CHI 97 Electronic Publications: Development Consortium
HCI in the Czech Republic
Pavel Slavik
Dept. of Computer Science
Czech Technical University
Karlovo nam. 13
121 35 Praha 2
CZECH REPUBLIC
slavik@cs.felk.cvut.cz
ABSTRACT
The paper describes the current situation and historical
development in the HCI field in the Czech Republic. An
outline of the most important features in this area is given.
The reader can get ideas about the current state of art
especially in research and education. A description of the
situation in some specific applications is also given. In
summary, the reader can find a short evaluation given
together with some proposals on how to improve the
current situation in the HCI field in this particular country.
Keywords
HCI, interaction, GUI, interface, multimedia, virtual
reality
© 1997 Copyright on this material is held by the authors.
COMPUTERS, PEOPLE AND THEIR COMMUNICATION
The history of the science of communication between man
and computer in Eastern Europe had similar
characteristics as in technologically developed countries.
To get an overview of the problems the East European
scientists were faced with, it is possible to follow a short
outline of the history of man/machine communication in
the Czech Republic (formerly in Czechoslovakia).
The first computers appeared in the country in the second
half of the fifties. The first users of computers were
scientists that used computers for their particular
applications and they did not mind if they had to
communicate with computers in a "non-user friendly" way
(Clumsy sequences of letters, numbers and other
characters were exchanged between the user and the
machine.) The situation started to change in the middle of
the sixties when computers lost their exclusivity and they
started to be used in many fields of human activity. The
number of computer users started to grow significantly
and these new users were not willing to learn the
peculiarities of communications between man and
machine. Later on, with the advent of minicomputers (in
Eastern Europe with some delay - about at the end of the
seventies) together with the wide usage of videoterminals
the necessity of a good user interface emerged. In that
time, the textual interfaces were the most common ones.
The graphical interfaces were used in a wider scale much
later on - in the eighties when microcomputers appeared
and graphical user interfaces became a reality with all
their accompanying problems.
RESEARCH IN HCI FIELD IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Users and designers of software systems were aware of the
fact that the user interface has two parts (a machine one
and a human one) that should be linked together in an
appropriate way in order to allow comfortable
communication between the user and the computer. This
resulted in the situation where both human and technical
factors were investigated, in most cases separately. In the
mid eighties the national annual conference started to be
held - the INTERKOM conference. This conference
brought together experts from both technical and human
factors fields.
The problems of human factors were mainly investigated
in research institutes that covered the problems of
psychology and ergonomics of human work related to the
work with machines of many kinds. These machines were
not necessarily computers but, for example, control panels
in factories, power stations etc. The know how gained was
extended to the design and implementation of (mostly)
graphical interfaces (usually rather specialized ones).
The technical problems dealt mostly with implementation
problems (effective programming of graphics, quick
display of graphical object and quick response etc.).
Creation of graphical interfaces was concentrated mostly
in applications in the fields of geometric modeling and to
2D CAD. Besides that, textual interfaces were also
investigated. This was especially true in the area of
databases where the terminal users were inexperienced
(naive) and good user interfaces helped them to overcome
fear of computers. Especially important then were
questions regarding user navigation and common solutions
for error handling.
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE RESOURCES FOR HCI
A real boom of interest in user interfaces came with the
first software packages that allowed in an easy way to
design and construct universal graphical interfaces (MS
Windows, X-Window and other systems). These systems
are considered to be a sort of standard that makes it
possible to design and implement user interfaces in a
standard way. Nowadays the problems in the field of user
interfaces are not different from the problems in
industrially developed countries. There is full
compatibility in hardware and in software as well.
Nevertheless, there are some specific problems such as
national interfaces that use a special character sets.
EDUCATION OF HCI
The development described above influenced also the way
how the problems of user interfaces was taught. The
prevailing volume of education in the field consists of
courses targeted to the mastering single systems (like X-
Window etc.). Another part of education in the field is
linked up with the special features of specific interfaces
(e.g. problems of computer graphics, problems of
psychology etc.). Only a small fraction of education is
dedicated to the theory of design and implementation of
user interfaces (formal models, automatic generation of
user interfaces, verification of UI, cognitive aspects of UI
etc.).
Universities will need encouragement to perceive HCI as a
sort of critical technology and the accompanying skills
and knowledge as fundamental to a student's education
and preparation for jobs in the information age. HCI
education should be considered as an important part of
computer science curriculum at Czech universities. This
could be achieved by transferring experience gained in
HCI education in industrially developed countries.
MODERN TECHNOLOGIES AND HCI
Multimedia
Another important feature is the use of multimedia both in
education and some practical applications. Currently there
is a general experience both with software and hardware
tools. There are a couple of companies that produce CD
ROMs of all kinds. Many of them are of an educational
nature. There are university courses that deal with the
basics of Multimedia authoring (Visual Basic, Toolbook,
Authorware etc.). When speaking about multimedia it is
necessary to point out the importance of the World Wide
Web where information is presented in multimedia form.
There is rapidly growing interest in authoring tools
(HTML etc.). In many cases the authors of web pages are
faced with the same problem as creators of other usual
user interfaces: they manage the programming aspects
fairly well but are poorly educated in the psychological
issues of user interfaces.
One very important application of multimedia is distant
learning. This form of education is just beginning in our
country. Nevertheless, some projects (based mostly on
feasibility studies) have started recently. There is a real
need for know-how transfer (including the experience)
from industrially developed countries.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality has become a sort of phenomenon in the
last few years. Knowledge of its potential and knowledge
of its technical background is quite common in this
country. Applications are not very frequent at the present
time - especially when some sophisticated equipment is
necessary. Another potential use for virtual reality could
be in the WWW environment - that means the use of
VRML. This tool has been used in some applications and
the interest in using this tool is steadily increasing.
Last but least, the use of various tools for virtual reality
implies new questions concerning the interaction in 3D
space. These questions are of interest to research teams
working in the field. Again, in this area, more intensive
contacts with research institutions in industrially
developed countries are needed.
SUMMARY
At the present time there are no significant hardware or
software problems in Eastern Europe in terms of
availability. That means that the experts work in similar
environments to their Western colleagues. There is a lot of
know-how related to local conditions that can be used
when designing and implementing user interfaces.
What is missing (and what needs some know-how from
outside to get on the proper level): introduction of formal
methods in industrial scale (especially verification and
evaluation of UI) and the use of cognitive aspects of UI
design. Some topics concerning education have been
already mentioned. Unfortunately there is not enough
contacts between experts in industrially developed
countries and experts in Eastern Europe. This concerns
mostly the participation in joint projects, exchange of
teaching materials, and participation in international
conferences. These activities in general transfer the
knowledge about recent trends in the field of HCI that
should be investigated in Eastern Europe as well. Only in
this way would the integration of experts from different
geographical regions be possible.
CHI 97 Electronic Publications: Development Consortium
