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4 CHAPTER 1 Introduction to HCI research

and groupware, received attention from the research community. This caused an in-
creased number of research fields to be included under the umbrella of HCI, espe-
cially communication. A recent article by Liu et al. (2014) on trends of HCI research
topics, determined a big difference between research in 1994–2003, which focused
on fixed technology, and research from 2004–13, which focused on mobile and por-
table computing (such as tablets and smart phones).
Around 2004–05, the focus of research shifted more towards user-generated con-
tent that was shared, such as photos, videos, blogs, and wikis, and later grew into
research on social networking. On Dec. 26, 2006, Time Magazine famously named
“You” as the “person of the year” for generating much of the content on the web.
The topic of user diversity gained more attention, with more research studying how
younger users, older users, and users with disabilities, interact with technologies. In
the late 2000s, research increased on touch screens, especially multitouch screens,
with studies on motor movement focused on pointing using fingers, rather than
computer mice. It is important to note that while multitouch screens only entered
common public use in the late 2000s, multitouch screens had been developed and
researched as far back as the early 1980s (Buxton, 2016).
The research focus in the late 2010s (the publication date of the book) is no longer
on something as simple as task performance in statistical software, but is now more
focused on collaboration, connections, emotion, and communication (although, again,
research on collaboration has existed since the early 1980s, even if it's now just gaining
attention). The focus is not just on workplace efficiency any more, but is on whether
people like an interface and want to use it, and in what environment they will be using
the technology. Today's research focuses on topics such as mobile devices, multitouch
screens, gestures and natural computing, sensors, embedded and wearable computing,
sustainability, big data, social and collaborative computing, accessibility, and other
topics (Liu et al., 2014). But, of course, that will change over time! The topics of HCI
research continue to change based on factors such as technological developments,
societal needs, government funding priorities, and even user frustrations.

1.4 CHANGES IN HCI RESEARCH METHODS OVER TIME
There are many reasons why, over time, research methods naturally evolve and
change. For instance, tools for research that were originally very expensive, such as
eye-tracking, sensors, drones, facial electromyography (EMG), and electroencepha-
lography (EEG) are now relatively inexpensive or at least are more reasonable, al-
lowing more researchers to afford them and integrate these tools into their research.
New tools develop over time, for instance, Amazon's Mechanical Turk. New oppor-
tunities present themselves, such as with social networking, where suddenly, there
are billions of pieces of text and multimedia that can be evaluated, looking for pat-
terns. Or with personal health tracking, or electronic health records, which allow for
analysis of millions of data points, which have already been collected. Some types
of research are now fully automated. For instance, years ago, researchers would do