Evolving from T-person into a π person

By picking up this book, you are committing to becoming a T-based person. A T-person is based on two factors, the horizontal and the vertical, as shown here: 

The horizontal factor represents the breadth of knowledge. This is the knowledge that can be obtained through life experience, curiosity about people, and cultural education, and is the knowledge that can produce insight. Insight can then travel down the vertical stem of the T, which represents the depth of knowledge, and becomes connected to speciality knowledge. Depth of knowledge is a concept that applies to any specific domain, for example, a General Practioner (GP) represents the horizontal bar, whereas a cardiologist (the specialist medical skill of understanding the heart) would represent the stem of the T. Being skilled at your profession requires considering what your breadth and depth of knowledge concern.

For HCI, this means having and understanding an extensive knowledge about humans and computers, which allows you to then funnel those experiences down into specific skills relevant to your software development roles, and hopefully wider society. As an HCI designer if you have a breadth of knowledge without any depth in the skill you will carry a limited ability to be as sought after in our world. The saying, A jack of all trades is a master of none calls out the folly of focusing only on the breadth of your knowledge. Luckily HCI has many stems to focus on and create a depth of knowledge. This makes HCI practitioners more like π people. The number π (pi) is a mathematical constant and appears in many formulae in all areas of mathematics, physics, and computer science. It is approximately equal to 3.14159.

The shape of π is more sturdy than a T anyway, as it has multiple stems, and just like the number π the knowledge you can gain in HCI goes on and on just like π (pi). A π person has a stable two-legged base:

This book is committed to helping you grow your stems with specific skills in HCI. However, the nature of HCI is not just about in-depth specific knowledge only. To be human-centered, it will require growing your breadth of knowledge and improving your ability to approach the problem that the computer can solve with your user at the center. The goal of this book is to stretch your knowledge in all directions and help you develop your curiosity about just how we use computers.

Gaining depth in the stems of the topics of computers and interaction is no easy task, and knowledge of humans takes a lifetime to build. The reality is that gaining knowledge takes time. However, that time has to be dedicated and allocated so that the experience can be consumed, practiced, and ultimately redesigned. You will not become an expert instantly, and reading this book alone will not guarantee that expertise, though it will hopefully help to move the needle a little. As you learn HCI throughout this book, you will find we use a hermeneutic loop.

Hermeneutic loops

Hermeneutics is a thinking framework that loops through synthesis and analysis, based on the idea that multiple parts build a whole. For example, the book you are reading now is made up of chapters. The whole of Learn Human-Computer Interaction cannot be understood by reading just one chapter. Each chapter is sequentially designed for the book as a system and becomes additive in its analysis. Over time, you will synthesize each chapter with those that came before it as you learn HCI, thus revealing the whole. You will practice this hermeneutic learning loop through activities and practice with reading and engagement:

As a framework, hermeneutics has its roots in the beginnings of western philosophy and is a process that you can use to think and talk about knowledge and understanding. The word has its origins in the ancient Greek word for interpretation. 

The loops we are on are continuous and will last far beyond the completion of this book. However, using a hermeneutic loop will be a useful framework as you progress and increase your HCI skills. 

At the end of each chapter, you will find a summary that you can use to synthesize the conversations, activities, and practice into the whole of your HCI experience and knowledge. As part of growing your HCI knowledge, you will be expected to do a few things along the way to expand your skills. HCI requires a lot of practice:

The hermeneutics loop is all about practice, and we will use this practice to grow our skills and learn more about HCI. As a designer who also has made HCI their practice, I will be giving some of my own perspectives as well as sharing systems and tools used by the HCI community.