Perception about HCI in India

It was during my research internship last year that I developed interest in the field of HCI. At that point of time, I found it to be very interesting, innovative and creative. But all of a sudden a lot many people from my college has ventured into this field, not because its creative, but they think HCI gives them the perfect platform to break away from the coding paradigm and still call themselves technocrats. This is kinda irritating (Iam not at all expert but still) because this attitude belittles the importance of this field.

Dr. Dinesh Katre, HCI guru echoes my concern and has written a superb article highlighting the above points in a very lucid manner.

People have a superficial belief that HCI does not require training or special skills (the minimum eligibility crierion is to be born as a human!). Many IT companies perceive that software usability process is a fad like ISO and CMM, which must be complied with because it is the current fashion in developed countries. Some are attracted to it because you can charge the customer more for fancy things like context study and affinity maps. Some feel that it is just a new terminology to be used while discussing user interfaces.

You get the feel where this article is heading, so anyone and everyone related to HCI should read this article and all those creeps who think HCI is just a fancy word, this article is a must for them.

Cheers!