1 HCI History – Part 1 of 2 Key people, events, ideas and paradigm shifts This material has been developed by Georgia Tech HCI faculty, and continues to evolve. Contributors include Gregory Abowd, Jim Foley, Diane Gromala, Elizabeth Mynatt, Jeff Pierce, Colin Potts, Chris Shaw, John Stasko, and Bruce Walker. This specific presentation also borrows from James Landay and Jason Hong at UC Berkeley. Comments directed to are encouraged. Permission is granted to use with acknowledgement for non-profit purposes. Last revision: January

2 The Evolution of HCI Series of technological advances lead to and are sometimes facilitated by a Series of paradigm shifts that in turn are created by a Series of key people and events

3 Why study HCI’s history? Understanding where you’ve come from can help a lot in figuring out where you’re going - repeat positive lessons “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it” - avoid negative lessons Knowledge of an area implies an appreciation of its history

4 What are Paradigms Predominant theoretical frameworks or scientific world views  e.g., Aristotelian, Newtonian, Einsteinian (relativistic) paradigms in physics Understanding HCI history is largely about understanding a series of paradigm shifts  Not all listed here are necessarily “paradigm” shifts, but are at least candidates  History will judge which are true shifts

5 Howard Rheingold – Tools for Thought History of interactive breakthroughs  On-line at One of several good sources

6 (Some of the) Key Technological Advances Starting point  Computing in 1945  Batch processing Interactive graphics systems Time sharing computers  One computer to many people Internet

7 More Key Technological Advances The desk top / personal computer  One computer to one person Inexpensive, low-power chips  Many computers to one person Wireless connectivity

8 Paradigm Shifts – How We Use Computers Interactive Computing - time sharing, Basic WIMP Interfaces  Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointing  Direct Manipulation  Metaphors Hypertext / WWW Computers for person-to-person communications – not just for computing  , CSCW

9 More Paradigm Shifts Multimodal interfaces Immersive (VR) interfaces Ubiquitous computing Mobile computing

10 (Some of the) Key People and Events People  Vannevar Bush  Doug Engelbart  Ivan Sutherland  J. R. (Lick) Licklider  Alan Kay  Ted Nelson  Nicholas Negroponte  Mark Weiser  Jaron Lanier Events  Founding of Xerox PARC  Lisa / Macintosh

11 Telling the Story Key Technological Advances Key Paradigm Shifts Key People and Events Interleaved in more or less chronological order

12 In the Very Beginning Digital computer grounded in ideas from 1700’s & 1800’s Technology became available in the 1940’s and 1950’s

13 In the Beginning – Computing in 1945 Harvard Mark I 55 feet long, 8 feet high, 5 tons Jason Hong / James Landay, UC Berkeley, Picture from useuv/indexmark.htm

14 Context - Computing in 1945 Ballistics calculations Physical switches (before microprocessor) Paper tape Simple arithmetic & fixed calculations (before programs) 3 seconds to multiply Jason Hong / James Landay, UC Berkeley, Picture from

15 Context - Computing in 1945 First computer bug (Harvard Mark II) Adm. Grace Murray Hopper  Cobol Jason Hong / James Landay, UC Berkeley

16 Innovator: Vannevar Bush “As We May Think” Atlantic Monthly  “…publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record.” Postulated Memex device  Stores all records/articles/communications  Items retrieved by indexing, keywords, cross references (now called hyperlinks)  (Envisioned as microfilm, not computer) Interactive and nonlinear components are key /bushf.htm

17 More About Vannevar Bush Name rhymes with "Beaver" MIT faculty member Coordinated WWII effort with 6000 US scientists Social contract for science  federal government funds universities  universities do basic research  research helps economy & national defense

18 “As We May Think” Futuristic inventions / trends  Wearable cameras for photographic records  Encyclopedia Britanica for a nickel  Automatic transcripts of speech  Memex, Trails of discovery  Direct capture of nerve impulses

As We May Think Picture from

20 As We May Think Very optimistic about future  Technology could help society  Technology could manage flood of info Bush – one of most informed people of his time  Look at trends, guess where we're going If you read it  Which feature is your favorite? Why?  Which feature is your least favorite? Why?  What was he right about? Wrong about?

21 As We May Think Some have come true  Increased specialization  Flood of information  Faster / Cheaper / Smaller / More reliable Some he missed or we are still waiting  Microphotography?  Digital technologies?  Non-science / Non-office apps?  Memex?

22 As We May Think Not so much predicting future as "inventing it" by publishing article  hypertext  wearable memory aid Use technology to augment human intellectual abilities New kinds of technology lead to new kinds of human/machine & human/human interaction Be aware that science/engineering can impact society

23 Context - Computing in 1960s Transistor (1948) ARPA (1958) Timesharing (1950s) Terminals and keyboards Computers still primarily for scientists and engineers Vacuum Tube Jason Hong / James Landay, UC Berkeley

24 Batch Processing Computer had one task, performed sequentially No “interaction” between operator and computer after starting the run Punch cards, tapes for input Serial operations

25 Innovator: J. R. Licklider Postulated “man-computer symbiosis” Couple human brains and computing machines tightly to revolutionize information handling

26 Technological Advance: Interactive Graphics More suitable medium than paper - picture worth a thousand words Sutherland’s SketchPad as landmark system Start of Direct Manipulation Computers used for visualizing and manipulating data

27 Innovator: Ivan Sutherland SketchPad PhD thesis at MIT  Hierarchy - pictures & subpictures  Master picture with instances (ie, OOP)  Constraints  Icons  Copying  Light pen input device  Recursive operations

28 Technological Advance / Paradigm Shift: Time Sharing (Mid 1960s) Command line - teletypes, then “glass teletypes” Computers still too expensive for individuals timesharing  increased accessibility  interactive systems, not jobs  text processing, editing  , shared file system * There was an unrecognized need for HCI in the design of programming languages Need for HCI*

29 The Ubiquitous ASR 33 Teletype ASR: Automatic Send / Receive Save programs on punched paper tape The first direct human- computer interface experience for many in the 1960s About 10 characters per second bps

The Ubiquitous Glass Teletype Source: 24 x 80 characters Up to 19,200 bps (Wow - was big stuff!)

31 Innovator: Douglas Englebart Landmark system/demo:  Hierarchical hypertext, multimedia, mouse, high-res display, windows, shared files, electronic messaging, CSCW, teleconferencing,...  Invented the mouse

32 Augmenting Human Intellect 1968 Fall Joint Computer Conference (SF) Video of NLS (oNLine System) All this took place before  Unix and C (1970s)  ARPAnet (1969) & later Internet MouseSite/MouseSitePg1. html

33 About Doug Engelbart Graduate of Berkeley (EE '55)  "bi-stable gaseous plasma digital devices" Stanford Research Institute (SRI)  Augmentation Research Center 1962 Paper "Conceptual Model for Augmenting Human Intellect"  Complexity of problems increasing  Need better ways of solving problems Picture from

34 Engelbart NLS Video

35 Augmenting Human Intellect Advantages of chorded keyboards? Disadvantages? Jason Hong / James Landay, UC Berkeley, SitePg1.html

36 Augmenting Human Intellect “At SRI in the 1960s we did some experimenting with a foot mouse. I found that it was workable, but my control wasn't very fine and my leg tended to cramp from the unusual posture and task.”

37 Augmenting Human Intellect Chorded Keyboard Early 3-button mouse

38 Augmenting Human Intellect Discussion, if you watched the video What did we just see?  Interaction devices  Interaction styles  Applications

39 Augmenting Human Intellect First mouse First hypertext First word processing First 2D editing and windows First document version control zFirst groupware (shared screen teleconferencing) zFirst context- sensitive help zFirst distributed client-server zMany, many more!

40 Augmentation not Automation "I tell people: look, you can spend all you want on building smart agents and smart tools…" "I'd bet that if you then give those to twenty people with no special training, and if you let me take twenty people and really condition and train them especially to learn how to harness the tools…" "The people with the training will always outdo the people for whom the computers were supposed to do the work."

41 Augmenting Human Intellect Example: Roman Numerals vs Arabic What is XCI + III? Now what is XCI x III? What is 91 * 3? New kinds of artifacts, languages, methodologies, and training can enable us to do things we couldn't do before or simplify what we already do

42 End of Part 1 of 2