HCI

Content:
The example I want to talk about is an e-dictionary which benefits me a lot in the English learning. It is a computer application with a small and simple interface and could translate Chinese to English and English to Chinese whatever your input is words, sentences or paragraphs. It can also web search if the word is not in its database. What I like most is the screen words function: if I put the cursor on the word for a while (less than a second), the translation of the word will show up immediately, so that I do not have to input every word occurred in reading.

Pros:
Compared with paper dictionary, it is more convenient and efficient for translation.
Compared with other e-dictionaries, its highlights are screen words and web search function.
Portable, if you have your laptop by your side

Cons:
No universality, benefits special groups of people, such as Chinese who is learning English and English-speaking people who are learning Chinese.
Because of culture differences and phases variation, it could not translate correctly all the time.

The discussion shows that despite the human-computer interface is perfect and the search algorithm is speedy, there are still many deficiency existing in the e-dictionary. The problem domain is not computer factors or human factors, and it addresses in culture and linguistics. So, I am more into the statement that human-computer interaction is an interdisciplinary area. Besides human and computer factors, it covers several fields such as industrial engineering and cognitive psychology.

It is no doubt that computer technology is the most important element of HCI. Through computer technology can we achieve the goals that usability, universality and usefulness for human. And the center of the design is human, so it is important to do requirements analysis. Because human-computer interaction involves transducers between human and machines and because human are sensitive to response times, viable human interfaces are more technology-sensitive than many parts of computer science.

Posted by Xiaoxiao