The impact of HCI on Society

Mobile Phones: The impact a mobile phone will have on society will be, things such as. Easy communication, for example texting and phone calls from anywhere. However they do come with some problems such as, radiation intake.

Games controllers: Playing games can help improve dexterity and hand-eye coordination. They provide mental stimulation and promote social interaction (in multiplayer games for example). Competition, when playing against friends for example, is a useful motivator and can help users exceed their own expectations of their abilities. However, gaming does come with consequences such as addiction, and maybe even death. If someone was to get so addicted to playing a game and then have it taken away from them, it could cause masses of problems for the person.

Interactive changing rooms: interactive changing rooms are changing rooms, which allow people to take picture and compare items, to make it easier to decide on something. This has also become a very popular type a product, it helps people to compare and choose products, but not only that it can also send the images taken to other people to get their opinions. This will affect society because it makes it easier to shop by helping people with decision making thus making shopping quicker.

Flexible phones: The impact on flexible phone is they will make it easy for user to communicate and look after the phone. However it will be more vulnerable to robbery and damage it will also cost more to produce and more to buy it as a product. This will affect society because it will make communication more in depth and easier.  

Improved usability: improved usability is the way products are made to be as easy to use as possible for every possible user. This will affect HCI because of faults in the company, if there is a design fault in a product people will find it difficult to use and it can cause accidents. However it can also create better things such as improvement to the product making it more users friendly. This will affect society by making all things easier to use and work with.

Touch screens: The impact touch screens have on society has become massive; everyone is demanding a touch screen because, they are easy to use, beneficial, and the latest product to be released. However they can cause problems such as, faults that can’t be fixed and hard to type words and numbers if the buttons are too small. This will affect society because it will make everyday things work easier. Touch screens have also affected the disabled, it has created new product which disabled users can use to communicate to other people all over the world, and it has also given them a chance to do things such as fly planes. And finally touch screens have also limited how germs can spread in the medical industry, it is easier to clean a touch screen compared to things like keyboards and buttons.

Input/output: This has affected the society by making it easier to interact with mobile phones, for example phone now are supposed to be standardising the charges and giving each phone a 3.5mm headphone socket. However this will make the company lose money on things like a charger or headphones.

User friendliness: If all products were not user friendly it would make it very difficult for people to use the product, this is why companies do research to find out the easiest way to use a product, and how they can make it more user friendly. This has affected society by making products easier to use, thus making them more appealing, so more people are going to buy the product.

Domestic appliance displays: domestic appliance displays are household systems that allow users to access things around the house from a single point for example opening the curtains on the other side of the room; you can just press a button on a remote control and open up the curtain without actually touching them. This has affected society greatly, without these people would have to more around and do things manually, now they can do thing with a push of a button on an easy to use domestic appliance display.

Remote control: A remote control has expanded vastly over the years. Now you can control UAV’s in the RAF without leaving you workstation. However this type of technology is very expensive to produce and you will need to go through special training course to learn to fly a remote control drone. This will affect society by making it easier to use and control objects. Remote controls have helped the disabled by making them able to do thing that normally they wouldn’t be able to. However this may have affected the way people live in today’s society it has raised the levels of laziness.

Data Logging: Data logging is a good way of storing things that may help you later on; it has impacted society by becoming affordable to the average person; however it has also become a large problem because it means people are less likely to learn thing because they can just reference it from an internet source. This will affect society by making it easier to log data.

Fly by wire: A fly by wire is a type of system that controls the plane by connecting it to another computer on land, and at the destination. The computers communicate with each other to tell the plane where it’s going. However a pilot can also fly the plane, they can pilot the plane normally but the system will only allow the pilot to fly to its maximum strains. This will affect society because it means that flights across long distances are more likely to get there and safely. Fly by wire has affected the disabled by making it possible for them to fly planes without worrying about crashing it, fly by wire uses a piece of technology which fly’s the plane automatically.

Virtual reality: Virtual reality (VR) is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds. It’s made to be very simple to use, so that the user will get the full effect of virtual reality. This will affect society because it could eventually end up people having meetings from their homes. This has affected the disabled users by giving them a new reality in which they can live disable free.

Heads up display: A heads up display is a display that a user can see from any angle to make the display easier to use. For example in a car, a heads up display is used to make it easier for a user to see how fast they are going, and the amount of fuel and oil the car has. It can also be used in planes and on most vehicles. This will affect society by making controlling vehicles easier and safer.