History of Human-Computer Interaction and Usable Security

This set covers the key historical milestones, researchers, and core concepts of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and their application to usable security, as discussed in the lecture.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

A discipline primarily concerned with fitting computers to people by making them understand human goals and speak a language understandable to users.

Human Factors and Ergonomics

The modern origins of HCI established around World War II, focusing on making airplane controls easier for a high volume of pilots to use through the study of spatial and perceptual abilities.

Fitts's Law

An HCI law stating that the amount of time or accuracy required to move to a target depends on the size of the target and its position.

Behaviorism

The psychological idea preceding the cognitive revolution which posited that human actions are strictly stimulus-responses based on rewards and punishments, ignoring internal mental processing.

Cognitive Revolution

A shift in study beginning in the 1940s where researchers viewed the mind as a machine with internal processing, functions, and parts to deepen the understanding of human nature.

Magic Number Seven

A cognitive science finding suggesting that human short-term memory has a hard limit of holding approximately seven items at once.

Punch Cards

A 1960s method of interacting with computers where programs were fed as stacks into large machines with extremely long feedback loops and no interactivity.

Licklider (1960)

A scientist who envisaged a future of 'man-computer symbiosis' where machines would offload routine work like calculations and graphing to free humans for decision-making.

Sketchpad

A 1962 system demonstrated as the first to ever have a window and the first nonprocedural programming system that solved complex linear and nonlinear constraints in real time.

NLS (Mother of All Demos)

A 1968 demonstration by Doug Engelbart that introduced the computer mouse, hypertext, multiple windows, graphics, and video conferencing.

Unix

A 1969 computing revolution that replaced punch cards, allowing for multiple concurrent users and the ability to pipe small commands together to solve complex problems.

Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)

The Xerox research facility that developed the modern graphical system, bitmap displays, and the desktop metaphor in the 1970s and 80s.

WIMP

An interface paradigm consisting of Windows, Icons, Menus, and a Pointer.

Xerox Star (1981)

The first computer to debut the desktop operating system metaphor, using icons, folders, and drag-and-drop actions to mimic a physical office environment.

Direct Manipulation

An interaction paradigm where users treat objects on the screen as real-world objects by grabbing, resizing, or adjusting them manually rather than using textual commands.

SIGCHI

The top venue for publishing HCI research, which began its conference in 1982.

Cognitive Engineering

An influential field in HCI that applies cognitive psychology and human factors to the design and study of computer systems and their users.

Perception-Action Loop

Don Norman's theory describing how humans use computers by forming goals, looking for possible actions on the screen, acting, and then evaluating if the action brought them closer to their goal.

Mental Models

An idea from cognitive science stating that people build internal simulations of the external world to decide how to act; mismatches between these and how a system actually works cause mistakes.

Usable Security

A sub-discipline of HCI first mentioned in a 1977 paper by Saltzer and Schroeder, arguing that security mechanisms must be usable to be effective.

Extended Validation Certificates

Security indicators in browsers that attempt to communicate a website's legal identity to help users make informed decisions about site safety.