Watch: Why buttons go bad
A film by students at the UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC) explains in 100 seconds the importance of studying how humans interact with technology, to mark World Usability Day. UCLIC's Dr Dominic Furniss and Dr Rachel Benedyk challenged students taking the MSc in Human'Computer Interaction (HCI) with Ergonomics to make a short film to convey the concept of HCI to a young audience, as part of the centre's Design for Real People and Ergonomics4Schools public engagement activities. The class favourite was a film created by MSc students Lucy Hughes, Alistair Wood, Jesper Garde, Tianbo Xu and Philipp Hund, which tackled the subject by focusing on the history of buttons - and why they go bad. Click on the player below to watch the film Dr Dominic Furniss, Researcher in Human?Computer Interaction, explained: 'Human-Computer Interaction and Ergonomics focus on making technology more intuitive, user-friendly and a better experience. They touch our everyday lives. Digital alarms wake us up, medical devices help keep patients alive in hospitals, e-commerce sites are now an established part of our culture and economy, people find love online, we communicate via mobile phones, we are entertained through computer games and 3D movies, and Tweeting and Googling are familiar phrases in our modern world. Buttons, switches and clicks are everywhere!? Dr Rachel Benedyk, Lecturer in Ergonomics at UCLIC, continued: 'One of the biggest attractions to HCI is the chance to make an impact on a great breadth of today's technologies.
