Third-wave HCI? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Three Waves of HCI
Before I talked about the advantages and disadvantages of the third-wave Human Computer Interaction (HCI), I want to talk about the three waves of HCI briefly.
The first wave of HCI is related to some keywords such as engineering & human factors, optimizing interaction, pragmatic solutions, and objective measures. As you probably can tell, engineers focused on building systems that were easy to use. Good and bad designs were discussed from the perspectives of engineering. Controlled experiments with objective measures were the key. Some of the concepts were outdated. For example, the interaction was understood as man plus machine but, at least, human factors were considered in designs.
The second wave of HCI sees human minds as information processors and we can analyze the decision-making processes to make a better design. It was focused on cognitive science and psychology. Users were analyzed objectively driven by theories and users can be generalized (cognitive modeling). (Duarte, 2016)
The third wave of HCI is inclusive and the social context is the king. Interaction is seen as a creation of meaning created by human-being, artifacts, and context. The meaning produced can be interpreted in many ways. The second wave was more individualistic because the analysis focused more on the interaction from the perspective of individuals rather than the social-cultural context. The emotions of users and the empathy of designers are mentioned a lot. People’s identities (social orientation)and experiences are front and center to create better designs for our society as a whole. Participants are not only involved in the design process as subjects but they are the driving force as co-creators. Also, the prevailing of ubiquitous and pervasive computing is also mentioned which means computers are going to be everywhere and in every part of our life.
The Advantages of the Third Wave of HCI
First, the third wave HCI creates a better experience for users because it is more humane. Not only are users are font and center but also their value, social-cultural orientation, and experience are considered. Technology is not only a tool and designers do not only consider making it efficient and pragmatic. Instead, designers want it to be comfortable with a good experience. The third wave of HCI frames user experience and meaning-making aspects of the interaction between humans and machines. (Duarte & Baranauskas, 2016) For example, in the designing process, the construction of personas put more emphasis on international and local cultural context because it is crucial to create a better experience by preserving local culture and considering globalization. (Goh, Kulathuramaiyer, & Zaman, 2017) This requires a rich and complete understanding of people, culture, and society. (Rizzo, 2011) Users can achieve their objectives efficiently and have a pleasant experience at the same time. For example, chatbots are designed to follow social conventions such as saying “Hello” and “Thank you” to create a better experience for users. This may be seen as redundant from the perspective of the first and second waves of HCI. Some speech interfaces implemented a voice recognition function to identify users’ accents and adjust their wording based on it for a better experience. This may also be considered redundant and not necessary for the first and second waves of HCI. Overall, the applications of the third wave of HCI can benefit users by providing a good experience for individuals.
Second, the third wave of HCI can make our world more inclusive, international, and diverse because it focuses more on the people who are historically marginalized or underrepresented. The inclusive design takes minorities into consideration and some designs even considered the next billion users. The sad truth is that many people do not have access to the Internet in a temporary world. Only 39% of the 1.2 billion Africans are Internet users. The third wave of HCI discusses how can we produce a good experience for them. (Jena et al., 2021) Accessibility is also becoming an important part of designing and it is progressing slowly under the third wave of HCI. (Hedvall, 2009) I strongly believe that the consideration of equity can bring people together and make our world a better place. When the third wave of HCI approaches environmental issues or sustainable HCI, it approaches in a very empathic way. The focus is not the guilt of damaging or environment instead it frames enchantment and personal interests. (Sengers, Boehner, & Knouf, 2009) Overall, the new trend of HCI is more humane, inclusive and it is beneficial for every single of us in society in a long run.
Third, ubiquitous and pervasive computing make our daily life way more convenient than ever before. We can share our thoughts more easily on many social media platforms in many formats. Blogging, vlogging, podcast, radio, citizen journalism and so on are very distributed and accessible in our daily life. The information and knowledge can be accessed easily online with a lot of free and high-quality tutorials and courses. Communication will not be limited by geographical location or sometimes a language barrier. We can communicate with people all around the world with a push of a button.
Drawbacks of Third Wave of HCI
First, “users as designers” can lead to some problems. Some of the users’ requirements may not be realistic to achieve or biased so it is difficult to implement the design in a way that can satisfy some groups of users because their requirements contradict the overall aesthetic design. (Marti & Bannon, 2009) If values are considered in the design, the trade-off has moral and ethical implications and ramifications. This requires a lot of effort put into having discourses to justify a certain design choice. The process of this can be daunting and exhausting compared to the second and first waves of HCI which are quite objective and mainly driven by science and theories.
Second, design for personalized and highly customizable experiences can separate people into many social bubbles instead of encouraging people to fill the gap of difference, to understand and to cooperate and collaborate with others. This probably could be solved by going back to the second wave of HCI. We can frame the collaboration and participation aspect of interaction by creating shared and interactive big devices instead of small devices. (Bødker, 2015)
Third, the boundary between work and leisure is blurred by pervasive and ubiquitous computing. (Bødker, 2006) This can be a drawback because it can undermine the quality of the time that we spent in our intimate relationships or hobbies which can eventually be damaging to mental health. Technology will be everywhere and in every part of our life emphasizing experience. It is not only used in the public sphere but also in the private sphere. Pervasive technologies augmented reality, small interfaces and tangible interfaces will blur the boundary between entertainment, family, and work. (Bødker, 2006)
Fourth, ethical issues should be addressed. Our privacy, data, and attentions are very precious recourses for organizations at present. There could be unethical data collection and usage. Additionally, making products as addictive as possible by spreading negative emotions can also be unethical. The pervasiveness of small, personalized devices makes data collection from users easier. This can indeed improve people’s experience by taking into consideration of their social orientation, demographic information, personality, or even more private information. However, this also puts people’s privacy at risk. Facebook’s scandal of the manipulation of public opinion showed that our privacy is indeed at risk, and it challenges us to come up with a safer and more secure interaction between computers and human
Reference
Bødker, S. (2006). When second wave HCI meets third wave challenges. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 4th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: changing roles.
Bødker, S. (2015). Third-wave HCI, 10 years later — -participation and sharing. interactions, 22(5), 24–31.
Duarte, E. F., & Baranauskas, M. C. C. (2016). Revisiting the three HCI waves: A preliminary discussion on philosophy of science and research paradigms. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 15th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Goh, C. H., Kulathuramaiyer, N., & Zaman, T. (2017). Riding waves of change: a review of personas research landscape based on the three waves of HCI. Paper presented at the International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries.
Harrison, S., Tatar, D., & Sengers, P. (2007). The three paradigms of HCI. Paper presented at the Alt. Chi. Session at the SIGCHI Conference on human factors in computing systems San Jose, California, USA.
Hedvall, P. O. (2009). Towards the era of mixed reality: accessibility meets three waves of HCI. Paper presented at the Symposium of the Austrian HCI and Usability Engineering Group.
Jena, A., Butler, M., Dwyer, T., Ellis, K., Engelke, U., Kirkham, R., . . . Rajamanickam, V. (2021). The next billion users of visualization. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 41(2), 8–16.
Marti, P., & Bannon, L. J. (2009). Exploring user-centred design in practice: Some caveats. Knowledge, technology & policy, 22(1), 7–15.
Rizzo, F. (2011). 12. Co-design versus User Centred Design: Framing the differences. Notes on Doctoral Research in Design. Contributions from the Politecnico Di Milano, 125–135.
Sengers, P., Boehner, K., & Knouf, N. (2009). Sustainable HCI meets third wave HCI: 4 themes. Paper presented at the CHI 2009 workshop.
