awful for this: "System fault at DEAD:BEEF, please contact your system administrator". Which would've been cool, except that I *was* the system administrator.
Bailey, Jeff. LiveJournal (2009). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design>User Experience
The Ever-Evolving Arrow: Universal Control Symbol 
The arrow and its brethren are everywhere on our computer screens. For example, a quick examination of the Firefox 3.0 browser, shown in Figure 1 in its standard configuration, yields eight examples of arrows—Forward, Back, and Reload buttons, scroll bar controls, and drop-down menus that reveal search engine, history, and bookmark choices.
Follett, Jonathan. UXmatters (2009). Articles>User Interface>Human Computer Interaction>Graphic Design
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