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CHAPTER
1
Introduction to HCI research

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Research in the area of human-computer interaction (HCI) is fascinating and com-
plex. It is fascinating because there are so many interesting questions and so many
changes over time (due to technical advancements). It is complex because we borrow
research methods from a number of different fields, modify them, and create our own
“standards” for what is considered acceptable research. It is also complex because
our research involves human beings who are, to put it mildly, complex. It is important
to understand the roots of the field, to understand the development of research meth-
ods in HCI, understand how HCI research has changed over time, and understand the
multiple dimensions that must be considered when doing HCI research.

1.1.1 HISTORY OF HCI
There is a general consensus that the field of HCI was formally founded in 1982.
This is the date of the first conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
in Gaithersburg (Maryland, United States), that later turned into the annual ACM
SIGCHI conference. So, at the publication time of this book (2017), the field of
human-computer interaction (HCI) is around 35 years old. However, this is a decep-
tively simple description of the history of HCI. The field draws on expertise existing
in many other areas of study. People were doing work before 1982 that could be
considered HCI work. There is a fascinating article (Pew, 2007) that describes work
on a project for the Social Security Administration in the United States starting in
1977. The work on this project could easily be described as HCI work, including task
analyses, scenario generation, screen prototyping, and building a usability labora-
tory. Pew also describes presenting some of his work at the annual meeting of the
Human Factors Society in 1979. Ben Shneiderman published Software Psychology,
considered one of the first books on the topic of HCI, in 1980. The terms “office
automation” and “office information systems” were popular in the late 1970s. At that
time, you could find articles that could be considered HCI-related, in fields such as
management, psychology, software engineering, and human factors. In an interesting
article on the history of office automation systems, Jonathan Grudin describes 1980
as the “banner year” for the study of office automation systems, after which, the
number of people studying the topic dwindled, and many of them refocused under
the title of HCI (Grudin, 2006b). The computer mouse was first publicly demoed by

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