Fields

Human Computer Interaction

Also Known As HCI

Field of Study

Citation Formats

General Reference

Computing Atlas. "Human Computer Interaction." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/fields/human-computer-interaction.

APA Style

Computing Atlas. (n.d.). Human Computer Interaction. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/fields/human-computer-interaction

BibTeX

@misc{computingatlas-human-computer-interaction,
  author = {Computing Atlas},
  title = {Human Computer Interaction},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/fields/human-computer-interaction},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Human computer interaction is the field concerned with how people operate and engage with computer systems, and with designing interactive systems that fit human abilities. The term was popularized by Stuart Card, Allen Newell and Thomas P. Moran in their 1983 book The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction, which brought cognitive psychology methods to the study of interfaces.

Facts

Origin Year

1983 1

The year of the Card, Newell and Moran book that popularized the term; work on interactive computing is older.

Core Concern

How interactive computing systems are designed, evaluated and understood in terms of the people who use them. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Alan Kay

Alan Kay led the Learning Research Group at Xerox PARC that developed the overlapping-window, icon and mouse-driven graphical interface on the Xerox Alto, foundational to the field of human-computer interaction.

Source Wikipedia: Alan Kay

Computer Graphics

Source Wikipedia: Human Computer Interaction

Ivan Sutherland

Source Wikipedia: Ivan Sutherland

Includes

Xerox Alto

Source Wikipedia: Xerox Alto

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Human Computer Interaction

Wikimedia FoundationDefinition section

Quote, Definition section

a discipline that is concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.

View the Source

1. Wikipedia: Human Computer Interaction

Wikimedia FoundationOpening section

Quote, Opening section