Human–Computer Interaction

Abstract

Abstract Human–computer interaction (HCI) is an interdisciplinary field that studies how people interact with machines in general and with computing systems in particular. Despite its initial development as a specialization in computer science, the field has quickly become multidisciplinary. It now sits at the crossroad between social sciences (on the human side) and computer science (on the technological side). It tries to answer daily questions that emerge from the rapidly increasing interaction between humans and computers. As implied by the two perspectives on the concept of interactivity and affordance (i.e., technological features vs. human perception), the various subdisciplines of HCI have developed and remained largely distinct. This presents both challenges and opportunities for HCI scholars. Embracing new paradigms such as the human factors approach, the field has demonstrated some potential for theoretical concepts to be successfully transformed into easy‐to‐use everyday products (e.g., speech interface, social robots, and/or smart devices).