Human-Computer Interaction

Book excerpt: Although life continues to become increasingly embedded with interactive computing services that make our lives easier, human-computer interaction (HCI) has not been given the attention it deserves in the education of software developers at the undergraduate level. Most entry-level HCI textbooks are structured around high-level concepts and are not directly tied to the software development process. Filling this need, Human-Computer Interaction: Fundamentals and Practice supplies an accessible introduction to the entire cycle of HCI design and implementation-explaining the core HCI concepts behind each step. Designed around the overall development cycle for an interactive software product, it starts off by covering the fundamentals behind HCI. The text then quickly goes into the application of this knowledge. It covers the forming of HCI requirements, modeling the interaction process, designing the interface, implementing the resulting design, and evaluating the implemented product. Although this textbook is suitable for undergraduate students of computer science and information technology, it is accessible enough to be understood by those with minimal programming knowledge. Supplying readers with a firm foundation in the main HCI principles, the book provides a working knowledge of HCI-oriented software development. The core content of this book is based on the introductory HCI course (advanced junior or senior-level undergraduate) that the author has been teaching at Korea University for the past eight years. The book includes access to PowerPoint lecture slides as well as source code for the example applications used throughout the text.