PODCAST · science
HCI Explained
by HCI Explained
Curious about how humans interact with technology? HCI Explained breaks down complex Human-Computer Interaction topics into clear, engaging stories. From agency and automation to design ethics and UX psychology, we explore how tech shapes what it means to be human. Whether you're a student, designer, or tech enthusiast, join us weekly to learn how interaction design influences our everyday lives.Support the show on Buy Me a Coffee to help keep new episodes coming: https://buymeacoffee.com/hciexplained. 💙🚀
Episodes
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The Invisible Math of Human Frustration: The Three Kinds of Cognitive Load #HCIExplained S2E14
Your brain has a budget. Good design either spends it wisely or blows it. Not all mental effort is the same — and that distinction turns out to matter enormously for how we design things people actually want to use. Cognitive load theory started in educational psychology, but its core insight...
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The Map in the User's Head #HCIExplained S2E13
Your mental model of an app and the designer's rarely match — and that gap explains a lot. Every time you tap something and get a surprise, every time a feature hides somewhere you'd never look, every time a tool feels like it's working against you — there's a good chance you're bumping into a...
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What Norman Meant by Affordance #HCIExplained S2E12
The word "affordance" is everywhere in design — and almost always wrong. Don Norman borrowed a term from ecological psychology, put it at the heart of design thinking, and then watched it get mangled for three decades. Designers use it to mean roughly "what something looks like it does" — but...
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The Anatomy of a Button #HCIExplained S2E11
What makes a button feel clickable — and what happens when it doesn't? A button seems like the simplest thing in design. Press it, something happens. But beneath that transaction sits a surprisingly rich set of decisions: about visual signals, about feedback, about what it even means for an...
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Type as Voice #HCIExplained S2E10
Your font is already talking. The question is whether you're listening. Before you read a single word, the typeface carrying it has already made an impression — formal or casual, trustworthy or playful, easy or exhausting. That's not a metaphor. It's a measurable effect that shapes how people…
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The 1-in-12 Problem #HCIExplained S2E9
One in twelve men can't read your colour-coded design the way you intended. That's not a niche accessibility footnote — it's a quiet, persistent failure woven into the fabric of everyday UX. Colour is one of the most powerful tools in a designer's kit, and one of the most routinely misused. This...
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Designing the Visual Path #HCIExplained S2E8
Your eye moves before your brain does. Visual hierarchy is why. Every screen you use has been designed — consciously or not — to pull your attention in a particular direction. The size of a heading, the weight of a typeface, the breathing room around a button: none of it is arbitrary. Researchers...
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How the Eye Reads a Screen #HCIExplained S2E7
Your eyes decide what matters before your brain knows you're looking. Most of us assume we read a screen the way we read a book — left to right, top to bottom, taking it all in. But decades of eye-tracking research tell a different story. Attention moves in jagged, skipping patterns, guided by...
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Gestalt Principles in Modern Interface Design
Why does a button feel clickable? Why do some interfaces feel intuitive almost instantly? And why can cluttered apps feel exhausting to use? The answer often comes back to a set of ideas from early psychology known as Gestalt principles. In this episode of HCI Explained, we explore how principles...
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The Evolution of User Research Methods #HCIExplained
User research did not always look like Zoom calls, heatmaps, and analytics dashboards. In this episode of HCI Explained, we trace how researchers studied people and technology from the 1980s to today. We explore the rise of usability labs, contextual inquiry, ethnographic fieldwork, remote…
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Designing for Failure: Why Good UX Plans for Things Going Wrong #HCIExplained
Failure is not an edge case. It is part of every user experience. In this episode, we unpack why designing for failure is essential in modern UX. From broken flows and system errors to unexpected user behaviour, the best products are not those that avoid failure, but those that handle it well. We...
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Designing with Uncertainty #HCIExplained S2.E5
Modern technologies don’t always know, and pretending they do can be risky. From AI predictions and recommendations to navigation and health apps, uncertainty is built into how many systems work. The real design challenge is not removing uncertainty, but helping people understand and work with…
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When Good UX Causes Harm #HCIExplained S2.E4
Good UX is meant to help users — but what happens when it doesn’t? Many design patterns celebrated as “good UX” are optimised for engagement, speed, and convenience. Over time, these same choices can lead to overuse, manipulation, and loss of autonomy. In this episode of HCI Explained, we examine...
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Human Control vs Automation: Where Do We Draw the Line? #HCIExplained S2.E3
Automation promises speed, efficiency, and scale — but it also raises a difficult question: how much control should humans give up? As AI systems increasingly make decisions, take actions, and optimise outcomes on our behalf, issues of agency, responsibility, and trust move to the centre of...
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Designing for Trust in an Age of AI #HCIExplained
Why do we trust some technologies and hesitate with others? As AI systems become more autonomous, adaptive, and opaque, trust has become one of the most complex challenges in Human–Computer Interaction. In this episode of HCI Explained, we unpack what trust really means in AI-driven systems and…
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What’s in Store for 2026: Possibilities, Signals, and Futures
As we look beyond 2025, the question isn’t what will definitely happen, it’s what might become possible. In this episode of HCI Explained, we explore what could be in store for technology in 2026, drawing on emerging signals, open questions, and unresolved tensions shaping the future of tech. We...
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Tech Successes and Failures of 2025 #HCIExplained
2025 was a defining year for technology, marked by major breakthroughs and equally notable missteps. In this episode of HCI Explained, we examine the biggest tech successes and failures of 2025, delving beyond headlines to understand why some ideas were successful while others failed. We cover…
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Heuristic Evaluation: Quick Wins in UX #HCIExplained
Want to find usability problems before they frustrate your users? That’s where heuristic evaluation comes in — a quick, expert-based method that delivers powerful UX insights without needing large-scale testing. In this episode of HCI Explained, we explore how heuristic evaluation works and why...
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How to Conduct Usability Testing #HCIExplained
Ever tapped through an app and thought, who tested this? That’s where usability testing comes in — one of the most practical and powerful methods in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and UX design. In this episode of HCI Explained, we unpack the essentials of usability testing: What it is and why…
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Multimodal Interaction: Blending Touch, Voice, and Beyond #HCIExplained
Every day, you’re already engaging in multimodal interaction, whether you’re tapping on a screen, speaking to a virtual assistant, or combining gestures and voice commands in your car. But what does it really mean when technology supports more than one way of communicating? And how does it change...
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Embodied Interaction: When the Body Becomes the Interface #HCIExplained
What if your body wasn’t just a tool to operate technology but the interface itself? From swiping on a touchscreen to moving through a VR world, your body is already shaping how you experience the digital. This is the essence of embodied interaction, an HCI perspective that sees the body not just...
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Cognitive Maps: Navigating Digital Information Spaces #HCIExplained
Every time you open an app, scroll through a website, or manage a cluster of browser tabs, your brain is doing more than you realise. It’s not just clicking and scrolling — it’s building a mental map of a hidden digital landscape. These internal representations, called cognitive maps, shape how…
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Feedback Loops: Keeping the User Informed #HCIExplained
Every tap, click, and swipe leaves a trace — and the system whispers back. That whisper is feedback. In this episode of HCI Explained, we dive deep into the fascinating world of feedback loops in Human-Computer Interaction, uncovering how they keep us informed, reduce errors, and help us build...
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Affordances and Constraints in Everyday Tech #HCIExplained
Ever wondered why some tech feels so intuitive while other interfaces leave you confused? In this episode of HCI Explained, we dive into the fascinating design principles of affordances and constraints—two forces that quietly shape how we interact with technology every day. We’ll explore how...
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User-Centered Design: More Than Just Talking to Users #HCIExplained
In today's fast-paced technological landscape, "User-Centered Design" (UCD) is a term often thrown around, but its true depth and transformative power are frequently misunderstood. Too many assume it's simply about conducting a single usability test or a quick user interview. But as this episode...
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Affordances: Understanding Design and User Interaction #HCIExplained
Why do some objects feel intuitive while others leave us confused? In this episode of HCI Explained, we dive into the concept of affordances, the hidden (or visible) clues that guide how we interact with things. From doorknobs to app icons to anything else we feel like acting with, or being acted...
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The Psychology Behind Good Design #HCIExplained
Why do certain interfaces just feel right to use, while others frustrate us instantly? In Episode 4 of HCI Explained, we explore the psychology behind good design — how cognitive science, mental models, and human perception shape what we consider “usable.” In this episode, we unpack: Core...
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What Makes an Interface “Usable”? #HCIExplained
What makes some digital interfaces feel intuitive while others leave us confused and frustrated? In this episode of HCI Explained, we explore the concept of usability, which is a fundamental aspect of Human-Computer Interaction. We examine the five key attributes of usability: learnability,...
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How Humans and Computers Interact | The Basics of HCI
What exactly is Human-Computer Interaction, and why does it matter? In this episode of HCI Explained, we break down the core concepts of HCI—how we interact with computers, and how technology can be designed to work with people, not against them. Learn about the foundations of HCI, including: –...
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The Science of Control: Sense of Agency Explained
Have you ever wondered what it really means to feel in control of your actions? In this debut episode of HCI Explained, we dive deep into the Sense of Agency — the invisible link between your intentions, actions, and outcomes. Discover the difference between the Feeling of Agency and the Judgment...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Curious about how humans interact with technology? HCI Explained breaks down complex Human-Computer Interaction topics into clear, engaging stories. From agency and automation to design ethics and UX psychology, we explore how tech shapes what it means to be human. Whether you're a student, designer, or tech enthusiast, join us weekly to learn how interaction design influences our everyday lives.Support the show on Buy Me a Coffee to help keep new episodes coming: https://buymeacoffee.com/hciexplained. 💙🚀
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HCI Explained
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does HCI Explained have?
HCI Explained currently has 30 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is HCI Explained about?
Curious about how humans interact with technology? HCI Explained breaks down complex Human-Computer Interaction topics into clear, engaging stories. From agency and automation to design ethics and UX psychology, we explore how tech shapes what it means to be human. Whether you're a student,...
How often does HCI Explained release new episodes?
HCI Explained has 30 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to HCI Explained on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts HCI Explained?
HCI Explained is created and hosted by HCI Explained.
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