Clarke, R. J (2001) L213-07: 1

Multimedia in Organisations

BUSS 213

Lecture 7Designing Multimedia Interfaces

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Notices (1)General

Reminder that you are required to inform me prior to the Lecture Week 7 by email of your selected topic- when composing the email to me please use exactly the following subject name of A2-213-01

BUSS213 website where you can find out the latest Notices and get Lecture Notes, Tutorial Sheets, Assignments etc is:

www.uow.edu.au/~rclarke/buss213/buss213.htm this week tutorial sheet is available on this site for

use in the laboratory (open up WORD or simply print it out)

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Notices (2)Consultation Times & Marking Progress

Due to circumstances beyond my control I was not available on campus for Consultation on Thursday afternoon- consequently for this coming week only I will make a consultation time on Monday 14:30-16:30

For the same reason I have not completed Assignment 1 marking, but these assignments will be ready on Monday afternoon- my apologies for the delay and any inconvenience caused

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Readings

Vaughan, T. (1998) Multimedia Making it Work 4th Edition, Osborne: McGraw-HillChapter 7: Making Instant Multimedia pp.

123-144Chapter 8: Multimedia Authoring Tools pp.

147-176

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Agenda (1)

in previous lectures we started to build an understanding of different types of media (Lectures 3, 4, and 5)

in Lecture 6 last week we used this knowledge to identify what makes new forms of media different from traditional ones- the difference is that these forms of media are under the influence of computation

we demonstrated that this was true by taking the ‘simplest’ form of media (text) and demonstrating the work done in dimensional typography which uses computation to processes text in unusual ways- layering it into information spaces, or converting static letterforms to dynamic objects

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Agenda (2)

we are about to start another block of three lectures which concentrate on what we build out of these media- actual multimedia systems

the first of these lectures (this lecture) concerns the design of multimedia interfaces

next lecture we describe how to model multimedia applications, and

in a fortnight we describe Interaction and Interactivity, and its relationships to Usability of the interface and Actability collectively these concepts are integral parts of both multimedia

interfaces and multimedia systems- so important that they require detailed discussion

‘actability’ is a concept I have borrowed from outside human computer interaction (HCI) to talk about the appropriateness of the multimedia interfaces and systems within its organisational contexts

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Agenda (3)

there are several different meanings found in the computing literature for the term ‘interface’:

for example, in programming the INTERFACE part of a module is that which specifies precisely its inputs and outputs- the part that is visible to other modules- as distinct from its IMPLEMENTATION part which is hidden

we are not talking about this kind of interface in this lecture we describe the importance of the user interface

in any application despite the fact that we are surrounded by user interfaces,

remarkably little is known about how to build them most of use spend our time consulting user interface guidelines

so that our interface design looks like other programs which support a particular metaphor on a given platform

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Agenda (4)

many people equate the user interface with the ‘screen’ where ‘interface’ is interpreted to mean a single unit that can be analysed, designed and implemented in order to provide a bundle of functionality

this is in part true but it is only a technical view of the interface, we have to consider the other aspect of user interfaces without which this technical definition has no meaning

interfaces should support user communities and specific kinds of communication- this is a social process view of the interfaces

any user interface whether it is part of a multimedia system or not must share both of these aspects- it is a technical artifact that (should) support social processes in organisation

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Agenda (5)

we describe the types of guidelines that are used to design interfaces especially GUI interfaces you see on PC/Mac systems

traditional user interfaces are distinct from multimedia interfaces- there purposes are often different

broadly we are critical of the theory informing traditional interfaces design and suggest other types of theory that are better suited to multimedia interface design

these concerns are addressed in the following sections: User Interface Guidelines Communicative Assumptions User Interface Design Process Multimedia Design as a Social Activity

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User Interface Guidelines

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Multimedia Interface

The traditional user interface design the interface can be thought of as a layer that separates the user from the application

in designing organisational multimedia interfaces we know that this idea is too limiting and based on false assumptions about the relationship between the user, the machine and the organisation

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User Interface Guidelines

Classical user interface design generally starts with a metaphor

Apples user interface design guidelines say “Use metaphors involving concrete, familiar ideas and make the metaphors plain, so that users have a set of expectations to apply to computer environments”

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User Interface GuidelinesApples Principles

Metaphors Direct manipulation WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) User Control Feedback and Dialogue Forgiveness Perceived Stability Aesthetic Integrity Modelessness Knowledge of Your Audience Accessibility

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User Interface GuidelinesApples Design Considerations (Internationalisation, Disability)

Worldwide Compatibility Cultural Values Region-dependent Resources Language Differences Text Display and Editing Default Alignment of Interface Elements Keyboards Fonts Universal Access People with a Physical Visual Hearing, Speech or Language

Disability or Seizure Disorder Collaborative Computing (Groupwork & Password Access) etc…

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User Interface GuidelinesApples GUI Design

the reality is that the number of widgets used in the interface is rather small

there are only a very few permitted ways that can be utilised and applied to an interface by a designer

the guidelines provide canonical uses for each of the major classes of widget- menus, windows, dialogue boxes, controls, icons, colours, behaviours, langauge

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User Interface Guidelines

the range of media which the classical user interface guidelines describe is limited - you will not find the IBM CUA or Apple Interface Guidelines specify anything about media types like QuickTime- nor of course can they possibly say anything about media that is yet to be developed

we have seen already in the previous lecture that new media types can be developed if we understand the nature of media

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User Interface Guidelines

there is certainly advice that classical user interface design guidelines can provide that is applicable to assisting the design of multimedia interfaces

for example you may encounter advice in a guideline like ‘be consistent in the behaviour shared between objects’...

...yet you do not necessarily need a guideline to tell you about this it is commonsense to start from this in mind

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User Interface Guidelines

in fact of course user interface guidelines exist because of the need to codify common sense (which is of course decidely uncommon when it comes to interface design)

user interface guidelines are just set of elaborate conventions- outside the parameters of typical use (within the metaphor taht they desscribe ) GUI guidelines are entirely silent

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Models of a User Interface

the term ‘models’ used to refer to a descriptive representation of a person’s conceptual and operational understanding

some models are explicit, consciously designed (represented using diagrams or descriptions)

In traditional interface design three models are important for UI design: users conceptual model designers model programmers model

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User Interface DesignIBM CUA Guidelines

describe the IBM CUA GUI Design Process (IBM 1991a, 77-128) - this is an example process only and IBM do not claim it as a GUI design methodology

nonetheless it contains elements recognisable in other methodologies- use it to: identifying elements that are overly simplified or

incorrect from a semiotic perspective identify omissions and elisions from a semiotic

perspective

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Communicative AssumptionsIBM CUA Guidelines

as with the workflow previously described there are communicative assumptions in IBM CUA GUI Design Process (IBM 1991a, 77-128) which need to be investigated

these assumptions involving the nature of computer mediated communication and human-computer interaction

they are common to many UI design methodologies and IBM’s design process is used as an example

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User Interface DesignCUA Guidelines: Goals & Design Principles

provide immediate feedback for each action reduce the number of steps required to accomplish a task provide full function with a small number of objects increase a users control over a product reduce the potential for exceptions reduce the effect of exceptions allow a user to use either a keyboard of the mouse to

accompish a task provide interaction techniques suited to the needs of

novice users and expert users

IBM (1991a, 78)

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User Interface Design WorkflowIBM CUA Iterative Design Process

Research & Planning1. Gather Requirements2. Learn about users and their tasks3. Match Requirements to tasks

Design1. Objects2. Views3. menus4. Windows

Prototype

Test

Four basic steps in the development process:Researching & planningDesigningPrototypingtesting

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WIMPs Interface

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Object-oriented Multimedia

we consider how to model different media types and there properties and operations using object-oriented programming

the resulting building blocks are referred to as classes which can then be directly included into programs or further extended

object-oriented approaches are a natural fit with multimedia systems- there are several reasons for this

here we consider the general characteristics of object-orientation- these are broadly applicable in other development contexts as well

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WIMPs InterfaceHierarchical Menus (l) & Pop-up Menus (r)

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WIMPs InterfacePull-down Menus

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Assumptions in GUI Design

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Assumptions in GUI Design Theories of Users in IS

there are in built assumptions about peopleits very important to understand what those

assumption are, and how they predispose us to certain kind of decisions

very important... if we are wrong as a discipline, then:we won’t be able to design high quality systems we won’t understand why our systems fail or

succeed

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Assumptions in GUI Design Theories of Users in IS

theories about people are sometimes referred to as ‘theories of subjectivity’

subjectivity refers to both individuality and self-awareness

in Western culture and science the dominant theory of subjectivity is the ‘subject of psychology’ the individual! and not surprisingly this is dominant in the IS discipline as well

if we believe that people should be thought of as individuals, then this belief is called individualism

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Assumptions in GUI Design Individualism

the IS discipline has a theory of users based on individualism and it has a profound impact on the nature of interface design…

…if you don’t believe me, look at the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) literature in which you will find users often theorised as machines (computers)...

for example a dominant model of HCI is called the ‘Model Human Processor’

Card et al (1983) The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction LEA Press 26-27

it is a model of users based on the ‘subject of psychology’- the individual

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‘Model Human Processor’Card et al (1983)

Visual ImageStore

Auditory Image Store

PerceptualProcessor

MotorProcessor

CognitiveProcessor

Working Memory

Long-Term Memory

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Assumptions in GUI Design Model Human Processor

the user in this model is considered to be a set of processors and memories

the use of this model is to try to explain the behaviour of a worker when operating a user interface

the user is considered:act so as to attain his goals through rational action,

given the structure of the task and his inputs of information and bounded by limitations of his knowledge and processing ability

Behaviour -> Goals + Task + Operators + Inputs + Knowledge + Process-limits

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Assumptions in GUI Design Individualism

we can see that this is an extreme form of an familiar approach to modelling users and workers in organisations

it also fits with classical communication theory- the user is considered both as a ‘sender’ and ‘receiver’

but it doesn’t enable us to think about organisations as social units

it doesn’t provide us with answers about how people learn, and under what conditions, it does not address meaning at all...

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Assumptions in GUI Design Alternatives

so dominant is the ‘individual’ in IS that it is difficult to think of alternatives to it

however, alternatives do exist and are useful for considering users during user interface design…

some alternatives include:thinking of users in social and institutional

spaces- using this as a point of departure for creating new user interface metaphors, or

thinking of the user interface use (and design) as a communicative process

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Alternative Metaphors 1:Institutional Spaces

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Institutional Space MetaphorsDefinition and Types

institutions like galleries, museums, exploratoria and campuses are commonly used as metaphors in multimedia interface designs

they can be useful but as with all metaphorical uses of space they can also be limiting

these metaphors share the characteristic of treating the user as an individual who moves through a socially constructed institutional spaces- a social individual rather than the individual constructed by traditional GUI design

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Institutional Space MetaphorsGallery Metaphor

utilises a fixed room geometry comprising static, reified two dimensional artifacts, excluding special cases such as mobiles and dynamic sculpture

action in this kind of space would be limited to the user moving between or interacting with single artifacts

the problem with this metaphor is that there is little to entice the user to interact with any artifact

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Institutional Space MetaphorsMuseum Metaphor

similarly utilises a fixed geometry of rooms comprising mostly static exhibits

a major advantage of these exhibits over those in an art gallery is that they are three dimensional

museums also utilise models of the physical surroundings in which an exhibit may have existed, for example dioramas, as well as exhibits which are dynamic, for example animatronics

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Institutional Space MetaphorsExploratoria and Campus Metaphors

Exploratoria (Science Museum) Metaphor: like a gallery and museum metaphor, one which is based on

discrete artifacts, although one designed to support user interaction

Campus Metaphor: can be thought of as a collection of functional areas, buildings,

facilities, and services which users would require when learning about concepts

campuses contain laboratories, libraries, entertainment spaces, offices and so on

the advantage of this metaphor is that it is a macrocosm of society, but then as with society how does one learn where to go, and how does one know where they want to go (at least without the aid of a map)

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References

Apple Computer Inc. (1992) Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines Apple Technical Library Addison Wesley Publishing Co.

Laurel, B. ed/ (1990) The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.

Shneiderman, B. (1992) Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction 2nd Edition Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

Vaughan, T. (1998) Multimedia Making it Work 4th Edition, Osborne: McGraw-Hill