Cybernetics and human-computer interaction: Case studies of modern interface design

Graphical user interfaces embody the complex dynamics between humans and everyday technologies. Designers and developers, constructing the graphical interfaces which determine and “control” the structures of user experience, are themselves informed by observations of user behavior and interaction. The recent commercial proliferation of these graphical interfaces in consumer electronics and digital computing has expanded their use and influence. Revisiting the graphical user interface reveals the influence of the Wiener´s original cybernetics project on early pioneers of interface design. The general cybernetic inquiries of control and communication are especially relevant to the concept of graphical user interfaces as modern communicative media between human and machine, as is the later work in understanding the reflexivity of observers acting within systems. In the potential capacity of graphical interfaces to expand human agency, but only if conceptualized and designed by humans to do so, understanding the cybernetic and systemic ontology of the graphical user interface is important in motivating innovative interface design and understanding the determinants of contemporary digital culture.