Man Computer Interaction Research Report

Man-computer interaction research report

Computing Skills and the User Interface

Part I. The needs of computer users. Communicating with university computers users: a case study. University computer users: characteristics and behaviour. The needs of the commercial user. Part II. The nature and acquisition of computing skills. Teaching novices programming. Comprehending and debugging computer programs. The art of notation. When do diagrams make good computer languages? Acquiring a first computer language: a study of individual differences. Generating a programming environment for learners. Part III. The design of the user interface. The user interface: how we may compute. Design procedures for user involvement and user support. Adaptive man-computer interfaces. The design of an adaptable terminal. Empirical and formal methods for the study of computer editors.

Man-computer Interaction

The aim of this book is to bring together and try to interrelate some of the concepts and relevant knowledge from the various disciplines concerned with this area of research and application, including especially the human sciences and engineering. The focus throughout is upon the human rather than upon the computer issues in man-computer interaction (MCI). The book is based upon the papers presented at the Advanced Study Institute held at Mati, Attica, Greece 5-13 September 1976, which was sponsored by the NATO Advanced Study Institutes Programme. These papers were not intended to be encyclopaedic or to yield a 'state of the art' volume. But as revised here they do represent the scope and breadth of man-computer interaction. This book will serve its purpose if it helps to structure and stimulate research in the field, applications, and increase the interaction between readers and writers.