Strategic directions in human-computer interaction

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study of how people design, implement, and use interactive computer systems and how computers affect individuals, organizations, and society. This encompasses not only ease of use but also new interaction techniques for supporting user tasks, providing better access to information, and creating more powerful forms of communication. It involves input and output devices and the interaction techniques that use them; how information is presented and requested; how the computer’s actions are controlled and monitored; all forms of help, documentation, and training; the tools used to design, build, test, and evaluate user interfaces; and the processes that developers follow when creating interfaces. This report describes the historical and intellectual foundations of HCI and then summarizes selected strategic directions in human-computer interaction research. Previous important reports on HCI directions include the results of the 1991 [Sibert and Marchionini 1993] and 1994 [Strong 1994] NSF studies on HCI in general, and the 1994 NSF study on the World-Wide Web [Foley and Pitkow 1994].