ABSTRACT
In this chapter I look at human-computer interaction as a kind of coordinated action that bears many similarities to conversational interaction. In human-computer interaction, a computer can be both a medium to communicate through and a partner to communicate with. I consider how people coordinate their activities with other people electronically, over time and distance, as well as how they communicate with computers as interactive partners, regardless of whether the currency of interaction is icons, text, or speech. The problem is that electronic contexts are often impoverished ones. Many of the errors that occur in human-computer interaction can be explained as failures of grounding, in which users and systems lack enough evidence to coordinate their distinct knowledge states. Understanding the grounding process provides not only a systematic framework for interface designers who want to understand and improve human-computer interaction, but also a testbed for cognitive and social psychologists who seek to model the effects of different contexts and media upon language use.
