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CS 485/515General course outline
• Design for people – theory and vocabulary• Just enough psychology• Task-centered procedure for user interface
design.• Tools for user interface design• Application to your own projects
– Initial design and cognitive walkthroughs– Iterative design and user tests
• Advance User Interface topics and techniques
URL: crl.nmsu.edu/~ogden/cs485
Today’s theme
• It’s obvious…• (Or: It is easy when you know how)
Which is more obvious?
2004
2007
2008
2009
2010
Is UI design easy or hard?Does it really matter?
• Even simple decisions require thought and are influenced by experience
• Al Gore – George Bush election determined by UI design.
• It is easy to blame the user.
Same or different?
A AA A
A a
A A
A B
Even simple decisions require thought and depend on context
Did the user (voter) see the arrow?How do you know?
Florida Butteryfly Ballot
19,120 ballots in West Palm Beach were disqualified/nullified because of double voting.
Margin of victory was 512 votes.
Sample ballot looks easier when the holes are missing.
Sample Ballot
Presidential page is different from all other ballots.
Linear Visual Search
Numeric Mapping
Today’s theme (restated)
• Expectations influence perceptions (aka “It’s obvious”)
• The Cow example shows us:– The more you know the less likely you will be able to
judge what others may know.– What you ‘know’ influences what you ‘see’– You can’t judge a user interface by just looking at it.
Remember the cow
Today’s questions
• What is an interface?• What is a good interface?
Push or Pull ?
“Designer”Door
Good and bad design
• What is wrong with the Apex remote?
• Why is the TiVo remote so much better designed?– Peanut shaped to fit in
hand– Logical layout and
color-coded, distinctive buttons
– Easy to locate buttons
What is a good interface?• There is no such thing
– cf. Good furniture arrangement
• The test of quality depends on it’s context– How will the software be used? Who will use it? How
long?– How important is: Learnability? Portability? ...
• The answers vary for each application• Finding the answers is the first step in UI design• Depends on users and tasks. So we must learn
a process for figuring it out.
