Through out the past few months, this course has been very compelling and interesting to attend. It has given me a new respect for HCI and the various nuances that exist in the field. After attending the course I feel more distinguished, cultured and enlightened as a computer scientist. One of the most compelling, most interesting and most applicable concept that I thought was introduced to me was the concept that everything was hired to fulfill a certain job.
I really liked the exploration of the milkshake company trying to improve the milkshake, Trying to make the product objectively better, focusing on opinion groups and market segments and how none of these approaches worked. The company only improved their sales when they asked the how and why questions. When they started wondering about the job that the milkshake was hired to do then they started improving their sales.
Although the idea is pretty intuitive and seemingly obvious, it made me realize the importance of HCI, I could have all the skills and ability to build something but if I make something that doesn't serve a means to an end then what good will I have done. I liked to think that computer scientists are problem solvers, and that we strive to solve the world's problems. I realized that we need to understand those problems, instead of seeing problems where there aren't.
A topic we explored in class which I thought was intriguing and useful to know was the developmental process. I learned a lot about the development process which not only applies to computer science but also applies to a multitude of other human interaction processes, like the Disney experience, or the mono rail experience. In class we talked about story boarding and the various phases that exists in the user experience. In the story board we can pinpoint what feelings we want the user to have, what objectives are needed to be met and any problems that might get in the way of actualizing these objectives. I think learning about these development processes is very enlightening and promotes a lot of critical thinking about the goal of a product not just the means to the end.
Pictured above is one of the slides from week 5.
When we talked about story boarding combined with the specific techniques of different prototypes, such as mock ups, vertical and horizontal models I gained a whole lot of respect for HCI. I always thought that HCI was some trivial red tape work, but learning about the development processes really made me realize its importance. I can see the knowledge and familiarity of this development process being helpful in the future regardless of what aspect of computer science I go into. I think that it makes the course very worth while to take just to gain an intuition of how to properly develop a product. It can lead to a better experience for the developer and a better product for the end user.
Bibliography
Jobs Picture:
http://www.debtsolutionanswers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Then-Debts-2.jpg
Milk Shakes:
http://www.delish.com/cooking/g1504/milkshake-recipes/
Lecture Slides Week 4
Lecture Slides Week 5
Lecture Slides Week 6
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