Get Involved
Future Interaction Technology
Technology like Apple’s new
iPhone is meant to solve a
problem many of you might
have faced – you buy a new
phone (or PDA, or digital
camera) and it comes with a
manual hundreds of pages
long. You want to get the most
out of your new hardware,
but you don’t have time to
read the manual! So your
new phone (PDA, camera)
might have features that you
never even find out about.
And even if you do, you soon
forget how to operate the less
common functions – these
devices don’t seem to have
been made to be easy for
humans to use.
How should they be designed
instead? This is a subject
of study (and research) at a
very few institutions across
the world – like the Future
Interaction Technology
lab at Swansea University
(www.fitlab.eu), the Human
Interface Technology lab New
Zealand at the University of
Canterbury, Christchurch
(www.hitlabnz.org), and the
Human Interface Technology
lab US at the University
of Washington (www.hitl.
washington.edu).
What kinds of areas does
this work study? One aspect
is how people interact with
traditional computer systems
– for example, how do
they interact with and use
search engines? This kind of
knowledge helps us to build
better and more effective
interfaces to such systems.
But the main work of such
labs is how people interact
with newer, non-traditional
interfaces. These might
include mobile devices – like
phones, and PDAs. These
devices have small screens,
and no (or very small)
keyboards. How can we make
it easy to get information into
such devices, and present it
best to the user? How can we
make them intuitive to use, so
it is not necessary to refer to a
large manual?
Although it’s nice to have a
more usable phone or other
mobile device, in some cases
the way people interact with
computers is more critical.
In some modern cars, the
driver is not really interacting
directly with the cars systems
– instead they are interacting
with a computer (or lots of
computers) which are then
directing the car. If the car’s
computers don’t respond
to the driver’s instinctive
actions in the correct way,
then the car is not safe. At
the moment, this technology
is only used in expensive
high-performance and luxury
cars – but that will change,
and soon all cars will use it.
Perhaps more critical is that
modern aircraft flight systems
work in the same way – and
for the same reason, they
must be carefully designed.
There has already been at
least one incident in which
airliner pilots misinterpreted
flight data being presented
by the computer. Another
critical example is medical
systems – computers control
both monitoring equipment,
and deliver medication
automatically. A real example
is a radiotherapy machine,
with a badly-designed
interface, that led to massive
overdoses – and perhaps
causing patients’ deaths.
As we see more computer
controlled systems, thisproblem will grow – we
cannot expect people to
be experts in the complex
computer systems they will
interact with every day. These
new systems need to behave
in natural and obvious ways, if
they are be useful.
MSc and MRes Computing
and Future Interaction
Technology
If you are looking for an
advanced education in this
new and important area of
Computing, and you already
have a Computer Science
degree (or substantial
technical experience in
Computer Science), then
the MSc in Computing and
Future Interaction Technology
is the only Masters degree
of its type in the world. The
degree focusses on designing
user interfaces for computer
systems – including,
non-traditional computer
systems, including mobile
devices, medical systems,
and safety-critical aircraft
systems. It also looks at how
some humans interact with
more traditional computer
interfaces – like search
engines. The Computing and
Future Interaction Technology
MSc is taught by staff from
the Future Interaction Group,
who undertake world-leading
research on interacting with
computer systems. They
have won international
competitions and were
chosen to take part in the
annual Royal Society Science
Exhibition.
The MSc in Computing and
Future Interaction Technology
is mainly intended for
graduates looking to follow
a career in industry. For
those graduates who want to
undertake further research
there is an alternative MRes
in Computing and Future
Interaction Technology, with a
greater emphasis on research
projects and research
methods. MRes graduates are
well-qualified to apply for PhD
positions.
Science / Engineering courses / colleges
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