To me, research in HCI involves both understanding how humans interact with computers and creating better ways for humans to interact with computers. A more expansive view makes HCI also about understanding how humans use computers to interact with other humans, and then creating better ways for humans to interact with other humans via computers.
By “computer” I mean any sort of computational device (e.g., smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, Internet-of-things) – not just a traditional desktop or laptop computer.
Because over 3 billion people around the world now directly interface with computers of some sort, via either traditional computers or mobile devices. To have computer science as a field only study computers for their own sake without taking humans into account is to ignore a core reason why computers were invented: to serve humans.
As cheesy as it sounds, I believe that humans and computers should be viewed together as a human-computer system to make the most of both sides' strengths. Do we want to keep working toward a future where we're replaced by machines running fully-automated algorithms, or one where we work symbiotically with machines? I'd much rather prefer the latter. Of course, full automation is preferable for many problems where it's too slow or tedious for humans to intervene, but I still often prefer for humans to be in control, albeit with machine assistance.
