Theory-driven HCI

"And so the back and forth between theory, observation and artifact is more complicated or more rich and there are more paths that are possible."

He gives some really nice examples of using theories from psychology, neuroscience, information theory to generate theories in HCI that led to new interfaces.

Simon - HCI is a "science of the artificial"

Cognitive scientists have demonstrated that tool use shapes the way we perceive the world - we extend our "cognitive frame" to include the tool

Prefers the term "instrument" to "tool" since it includes musical instruments

Generative principles:

James Gibson - science of affordances and such - psychology

Bill Buxton - pointing - cost of error matters relative to Information Theory

• Fitts’ law

What humans are good at, and what machines are good at - Fitts