Chapter 2

Question 1

What are the areas of understanding people?

Answer 1

Perception
Motor control
Cognition
Needs
Experience
Communication
Collaboration

Question 2

Why do we need to understand people?

Answer 2

Direct what to pay attention to

Explain empirical findings

Take design decisions

Explore a design space

Predict people’s behavior

Question 3

What are the most important senses for computer use?

Answer 3

Eyes
Ears
Fingers

Question 4

What senses does the human have?

Answer 4

Vision (sight), Audition (hearing), Somatosensory system (proprioceptive), Chemical sensing (smell
and taste)

Vision, hearing and tactition is important for HCI

Question 5

How can our senses differ?

Answer 5

Information rate:
How much information can be sensed per unit of time?

*Parallelism:
How much parallel processing of information can occur?

Sensitivity:
How much stimulation is needed for a receptor to activate?

Receptive field:
How large the region of the brain that produces a feature from stimuli?

Adaptation:
How the sense attenuates signals?