Abbas blog

We, as the HCI community, all owe a lot to Steve Jobs.

2011-11-10T12:44:00.000-08:00

Steven P. Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., a man who transformed computer industry from computers to smartphones, music and movies, passed away in October. He was 56 years old.

Obviously, a lot has already been said about this charismatic technology visionary by the media, personalities around the world, and even Apple users who leave post-it notes on the windows of Apple stores worldwide. We will not repeat what has already been said about him. As practitioners in the field of HCI and usability engineering, we would simply like to add and underline how this man so critically impacted our profession.

Steve Jobs and Apple computers, by investing in products that are easy to use by anyone, have changed the way that user experience is perceived in both technology and computer companies. People working in the field of HCI often make a prime example of Apple products as a standard for a device that has good user experience, while also being commercially successful.

We all owe a lot to him for bringing attention to the philosophy of focusing on the ease of use as an important attribute to a product and “the design that works”. As he said himself, “Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer – that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works,” (New York Times, November 30, 2003).

Thank you, Steve Jobs.

A.M.
New York Times, November 30, 2003,
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Published in: HCI International NEWS - Nov. 2011 - Number 50

HCI International 2011 is over

2011-09-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

We would like to thank all of you who attended the HCI International 2011 Conference in Orlando, FL, USA that was held from the 9th to the 14th of July. To those of you who were not able to participate this year, we look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas in 2013.

Over 2000 people from 60 countries attended the Conference. In 212 sessions, 1354 papers were presented, and 241 posters were displayed during specific sessions.

The number of authors who submitted contributions to the conference is 4039 from 67 countries. Having that many people, institutions and countries collaborating has been a huge achievement for the HCII Conference.

HCII 2011 was organized under the auspices of 12 distinguished international boards of 302 members from 34 countries.

Professor Ben Shneiderman (University of Maryland, USA) addressed the keynote at the Opening Plenary Session. In his talk he highlighted “the potential for employing social media for national priorities such as disaster response, healthcare/wellness, community safety, and energy sustainability.” Prof. Shneiderman also noted that “for the first time in history much of what we do is online, and for the first time in history it is possible to access that information, analyze it, and visualize it to see patterns, relationships, and conflicts.”

With hundreds of papers and sessions to consider, it is truly difficult to choose an area that stood out in popularity and interest. Yet there were a variety of different researches in brain monitoring, cognitive modeling, virtual reality and healthcare which were among the many well-attended sessions.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at Las Vegas in 2013.

A.M.

Published in: HCI International NEWS - September 2011 - Number 49

Visit HCII 2013 website at: http://www.hcii2013.org/

Human Factors Issues in the Air France Flight 447 Crashes

2011-06-02T20:57:00.000-07:00

Almost two years after the Air France Flight 447(Airbus A330-200 jet)¬, a well-maintained modern airplane, crashed, the key components from the flight recorders and cockpit voice recorder were finally found. The plane was originally en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro into the ocean, and unfortunately all passengers were killed.

According to The Wall Street Journal “The pilots of an Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean two years ago apparently became distracted with faulty airspeed indicators and failed to properly deal with other vital systems, including adjusting engine thrust, according to people familiar with preliminary findings from the plane's recorders."
In another article Spiegel, citing the experts who have participated in the analysis of the Black Boxes data reports, stated that at the time the first alarm sounded, the pilot was not in the cockpit.

Following these revelations, and despite the fact that a formal investigative report is not yet published by Bureau of Investigations and Analyses, or B.E.A. , "Pilot Error " is vigorously condemned by the Syndicat de Pilotes d'Air France (SPAF).

According to New York Times "… the sequence of events captured on the recorders is expected to highlight that the jet slowed dangerously shortly after the autopilot disconnected. The pilots almost immediately faced the beginning of what became a series of automation failures or disconnects related to problems with the plane's airspeed sensors,…", "The crew methodically tried to respond to the warnings, according to people familiar with the probe, but apparently had difficulty sorting out the warning messages, chimes and other cues while also keeping close track of essential displays showing engine power and aircraft."

According to the NYT, “…pilots seemingly were confused by alarms they received from various automated flight-control systems as the plane passed through some turbulence typical on the route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. They also faced unexpectedly heavy icing at 35,000 feet. Such icing is renowned for making airspeed-indicators and other external sensors unreliable."
All these notions hint at many human factors issues related to design, safety training, and hardware failure. A few questions that require a proper answer include:

• Why were the alarms confusing?
• Why were the warning messages difficult to sort out ?
• Why and how were the cues on the displays unclear?
A.M.
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Related Press Reports
"Crash du Rio-Paris : il n'y aurait pas eu d'erreur de pilotage, " LEMONDE.FR, May 19, 2011.
http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2011/05/19/crash-du-rio-paris-il-n-y-aurait-pas-eu-d-erreur-de-pilotage_1524155_3224.html

"Rio-Paris : les syndicats de pilote dénoncent les "fausses allégations, "LEMONDE.FR May 24, 2011.
http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2011/05/24/de-nouveaux-elements-sur-la-catastrophe-du-vol-af-447-divulgues-par-la-presse_1526418_3224.html#ens_id=1513709

“Air France Flight 447,” nytimes.com , May 16, 2011
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/a/airplane_accidents_and_incidents/air_france_flight_447/index.html?

Reports of Pilot Error in Air France Crash Are Condemned," nytimes.com, May 24, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/world/europe/25france.html?ref=airfranceflight447

“Absturz von Air-France-Flug 447,” Spiegel, May 22, 2011.
http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,764083,00.html

“Report on Air France 447 crash deepens mystery,” newscientist.com, May 27, 2011.
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/05/blaring-alarms-confused-doomed.html
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The Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics International NEWS – June 2011- Number 26
http://www.ahfe2012.org/news/2011_June.html

Fukushima Nuclear Plant Disaster: Are there any human factors issues to look for?

2011-04-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

Japan's recent earthquake and tsunami crisis in which the Fukushima Nuclear
Plant was deeply damaged, raised a variety of issues regarding safety
throughout the rest of the world's nuclear power plants. This disaster,
along with the severe amount of casualties and unknown effects of
contamination in the population and environment, bring up several major
questions that are directly and indirectly related to human factors.

For instance, is it possible to predict all risk factors for a nuclear power
plant? If not, is it wise for humanity to use a technology when we know that
its accidental failure can have a dangerous toll on humanity and can
contaminate the environment forever? The Fukushima Nuclear Plant Disaster
illustrates that all risk factors were unevaluated, and that the plant was
not prepared to equip any human help in the event of a nuclear accident.
There are reports of cases where the emergency workers did not even have
basic necessities in such a situation, such as boots. However a silver
lining remains in the fact that this catastrophe did not occur in a third
world country, but in one of the most advanced countries in the world:
Japan.

This accident, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Gulf of Mexico, and other
reports that many active nuclear power plants have shut down and must be
closed, reveal a deeper problem. The ravenous world hunger for energy and
the push to get it as fast as possible while ignoring possible accidents
fails to consider the long term consequences. Isn't it time to invest in
renewable energy and the long term life of our planet, rather than the short
term gains of gas or power energy companies?

A.M.

The Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics International NEWS - April 2007 - Number 1

Book Review: Smart Clothing: Technology and Applications

2011-01-06T10:49:00.000-08:00

If you only know a little about Smart Clothing, this book will be a real eye-opener into the concepts of the technology and its applications. If you already know about this area, then this book will be a real resource in providing readers with a good review of all aspects of the technology. In the introductory chapter, the book provides a well-rounded review of smart clothing technology (Chapter 1), followed by an ample explanation of the design processes and development (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 reviews all aspects of the smart clothing standardization, which includes trends, patents, methods, and evaluation techniques. Chapters 4 to 8 go over interfaces, hardware and software, and materials. The next chapter continues on with an evaluation of methods for wearable computing. The last chapter gives a brief overview of solar cell and its usage in the smart clothing textiles that are discussed, providing a good perspective of how fascinating this technology might be.

All contributors of this book offer very well explained chapters with extensive research reviews and reference lists.
Reviewing this book was a very enriching experience, although it occasionally appears as a very futuristic science and technology, though with its authors smart writing manages to convince that it is a real and advancing technology.
A.M.

Smart Clothing: Technology and Applications, Edited by Gilsoo Cho, CRC Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4200-8852-6
http://www.crcpress.com
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Published in:HCI International NEWS - January 2011 - Number 45

Oracle OpenWorld: The Oracle Empire's Customers/Users Conference

2010-11-23T13:24:00.000-08:00

Oracle OpenWorld was held in San Francisco from September 19-23, 2010. This year’s particularity was the addition of the “Java One “conference after acquisition of Sun Microsystems. This made the event, according to Oracle, the largest conference in Oracle's history. With more than 41,000 attendees it was too large for the Mascone convention center complex and used many hotels in the area as well. Despite the sophisticated conference organization, going from one location to another proved to be difficult, inconvenient and time consuming. Many JavaOne attendees also felt slighted being at Hilton not Mascone and some even found the experience painful!

On the content side and from Human Computer Interaction standpoint, 5 years after acquisition of PeopleSoft and then Siebel and others, the promised land of “Fusion Applications” with all the best of features from all, sounded still quite like a promise. I was not able to see any concrete demonstrations of human computer interaction illustrating advances in technology or innovations in user interface or user experience.

On the technology side an important theme and hot topic seemed to be Cloud Computing, as one finds in most technology conferences and events these days.

All related sessions on this topic were well attended. Curious attendees struggled to see what is really happening in cloud computing since many presentations seemed to be somewhat light in terms of content. We still need to wait and see what the real results and impacts of Cloud Computing will be. Maybe at next year's Oracle OpenWorld - if one is optimistic!

A.M.

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Published in:
HCI International NEWS - November 2010 - Number 44

Book Review: Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL

2010-11-23T13:09:00.000-08:00

In a well illustrated and easy to read book on Social Media Networks, the authors offer in the introductory chapters (1 to 3) definitions and overview of social media networking concepts along with multiple examples of analysis techniques. Then, NodeXL, an interesting open source template for Excel is used to illustrate the analysis techniques. Easy instructions are given through tutorials on how to use NodeXL for social media network analysis (Chapters 4-7). Chapter 8-15 provide ample cases studies illustrating networks analysis for email, Twitter, hyperlinks and more, thus enabling readers to use the tool proficiently to conduct social media network analysis.

With an extensive list of related references, colorful charts and graphs, this book is a valuable resource to all professionals involved in designing, evaluating and researching social media networking. It is also an excellent textbook choice for a social media networking related courses.

A.M.

Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL - Insights from a Connected World, Derek Hansen, Ben Shneiderman, Marc Smith, Morgan Kaufman , Elsevier, 2011, ISBN 13: 978-0-12-382229-1
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HCI International NEWS - November 2010 - Number 44

BP Gulf Oil Spill and its Accident Investigations Report

2010-10-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

In a press release dated September 19, 2010, BP confirmed that “Well kill operations on the MC252 well in the Gulf of Mexico is completed”. Before that on September 8th, 2010 BP published its internal investigation of this accident. BP made several documents available at its website that includes a “Full Investigation Report”, slide presentation and summary report along with several appendices.

Despite all the detailed charts, figures and illustrations in these reports and the investigation into a wide variety of different factors, surprisingly there was no mention in any way of human factors issues and the terms “human factors”, "work organization” or “human performance” were never even mentioned. Interestingly the report uses terms such as “failure” (89 instances) but never terms such as "error" (once to describe measurement error range) or “mistake” (0 instance) which is quite astonishing for an accident investigation report.

During a hearing on the Gulf of Mexico spill in Washington, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010. Najmedin Meshkati, a human factors expert and professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, highlighted the lack of human factors approach in the BP report and wondered why BP named its report an accident investigation when it left critical elements out. He asked BP to turn over information on shift duration and worker fatigue.

"How could you call this great work accident investigation ... and not address human performance issues and organizational issues and decision-making issues?" Meshkati asked.

It is sad to observe how human factors issues are so easily neglected in such a major accident that might have lasting effects on our environment. Still a long way to go…

A.M.
=====================
References
BP internal investigation
Experts question BP's take on Gulf oil spill
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Published in The Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics International NEWS, October 2010

Eye catcher in the News

2010-09-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

There were three topics that captured my attention while I was reviewing the press. As an HCI specialist, I feel that one way or another, this might affect our professional life, if not our daily life. The first bit of news was the announcement by Google and Verizon that stated they are nearing an agreement that “could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege”(New York Times August 4, 2010). However this might also mean that access to other content would be slower.

Then in another article Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff (wired.com, August 17, 2010) argues that although the usage of the Internet network (a physical networks of devices) is augmenting, the usage of world wide web would decline due to the shift of usage from web browsing to apps. They write that “You’ve spent the day on the Internet — but not on the Web” because “Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display. “

Though one might argue that this trend might not necessarily happen soon, or that perhaps another eventual technology mutation might stop the life of Apps and create something else, it is noticeable that the building and designing of the application for a variety of features and products is the trend in the user interface design and human computer interaction. This would obviously affect search based user behaviors influenced by Google into a more selective pattern.

From the design perspective a variety of changes can be highlighted, such as the slow conversion to smaller screens. Looking at the multitude of apps on smart phones and their behaviors shows the extent at which learning is facilitated by fewer amount of rules or patterns to learn.

The third story I noticed was an interesting investigation by the Wall Street Journal, which was echoed by other press (National Public Radio network), showing that the fastest-growing businesses on Internet are the ones spying on consumers (Wall Street Journal, July 30th 2010) and how the Web sites (including WSJ) that we are visiting each day are tracking our behavior by using "cookies," "beacons" and "Flash cookies," on our computers. According to this study, an average of 64 tracking cookies were installed from each site by the 50 sites on a test computer used to conduct the study. This study reports that only one site, the encyclopedia Wikipedia.org, installed none and “twelve sites, including IAC/InterActive Corp.'s Dictionary.com, Comcast Corp.'s Comcast.net and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.com, installed more than 100 tracking tools apiece in the course of the Journal's test”.

A.M.

HCI International NEWS - September 2010 - Number 43
http://www.hci-international.org/index.php?module=newsletter&MMN_position=3:3

Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics 2010 another Success Story

2010-08-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

Close to 1000 academics, professionals and researchers shared their researches, experience and findings in the field of human factors, ergonomics, and usability at the Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics International 2010 and the affiliated HAAMAHA conference on July17-20, at the Intercontinental in Miami, Florida, USA.

Over 891 papers were presented in over 10 parallel interactive sessions. Topics included the most recent research and technology in Medico-ergonomics and Patient Safety, Aviation Designing New Buildings and Facilities for End Users, Ergonomics Hazards and Prevention, Users Interface Design, Online Human Error Management, Methods and Instruments for Ergonomic Design of Production Systems, Universal Access to Novel Interaction Environments, Impact of Human Factors on Technical Systems Failure, and Cognitive and Physical Work Analysis and Design.

One of the major themes of the conference was medico-ergonomics and patient safety which is one of the growing fields in ergonomics and human factors. As Dr. James Bagian the Chief Patient Safety Officer and the Director and Founder of the National Center for Patient Safety at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs underlined in his keynote speech, patient safety is not handled anymore just by a single physician but by a whole complex system. Numerous research papers were then presented in a technical session covering a variety of human factors issues that need to be taken into consideration to ensure patient safety including: human computer interaction, engineering modeling and patient management in health system.

The proceedings of the conference containing all the papers presented at the conference are available in digital format. The hard copies of the proceedings are in eight volumes published by the CRC Press.

The AHFE International 2012 will be held in the beautiful city of San Francisco.

A.M.
Published in The Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics International NEWS
Available on-line at:
http://www.ahfe2010.org/newsletters.html

Book Review: Colossus- The secret of Bletchley Park’s Codebreaking Computers

2010-07-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

Reading Colossus, a book about the world's first fully electronic computer that was built during the Second World War to crack the codes of high-level Nazi communications, is like reading a suspenseful spy story! It is entertaining to read and at the same time one learns a lot about the history of cryptography and code breaking secrets, decryption and related technologies.

After providing a brief history of cryptography from Cesar’s cipher to modern days the authors reveal the history behind Bletchley Park - United Kingdoms’ main decryption center during the Second World War, through recently declassified documents. Colossus covers this project in full detail and is also enlightening about the overall history of technology and computer systems.

Historical pictures along with many interesting charts make the book indispensable to anyone who reviews or writes about the history of computer technology.

This is a very interesting read for almost everyone, even non technical audiences.

A.M.

“Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers“, by
B. Jack Copeland, Oxford University Press, 2010, 462 Pages,
ISBN-10:0-19-284055-X.
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryOther/HistoryofScience/~~/dmlldz11c2EmY2k9OTc4MDE5OTU3ODE0Ng==

Published in " HCIInternational NEWS - March 2010 - Number 42"
http://www.hci-international.org/index.php?module=newsletter&MMN_position=3:3

Human Factors in the BP Gulf Oil Spill

2010-06-06T13:42:00.000-07:00

On April 20 th , 2010 an explosion happened onboard of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the United States Gulf of Mexico, 41 miles offshore Louisiana. Out of a crew of 126 workers 11 were reported missing and 17 injured. Following this explosion, underwater robots detected that the deep water oil well was leaking several thousand barrels of oil per day into the ocean. To this date (May 20 th , 2010) the leak has not been controlled and the consequences of this catastrophic event on wildlife, long term impact on the local ecosystem, and the effects on the local and even the national economy and politics are growing every day. I am sure that discussion and investigation will continue for many years on how many barrels of oil have leaked or how to measure the leak, how to control such an accident or prevent it. However an early look at what has already been reported indicates a few human factors that are related to the investigation. Here are just a few of the issues reported:

·Blowout preventer apparently had a significant leak in a key hydraulic system. It seems that the blowout preventer was damaged from an accident that happened a few weeks before the massive disaster.
·Emergency controls on the blowout preventer may have failed.
·A dead man's switch (a switch that is automatically operated in case the human operator becomes incapacitated) failed to activate.
·It is also reported that on the day of the accident, the Transocean manager and BP employee argued about how to finish the well. The BP employee wanted to save time and money by taking some shortcuts.
· The crew member also admitted that the blowout preventer was damaged from an accident that happened a few weeks before the massive disaster. BP and Deep Horizon knew that the BOP and the Pod were damaged, but the operation was behind schedule and losing money.

A.M.

"The Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics International NEWS - June 2010- Number 20"

References
Nitrogen-Cement Mix Is Focus of Gulf Inquiry
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/us/11hearings.html?sq=halliburton&st=cse&scp=2&pagewanted=all

Blowout: The Deepwater Horizon Disaster
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/16/60minutes/main6490197.shtml

60 Minutes oil spill: accident could have been avoided, BP took shortcuts
http://www.examiner.com/x-29705-Houston-TV-Examiner~y2010m5d17-60-Minutes-oil-spill-accident-could-have-been-avoided-BP-took-shortcuts-videos

Deepwater Horizon oil spill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill#cite_note-nyt0510-34

Work Related Suicides at France Télécom, a Major French Telecommunications Company

2010-04-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

Work Related Suicides at France Télécom, a Major French Telecommunications Company

In the field of human factors the effects of work related stressors (environmental, social or psychological) on performance accidents, errors and the overall mental health of the employees are well established. Research suggests that job stress might also result in serious mental health difficulties that can result in suicide. Employees’ suicide is a result of a complex interaction between individual vulnerabilities, stressful working conditions and the social environment.

In September of 2009, the press reported that twenty-three employees of France Télécom have killed themselves since the beginning of 2008 (BBC, 2 September 2008). France Télécom SA provides consumers and businesses with telecommunications services, including fixed telephony and mobile telecommunications, data transmission, Internet and multimedia, and other value-added services. The company employs 100,000 people in France. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing the World Health Organization, the average suicide rate in France is 26.4 per 100,000 men and 9.2 per 100,000 women (WSJ, Sept. 15, 2009). Although the suicide rate at Télécom seems to be in line with the suicides in France over the past decades. The Wall Street Journal reported that France Télécom SA decided to “train all of its 22,000 managers to identify staffers showing signs of depression or erratic behavior”.

In unprecedented news, the French newspapers “Le Monde” and “Le Parisien” cited a report submitted to the Court in the City of Besancon that revealed that the suicide of a France Télécom employee, in 2009 was “related to work” and the “company management was aware of the high risk” and “did not take the sufficient preventive measure”.
Consequently “Le Monde” reports that the L'inspection générale des affaires sociales (IGAS), a French regulatory agency, recommended that France Télécom classifies the three cases of employees’ suicides as work related accidents.
This case again underlines the fact that the social and organizational changes on the enterprise, especially during the economic crises and high unemployment period, have a huge impact on the mental health of employees and their well being at work, and should be focused on more among the human factors and ergonomics professionals community.

A.M.

References
“French unease at telecom suicides”, BBC, Sept., 12, 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8252547.stm
France Télécom épinglé pour "mise en danger délibérée" de la vie d'autrui,” March, 12, 2010.
http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2010/03/12/france-telecom-epingle-pour-mise-en-danger-deliberee-de-la-vie-d-autrui_1318032_3224.html#ens_id=1268114
France Télécom Addresses Suicides,” Sept 15, 2009.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125291498468308169.html#printMode
“Un rapport de l’inspection du travail accuse l’opérateur d’être en partie responsable du suicide d’un de ses agents dans le Doubs,” Le Parisien, March12, 2010.
http://www.leparisien.fr/economie/france-telecom-mis-en-cause-pour-homicide-involontaire-12-03-2010-845318.php
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Published in
The Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics International NEWS - April 2010 - Number 19
http://www.ahfe2010.org/news/2010_April.html

Will the Apple iPad be a paradigm shift that will change the way we use portable computers?

2010-03-10T12:27:00.001-08:00

On January 27, 2010, Apple launched the iPad, a device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, photos, watching videos, playing games, reading e-books, and even more. The device has a high-resolution Multi-Touch display that can be described as a bigger, more refined version of the iTouch. Although the tablet computer is not necessarily new, other computer companies have offered similar tablet products before, the success of the Apple iTablet, along with the Amazon Kindle for digital book and iPhone/iTouch that had haptic interfaces, indicates a paradigm shift in portable computer usage. This could also be another major change in the way that people apprehend portable computers, considering the following major changes: graphical user interfaces in making the computer software accessible to everybody, portable music players in the way that people listen to music, and portable computers for giving the opportunity to have a portable office, as well as the Internet's refinements in breaking the wall and connecting and making everything available to everybody, and finally mobile phone's in making it technologically possible to connect anybody to everybody almost anywhere. Even though we still need to physically experience the exact behavior of the iPad, we can anticipate the following major changes in user behavior.

-Reading from a vertical screen to physically changeable position in the way user wants to view or read.
-Cut and paste versus keyboard data entry.
-Direct access to desired application versus free navigation.
-Multi tasking all the time. We can already see that many people have their eyes usually focused on a small screen of a handheld device even when they are walking or talking to someone.

Thus what would be the impact of this device on user behavior? And what are the other changes that we should expect to see soon? These are the questions that HCI experts will need to research.
A.M.
"International NEWS - March 2010 - Number 40"
http://www.hci-international.org/index.php?module=newsletter&MMN_position=3:3