Human-centered computing

The field of human-centered computing (HCC) has emerged from the convergence of multiple disciplines and research areas that are concerned both with understanding human beings and with the design of computational artifacts. Researchers and designers of human-centered computing include individuals from computer science, sociology, psychology, cognitive science, engineering, graphic design, and industrial design.

Research in human-centered computing has multiple goals. Some researchers focus on understanding humans, both as individuals and in social groups, by focusing on the ways that human beings adopt, adapt, and organize their lives around computational technologies. Others focus on developing new design strategies for computational artifacts. Human-centered design of computational tools attempts to address problems that traditional human computer interaction heuristics, which often include measurements of productivity and efficiency, do not generally address. For example, designing computational tools for spirituality, for fun, and for pleasure are some non-traditional design problems that are of interest to HCC researchers.