1) Who am I
My name is Andy Hong. I am an exchange student from Singapore, from the National University of Singapore. I am in my 3rd year, studying for a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. I am 23 years old. I am of Chinese ethnicity and I speak fluent English and Mandarin. I am currently learning Swedish but have not learnt enough to use it effectively.
2) What I do
I am an undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. I was motivated to study Computer Science because of my interest in computer games, although I have not made any games of my own. But I play a lot of games, old and new, of many genres such as strategy, simulation, and role-playing. I do not just play the popular, mainstream games such as Warcraft 3 and Counterstrike, but also old games and less-known ones such as Mount & Blade and Hearts of Iron 2.
I spend some time away from the computer as well. I play field hockey and touch rugby for my hall (which is a combination of a nation and a student hostel). I like to read novels by Dean Koontz and Terry Pratchett. I also watch Japanese cartoons (anime), but stay away from the more well-known ones such as Bleach and Naruto. My favourite ones so far are Zombie Loan and School Rumble.
3) HCI and me
I feel that HCI is a very important subject for all computer science students who aspire to program in the future, whether it is games or software or even web pages. An important part of a user's assessment of a computer program, or webpage, is how easy it is to understand and use it. I have played games that had a very good idea but were let down by a poor user interface. There have also been games that had simple ideas but were so fun because they were very easy to pick up and start playing. On the other hand, there are also games that have wonderful graphics and an easy-to-use interface, but forget the primary ingredient -- fun. In general terms, it is possible for programs to be easy to interact with, but do not have good functionality. Therefore, while HCI should not be neglected, functionality also contributes to the user experience.
I will definitely, knowingly and unknowingly, be affected by HCI in the future. Already, HCI plays an important part in my daily life, since I spend a lot of my time in front of my computer, whether for work or play. To a large extent, how much I enjoy my work and play on the computer is determined by whether software programmers take HCI aspects into account in their work.. I will also come into contact with HCI when I work in future, probably as a programmer. At that time I will have to remember to take HCI aspects into account in my own work.
