The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Edition | Hacker News Reader

The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Edition

interaction-design.org

111 pointsArtWomb10 comments

Interesting that 3D interfaces deserve a chapter but command-line interfaces don't.

Presumably, it's easier to find academic authors that specialize in 3D rather than cli. Perhaps if James Hague [1] taught instead of made games. Or Beth Coleman [2] didn't hear about the call for papers.

[1] https://prog21.dadgum.com/210.html

[2] https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/comparative-media-studies-writin...

Neat, but for a book about HCI, they sure don't put their knowledge in use for their site! The irony.

Without Javascript enabled, you cannot scroll down with the mouse nor the scroll arrows, there is some strange behaviour: you must first click inside the page before the mouse scrolling wheel works & the keys never worked.

Why? IMO, a HCI site (especially such a simple page of links to articles) should degrade gracefully.

That being said, those articles are interesting.

That always happens. At CHI'88 I opined the same thing about NaviText SAM, "a hypertext based guideline selection system to select applicable guidelines for a design task", which was full of excellent information, but itself ironically had a really terrible user interface. It turned out I didn't realize its author (Gary Perlman) was standing nearby me and heard me say that, and gave me the stink-eye. ;(

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224273659_System_de...

Apparently I wasn't the only person who thought that, though:

https://books.google.nl/books?id=-4LuBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA266&lpg=P...

Keyboard scrolling problems are almost the norm these days, as sites apparently implement fixed headers and footers by embedding the scrollable area, and the focus is somewhere else on the start. I guess pretty much no one tests keyboard scrolling, and the wheel is the king.

Problems with the wheel are rarer: afaik OSX normally scrolls whatever area your point at, and the focus is irrelevant, which is nice. Not sure about Windows and Linux/Unix GUIs, though—iirc Windows does take the focus into account, and you can scroll while the cursor is elsewhere.

I gotta say, generally the idea of indirect ‘keyboard focus’ affecting scrolling is kinda annoying when the screen area is right there asking to be used directly, and the mouse cursor at least simulates this 2d interaction. But then again, I'm still waiting for some manufacturer to have the idea of a touchpad in the middle of the keyboard where my hands already are (no hope for the arrow keys, though).

> iirc Windows does take the focus into account, and you can scroll while the cursor is elsewhere.

Which is damn annoying, since it ignores what a mouse pointer does 1st before anything else: it points at what you're interested in, and when results aren't what you wanted, you move the mouse (if that's what you're using).

I love the HCI field (and have my degree in it)... but its academic practitioners are usually evaluative with surprisingly little generative design skill—which makes them good at finding problems in others’ work but poor at making their own :(

This is why design agencies are still in the business of churning out trendy, derivative UI design work and why UX researchers get stuck testing the usability of these offerings (in house or out). As someone with an HCI degree who loves designing, it sucks I have to either be all design or all research. There are few roles that let you practice both. What are your thoughts on the matter? What did you do with your degree? Research or design or both?

I describe myself as a Product Designer, which is both. I think there's a good trend in the industry to combine the roles under that name (with specialists still getting hired on larger teams), but it's far from being the norm still.

Reach out if you want to chat more, contact info is in my profile.

I think my problem is I've been working in the wrong big companies that try to compartmentalize design and research to make the output more predictable and efficient.

I'll try to rebrand myself as a product designer and take my time looking for the right opportunity. Thanks for confirming this trend is real, I sensed it was on the rise.

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