HCI VISTAS, VOLUME-I, 2005-2006

  

HCI in India catching up with

On-Duty-Self-Learning HCI practitioners! 

Dr. Dinesh S. Katre

Article INSP-1./June 2005
 

Is HCI in India really catching up? To me the answer is probably yes and no both but certainly it is catching up more like the astrology profession. This comment is based on the observation that many interface designers are unable to decompose the usability problems in a logical way and with a scientific approach. Many design solutions are quite intuitively selected and corrected through trial and error approach. I would say that large number of Indian HCI practitioners are in self-learning mode. I hear nowadays that there are some universities, which offer degree certificates based on the field experience of individuals. These individuals do not have to undergo any course work. But you will agree that course work is essential and it could be dangerous to offer degrees without completion of proper course work. For example, you can imagine how nightmarish it would be to have doctors with such certification. The self-taught usability professionals often do not get access to the literature on cognitive and behavioral psychology, ergonomics, statistics and many other related subjects and hence many of them proceed for work without studying them. Many of them do not even know that they need to study these basic topics. This results in UI design solutions that are driven by symptoms or manifestations of the usability problems. The root cause is often not addressed. In extreme situations, it can be like someone not having prior knowledge trying to operate the head or the heart of a person.

  
Unavailability of HCI education programs at the universities in India is also one major reason behind this situation. Of course there are a few exceptions like Industrial Design Centre, IIT, Mumbai and National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad where interface design is deliberated upon and teaching explorations are on. Hardly 25-30 students pass out from these institutes every year (I suppose the first batch of Software User Interface Design program of NID is yet to pass out!). Apart from these 25-30 students, all rest of the practitioners are on-duty-self-learning ones? When we hear that Satyam, Infosys, Mahendra British Telecom and many other companies are recruiting hundreds of UI designers, from where are they coming? Actually, most of these candidates are essentially graphic designers or web/multimedia application developers who fill in the usability positions. Are we saying the multi-billion dollar IT industry of India is going to be supported by on-duty-self-learning HCI practitioners? Jackob Nielson's prediction of "India requiring 400,000 usability professionals by 2008 if it's offshore industry has to earn US$63 billion in export earnings through offshore software projects", will not be true with on-duty-self-learning usability professionals.
  
I am actually awe struck by the idea that-
 

Indian HCI is emerging through the efforts

of self-taught HCI practitioners.

  
If it is so, all these are Ekalavyas (Ekalavya is the prince from the epic of Mahabharata, who learnt archery all by himself) who have figured out HCI without the course work? It is indeed inspiring but at the same time it opens up new challenges of standard practices, processes, techniques and measures for validation of results to ensure the usability of a product. As far as usability target is met, there is no reason to differentiate between the self-taught and the qualified HCI practitioners.
  
  
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