Human-Computer Interaction: Psychology as a science of design by Carroll made me more aware of how technology and computer science relate to psychology and human behavior. This is an entirely new field that I didn’t know existed until I read this article. I knew software engineers built technology and programming, but it makes sense that we need people who specialize in psychology to guide the user experience. Without keeping in my mind how people interact with technology, how could any software be successful?
I particularly thought it was interesting when Carroll said that HCI has sparked “many difficult problems and elegant solutions”. Technology has brought about so much good in our world, but there is no doubt it has complicated things.
Social media for instance has allowed us to connect with people from all over the world in a way we never have before. Especially during trying times like the global pandemic, social media kept people together even when they were apart. However, social media has also unlocked an ugly side of humanity as well. It causes people to compare themselves to others even more so than before, and it can allow misinformation that costs lives to circulate.
This article makes me wonder if we could alleviate some of these issues with better HCI? For instance, Instagram now allows you to turn off likes if they impact you negatively. Instead of agonizing over how your picture didn’t get as many likes as your last one, you can enjoy sharing photos with your friends. Could we use improved HCI to solve more issues that exist on the internet?
I believe that platforms, particularly Facebook, could be doing more to combat misinformation. There needs to be a way to monitor this without censorship. I hope that HCI professionals can research this and help solve this issue that is costing lives amid the pandemic.
Kate, you bring up some really interesting points. I also read this article for class and had some of the same thoughts as you. I think it is important to think of ways that HCI could be used to solve issues that are present on the Internet, like the spread of misinformation as you said. One issue on the Internet that came to my mind was the prevalence of cybercrime and hacking. While it is a tall task to completely prevent hackers from committing cyber crime, we could use HCI to better understand how humans interact with their technology, platforms, and websites. Therefore, we can then help these computer users protect themselves by showing them how their behavior should change to lower their risks of falling victim to cybercrime. That was the first thought I had when it came to using HCI to solve an issue present on the Internet, I’d be interested to hear others thoughts as well.