HCI's Impact on Culture

TASK 1 (P1)
How has HCI impacted Culture?



The impact on culture is much like the impacts on society, its considered normal in most 2nd and 1st world cultures for people to carry a mobile or have a computer in the house.


 

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However its had a much bigger impact on culture in domestic appliances. Its gone from having to stay home to ensure you don't burn your roast dinner to being able to set a timer off so it turns the oven off for you, allowing you to go blow the froth off of a couple of beers down the local. Timers have often been a key feature of most domestic appliances, allowing you to throw a towel in the dryer, have it set on a timer to start when you leave work, and give you a nice warm dry one when you walk in the door. The common chore of washing up is over, because now you can have a dishwasher, which a lot like a washing machine has a wash for those hand painted plates you had made, the only thing a dishwasher doesn't come with is someone/thing to load it for you, unless your a parent then you can get your kids to load and unload it haha. A lot of these appliances still need the human interaction to tell the machine what the task is but from that point onwards it works alone. However these appliances obviously need a way of imputing the task so dials with obvious and simple images where fitted, buttons, lights and LCD screens where also added, and as appliances get better, the input gets simpler  after all these machines where created to make our life easier!
(Images from http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/gifs/mangle.jpg (mangle image) and http://www.stodgell.co.uk/2010pics/2010/02/washing-machine.jpg (washing machine) )