Ebook: Being Human: Human-Computer Interaction in the year 2020

Microsoft Research Ltd. 2008. 98 pages. ISBN: 978-0-9554761-1-2The world we live in has become suffused with computer technologies. They have created change and continue to create change. It is not only on our desktops and in our hands that this is manifest; it is in virtually all aspects of our lives, in our communities, and in the wider society of which we are a part.What will our world be like in 2020? Digital technologies will continue to proliferate, enabling ever more ways of changing how we live. But will such developments improve the quality of life, empower us, and make us feel safer, happier and more connected? Or will living with technology make it more tiresome, frustrating, angstridden, and security-driven? What will it mean to be human when everything we do is supported or augmented by technology? What role can researchers, designers and computer scientists have in helping to shape the future?The aim of this report is to reflect upon the changes afoot and outline a new paradigm for understanding our relationship with technology. A more extensive set of lenses, tools and methods is needed that puts human values centre stage. And here, both positive and negative aspects need to be considered: on the one hand, people use technology to pursue healthier and more enjoyable lifestyles, expand their creative skills with digital tools, and instantly gain access to information never before available. On the other, governments become more reliant on computers to control society, criminals become more cunning via digital means, and people worry more about what information is stored about them.The report is divided into four parts. In Part 1, we look back over the past 20 years or so, charting some of the major changes in computing, living and society and suggest where we are going. In Part 2, we outline how these changes are transforming the nature of our interaction with computers, and specify key questions that need to be addressed in the next 15 years as a result. Part 3 is concerned with Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) as a field of research and as a community of practitioners and designers. This part proposes an agenda for how the field can move forward by focusing on human values. Part 4, Recommendations, outlines specific suggestions for HCI in terms of how the field needs to change. For those who are new to the field of HCI, there is an Appendix giving an overview of the field, a brief sense of its history, and a description of some of its main achievements.ContentsOur Changing World
Changing Computers
Changing Lives
Changing Societies
Transformations in Interaction
Human Values in the Face of Change
The End of Interface Stability
The Growth of Techno-Dependency
The Growth of Hyper-Connectivity
The End of the Ephemeral
The Growth of Creative Engagement
HCI: Looking Forward
The Way Forward
Extending the Research and Design Cycle
Three Case Studies
New concepts, frameworks and theories
Recommendations