Interactions Experiences * People * Technology
The Incidental User

Traditionally, the focus of HCI has been designing for people who actively use applications or interactive products. These individuals, commonly referred to as users, may be bank tellers operating a banking application, pilots setting parameters of an autopilot system, or customers using ATM machines. This viewpoint neglects a vast number of cases in which human interactions with computerized systems are less active and often unplanned, yet still meaningful. People’s needs are routinely ignored in these situations and the effects of information systems on their lives often go unnoticed. We term these people “incidental users.”

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Interactions is a bimonthly publication of theACM. (c) 2009, Association of Computing Machinery