michael_nielsen

Michael asked what advances have come from HCI. I say it is HCI itself. Every major computer & software company now has an HCI group (sometimes called UX). HCI is ubiquitous: it has improved thousands of systems. You can't see it because it is everywhere-which makes it invisible.

Interesting observation. There's a 1989 joke of Alan Kay's, roughly: "Companies are finally understanding that interfaces matter, but aren't yet sure whether to order interface by the pound or by the yard." That joke doesn't work nearly so well today, which makes your point.

Multi touch screens & associated GUIs

Multitouch is a lot older. I'm sure it's improved in the last 20 years, but my sense is that most of the improvements have been driven by industry. Is that wrong?

Wearable computing. Ok Thad Starner's IBM system's journal paper was published in 1996, but what's 2 years between friends.

The focus on "academic" hci might be misplaced. HCI may be a field where the best advances don't come from academic approaches yet. Most fields advance via practice for the first years/decades they exist.

Speaking from an HCI-adjacent field, I’d expect the answer to be methods and practices, not particular gadgets. When I’ve worked with people trained in HCI, what shines is their ability to evaluate, and participate in the generation of, interactions particular to the context.

I wasn't particularly focused (or not) on gadgets - that's why I wrote "advances". I'm interested in major advances in understanding of how humans and computers interact. Most people have responded with particularly product ideas, though.