Cognitive Ergonomics

Dr. Manish Kumar Asthana

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand
Lecture-IX

Human Computer Interaction-I

Hello everyone. I welcome you all in the lecture series of cognitive ergonomics, lecture
number 9, where we are going to discuss about human computer interaction. Now let me start
with this image where a space exploration today in the modern world is very important. We
see lot of automated system, we see lot of computers, we see lot of human beings interacting
with the machine system to share the knowledge, to transmit the knowledge, to transmit the
information, to transmit the data set from one end to the another end. All these things were not
being possible in the period of 1970s. 1970 very limited people were handling a sophisticated
system that is a computer.

In the year 1980 when a sudden surge started to come forward with the usage of computers,
very soon people started realizing that handling a large amount of data set, transferring the
large amount of information, storing large amount of information require necessary skill and
capabilities and abilities to interact with the system, the system which we call it as computer.
And then there was an arise of human computer interaction. Five decades approximately have
passed and what we see is that trend has changed. We interact with computer at each and every
step, we interact with computer each and every day.

Computers provide an aid to us to execute the complicated tasks and provide a solution to a
complex designs. Now this human computer interaction when it is started in the period of 1980
when the people from disciplines of cognitive psychology, people from artificial intelligence,
people from computer science all together started to have a discussion and broad understanding
how this computer can be beneficial. Then personal computing started to emerge out. Personal
computing was also a major contributor in the discipline of human computer interaction. Each
and everybody today is having a personal laptop, personal machine system where they interact.

Each and every day we make power point. I am interacting with you with a power point. A
software is required, a hardware is required for such interaction to make it successful and
meaningful. Computers as we were discussing in previous lecture about the human capabilities
and skills that the design principle should be aiding, should aid the memory, should aid the
attention, should aid the perception, should aid the language and vice versa. All these cognitive
principles should aid a person to understand this thing.
 So, these computer systems are providing an aid to an human beings. Now in the modern
design, in the modern technological world we understand that these designs has to be around a
human being and that is why human centered approach is required. Human centered approach
if you see these in three different layers for the easiness there is a human which is interacting
with the system and this system is having two components. One can be seen component is the
hardware machine and to run the system, softwares. In the human beings different types of
sensory systems are there.

When we were talking about the sensation, perception, we addressed that there are five
different senses, these are five different senses. Hardware can be a hardware system like
keyboard, speakers, displays and this hardware is interacting with the software and collectively
they together interact with human beings. In the software case you can see different types of
kernel space is there, user space is there. Now all these different complex system which is
there, they together interact with each other and then provides an smooth interaction between
the two. When any interference, when any blockage, when in any case there is a failure at any
step then this interaction fails which ultimately result into an error.

Now the how well they are synchronized together plays a crucial role. Personal computing
encouraged the human computer interaction and our reliance on these automated system, our
reliance on computer is making this interaction more and more robust at each and every day.
Now what we see with this cartoon is that ergonomics for the adults and ergonomics for the
kids are very different. They both are interacting with the system in their own way, in their
own capacity. A professional might be dealing with the huge data set, sorting, categorizing,
producing.

However, for the kids it may be simply a game, it may be a simple putting a posting putting a
post on the Facebook or a Twitter or an Instagram. For them the ergonomics is not that much
important, but for the professionals it plays an important role. Definitely, there are many other
parameters here which we are not going to address like physical ergonomics, psychological
ergonomics, social ergonomics. Those parameters, those factors we are not going to address
in this lecture because our main concern is towards the cognitive ergonomics. So how the
cognition, you can see there is a difference between the cognition of these two different class
of individuals.

The first question we should be asking to ourselves is that in this human computer interaction,
when we are talking about the personal computing, who is, whose personal computing we are
talking about? Who is this person who is involved? In this human computer interaction, the
human is the term which is being used for the user. The user can be of any gender, the user can
be of any age, the user can have any background, he can be literate or illiterate. In the modern
world, the human computer interaction is commonly seen, but in the period of 1970 it was very,
very limited to only computer professionals. It was very, very limited to the computer analysts
and experts. But as the surge of computers in the modern world started, people very soon
realized that personal computing is important and everybody should have a computer.

Definitely this resulted into different types of users. So, there are different types of user in
human computer interaction. Service user, naive, intermediate user, not less computing
knowledge, but not very high computing knowledge also. But having a computing knowledge
more than the basic level, intermediate read group. And then the experts.

So, who is the human? Human is the user, different users, different type of user interaction.
So, when we are talking about the design, if you remember in the previous lecture we were
talking about the mental model where the designer has to match with the mental model of the
user. So here the user, the design has to be around the user. And that is why most of these
designs have to be human centric. The evolution of computing as I was telling you earlier,
started in the period of 1970s.

Of course, the computing came in the year of 1940 when Alan Turing brought this machine
system and from there onwards lot of lot of development has come forward in the area of
computing. People were using huge, huge spaces to store 1000 bit of data or 2000 bit of data
or 1 bit of data. Huge machinery systems were being used. There were personal computers
when it started personal computing. Everybody was having their own personal space,
everybody was having their personal storage system.

And then this evolution, this need for personal computing brought evolution in the discipline
of computing. And today each one of us is having a computer. Not everybody, but still in a
majority roughly around 80 to 90 percent individuals are having computers. There was one
data centre in the period of 1980. Same data centre was there.

Everybody was supposed to come to that central data centre, acquire the data and then they
were accessing the data set from there only. Huge amount of data set, all the data set, anybody
who is working on the data set, they were putting it at one central level. But as the computing
evolved, as the human computer interaction came into existence, as people realized and noticed
that there is a need for personal computing, all these things pushed the centralized system of
computing into decentralized era where all these data centres were being decentralized. They
moved away from the centre. There were different centres were present there.

Definitely they were connected to each other. All these different silos were being connected
together to make one big central network. However, they were same time independent from
each other. And this moved into another domain of distributed era. Distributed era is there
where everything was distributed.
 People were using their own set of data set and to work upon the artificial intelligence. In the
modern world, the AI which exists is the low AI, weak AI, not a strong AI. But with the pace,
the way the human computer interaction is increasing and is scaling up, the time is close when
these artificial intelligence will be strong in their processing. Now, this human computer
interaction has even moved to another level where augmented reality is being used to train the
military officials, to train the army soldiers, how to work in a dangerous terrain, how to work
in a foreign land, foreign country and how to respond. This is how the human computer
interaction has moved to another level.

Another is the augmented reality where the doctors, the surgeons are using augmented reality
to understand the nature of the lesion, to understand the nature of aneurysm and how to operate
it, to which direction they can approach it, what is the depth of this lesion, what is the depth of
its disease, how widely spread it is in the human brain. Now, here we are just talking about the
human brain, but the same augmented reality is being used by dentist to understand the
functioning of the teeth, the lever, the kidney. In medical discipline, in medical domain,
augmented reality is extensively being used. Due to ethics reason, some countries are using
augmented reality to train their surgeons, how to do an efficient effective surgery using
augmented reality. Virtual reality is at the boom.

Lot of examples people are using in from the discipline of augmented reality to handle
complicated and complex cases. These are just two examples. Similarly, astronauts are being
trained how well they can execute a task under microgravity or zero gravity in the space. Now,
if we come to its definition of human computer interaction, then we see that it is a cross
disciplinary domain, which is a strongly associated with design of the information, design of
the interaction, design of the communication and technology. How this communication is
happening, how the information is there to understand the interaction between the two. Humans
are having different capabilities and skills. On the other hand, computers are having different
abilities and skills. They are two hand of the same body, how they are interacting, how the left
hand and right hand are interacting. If we understand this coordination, then it will help us in
understanding the use of human computer interaction in the domain of performance, efficiency
and user satisfaction. Now, what you see is that what is wanted.

Generally, in the case of human computer interaction, what is wanted? I want to do an

arithmetic problem, I want to create a data, I want to write a draft, I want to create make a
PowerPoint, what is required? What task is required? Why am I interacting with the machine?
Why am I interacting now? To communicate with you all out there, how well I can interact,
how easily I can interact, that has to be done and has to undergo several stages. The second
stage is the analysis stage. Is the interaction effective, efficient? What is what kind of design
is it? And then later on, once the analysis and design is done, then the prototype. So, when a
designer is designing something, when he is doing the analysis, he is trying to understand the
mental model of its user, the needs of its user, the cognition of its user. Based on these
understanding, he is designing something and this design, he is creating a prototype.
 Once the prototype is done, ready, then they do the analysis of this. If it passes it, then the
design is approved and it moves to next level, implement it and deploy it in the market, send it
to the market. Now it is foolproof. Now it is not going to fail, minimum error. But still the
design fails and then we again come back to its analysis, design, prototype and again this chain
of reaction goes on and on.

So, when we are interacting with the machine and if there is a failure, there is an error, the
error need to be addressed. Once these errors are being removed, then it moves towards the
implementation. Like cognitive psychology or cognitive science, human computer interaction
is also a multidisciplinary discipline. It involves cognitive engineering, it involves cognitive
psychology, it involves cognitive science, it involves human factors. Once humans are
involved, cognition is there, psychology is there, computers are there, computer science is
there, ergonomics is there and then how well they are interacting.

Social science has to be addressed, ethnography has to be addressed. Different people,

different community will have different approach to interact with the system. As we were
discussing earlier that English is our second language. Somebody who is not accustomed with
English or is not very good with second language, then he or she may fail to interact with the
system. Like our parents, their first language is different.

So, their interaction with the computer will be very different. But the discipline of HCI is
interdisciplinary. And there are several interactions are happening and n number of
probabilities are there for such interaction. It has to be human centered because on one side
the humans are there, cognitive interaction is there, means attention, perception, memory, all
these things are there, sensory systems are there. This sensory system is interacting with the
hardware system, H and H.

And that is why it is human centered, human centered. Based on the user need, the hardware
are there. Somebody is blind, he relies on touch, hearing, auditory. Somebody who does not
have ears, but have a vision. So, the way they interact with the system will be different.

So, their interaction design will vary, in relation to the person's sensory system. Moving
ahead, we can think of a software system. Different software platforms are there, hybrid
clouds, cloud software native platforms, cloud-based platform is there. And this is an
interaction design, how they are interacting. And this is resulting into a natural language
processing, machine learning, neural network, expert system, robotics.
 Machine learning is not very new to us. In order to understand human behavior, we run
machine learning to come up with a computational model towards human behavior, to
understand the consumer behavior, to understand the increase in sale, we do machine learning.
We use this computational model to understand the human behavior. So, something these
things are not very new to us. In order to have an in-depth understanding about the human
computer interaction, it is very important for us to put some time towards the human centered
and interaction centered design, human centered or user centered. To have that understanding,
we have to understand the design thinking.

According to Brown, the design thinking is a human centered, creative, interactive, practical
approach is there. So, that we can come up with the best ideas and better solution, optimal
solution, more innovative activities should be there. How effectively we can come up with
these strategies, effective strategy which can bring organizational changes. And if you see, it
is oriented towards the human.

So, human centered approach is required. And who is the human here? Human is the user,
the user who is age independent, who is gender independent, five stages of design thinking,
empathize, define, ideate, prototype and then testing. We come up with the novelty of the idea,
how well are we able to understand the problem, how closely we understand the problem. Once
we define the problem with clarity, then the idea generation is there. So, we ideate, we come
up with several solutions. One of those solutions, the best solution we opt and we create a
prototype.

But building a prototype does not mean the design is going to be a successful hit. Building a
prototype does not mean that the design is the best design. So, what we do? We do the testing
of the prototype. If the prototype passes the test, then the design we deploy it in the market. If
it fails the test, then it is goes back again to the stage of empathize, define, ideate, prototype
again.

And the cycle goes on and on and on. Who decides the idea is innovative? All the ideas are
innovative, all the solutions are innovative. But finding the optimal idea, finding the optimal
solution is an important element towards design thinking. The human-computer interaction
when we are talking about the design thinking, if you take this example, the elderly aid
instruments are there. A device connected to its ankle, to the wrist, to the ankle, to the heart,
sending direct information to the cloud and also sending information at the time of emergency
to the ambulance or to the primary caregivers or secondary caregivers.

How? Through GPS, through the cell phone. These are motion detectors. If the elderly
collapsed, suddenly fell on the ground, then these motion detectors sends a signal to the primary
caregivers, secondary caregivers and the hospital. There is an SOS. Similarly, heart attack, it
sends prior information to the doctors to get ready for a surgery. It could be milder, it could be
severe, but at least the signal is being sent.

This is human-computer interaction. This is how the information has moved to next level
with the interaction, how the information is being processed. And then several types of
interventions are keep on coming, keep on evolving. This example which what you are seeing
just recording the heart rate, respiratory rate, motion detections, there are much advanced tools
are present there. The stick, the stick which elderly holds carries an information.

The cap which elderly wears has a camera. So that any unpleasant event when it happens,
then he can send a stress signal to the people who are more concerned about his safety. So,
when we are talking about the computer interface software and hardware, hardware software
collectively together resulting into a computer system. Now when we talk about the hardware,
it could be only desktop, CPU, keyboard, mouse. If they are non-functional, then you may not
interact with the system. So, first thing what we have to ensure is the hardware should be
working very well and very fine.

The power should be there. It should be indicating with the red light that it is on. It should
be indicating with the yellow light that there is a system failure or with the green light that
system is running smoothly as we learnt previously about the perceptual principle. Different
softwares are there, different softwares. Adobe Photoshop, Linux, Microsoft, Windows, Safari,
Chrome, Spotify, GeoMusic, all these. One is the replacement of the other, other is replacement
of the other, another.

But they do serve the same purpose. The user of Macintosh will find difficulty to interact
with Windows software. The user of Windows software will find it difficult to interact with
the Linux software. The user of Safari will find it easy to work with Macintosh, but find it
difficult to work with Google Chrome. Such interaction affects the performance efficiency and
user satisfaction. And the interaction between the hardware and software together collectively
also affects the same way.

So, independently they are affecting the human performance efficiency and user satisfaction
and dependently and collectively together also they are influencing it. They go hand in hand.
Hardware and software you cannot just address separately. There are n number of challenges
which user faces when he or she is interacting with the system. It has been noticed that user
experience 46 percent time user face challenges to interact with the system.

There are lot of errors come forward. It may not be working smoothly. It is stopping. The
windows are not minimizing 46 percent time the user has bad experience with the system.
Another challenge is the information technology is one is in one hand, another is the workers
productivity. Only a time people pay huge amount of time with this on the computer, but their
productivity seems to be little less.

They may be spending huge amount of time with the computer, but it does not mean that they
are productive all the time. So, there is no direct relationship on workers productivity with the
time they spend on information technology. Even workers productivity also does not rely on
the information technology which means computers cannot be the only an indicator that
workers productivity will be higher. Now, this could be because the different types of users
which we discussed earlier. Some of our users may not have the skills to handle the
sophisticated task with the computers.

Hence, the productivity is being compromised. Most of the time if you spend too much time
with a computer, then confusion also arises. What kind of task is required? Do I have to save
the file every now and then? Do I have to open the file and save the file with different name?
Now, this is very common actually. The categorization if we talk about the Apple in 1970s or
1980s, then lot of these folders were scattered over the screen. Today, we have an ability to
organize the folder, the information present in our laptop in a specific order in a specific way.

Each and every individual has a way to sort their data set, data files. Each and every individual
has its own way to categorize and label the data set accordingly. That is why the labeling is
also a part of human computer interaction. How the data set is being arranged? If the user
faces challenges in the arranging the data set, then it brings confusion.

It brings boredom. It brings frustration. It brings stress in them. They may not be able to
understand what task they have to execute, what task they do not have to execute. Imagine an
individual handling 1 billion data set from Adhar card. Organizing those data set, several
parameters, several factors are required, different state, different gender, different date of birth,
different fingerprints, different iris information. It will bring a lot of confusion. And when
confusion is there, when handling such huge data set is there, it definitely will involve
frustration.

Frustration will be there, stress will be there. The purpose of ergonomics or human factor
designer is how easily and efficiently we can organize this data set. How can we make bring
safety? How can we enhance the safety of the product and the environment? That is the core
feature of human factor designers. And that is a core feature of cognitive ergonomics is how
can we ease the workload? How can we enhance and efficiently enhance the productivity?
How can we do that? How can we promote that? When less attentional processes is involved,
when less perceptual processes is involved, when there is a memory aid, when the task we have
to maximize the bottom up processing. In the case of this computer system maximizing bottom
up, where to start with? How to document the data set? How to categorize the data set? To
conclude what we studied today, we understood that in the era of 1970, when the computing
was limited to the professionals, limited to the programmers, limited to the computer analyst,
very soon people realize that there is a need for personal computing. Personal computing is
started to decentralize the computing, decentralizing the data set.

Personal computing even encouraged the surge of human computer interaction. It helped in
the transition, it helped in the approaches, it helped in the transformation of the human
computer interaction. Today in the modern world, when humans are interacting with system,
it has moved to another level where we are using augmented reality, where we are using virtual
reality for a number of tasks. Artificial intelligence is doing a lot of experimentation, research,
where they are trying to understand how two systems are interacting, how the two mental
models can be similar, how can we make these two mental models similar, machine and human.
The human is our user. The user can be of three different types, how they are interacting with
the system, how the user is approaching towards the system.

Hence, the design has to be human centered, the design has to be interaction centered, design
thinking involving five different stages talking about the memory principles. And finally, we
started to address about the challenges which we are facing in human computer design. In
coming up with different design interaction designs, what are the challenges which we are
facing in the human computer interaction designs.

With this, I would rest my case today. Thank you. See you in the next class. Thank you.