Information processing

In HCI there 3 main principles of information processing, human as a component, human information processing, and goals operators methods and selection rules.

Human as a component

The principle of human as a component is where people believe that part of a computer/HCI is the human, its the theory that humans are a component of a computer or HCI, because the human is apparently a main component of a HCI, HCI's have to be designed to meet the main components needs (the human). The most important thing to think about when creating an HCI is the humans who are going to be use it. The people designing an HCI have to think what the user wants from the HCI, and how do they want to interact with it. They also have to think about how they HCI is going to be used and what the user needs and required the HCI to do. The designers will also have to research to find out what the humans requirements are. Designers will also have to figure out how they have met the requirements, I would do this by getting humans to test the HCi.

Human information processing 

Human information processing is the principle which is a theory that humans work like computers do. People believe that the senses (hands, eyes, mouth & nose) are the input devices (this could be referred to as like a mouse or keyboard). The brain and mind are the central processing unit which thinks and calculates and produces something to output. The output devices are an action you perform using your body or an action you perform on a computer.

When humans are referred to as computers, they are both referred to as either more intelligent or less intelligent then computers.It is very hard to tell if humans are actually smarter then computer or not. Computers can deffinatly be seen as less lazy then humans. Computers only sleep when you tell them to, meaning that they can work 24/7. Computers do not get bored, they can perform basic and advanced calculations and deal with situations easily. Multi-core computers can perform more than one advanced calculation in a second then older computers, meaning that new computers are very efficient, especially with the release of Quad core and Hex core.  Humans on the other hand cannot perform as many tasks in a second as computers can. Humans also have better hearing, good image processing and we are very good at detecting anomalies. The main thing that computers don't have that humans do is common sense.

Overall I think that the question:  "Are humans smarter than computers?" is unanswered.

GOM's

GOM's stands for goals operators methods and selection. It is a specialist model that allows researchers and users to see what tasks are undertaken on a HCI and how the tasks are undertaken on an HCI.

Goals is what the user wants to do, what task do they want to complete? An example of a goal is saving on Microsoft office Word.

Operators is the physical movements and actions that need to be taken. An example of this is a click of a mouse.

Methods are the other methods the user can take to accomplish the task or goal they need to complete within the HCI. The best way to accomplish at task or goal is to use shortcut keys. 


Selections is the easiest and quickest way of accomplishing a task or goal within a HCI.The quickest way to reach a goal in a HCI is to use the shortcut key if there is one available. For example if you want to print in Microsoft Word, you can use the mouse to click on print, but the quickest way  is to use the shortcut key (CTRL+P). This is quicker then because it takes less time to do a short key command then using the mouse to navigate to the print button.

GOM's is quite unreliable because it does not predict users behaviour being affected by fatigue, social surroundings, or organizational factors.

When Designers use GOM's they have to account for errors, they can only do this by predicting where the errors are to occur, and predict the time it takes to correct the error.