In Gurcan et al.’s Mapping Human-Computer Interaction Research Themes and Trends from Its Existence to Today: A Topic Modeling-Based Review of Past 60 Years, human-computer interactions (HCI) are defined, explored, and researched.
Human-computer interaction is defined as an “interdisciplinary field of research and practice that focuses both on the interaction between computers and users (humans) and the design of interfaces that enables the interaction to be more effective.” Specifically, this field studies how to design and build human-centric interfaces and systems that would allow humans to interact with machines. Essentially, the four main components that this field looks at are user, task, tool, and context. By analyzing these four aspects of HCI, theories and topics may arise to signal future fields of study. The main goal of this specific paper is to better understand the development of the different HCI stages to assist in the understanding of the interdisciplinary field. Gurcan et al. approach this study by using a topic-modeling approach to do text-mining through a collection of studies. Specifically, 60 years of studies regarding the interdisciplinary topics of HCI are run through the LDA topic-modeling approach. The LDA is an “unsupervised machine learning procedure that can effectively analyze large collections of text documents, identifying semantic topics.” This technique has not been used for HCI analysis, so this will allow for large portions of the field to be studied. Once the model is run, the results show that predictions from previous studies are confirmed. The findings, specifically, show that the stages of HCI align similarly with the developments of computer systems.
This study takes a unique approach to a widely discussed topic and uses an experimental study to show how the field of HCI is developing over time. By analyzing which words were commonly used over specific time periods, Gurcan et al. can make predictions regarding where the field is going and which topics will be further focused on based on the change in language. While confusing at first, the study became a lot more clear as the paper went on and the reader got to see the specific topics and words focused on in the LDA approach.
While it is not directly focused on, I am curious to see if some of the earlier topics mentioned in the experiment become obsolete in the HCI future. It is interesting to watch the development of this interdisciplinary field throughout the context of words and I am curious how long it takes for a large shift to be made as well.
As someone who did not read this particular piece, I think you did a great job of explaining exactly what HCI is and the components of it. I am interested in the findings of the study. How did the stages of HCI align with the development of computer systems? I agree that using LDA is an effective way to study large portions of the field of HCI analysis, and I would be curious to learn more about the alignment that was found through this work.
I appreciated reading your post, Falyn, as I also read an article on HCI. Through reading your post on the main goals of this article, I was able to better understand HCI and its impact. I agree with you on the point that it is interesting to watch the development of this interdisciplinary field. Before reading the article Human-Computer Interaction: Psychology as a Science of Design by John Carroll for class, I had never heard of HCI. Yet, I have always been interested in understanding how humans communicate, engage, and interact as a Sociology major. So, I really appreciated reading about HCI and how it looks at the interactions between humans and technology. A question that came to my mind after reading your post was: is there enough emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of technology communication patterns? In other words, do you believe that computer scientists/those in the technology field understand the social science component of communication technology?