HCI lecture notes by Sanjay Goel, JIIT 2012

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes Human Computer Interaction

1. Lecture #1-2 2 hrs. (24.07.12)

1. Critique the products/systems. Identify your liking and disliking.

2. Motivation and artefacts

(Ref: Ping Zhang, Motivational Affordances: Reasons for ICT Design and Use, Communications of the ACM, Nov

2008, pp 145-147).

3. Maslow (1940 onwards): Hierarchy of human needs (8 levels).

4. Deci and Ryan (1985 onwards): Intrinsic needs – Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness.

5. Map your findings of (1) to these models.

(Ref: a. Richard M. Ryan, Veronika Huta and Edward L. Deci, Living well: a self-determination theory perspective on eudaimonia, Journal of Happiness Studies, Volume 9, Number 1, Springer Netherlands, pp 139 170, January, 2008. b. Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan, Hedonia, eudaimonia, and well-being: an introduction, Volume 9, Number 1, Springer Netherlands, pp 1-11 January, 2008. c. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior, 1985, New York:Plenum).

6. Creating vision statement for improvising a product/service/system through enhancing its response to selected

human needs from these two models.

7. Assignments:

i. Refine your vision (6) and create three alternate solution approaches.

ii. Learn to use few software prototyping tools.

2. Lecture #3 1 hrs. (27.07.12)

1. Sharing of vision statements and proposed solution approaches.

2. Ryff and Singer (2008): Knowing Thyself – 6 basic needs for psychological well being – Self acceptance, autonomy,

control of environment, positive relations with others, purpose in life, personal growth.

(Ref: Carol D. Ryff and Burton H. Singer, Know thyself and become what you are: a Eudaimonic approach to

psychological well-being, Journal of Happiness Studies, Jan 2006, Springer Netherlands, pp 13-39).

3. Reiss (2000): 16 Basic desires – eating, physical exercise, romance, family, saving, acceptance, social contact,

independence, curiosity, order, power, status, vengeance, honour, idealism, tranquillity.

(Ref: a. Steven Reiss, Multifaceted Nature of Intrinsic Motivation: The Theory of 16 Basic Desires, Review of General Psychology, Educational Publishing Foundation, Vol. 8, No. 3, 179–193, 2004. b. Steven Reis, Who Am I?: The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Behavior and Define Our Personality, Tarcher, 2000).

4. An understanding of human needs through these models helps in clarifying the purpose of all technological,

business/economic, political, social, and even ritual constructs.

5. Assignments: Complete the pending assignment

3. Lecture #4-5 2 hrs. (31.07.12)

1. Artefacts/Technology help humans modify their environment.

2. Levels of Technology

a. Human Technology/Artefact World

b. Human [Technology/Artefact World]

c. [Human Technology/Artefact] World

d. [Human Technology/Artefact] [Virtual world World]

3. New artefacts help in modifying processes.

4. Aspects of human activities:

a. Physical

b. Cognitive

c. Emotional

5. When the point of contact between the product and the people become the point of friction, then the industrial

designer has failed. – Dreyfuss in Designing for People, 1955.

6. Evolution of Human’s role in production process and designer’s challenge:

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes a. Source of energy: performer’s physical load is the main concern of the designer of artefact that supports

utilization of human energy. Deep study of human anatomy (of performer) is critical.

b. Control function: Cognitive load is main concern. Deep study of human cognition (of performer) is critical.

c. Process design: Cognitive load is main concern. Deep study of human cognition of performer is critical.

7. Human limitations wrt artefact deign

a. Human’s physical limitations: Detailed description of human anatomy by Dreyfuss. Detailed

measurements of average human body wrt artefact design.

b. Human’s cognitive limitation: Miller’s law - the no. of objects an average human can hold in working

memory = 7 ± 2. More than these make the cognitive load unmanageable.

8. Artefacts

a. Systems View: appear to expand some functional capacity of the task performer

b. Personal View: replacement of the original task with new one (may have radically different cognitive

requirements and require radically different cognitive capacities)

9. Artefacts can:

a. Distribute the action across time, or

b. Distribute the action across people, or

c. Change the individual actions/task

10. The form (structure of artefacts) represents the embedded and embedding process.

11. User profile capture questions:

a. Target audience/user?

b. What do you want to accomplish for each audience/user?

c. Describe a typical user?

d. What are your user goals?

e. What action would your user expect to take to accomplish their goals.

f. Do you have storyboards of the sequence required by your user to accomplish typical users?

g. What are the anticipated difficulties with using systems for this type of user?

h. How does your design solve these issues?

12. Assignments: Study the evolution of any artefact/system/process over at least last few hundred years.

4. Lecture #6 1 hrs. (03.08.12)

1. This point of contact and friction can be

a. Physical

b. Cognitive

c. Emotional

http://www.designersreviewofbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/dreyfuss-01.jpg

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes 2. Engineering Anthropometry

a. Static measurements

b. Dynamic measurements

c. Anthropometric tables

3. Principles in the application of anthropometric data

a. Design for extreme individuals

b. Design for adjustable range

c. Designing for average

4. Design for understandability

a. Designer’s concern for user’s cognitive dissonance

5. Lecture #7,8 2 hrs. (14.08.12)

1. Activity Centred Design: Ref: Robert Hoekrman, Jr., Redefining User Centred design, 2008,

http://www.peachpit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=webdesign&seqNum=355

Activity Grid:

i. Activity

1. Tasks

a. Actions

i. Operations

2. Action Cycle: 7 stages of Action

i. Forming the goal

ii. Forming the intention

iii. Specifying the action

iv. Executing the action

v. Perceiving the state of the world

vi. Interpreting the state of the world

vii. Evaluating the outcome

3. Gulf of Execution: How well the actions provided by the system match those intended by the person? How well

the system allows the person to do the intended action directly, without extra effort?

4. Gulf of Evaluation: Amount of effort that the person must exert to interpret the state of the system and to

determine how well the expectations and intentions have been met

5. Ref: Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, 1988

13. Assignment: Prepare the activity grid for a domain specific study desk. The study desk should offer the books and

other reference material and also the work book.

6. Lecture #9 1 hrs. (17.08.12)

7. Lecture #10-11 2 hrs. (21.08.12)

1. Activity Theory: Vygotsky (1920), Leontyev, Luria, Engerstrom (1987), Kuutti(1991), Nardi (2006)...

a. Activity theory is a philosophical framework for studying different forms of human praxis as developmental

processes, with both individual and social levels interlinked.

http://www.peachpit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=webdesign&seqNum=355

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes b. Activities in which humans participate are the basic unit of development and human life. Hence they can be

used the unit of analysis – a minimum meaningful context for individual actions.

c. Activity is a form of doing directed to an object. Real life situation always features an interconnected web of

activities which can be distinguished by their objects and motive.

d. Human cognition emerges and exists within context of an individual’s interactions with the world and can only

be understood in terms of these interactions and activities. Unity of consciousness and activity. You are what

you do. Human can control their behaviour “from the outside”, using and creating artefacts. Artefacts are

integral and inseparable component of human functioning.

e. Activity is culturally and socially determined. It is a collective phenomenon. The relationships within an activity

are culturally mediated.

f. Activity is realised through conscious and purposeful actions by participants.

g. Activity is a historically developing phenomenon. Mediating terms are historically formed and open to further

development. These are continuously reconstructed during the existence of an activity. The different forces and

contradictions can be uncovered only through a historical analysis.

h. Contradictions are the force behind the development of an activity. Conflicts are surface symptoms of

contradictions. The developmental dynamics of activities are based on the emergence and solving of

contradictions.

i. Activity System: Basic Structure of activity

1) Outcome: desired goal of activity.

2) Object: Problem space. Activity is performed to create (transform) some object (towards some desired

state, into an outcome). Object can have physical/ chemical/ biological/ cultural/ social properties. These

objects can be:

a. Physical product

i. Instruments, Machines

b. Soft product

i. Sign, Notation, Language, Story, Music, Film, Script, Plan, Procedures, Process/method,

Checklist, Computer Program, work organisation forms, ...

c. Conceptual product

i. Relationship, Meaning, Shared Concept, Idea, Model, Theory, Laws, ...

d. Experience/Knowledge

e. People (e.g. a patient to be cured, a student to be taught)

3) Subject: One of more persons who engage in the activity to create/ transform some object. The point of

view used to focus on the activity.

4) Tools: Tools mediate the Subject-Object relationship. carry and embody the history of relationship between

subject and object. Within an activity system, objects created by a subject may become a mediating tool for

another actor. Objects of an activity may mediate another activity.

5) Community: Other actors. All those people and groups who share the object. And whose knowledge,

interests, stakes, and goals shape the activity.

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes 6) Social Rules: Rules mediate the subject-community relationship. Effect the activity and are impose by the

other actors including the larger organisation and professional community. Laws, codes, conventions,

customs, and agreements that people adhere to while engaging in the activity.

7) Division of labour: How the work in activity is divided among participants in the activity. Horizontal/Vertical.

8) Activity system contains two channels of supervision and control: hierarchical power structure embedded in

the division of labour, and control through norms and values embedded in rules.

8. Lecture #12 1 hrs. (24.08.12)

1. Activities are interrelated

Ref: Kate Crawford & Helen Hasan, Demonstrations Of The Activity Theory Framework For Research In Information

Systems, Australasian Journal of Information Systems Volume 13 Number 2 May 2006

2. Typology of Work Support

Ref: i. Kari Kuutti, The Concept Of Activity As A Basic Unit Of Analysis For CSCW Research,

ECSCW, 1991

ii. Kari Kuutti, Identifying Potential CSCW Applications by Means of

Activity Theory Concepts: A Case Example, CSCW, 1992

a. Role of Subjects:

i. Passive participant (predetermined) – using the given artifacts in a pre-specified way

ii. Active Subject – Using given artifacts but deciding actively how, and when to use them

iii. Active developer of the activity (Expansive)- active developer of artifacts in an activity.

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes

9. Lecture #13-14 2 hrs. (28.08.12)

1. Ref: V. Kaptelinin, B. Nardi And C. Macaulay, The Activity Checklist: A Tool for Representing the

―Space‖ of Context, interactions, July-August, 1999

1.1 Five Basic Principles of Activity Theory

a. Object Orientedness: The reality around human activity consists of natural, synthetic, cultural,

social, conceptual objects including people.

b. Hierarchical structure of activity: (Source of figure: Victor Kaptelinin & Bonnie A. Nardi, Activity

Theory in HCI: Fundamentals and Reflections, Morgan and Claypool Publishers, 2012, pp 28)

i. Activity unfolds through resolution of tensions

ii. Activities are undertaken to fulfil motives. Motives are top level objectives to fulfil a need/desire.

iii. Actions are goal directed processes. Actions are conscious.

iv. Operations do not have their own goals.

v. Actions transform into operation when they become reutilized and unconscious.


vi. An operation can become an action when conditions impeded an action‘s execution through

previously formed actions (major tensions).

(Source: Irshat Madyarov and Aida Taef, Contradictions in a Distance Course for a Marginalized

Population at a Middle Eastern University, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance

Learning, Vol 13, No 2, 2012)

Few Examples: (Source: Bonnie A. Nardi, Context and consciousness: Activity Theory and Human

Computer Interaction, MIT Press, 1996, pp 33)

c. Internalisation/Externalisation: internal (mental) and external activities constantly transform into

each other.


IPA: Internal plane of action is the human ability to perform manipulations with an internal representation of external objects

before staring actions with these objects in reality.

(Figure source: Victor Kaptelinin, Computer Mediated Activity: Functional organs in social and developmental

context, Bonnie A. Nardi (Ed.), Context and consciousness: Activity Theory and Human Computer Interaction, MIT

Press, 1996 ,pp 45-68).

d. Mediation: Tools shape the way human interact with reality. The experience is accumulated in the

structural properties of tools (size, shape, material) and the knowledge of how tool should be used.

e. Development: All practices are reformed and shaped by historical development.

1.2 Four Perspectives on the use of ―target technology‖

a. Means and ends—the extent to which the technology facilitates and constrains the attainment of users‘

goals and the impact of the technology on provoking or resolving conflicts between different goals.

b. Social and physical aspects of the environment— integration of target technology with requirements, tools,

resources, and social rules of the environment.

c. Learning, cognition, and articulation — internal versus external components of activity and support of

their mutual transformations with target technology.

d. Development—developmental transformation of the foregoing components as a whole.


2. Mwanza’s Eight Step Model - using Activity Theory for identifying the essential elements of human

activity and for examining inter-relationships - (Ref: Mwanza’s PhD thesis (2002) cited by Mwanza-Simwami, Daisy, AODM as a framework and model for characterising learner experiences with technology. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society (Je-LKS), 7(3), 2011, pp. 75–85).

Assignment: Describe the Target Activity wrt your final year project.

10. Lecture #15 1 hrs. (31.08.12)

1. Three paradigms of HCI

a. Ergonomics – optimise man/machine fit

b. Cognitive Psychology – optimise mind/machine fit

c. Situated perspectives – support situate action and meaning making

2. Design objectives in HCI

a. Usability

b. Usefulness


c. Acceptability

3. Activity develops through resolution of tensions

4. Levels of tensions (contradictions/misfits/in-congruencies) in activity systems

1) Primary – within each element of the central activity

2) Secondary – between the elements of central activity

3) Tertiary – between the object and motive of the dominant central activity and the object and motive

of a culturally more advanced form of central activity

4) Quaternary – between the central and neighbouring activities.

[excerpts from Irshat Madyarov and Aida Taef, Contradictions in a Distance Course for a Marginalized

Population at a Middle Eastern University, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance

Learning, Vol 13, No 2, 2012......

Engeström (1987) argues that in schooling settings with a capitalist socioeconomic formation, the primary

contradictions within the nodes of activity acquire the nature of use and exchange value. In his example, text

represents the object of learning, which can be studied in exchange for grades or for meaningful use in real

life. Instruments oriented towards exchange value require recall and memorization; whereas, instruments that

call for meaningful use of knowledge provide means for investigation and real-life problem-solving. Division of

labor oriented towards exchange value calls for isolated roles, while division of labor oriented towards use

value encourages cooperation. Community oriented towards exchange value produces a class of separate

individuals, but when it is oriented towards use value, it creates a team of inquiry. Rules oriented towards the

exchange value create competition. Rules oriented towards the use value encourage risk-taking. Finally, a

student as a subject is either a grade-maker when oriented towards the exchange value of the object or is a

sense-maker when oriented towards the use value of his or her object. Thus, an activity where the subject is

oriented towards the exchange value of the object leads to alienation because there is no true collaboration in

the community node. An activity where the subject is oriented towards the use value of the object leads to

inclusiveness and collaboration.

Secondary contradictions occur between the nodes of an activity system, and tertiary and quaternary

contradictions occur between different activity systems. Engeström (1987) provides an example of instruments

that a doctor uses in his practice. A doctor may be faced with a contradiction of how much to spend on the

instruments to maintain his/her cost efficiency (i.e., a contradiction between use value and exchange value of

medical instruments). The secondary contradictions (2) are those that emerge between these nodes within an

activity system. According to Engeström, traditional instruments used in biomedicine (instruments) may be

inadequate for diagnosing the patients with complex illnesses (object).

The tertiary contradictions (3) arise when a culturally more advanced activity within the central activity of

interest introduces a more advanced object or motive. This could be illustrated with a clinic administration

introducing new methods of diagnoses that run counter to the traditions of some doctors in that clinic.


Finally, the quaternary contradictions (4) exist between the central activity system and the outside activity

systems. The latter could be of four types: a) an activity system of object (e.g., diagnosing and treating

patients); b) a rule producing activity system (e.g., the clinic administration); c) a subject producing activity

system (e.g., medical schools that prepare doctors and nurses); and d) an instrument producing activity system

(e.g., a company that provides drugs and other medical instruments).]

3. Some example questions for activity analysis: (Ref: Mwanza‘s PhD thesis (2002) cited by Mwanza-

Simwami, Daisy, AODM as a framework and model for characterising learner experiences with technology.

Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society (Je-LKS), 7(3), 2011, pp. 75–85).

· What Tools does the subject use to satisfy the objective and how?

· What Rules affect the way the subject satisfies the objective and how?

· How does the division of labour affect the way the subject satisfies the objective?

· How do the tools in use affect the way the community satisfies the objective?

· What rules affect the way the community satisfies their objective and how?

· How does the division of labour affect the way the community satisfies the objective?

4. Assignment: Analyse the mentoring activity in the CSE/IT deptt at JIIT. Propose modifications and some IT

tools to improve its efficacy and impact.

11. Lecture #16-17 1 hrs. (04.09.12)

1. Affordances

- Possibilities of thinking and doing that are signified by the user during their interaction with artefact.

- Properties of the world that make possible some action to the organism equipped to act in certain ways.

- Actionable properties between world and actor.

(Ref: a. W.W. Gaver, Technology Affordances. ACM 1991, pp 79-84)

- Sequential Affordances


- Nested Affordances: the nested affordance offers itself both as an end in itself, and as a means towards

realizing another affordance.

2. Norman’s four Principles of Good Design (Ref: Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everday Things, Currency and Doubleday, 1988)

- Give good Visibility of system state and alternatives of action

- Give Good Conceptual Model (including. Avoidance of overloading of control)

- Give Good mapping (between action and result, control and effect, system state and feedback): take advantage of physical analogies and cultural norms and standards.

- Give Feedback

3. Assignments:

a. Illustrate and analyse the role of false and hidden affordances in industrial accidents.

b. Critique the computing and mobile environments wrt Norman‘s four principles.

12. Lecture #18 1 hrs. (14.09.12)

A. User engineering principles for interactive systems (Hansen, 1971)

1. First principle: Know the user

2. Minimise memorisation

2a. Selection not entry

2b. Names not numbers

2c. Predictable behavior

2d. Access to system information

3. Optimise operations

3a. Rapid execution of common operations

3b. Display inertia

3c. Muscle memory

3d. Reorganize command parameters

4. Engineer for errors

4a. Good error messages

4b. Engineer out the common errors

4c. Reversible actions

4d. Redundancy

4e. Data structure integrity

B. UI Design Guidelines by Shneiderman (1987); Shneiderman and Plaisant (2009)

1. Strive for consistency

2. Cater to universal usability

3. Offer informative feedback

4. Design task flows to yield closure

5. Prevent errors

6. Permit easy reversal of actions

7. Make users feel they are in control

8. Minimize short-term memory load

C. Wundt‘s Curve (1870): Artifacts are interesting if they were sufficiently different from artifacts previously

encountered but not sufficiently different to be non-sequential.


1. Assignments: Critique the following wrt these guidelines:

a. Any of your minor project,

b. Any Microsoft product, and

c. Any popular web service

13. Lecture #19-20 2 hrs. (18.09.12)

UI Design and evaluation Guidelines

C. UI Design Guidelines by Nielsen and Molich (1990)

1. Consistency and standards

2. Visibility of system status

3. Match between system and real world

4. User control and freedom

5. Error prevention

6. Recognition rather than recall

7. Flexibility and efficiency of use

8. Aesthetic and minimalist design

9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

10. Provide online documentation and help

D. UI Design Guidelines by Stone et al. (2005)

1. Visibility: First step to goal should be clear

2. Affordance: Control suggests how to use it

3. Feedback: Should be clear what happened or is happening

4. Simplicity: As simple as possible and task-focused

5. Structure: Content organized sensibly

6. Consistency: Similarity for predictability

7. Tolerance: Prevent errors, help recovery

8. Accessibility: Usable by all intended users, despite handicap, access device, or environmental

conditions

E. UI Design Guidelines by Johnson (2007)

9. Principle 1 Focus on the users and their tasks, not on the technology

Understand the users

Understand the tasks

Consider the context in which the software will function

10. Principle 2 Consider function first, presentation later


Develop a conceptual model

11. Principle 3 Conform to the users‘ view of the task

Strive for naturalness

Use users‘ vocabulary, not your own

Keep program internals inside the program

Find the correct point on the power/complexity tradeoff

12. Principle 4 Design for the common case

Make common results easy to achieve

Two types of ―common‖: ―how many users‖ vs. ―how often‖

Design for core cases; don‘t sweat ―edge‖ cases

13. Principle 5 Don‘t complicate the users‘ task

Don‘t give users extra problems

Don‘t make users reason by elimination

14. Principle 6 Facilitate learning

Think ―outside-in,‖ not ―inside-out‖

Consistency, consistency, consistency

Provide a low-risk environment

15. Principle 7 Deliver information, not just data

Design displays carefully; get professional help

The screen belongs to the user

Preserve display inertia

16. Principle 8 Design for responsiveness

Acknowledge user actions instantly

Let users know when software is busy and when it isn‘t

Free users to do other things while waiting

Animate movement smoothly and clearly

Allow users to abort lengthy operations they don‘t want

Allow users to estimate how much time operations will take

Try to let users set their own work pace.

17. Principle 9 Try it out on users; then fix it

Test results can surprise even experienced designers

Schedule time to correct problems found by tests

Testing has two goals: informational and social

There are tests for every time and purpose

Cognitive Science Based HCI Principles

(Ref: Jeff Johnson, Designing with the Mind in Mind, Chapter 1-3, Morgan Kaufmann, Elsevier, 2010)

A. We perceive what we expect

1. Perception biased by experience:


2. Perception biased by Current context :

Fold napkins. Polish silverware. Wash dishes.

French napkins. Polish silverware. German dishes.

3. Perception bias by Goal:

Goals Influence where we look

Goals sensitize our perceptual system to certain features

B. Our vision is optimised to see Structures: Gestalt principles

1. Proximity: Objects that are near to each other (relative to other objects) appear to be grouped.

2. Similarity: Similar objects appear related/grouped.

3. Continuity: tend to continue shapes beyond their ending points

4. Closure: We perceive a whole shape in an incomplete space by filling in the missing information.

5. Symmetry: when we perceive objects we tend to perceive them as symmetrical shapes that form

around their centre.

6. Figure/Ground: Our mind separates the visual field into foreground and background

7. Common fate: objects that move together are perceived as grouped/related


B1. We seek and Use Visual Structures

1. Structures enhance our ability to scan long numbers

2. Data Specific controls provide even more structure

3. Visual hierarchy lets people focus on the relevant information

14. Lecture #21 (21.09.12)

Cognitive Science Based HCI Principles Contd...


C. Reading is unnatural - Reading involves

- Feature driven (bottom up) reading: letter word sentence meaning

- efficient, automatic in skilled readers

- Context driven (top down) reading: meaning of sentence words; word letter

- relevant when feature driven reading is difficult or insufficiently automatic

e.g., Mray had a ltilte lmab, its feclee was withe as sown.

And ervey wehre taht Mray wnet, the lmab was srue to go.

- Poor information design can disrupt reading: AVOID

o Uncommon or unfamiliar vocabulary

o Difficult script and typefaces, All CAPS, e.g., ANY INTELLIGENT FOOL CAN MAKE THINGS BIGGER AND MORE COMPLEX... IT TAKES A TOUCH OF GENIUS - AND A LOT OF COURAGE TO MOVE IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION.

o Tiny fonts

o Text on noise background or with poor colour contrast

e.g.,

o Information buried in repetition: Successive lines contain lot of repetition, e.g.,

o Centered text, e.g.,

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three,

and not a hundred or a thousand instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.

- Minimise the need for Reading in UI.

- e.g.,

2002 2003 2007


D. Our Color Vision is Limited

- Vision is optimized for edges contrast, not brightness

- Most easily distinguishable colours: R G B Y W B

- Factors affecting the ability to distinguish colours: TAKE CARE

- Paleness (less saturated)

- Size of color patch

- Distance between patches

- Color blindness: 8% males, 0.5% females are color deficient

- dark red/black; blue/purple; light green/white; green/khaki

(Simulate the color deficient view of images/webpages with Vischeck.com)

- External factors also influence: KEEP IN MIND

- Variation among monitors

- Grey scale displays

- Display angle

- Ambient light

- Don‘t use dark reds, blues, or violets against any dark colors.

- Don‘t rely on colour alone, use other cues.

- Separate strong opponent colours.

E. Our Peripheral Vision is Poor

- Much greater resolution in the centre of the retina (fovea) than elsewhere. It maps to 1-2 cm on screen.

- Our eyes move rapidly and constantly about 3 times/second.

- Peripheral provides low resolution cues to guide our eye movement. It is good for detecting motion.


- Error messages:

- Put it where users are looking

- Mark the error

- Use an error symbol

- Reserve red for error

- Pop up windows: use sparingly

- Nonmodal pop-ups

- Application –level modal pop-ups

- System- modal pop-up

- Use sound : limited use in normal softwares; use often in games

- Flash or wiggle briefly (0.25-- 0.5 second only)

1. Assignments: In the light of above discussed guidelines, Create a visual prototype based on an alternate HCI

design of any interaction rich and popular web service.

15. Lecture #22-23 (25.09.12)

Student Presentations of alternate HCI design of any interaction rich and popular web service

16. Lecture #24 (28.09.12)


F. Our Attention is limited; Our Memory is imperfect

Information Processing Theory (Miller, 1956)

Stage Theory (Atkinson, R., & Shiffrin, R., 1968)

Attention: process to STM

Repetition: Maintain in STM

Elaboration: Process to LTM

Memory:

Each memory corresponds to a pattern of neural activity extending over a wide area of the brain.

STM is not a temporary buffer. It is the combined focus of attention- currently activated neural patterns of which we are aware.

Characteristics of Attention

We focus on our goals and pay little attention to our tools

We use external aids to keep track of what we are doing

We follow information ‗scent‘ towards our goal. We don‘t think

deeply about aspects of UI - instructions, command names, option

labels, icons, navigation bar items. We see these things in a very

literal way and only notice things that match our goals.

We prefer familiar path (even if it requires extra work).

Our thought cycle: Goal, Execute, Evaluate

After we achieve our goals, we often forget cleanup steps

HCI Design Implications

Tools should fade away into the background and allow users to

focus on the goals.

Indicate user‘s progress towards their goal.

- Allow users to mark/move objects to indicate which ones they

have worked on versus which ones they have not.

Understand the likely goals at each decision point in a task and

ensure that each choice point provides options for every important

user goal and clearly indicates which option leads to which goal.

Guide users to the best path from the beginning

- Provide short cuts for frequently used functions for experienced

users

Goal: Provide clear paths – including initial steps- for the user

goals that are intended to be supported by s/w.

Execute: task based concepts, clear scent at choice points, help

them avoid diversions away from their goals.

Evaluate: feedback and status, reversal

Support users to remember these steps, or

- Eliminate the need to remember by automation.

Characteristics of Memory

STM is volatile.

STM is limited: short-term memory could only hold

o 5-9 Chunks (meaningful units) of information - Miller, 1956

o 4-6 Chunks – Broadbent, 1975

o People remember more features of some items than of others –

Cowan et al, 2004

Prominently indicate system status and user‘s progress towards

their goal.

It is too unreliable for designers to assume that users can, without

clear, continuous feedback, keep track of what mode (different

effects of same action depending upon system‘s mode) the system

is in, even when the users are the ones changing the systems from

one mode to another. Hence, avoid modes or provides adequate

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes There is limitation to how much information can be transferred

from the working memory to the long-term memory at a time.

mode-feedback.

People viewing search results often do not remember the search

terms they just typed. Hence display the search terms.

Allow users to refer to instructions for multi-step operations

while executing them until completing all the steps.

LTM limits are unknown

LTM is not accurate, it is error prone; it uses heavy compression.

Items are reduced to set of abstract features.

Information decay – old information not attended to and revised

hence we forget

LTM is weighted by emotion.

Interference – new/old information networks block access to the

information.

LTM is retroactively alterable.

Avoid developing systems that burden LTM.

Learning and long term retention are enhanced by UI consistency

Recognition is easy; Recall is hard

Recognition is perception + LTM working together.

o Similar perception in similar context cause similar pattern of

neural activity.

o Future reactivation of a pattern is easier after repeated

activations.

Recall is LTM reactivating old neural pattern without immediate

similar perceptual input.

See and chose is easier than recall and type

Use pictures where possible to convey function

Use thumbnail images to depict full sized images

Make common functions more visible.

Use visual cues to let users recognize where they are.

Make authentication information easier to recall

17. Lecture #25 (05.10.12)

(Ref: Jeff Johnson, Designing with the Mind in Mind, Chapter 10, Morgan Kaufmann, Elsevier, 2010)

G. Problem Solving is hard

Brain: We have three parts in the brains. All contribute to our thought and behavior. Old and mid brain react faster.

Old brain (brain

stem): Fish

onwards.

- Identify edible,

dangerous, sexy.

Mid brain: Birds and

lower mammals

- Controls and reacts

with emotions – joy,

sadness, fear, anger,..

New brain (cerebral cortex): Mammals. Large in elephants, dolphin, whale, monkeys,

apes, humans.

- Controls intentional purposeful conscious activity- planning, interpretation, analysis

- Only creatures with cortex can learn from other‘s experiences

- Possibly only human brain can articulate what they have learnt from experience.

Characteristics

Performing learned action is easy

o Performing automatic (routine, well learned) actions consumes

few or no cognitive resources – STM/attention. So these can be

done in parallel with other activities.

Controlled processing - Problem solving and calculations are hard

o Problems – Unfamiliar Situations.

o Requires focused attention and constant conscious monitoring.

o Execute relatively slowly and serially,

o Strains the limits of STM.

o Human brain is not optimized for calculations. It is done mainly

in brain‘s controlled, monitored mode.

o Problems that are easy for most people:

Involve 1-2 steps, or

Some steps are memorized (automatic), or

Don‘t involve much information

o Hard problems strain our brain:

Exceed our STM limits, or

Require some information retrieval from LTM, or

Encounter distractions

o Solving technical/domain specific problems require technical/

domain specific interest and training.


Make the system familiar

Design such that the learning the tool is easy and it quickly

become automatic.

Minimize the amount of attention users must devote.

Minimize the gulf of execution

Let people use perception rather than calculation

o Let the computer do the math.

Minimize the number and complexity of settings.

Make the system familiar:

o Follow industry standards/conventions.

o Consistency across versions

o Use common metaphors

o Study users to know their familiarity/unfamiliarity

Don‘t expect users to deduce information. Tell them

explicitly and exactly what they need to know.

Don‘t distract users by imposing technical problems and

goals that users don‘t want.

o Don‘t make users diagnose systems problems.

1. Assignments: Identify the HCI related shortcomings in any popular IDE supporting C compiler wrt the

requirements of 1st year programming students without any prior programming exposure.


18. Lecture #26-27 (09.10.12)

(Ref: Jeff Johnson, Designing with the Mind in Mind, Chapter 11, Morgan Kaufmann, Elsevier, 2010)

H. Many factors affect Learning

Characteristics

We learn to use a tool faster when

Operation is task focused, simple, and consistent.

o When the ‗gulf of execution‘ is small.

Vocabulary is task-focused, familiar and consistent

Risk is low


Thoroughly understand the user goals and tasks

o Perform task analysis

- Design task-focused conceptual model (CM)

- Simplify the CM

- Maximize consistency in CM

Design UI based on task analysis & conceptual model.

o Ensure Keystroke consistency/Follow Look and feel

standards/Follow Style guides

Use task-focused, familiar and consistent vocabulary

o Conceptual model

o Lexicon

o Industry standard

Provide low-risk environments:

o Prevent error where possible

o Deactivate invalid command

o Make error easy to detect by showing users clearly

what they have done.

o Allow users to undo, reverse, and correct easily

HCI design requires three main steps:

1. Perform a activity/task analysis

2. Design a task-focused conceptual model, consisting mainly of an objects/ actions analysis

3. Design a user interface based strictly on the task analysis and conceptual model

Conceptual Modelling

(Ref: Jeff Johnson & Austin Henderson, Conceptual Models: Begin by Designing What to Design, Interactions, ACM, Jan-Feb, 2002, pp

25-32)

A conceptual model is a high-level description of how a system is organized and operates. It specifies and describes:

1. the major design metaphors and analogies employed in the design, if any.

2. the concepts the system exposes to users, including the task-domain dataobjects users create and manipulate, their attributes, and the

operations that can be performed on them.

3. the relationships between these concepts.

4. the mappings between the concepts and the task-domain the system is designed to support.

Users construct a model in their minds of the system and how it works. This allows them to predict its behaviour and generalize what they

learn to new situations. A conceptual model of an interactive system is therefore:

1. an idealized view of the how the system works—the model designers hope users will internalize;

2. the ontological structure of the system: the objects, their relationships, and control structures;

3. the mechanism by which users accomplish the tasks the system is intended to support.

Designing a conceptual model is: ―Less is more‖ - Keep it simple and task focused.

―If it isn‘t in the conceptual model, the system should not require users to be aware of it.‖

An important component of a conceptual model is an Objects/Actions analysis: an enumeration of all the concepts in the model

all the user-understood objects in the system,

user-understood attributes of those objects,

the actions that users can perform on each of those objects.

Relationships between concepts: If objects in a task-domain share actions, they can probably be organized in a specialization or type

hierarchy, in which certain conceptual objects are specializations of others. objects may also be related by a containment hierarchy, in

which some objects can contain other objects. Concepts in a task-domain are also related to each other in importance. Some concepts are

encountered by users more frequently than others.

Lexicon: Once the development team assigns names to the objects, actions, and attributes enumerated in the conceptual model, they have a

lexicon of terms to be used in the application and its documentation. Software developed without a lexicon often suffers from two

common user interface problems: 1) multiple terms for a given concept, and 2) the same term for multiple distinct concepts.

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes I. Button Size & Placement: Fitt‟s Law

(Ref: Lukas Mathis, Designed for Use: Creating Usable Interfaces for Applications and the web, Chapter 14, Pragmatic Programmers, LLC,

2011).

a. People can hit a target more quickly if the target is bigger or closer to the user‘s mouse cursor (on a desktop system). If

you want to make things easier to hit, make them bigger. If you want them harder to hit, make them smaller.

―Shut down‖ button is smaller than the clickable areas that start applications.

b. The motion of the cursor should be in line with the form of the target—that is, if the user is moving the mouse horizontally to hit a target, making the target‘s form horizontal makes it easier to hit

.

, ID (Index of Difficulty); D (Distance to the centre of the target); W (Width of the target)

Time to hit a target, T = a +bID; a (start/stop time of the device); b(inherent speed of the device)

c. Things that are closer to the cursor can be reached by the user more quickly.

d. Things that touch the screen edge are easier to hit. Corners are easiest.

e. Leave some room between different clickable things.

f. Radial (Pie) menu reduce the average distance of buttons from the start point.

J. Real Time deadlines for Interactive Systems

(Ref: Jeff Johnson, Designing with the Mind in Mind, Morgan Kaufmann, Chapter 12, Elsevier, 2010)

Perceptual and Cognitive Functions How Long Does Our

Brain Take Deadlines for Interactive System

Design Shortest gap of silence that we can detect in a

sound

1 millisec (0.001 sec) Maximum tolerable delay or drop-out

time for audio feedback (e.g., tones,

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes ―earcons,‖ music)

Shortest time a visual stimulus can be shown

and still affect us (perhaps unconsciously)

5 millisec (0.005 sec) • Inducing unconscious familiarity of

images or symbols

• Electronic ink maximum lag time

• Generating tones of various pitches

Minimum noticeable lag in ink as someone

draws with a stylus

10 millisec (0.01 sec)

Maximum interval for auditory fusion of

successive sound pulses into a pitched tone


Maximum interval for visual fusion of

successive images

50 millisec (0.05 sec) • Maximum interval between animation

frames

• Feedback for successful hand-eye

coordination, e.g., pointer movement,

object movement or resizing, scrolling,

drawing with mouse

• Feedback for click on button or link

• Displaying ―busy‖ indicators

• Assume users can ―count‖ 1–4 screen

items in about 100 milliseconds, but more

than four take 300 milliseconds per item

• Allowable overlap between speech

utterances

Speed of flinch reflex (involuntary motor

response to possible danger)


Time lag between a visual event and our full

perception of it (or perceptual cycle time)


Duration of saccade (involuntary eye

movement), during which vision is suppressed


Maximum interval between events for

perception that one event caused another event


Time required for a skilled reader's brain to

comprehend a printed word


Time to subitize (determine the number of) up

to four to five items in our visual field

200 millisec (0.2 sec;

50 millisec/item)

Editorial ―window‖ for events that reach

consciousness


Time to identify (i.e., name) a visually

presented object


Time required to mentally count items in a

scene when there are more than four items

300 millisec (0.3

sec)/item

Attentional ―blink‖ (inattentiveness to other

input) following recognition of an object

500 millisec (0.5 sec) • Displaying progress indicators for long

operations

• Finishing user-requested operations,

e.g., open window

• Finishing unrequested operations, e.g.,

auto-save

• Time after info presentation that can be

used for other computation, e.g., to make

inactive objects active

• Required wait time after presenting

important info before presenting more

Visual-motor reaction time (intentional response

to unexpected event)

700 millisec(0.7 sec)

Maximum duration of silent gap between turns

in person-to-person conversation

About 1 sec

Duration of unbroken attention to a single task

(―unit task‖) 6–30 sec • Completing one step of a multistep task,

e.g., one edit in a text editor

• Completing user input to an operation

• Completing one step in a wizard

(multipage dialog box)

Time to make critical decisions in emergency

situations, e.g., medical triage 1–5 minutes Assure that all info required for decision

is provided or can be found within this

time

K. Web reading behaviour (Ref: A. Lukas Mathis, Designed for Use: Creating Usable Interfaces for Applications and the web, Chapter

6, Pragmatic Programmers, LLC, 2011; AND B. http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/).

People typically don‘t read text on the Web word by word. Instead, they “scan” the page, looking for sentence fragments that

contain what they are looking for.

As soon as text becomes too dense, lower-literacy users start skipping.

Scroll breaks lower-literacy users' visual concentration. Search creates problems for lower-literacy users;

Difficulties - spelling and result processing. They often simply pick the first hit on the list of search results.

Users treat "user agreements" and similar site copy with contempt. In approaching such agreement text, users: read-

10%, scan- 17%, skip- 73%. People click "I agree" without reading what they're "agreeing" to.


Guidelines for web writing:

1. Sites that target a broader audience must make lower-literacy users a priority. Use text aimed at a 6th grade reading level on

the homepage, important category pages, and landing pages. On other pages, use text geared to an 8th grade reading level.

Several online tools are available for testing readability.

2. Use half the word count or less than conventional writing. Use words that make sense to your audience. Write short, clear,

obvious sentences. When you‘re writing, ask yourself, ―Does this sentence help the user?‖ If it doesn‘t, drop it.

3. Use Cloze test, a common empirical comprehension test to measure comprehension. It works as follows:

a. Replace every Nth word in the text with blanks. A typical test uses N = 6, but you can use a higher N value.

b. Ask your test participants to read the modified text and fill in the blanks with their best guesses as to the missing words.

Each person should work alone.

c. The score is the percentage of correctly guessed words. Synonyms and misspellings are allowed. If users get 60% or

more right on average, the text is assumed to be reasonably comprehensible for the specified user profile.

4. Avoid sentences that can be interpreted in two different ways and sentences that lure your readers into an improper

understanding when they have read only part of them. Ask yourself whether a sentence is unambiguous even if you‟ve read

only part of it.

5. Convey one idea in each paragraph. Keep individual paragraphs short.

6. Use Inverted Pyramid style: Start text with conclusions, and include a summary of its content. Introduce the paragraph‘s

idea in the first sentence so people can quickly decide whether to read the paragraph.

7. Prioritize information: Place the main point at the very top of the page, where even readers who typically give up after a few

lines will see it. Place any other important information above the fold, to minimize the risk of users losing their place after

scrolling.

8. Use meaningful headings and subheadings.

9. Highlight keywords.

10. Use bullet lists.

11. Pictures can make your text more understandable and readable.

12. Static text is easier to read. Avoid text that moves or changes.

13. Streamline the page design: Place important content in a single main column.

14. Simplify navigation: by placing the main choices in a linear menu.

15. Optimize search: Make your search tolerant of misspellings.

16. Use legible font size and typefaces: Compare with a book.

17. Be engaging and personal, rather than boring and professional.

18. Outbound hypertext links enhance the credibility.

Assignment: Identify the HCI related weaknesses in any popular IDE supporting C compiler wrt the requirements of

1st year programming students without any prior programming exposure. Propose the conceptual model and UI of an

alternate system addressing these weaknesses. Create your group to implement this project using Open source

software.

19. Lecture #28 (12.10.12)

Designing Technology Support for Changing a Situation of Concern

Examples of Situation of Concern: Point of pain for somebody; situation that needs a change

Avg visit duration

Vs

Words on page

Max. % of words user

can read @250 wpm

Vs

Words on page


20. Lecture #29 (2.11.12)

Designing Technology Support for Changing a Situation of Concern

(Ref: William M Newman and Michael G. Lamming, Interactive System Design, Chapter 2, Addison Wesley, 1995)

The situation of concern has a causal link with some human activity.

Design problem: Transform the Situation of Concern into Design problem. Design problem becomes one of changing

particular component of the situation so that the desired overall change is achieved. Interactive systems Replace or augment

exisiting support systems , which themselves may or may not be interactive.

Components of Problem Statement:

Target Users

Target user activities to be supported by the new tool/system

Setting the level of support (principal usability factors, main benefits) that the system will provide.

Selecting the basic form of solution to the design problem.

Human user

Understanding humans as physical, social, cognitive performers

Pay adequate attention to their skills, expertise, responsibilities, training, and working environment

Activity

Activity consists of individual tasks and processes (interlinked tasks).

Task is a unit of activity that has a goal and usually involves a sequence of steps (actions).

Tasks may depend upon a crucial or task resource.

Files/lists/database

People with specific skills and responsibilities

Other ongoing processes including physical processes in the real world, functioning of machinery and plants,

etc.

Processes are likely to form when activities have multiple dependencies- when the focus of attention shifts from one

resource to another.

Features of processes:

Use of files and databases: some are shared between people

Communication between people – direct and indirect

Synchronisation with real world physical and mechanical processes

Suspension while waiting for information to become available, for people to respond, or for real world

processes to reach the appropriate state.

Tools provide:

Provision to perform tasks faster and better

Support for the link between tasks

Support for links between information resources tasks share.


Automate tasks – replace the tsaks by software

Reduce dependencies

Simplify/Reduce processes to single tasks.

Usability factors

What aspects of activity performance are affecting the situation of concern

Speed of performance of the activity, which affects how many people are needed to perform it

Incidence of errors while performing the activity

User‘s ability to recover from errors that occur

The magnitude of the user‘s tasks in learning to use the system

User‘s retention of learned skills

User‘s ability to customise the system to suit their way of working or the situation of concern.

The ease with which people can reorganise activities supported by the system – teir own and other people‘s

User‟s satisfaction with the system

Form of Solution

Layers of technology and resources

Constraints – market pressure, opportunities to exploit new technology or expertise, need for compatibility with

specific software /hardware

21. Lecture #30-31 (6.11.12)


Requirement Document is a watershed in the specification process, allowing validation in terms of the original situation

of concern

Some processes and representations of interactive System design


User Study: Interview, Observation, Questionnaires


Interview: Structured/unstructured

Issues to be covered in interview:

Purpose of interview

Enumerating activities

Work methods

Tracing interconnections

Performance issues

Exception handling

Domain knowledge

Observation:

Video recording

Concurrent verbal account

Passive observation

Ethnography field study

Action research

Questionnaire Design Issues:

Few questions – simple and consistent in wording

Unambiguous questions

Gather precise data

Need to support the intended analysis

User Research (Ref: Lukas Mathis, Designed for Use: Creating Usable Interfaces for Applications and the web, Chapter 1, Pragmatic

Programmers, LLC, 2011).

1. Henry Ford: “If I‟d asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

2. People often aren‟t able to tell us how we can solve their problems, or what their problems are. And worst of all, people

are pretty bad at predicting whether how they would use a product if we proposed to build it for them. So designers have to

visit them and observe what they do. Interview several people before coming to conclusions.

Find problem Find Solution

Find out what people are currently doing. Find a way of making what they are already doing easier and more efficient.

Find out what people have to do but really

dislike doing.

Find a way of making the things they dislike obsolete, or at least more fun.

Find out what they would like to be doing. Find a way of making what they want to be doing possible.


22. Lecture #32 (6.11.12)

User Research (Ref: Lukas Mathis, Designed for Use: Creating Usable Interfaces for Applications and the web, Chapter 2, Pragmatic

Programmers, LLC, 2011).

Job Shadowing (Observing people to understand what they do – their activities, tools used, interactions with team and

environment, their behaviour) – has a broad scope of understanding user needs, helps in identifying unidentified needs,

understand user‘s mental models and preferred interfaces, helps in designing appropriate user profiles and scenarios.

Deliverables: User descriptions, User needs, Scenarios, Product ideas.

1. Are there specific tasks that this person is spending a lot of time on?

2. Is the person doing the same thing repeatedly?

3. Is the person doing something that looks like a workaround?

4. Is the person doing something that seems to bore or annoy her?

5. Is the person forced to memorize steps or technical aspects of a task or other things that the computer could manage for

her?

6. Is the person using other tools in conjunction with her computer, such as paper lists or a calculator?

Contextual Interviews (observing people performing their tasks and having them talk about what they are doing while they are

doing it, after job shadowing)

1. Are there tasks you often do that I did not see today?

2. What kind of problem are you solving most often?

3. Why are you doing [something you‘ve seen] in this specific way?

4. What happens if you don‘t have all the information you need to complete a task?

5. Who are the people you regularly interact with, and how do you do that?

6. What do you have to do if somebody you need is not at work or if some other problem occurs?

Assignment:

i. Add more questions to these two lists.

ii. Study a potential user from any application domain using these two techniques.

23. Lecture #33 (16.11.12) Task analysis: (Ref: Jeff Johnson, Designing with the Mind in Mind, Morgan Kaufmann, Chapter 11, Elsevier, 2010)

1. What goals do users want to achieve by using the application?

2. What set of human tasks is the application intended to support?

3. Which tasks are common, and which ones are rare?

4. Which tasks are most important, and which ones are least important?

5. What are the steps of each task?

6. What are the result and output of each task?

7. Where does the information for each task come from?

8. How is the information that results from each task used?

9. Which people do which tasks?

10. What tools are used to do each task?

11. What problems do people have performing each task? What sorts of mistakes are common? What causes them? How

damaging are mistakes?

12. What terminology do people who do these tasks use?

13. What communication with other people is required to do the tasks?

14. How are different tasks related?

Activity Centred Design: (Ref: Lukas Mathis, Designed for Use: Creating Usable Interfaces for Applications and the web, Chapter 4,

Pragmatic Programmers, LLC, 2011).

1. Understanding your users as people is far less important than understanding them as participants in activities.

2. Depending on your product, it may make sense to make activities the focal point of your design process.

3. Do user research to find out what activities you need to support, but don‘t design the activities themselves for specific

people.

4. Be critical when evaluating user feedback. Sometimes, making your product better for a specific audience makes it worse

for everybody else.

5. Keep in mind that people have the capacity to adapt to your product; You don‘t always need to adapt your product to

them.

User Research

(Ref: Preece, Rogers, Sharp, Interaction Design: Beyond Human Computer Interaction, Ch 7 &12, John Wiley & Sons, 2002)

Basic Data gathering Guidelines

Focus on identifying stakeholders‘ needs by studying their existing behavior and support tools, or other products, e.g.,

competitors‘ product/ earlier version. Try to understand their constraints, context, irritations, and facilitators under which they

operate.

Involve all stakeholders.

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes Use a combination of data gathering techniques

Support the data gathering sessions with suitable props:

o Task descriptions - existing/envisioned tasks

Scenario - informal stories focused on specific and realistic activities

Use cases: focus on user system interaction

Essential use cases: structured narrative (name for overall user intention; stepped description of user actions, stepped

description of system responsibility

o Prototypes

Run a pilot session to ensure that your sessions are likely to go as planned.

Make sensible compromises.

Indirect Techniques:

User Diaries

Interaction Logs


Some Frameworks for Field Study: Help in providing focus and organizing the observation & data-collection.

A. Goetz and LeCompte (1984) B. Colin Robson (1993)

1. Who is present? How would you characterize them?

What is their role?

2. What is happening? What are people doing and

saying and how are they behaving? Does any of this

behaviour appear routine? What is their tone and body

language?

3. When does the activity occur? How is it related to

other activities?

4. Where is it happening? Do physical conditions play a

role?

5. Why is it happening? What precipitated the event or

interaction? Do people have different perspectives?

6. How is the activity organized? What rules or norms

influence behaviour?

1. Space: What is the physical space like and how is it

laid out?

2. Actors: What are the names and relevant details of the

people involved?

3. Activities: What are the actors doing and why?

4. Objects: What physical objects are present, such as

furniture?

5. Acts:. What are specific individuals doing?

6. Events: Is what you observe part of a special event?

7. Goals: What are the actors trying to accomplish?

8. Feelings: What is the mood of the group and of

individuals?

Checklist of things to plan before going into the field:

1. State the initial study goal and questions clearly.

2. Select a framework to guide your activity in the field.

3. Decide how to record events, i.e., as notes, on audio, or on video, or using a combination of all three.

4. Plan to routinely go through your notes and other records as soon as possible after each evaluation session to flesh out detail

and check ambiguities with other observers or with the people being observed.

5. As you make and review your notes, try to highlight and separate personal opinion from what happens. Also clearly note

anything you want to go back to.

6. Be prepared to refocus your study as you analyze and reflect upon what you see. Identify interesting phenomena that seem

relevant.

7. Think about how you will gain the acceptance and trust of those you observe. It will be tempting to pay attention to those who

receive you well, so make sure you attend to everyone in the group.

8. Think about how to handle sensitive issues. Check what participants are comfortable with and be accommodating and flexible.

Your choice of equipment for data collection will also influence how intrusive you are in people's lives.

9. Working as a team is likely to generate more reliable data because you can compare notes among different evaluators.

10. Consider checking your notes with an informant or members of the group to ensure that you are making good interpretations.

11. Plan to look at the situation from different perspectives - different layers of management, end-users, marketing, product

developers, product managers, suppliers, etc. if possible multiple representatives from each group.


Assignment: Carry out user research wrt any application domain using these techniques.

24. Lecture #34-35 (20.11.12)

[ref: 1. Preece, Rogers, Sharp, Interaction Design: Beyond Human Computer Interaction, Ch 1, John Wiley & Sons, 2002

2. http://usabilitygeek.com/the-difference-between-usability-and-user-experience/] Interaction design: Designing interactive products to support people in their everyday and working life. Finding ways to support people.

(Winograd, 1997) – Design of spaces for human interaction and communication.


Criteria Usability User experience =

Utility+ Usability + Desirability + Brand experience

Question Can the user accomplish their goal? Did the user have as delightful an experience as possible?

AIM Relates to the ease with which users can achieve their goals

while interacting with a product. To make that product easy to

use.

Concerned with the way users perceive their interaction

with that product. To make the user happy before, during

and after using that product.

Metaphors Science , Freeway Art, Twisting mountain road

ISO

Definition

Effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specified

users achieve specified goals in particular environments

All aspects of the user‘s experience when interacting with

the product, service, environment or facility

Focus goal achievement presentation, functionality, system performance,

interactive behaviour, and assistive capabilities

[Ref: Clanton, Chuck. "An interpreted demonstration of computer game design." InCHI 98 conference summary on

Human factors in computing systems, pp. 1-2. ACM, 1998]

Create fun game play and ensure that the game interface and game mechanics do not interfere. Hook „Em Fast & Hard Keep „Em Hooked

1. Establish the quest.

2. Provide a gentle on-

ramp: Learnability.

3. When players select a

difficulty, they accept it.

4. Let each player progress

at their own pace.

5. Spread Cues, Tools, and Obstacles out but not to much.

6. Avoid lengthy dead-ends: Responses should be visible and localized so that tedious backtracking can be

avoided.

7. Pressure can be fun.

8. Give hints not answers.

9. Avoid linear, monotonous pacing: intersperse simple and parallel problems.

10. Reward game play with media.

11. Confusion is not fun.

12. Frustration can be fun: make the obstacle appear harder than it is, failure can be fun too.

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes 13. Trial and error is not fun: loosing less and less badly is addictive.

14. It‘s fun to be known.

15. Make great game and players will master its complexity.

[Ref: Federoff, Melissa A. "Heuristics and usability guidelines for the creation and evaluation of fun in video games." MS

Thesis, Indiana University, 2002]

Game Interface Game Mechanics Game Play 1. Controls should be customizable and

default to industry standard settings

2. Controls should be intuitive and

mapped in a natural way

3. Minimize control options

4. The interface should be as non-

intrusive as possible

5. For PC games, consider hiding the

main computer interface during game

play

6. A player should always be able to

identify their score/status in the game

7. Follow the trends set by the gaming

community to shorten the learning

curve

8. Interfaces should be consistent in

control, color, typography, and dialog

design

9. Minimize the menu layers of an

interface

10. Use sound to provide meaningful

feedback

11. Do not expect the user to read a manual

12. Provide means for error prevention and

recovery through the use of warning

messages

13. Players should be able to save games in

different states.

14. Game Interface and Play: Art should

speak to its function

15. Mechanics should

feel natural and

have correct weight

and momentum

16. Feedback should be

given immediately

to display user

control

17. Game Mechanics

and Play: Get the

player involved

quickly and easily

18. There should be a clear overriding goal of the game

presented early

19. There should be variable difficulty level

20. There should be multiple goals on each level

21. ―A good game should be easy to learn and hard to master‖

(Nolan Bushnell)

22. The game should have an unexpected outcome

23. Artificial intelligence should be reasonable yet unpredictable

24. Game play should be balanced so that there is no definite

way to win

25. Play should be fair

26. The game should give hints, but not too many

27. The game should give rewards

28. Pace the game to apply pressure to, but not frustrate the

player

29. Provide an interesting and absorbing tutorial

30. Allow players to build content

31. Make the game replayable

32. Create a great storyline

33. There must not be any single optimal winning strategy

34. Should use visual and audio effects to arouse interest

35. Include a lot of interactive props for the player to interact

with

36. Teach skills early that you expect the players to use later

37. Design for multiple paths through the game

38. One reward of playing should be the acquisition of skill

39. Build as though the world is going on whether your

character is there or not

40. If the game cannot be modeless, it should feel modeless to

the player

25. Lecture #36 (23.11.12)

Pinelle, David, Nelson Wong, and Tadeusz Stach. "Heuristic Evaluation For Games: Usability Principles For Video Game

Design." In Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, pp. 1453-

1462. ACM, 2008. (Given for Self Study)

1. Provide consistent responses to the user‘s actions: Games should respond to users‘ actions in a predictable manner.

2. Allow users to customize video and audio settings, difficulty and game speed.

3. Provide predictable and reasonable behavior for computer controlled units: Users should not be forced to issue extra

commands to correct faulty artificial intelligence.

4. Provide unobstructed views that are appropriate for the user‘s current actions

5. Allow users to skip non-playable and frequently repeated content.

6. Provide intuitive and customizable input mappings.

7. Provide controls that are easy to manage, and that have an appropriate level of sensitivity and responsiveness: Controls for

avatars, e.g., characters or vehicles, should mirror the real world and should be designed so that they are not too sensitive or

unresponsive.

8. Provide users with information on game status: provide enough information to allow players to make proper decisions while

playing the game.

9. Provide instructions, training, and help.

10. Provide visual representations that are easy to interpret and that minimize the need for micromanagement: radar views, maps,

icons, and avatars, should be designed so that they are easy to interpret

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes Desurvire, Heather, and Charlotte Wiberg. "Game usability heuristics (play) for evaluating and designing better games:

The next iteration." Online Communities and Social Computing (2009): 557-566. [Revised Desurvire, Heather, Martin

Caplan, and Jozsef A. Toth. "Using heuristics to evaluate the playability of games." In CHI'04 extended abstracts on

Human factors in computing systems, pp. 1509-1512. ACM, 2004.] (Given for Self Study)

Game Play Coolness etc. Usability & Game Mechanics A. Enduring Play

1. The players finds the game fun, with no

repetitive or boring tasks

2. The players should not experience being

penalized repetitively for the same failure.

3. The players should not lose any hard won

possessions.

4. Game play is long and enduring and keeps

the players‘ interest.

5. Any fatigue or boredom was minimized by

varying activities and pacing during the

game play.

B. Challenge, Strategy and Pace

1. Challenge, strategy and pace are in balance.

2. The game is paced to apply pressure without

frustrating the players. The difficulty level

varies so the players experience greater

challenges as they develop mastery.

3. Easy to learn, harder to master.

4. Challenges are positive game experiences,

rather than negative experiences, resulting

in wanting to play more, rather than

quitting.

5. AI is balanced with the players‘ play.

6. The AI is tough enough that the players

have to try different

C. Consistency in Game World

1. The game world reacts to the player and

remembers their passage through it.

2. Changes the player make in the game world

are persistent and noticeable if they back-

track to where they have been before.

D. Goals

1. The game goals are clear. The game

provides clear goals, presents overriding

goals early as well as short term goals

throughout game play.

2. The skills needed to attain goals are taught

early enough to play or use later, or right

before the new skill is needed.

3. The game gives rewards that immerse the

player more deeply in the game by

increasing their capabilities, capacity or for

example, expanding their ability to

customize.

E. Variety of Players and Game Styles

1. The game supports a variety of game styles.

2. The game is balanced with multiple ways to

win.

3. The first ten minutes of play and player

actions are painfully obvious and should

result in immediate and positive feedback

for all types of players.

4. The game had different AI settings so that it

was challenging to all levels of players,

whether novice or expert players.

F. Players Perception of Control

1. Players feel in control.

2. The player‘s have a sense of control and

influence onto the game world.

A. Emotional

Connection: There

is an emotional

connection between

the player and the

game world as well

as with their avatar.

B. Coolness/

Entertainment:

The game offers

something different

in terms of

attracting and

retaining the

players‘ interest.

C. Humor: The

game uses humor

well.

D. Immersion: The

game utilizes

visceral, audio and

visual content to

further the players‘

immersion in the

game.

A. Documentation/Tutorial

1. Player does not need to read the manual or documentation to

play.

2. Player does not need to access the tutorial in order to play.

B. Status and Score

1. Game controls are consistent within the game and follow

standard conventions.

2. Status score Indicators are seamless, obvious, available and do

not interfere with game play.

3. Controls are intuitive, and mapped in a natural way; they are

customizable and default to industry standard settings.

4. Consistency shortens the learning curve by following the

trends set by the gaming industry to meet users‘ expectations.

If no industry standard exists, perform usability/playability

research to ascertain the best mapping for the majority of

intended players.

C. Game Provides Feedback

1. Game provides feedback and reacts in a consistent,

immediate, challenging and exciting way to the players‘

actions.

2. Provide appropriate audio/visual/visceral feedback (music,

sound effects, controller vibration).

D. Terminology

1. The game goals are clear. The game provides clear goals,

presents overriding goals early as well as short term goals

throughout game play.

2. The skills needed to attain goals are taught early enough to

play or use later, or right before the new skill is needed.

3. The game gives rewards that immerse the player more deeply

in the game by increasing their capabilities, capacity or, for

example, expanding their ability to customize.

E. Burden On Player

1. The game does not put an unnecessary burden on the player.

2. Player is given controls that are basic enough to learn quickly,

yet expandable for advanced options for advanced players.

F. Screen Layout

1. Screen layout is efficient, integrated, and visually pleasing.

2. The player experiences the user interface as consistent (in

controller, color, typographic, dialogue and user interface

design).

3. The players experience the user interface/HUD as a part of the

game.

4. Art is recognizable to the player and speaks to its function.

G. Navigation: Navigation is consistent, logical and minimalist.

H. Error Prevention

1. Player error is avoided.

2. Player interruption is supported, so that players can easily turn

the game on and off and be able to save the games in different

states.

3. Upon turning on the game, the player has enough information

to begin play.

4. Players should be given context sensitive help while playing

so that they are not stuck and need to rely on a manual for

help.

5. All levels of players are able to play and get involved quickly

and easily with tutorials, and/or progressive or adjustable

difficulty levels.

I. Game Story Immersion: Game story encourages immersion

(If game has story component).


Sweetser, Penelope, and Peta Wyeth. "Gameflow: A Model For Evaluating Player Enjoyment In Games." Computers in

Entertainment (CIE) 3, no. 3 (2005): 3-3.ACM

Concentration: Games should require concentration and the player

should be able to concentrate on the game. In RTS, concentration is

manifest through detailed worlds, units, and buildings (i.e., animation,

sound, graphics), as well as via compelling narrative in the campaign,

good automation, simple game play and interface, and numerous tasks

and objects to monitor.

- Provide a lot of stimuli from different sources

- Provide stimuli that are worth attending to

- Quickly grab the players‘ attention and maintain their focus throughout

the game

- Players shouldn‘t be burdened with tasks that don‘t feel important

- Games should have a high workload, while still being appropriate for

the players‘ perceptual, cognitive, and memory limits

- Players should not be distracted from tasks that they want or need to

concentrate on

Challenge: Games should be sufficiently challenging and match the

player’s skill level. In RTS, challenge comes from the difficulty of

the opponent AI in skirmish mode, difficulty settings, mission

variation, increasing difficulty in the campaign, mastering a new race

or faction, and balanced units and races

- Challenges in games must match the players‘ skill levels

- provide different levels of challenge for different players

- The level of challenge should increase as the player progresses

through the game and increases their skill level

- provide new challenges at an appropriate pace

Player Skills: Games must support player skill development and

mastery. Player skills are developed with the aid of descriptive tool tips,

online help, an optional tutorial that fits with the story, a simple and

well-designed interface, adherence to RTS conventions, visual and

auditory cues, a campaign that gradually introduces the various races,

units and buildings, rewards of more skill, abilities or items, and rewards

of cut-scenes and story

- Players should be able to start playing the game without reading the

manual

- learning the game should not be boring, but be part of the fun

- include online help so players don‘t need to exit the game

- Players should be taught to play the game through tutorials or initial

levels that feel like playing the game

- increase the players‘ skills at an appropriate pace as they progress

through the game

- Players should be rewarded appropriately for their effort and skill

development

- Game interfaces and mechanics should be easy to learn and use

Control: Players should feel a sense of control over their actions in

the game. Players are given more control through path-finding,

attitude adjustment, unit formations, an easily controlled interface

(e.g., hot-keys, bottom-heavy design, shallow menus, clear icons), a

polished game with no bugs, and unique races that allow different

play styles and strategies.

- Players should feel a sense of control over their characters or units

and their movements and interactions in the game world

- Players should feel a sense of control over the game interface and

input devices

- Players should feel a sense of control over the game shell (starting,

stopping, saving, etc.)

- Players should not be able to make errors that are detrimental to the

game and should be supported in recovering from errors

- Players should feel a sense of control and impact onto the game

world (like their actions matter and they are shaping the game world)

- Players should feel a sense of control over the actions that they take

and the strategies that they use and that they are free to play the game

the way that they want (not simply discovering actions and strategies

planned by the game developers)

Clear Goals: Games should provide the player with clear goals at

appropriate times. Clear goals are presented through an introduction that

provides background, motivation, and overriding goals, in-game cut-

scenes that present goals and further the story, as well as clear and

specific mission objectives.

- Overriding goals should be clear and presented early

- Intermediate goals should be clear and presented at appropriate times

Feedback: Players must receive appropriate feedback at appropriate

times. Feedback involves notifying the player of completion or

failure of missions, keeping a log of mission goals, objectives, and

status, providing a score and summary at the end of the mission, as

well as visual and auditory feedback on actions, tasks, and events.

- Players should receive feedback on progress toward their goals

- Players should receive immediate feedback on their actions

- Players should always know their status or score

Immersion: Players should experience deep but effortless involvement

in the game. Immersion is achieved through concentration (i.e. tasks,

monitoring, visual and auditory stimuli), feeling a connection to heroes,

units, and the story, feeling excited by the pace of the game and no

periods where the player is inactive or waiting.

- Players should become less aware of their surroundings

- Players should become less self-aware and less worried about everyday

life or self

- Players should experience an altered sense of time

- Players should feel emotionally involved in the game

- Players should feel viscerally involved in the game

Social Interaction: Games should support and create opportunities

for social interaction. Social interaction comes in the form of a

variety of multiplayer modes, a free online service with matchmaking

and rankings, being able to play with or against other players, text

chat, and the ability to create and share game content.

- support competition and cooperation between players

- support social interaction between players (chat, etc.)

- support social communities inside and outside the game

Csikszentmihalyi's Flow model (1997): feeling of energized focus, full

involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.

Flow is experienced when perceived Challenges and Skills are above actor‘s

average levels.

Apathy: when they are below.

Other experiences: Boredom, Relaxation, Control, Worry, Anxiety, Arousal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes Sweetser, Penelope, Daniel Johnson, Anne Ozdowska, and Peta Wyeth. "Gameflow Heuristics for Designing and

Evaluating Real-Time Strategy Games." In Proceedings of The 8th Australasian Conference on Interactive

Entertainment: Playing the System, ACM, 2012.

Narrative

Immersion

1. The opening cinematic should draw the player into the game

2. The campaign should include cinematics that advance the storyline, ground the player in the game world, and add depth to the game world

and characters

3. The campaign should tell an entertaining, involving, and memorable story and progressively add depth to the story

4. The player should become attached to the game world, characters, and story

5. The game should provide additional background information for the races and story through manuals or other sources

Sound and Graphics

Concentration Control Immersion

1. There should

be a variety of

sound effects

and voice

responses for

the player to

attend to and

voices

responses

should not be

repeated too

often

2. There should

a visually

rich,

stimulating

environment

for the player

to attend to

The player

should be

able to mute

some sounds

(e.g., unit

chatter),

without

muting all

sounds (e.g.,

combat

sounds, cut-

scene

dialogue)

Graphics

1. Detailed graphics should be used to give life and personality to the game world, structures, and

characters

2. The terrain, structures, and units should be used to set the atmosphere and capture the feel of the game

world

3. The structures, terrain, and units of different races should have a distinctive look and feel that clearly

captures the feel of the race they represent

4. Different types of units should have a distinctive look and feel (not the same unit with different clothes

and weapons)

5. Animations and special effects should be used to give life to the game world and units

6. Animations should not detract from the believability of characters and situations (e.g., repetitive

nodding and awkward arm movements)

7. Cinematography (e.g., camera manipulation) should be used to enhance believability in cut-scenes and

in-game

8. The interface should be themed to the game world and race

Sound

9. Voices should be used to give units distinct and vivid personalities

10. Sound effects and voice responses should be varied and not repetitive

11. Music should be themed for each race and help set the mood of the game

Campaign

Challenge Player Skills Clear Goals

1. The campaign should provide many hours of

play

2. The early stages of the campaign should

provide a good match for the skill level of

new players

3. The campaign should start slow and ease the

player into the game

4. The player should be required to change

races during the campaign, so as to challenge

them to adapt and learn new strategies

5. As the player progresses through the

campaign and their skills improve, the

missions should ramp up in difficulty to

match their skills, without becoming too

difficult

1. The campaign should include an optional, introductory

mission to teach new players about the controls and basics

of the game (e.g., movement, combat, base building,

gathering resources)

2. The game should provide opportunities for the player to

learn about and experiment with the game concepts

contextually through the campaign, including units,

structures, technologies, and races (for later use in the

skirmish mode)

3. The campaign should gradually introduce new units,

structures, technologies, and races so the player learns a

little at a time

4. The campaign should consistently reward the player for

their effort and achievements and motivate them to keep

playing, through cinematics and story developments

1. The opening

cinematic should

clearly give the

player the overall

goals for the game

2. Cinematics during

the game should be

used to clearly give

the player

intermediate goals

3. The campaign

should give the

player more drive

and direction for the

game

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes Mission

Concentration Challenge Control Feedback

1. The campaign should

include optional side

quests that give the

player alternatives to the

main objective and story

2. The player should not

spend the majority of a

mission expanding their

forces or performing

tasks that feel like a

slow grind

3. Missions should require

the player to perform

multiple tasks in unison

to achieve success

1. The campaign should include a range of mission

objectives and not just typical RTS "build up and

destroy" objectives

2. The missions in the campaign should vary in

complexity

3. The missions in the campaign should have normal

and hard difficulty settings

4. There should always be a way for the player to

finish a mission, so that they don't experience

feelings of hopelessness

5. The missions in the campaign should not be easier

or harder than most RTS games

6. Missions should be sufficiently challenging to force

the player to explore different strategies

7. Finishing missions should require tactics, strategy,

and skill, rather than just superior firepower

1. Missions should be

creative and offer the

player many choices

2. The player should be

able to be inventive

about how they

achieve the objectives

3. Missions should be

free of bugs that may

cause player frustration

4. The enemy should not

be seen to "pick on"

the player and not

attack the player's

computer-controlled

allies


given feedback on

how well they

achieved each

mission, including a

score and statistical

information on the

mission


notified immediately

if they have failed to

complete a mission

or if they will be

unable to complete a

mission due to some

action

Races

Challenge Player Skills Control

1. Each race should necessitate its own style of play

2. Different races should be different to play, but evenly matched and

balanced

3. Each race should include units that are specific to that race, with

functional and strategic differences

4. Each race should have units that counter the units in the other races

5. Different races should not include units that are functionally the

same

6. Hero units shouldn't become so powerful that other units become

worthless

7. The player should never know exactly what they will be facing,

even though they know the race of their opponent

8. Races should include enough strategic variation that each game is a

different experience

1. Races should have some

level of commonality, in

terms of types of buildings,

technology, and units, to

allow players to easily learn

how to use new races and

switch between different

races

2. Races should vary in

function (beyond the surface

level), to challenge the

player to develop new skills

and strategies

1. The player should be able to

choose a race that suits their

style of play

2. The game should have

multiple races, each of which

favours a different style of

play


make choices that further

customize and develop their

chosen race, rather than

having predetermined

strengths and weaknesses

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Concentration Challenge Control

The player

should not be

required to

micromanage

unit movement,

combat, or unit

abilities

1. The opponent AI should use varied strategies, not just rush tactics

2. The opponent AI should maintain a balance between expanding,

defending, and building an economy

3. The opponent AI should be unrelenting, but not overwhelming

4. The opponent AI should not attack with small, intermittent groups of

units that are easy to dispatch

5. The opponent AI should not be overly aggressive and crush the player

6. The opponent AI should not make obvious mistakes (e.g., leaving armies

idle while its base is attacked)

7. The opponent AI should be robust and flexible and not rely on preset

conditions and scripted sequences

8. The game should have multiple difficulty settings that accommodate for

all player skill levels, by adjusting the aggressiveness and efficiency of

the opponent AI.

1. The player should be able to customize

and control their units' behavior, by

setting unit attitude, stance, and

formations

2. The player's units should move where they

are ordered, without requiring intervention

3. Grouped units should move in formation,

so that they can easily move as a group

without requiring player intervention

4. Units should feel responsive, by

immediately carrying out player orders

5. Units should not just aggressively pursue

enemies beyond reason

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes Game play

Concentration Challenge Player Skills

1. The player should have many

tasks to concentrate on during the

game (e.g., collecting resources,

scouting, expanding,

constructing, producing,

researching, upgrading,

managing heroes, attacking, and

defending)

2. The player should need to split

their attention, time, and effort

between their many tasks

throughout the game

3. Early stages of the game, which

are potentially slow in RTS

games, should include sufficient

elements to support player

concentration

4. The amount of

micromanagement required in

bases should be minimized

5. Units should not have inventories

that the player needs to

micromanage

6. Micromanagement should be

minimized by automatic unit

formations, unit attitude settings,

good path-finding, production,

research queues, and intelligent

autonomous unit behaviour

7. Building units, researching

upgrades, and collecting

resources should not be so slow

that the player will be waiting

with nothing to do

8. Battles should be busy with

many things to attend to

1. Units and structures should have sufficient health, so as to focus

game-play more on combat than production

2. Game-play should maintain a fast pace, by not having lengthy

troughs for unit production or research

3. Upgrading units should have a significant impact on unit

effectiveness

4. Combat should focus more on unit manipulation than oncontrolling

large numbers of units

5. The game should rely more on management than on overwhelming

the opponent with large waves of units

6. The pace of the game should be fast enough to be exciting and

should increase as the game progresses, ending in all-out tactical

combat

7. The game should provide new and unique twists on conventional

RTS gameplay, to provide new challenges to experienced RTS

player and to give the game appeal, depth, and lasting value

8. The game should include numerous diverse maps that provide the

player with varied challenges

9. Small population limits should be used to force players to make hard

decisions about what kinds of units to use

10. Players should be discouraged from overly defensive play and

forced outside of their comfort zones, by making defensive

structures weaker, siege weapons more powerful, and by not starting

with enough resources to win the game

11. Map terrain should be varied and setup for tactical gameplay by

including choke points and high ground

12. As the player progresses through the game, new structures, units,

and technologies should become available

13. The economic aspects of the game should be compelling

14. The game should use the classic RTS rock-paper-scissors format for

combat between different categories of units (e.g., infantry, archers,

and cavalry)

15. The game should be accessible to inexperienced RTS players, who

should be able to play without being overwhelmed

16. The game should not have overpowered units that make all other

units redundant

17. The game must be sufficiently complex and challenging for

experienced RTS players

1. The game should

conform to RTS

conventions (e.g.,

resource gathering, base

building, unit capacity,

unit control, technology

advances, building tree,

managing defences,

forming an army,

attacking the enemy) to

allow the player to have

an inherent

understanding of the

game

2. The game play should

conform to the

traditional RTS model

(e.g., building a base,

collecting resources,

producing units,

upgrading and

researching, amassing

an army, attacking the

enemy, defend own

base) to meet the

benchmarks of the genre

3. The hierarchy of

structures, units,

technology, and special

abilities should be kept

simple

4. The game should

indicate which unit

types are best suited to

attack other unit types

Control Feedback Immersion

1. The player should not feel overwhelmed by the number of units under their command

2. The pace of the game should allow the player to manage their forces and use special abilities

3. The player should be able to play the game in the way that they want

4. The player should be able to modify the speed of the game

5. The choices that the player makes should affect the outcome of the game

6. The player should not feel like their base is too large to manage or defend

7. The player should be able to choose from a wide variety of map and game settings

The player should

be able to

immediately see

the effect of

attacking an enemy

unit (e.g., hit point

meter reduces)

The game elements

should build up a rich

and detailed world

that is more like

visiting a fully

realised location than

a constructed map

Interfaces and Control

Player Skills Control Feedback

1. The game's interface should be

uncomplicated and uncluttered

2. The game's interface should be

intuitive and easy to use

3. The game's controls should be

straightforward

4. The game's controls should

conform to RTS conventions

(e.g., point and click with mouse,

hotkeys, command icons, drag

boxes around units to select)

5. The game's interface should use

RTS conventions (e.g., bottom-

heavy menu)

6. Detailed tool tips (i.e.,

1. The game should have keyboard hotkeys to allow the

player to quickly perform important actions

2. Setting attack and move orders, casting spells, and

controlling groups should be simple

3. The player should be able to customize the keyboard

hotkeys and mouse controls

4. The player should be able to customize the interface, by

moving, minimizing, and opening control panels

5. Creating custom matches should be intuitive

6. The fonts and icons on the interface should be easy to

read

7. There should be multiple paths to achieve the same goal

via the interface and controls (e.g., buttons should be

available in multiple locations and/or accessible from

different menus)

1. There should be a mini-map that

clearly displays the surroundings

2. The player should be clearly

notified when there are things that

need their attention (e.g., events,

idle units)


clearly see the contents of groups

of units

4. The game should include

memorable audio cues to signify

in-game events deserving attention

5. The game should provide clear

feedback on where a player can

and cannot build and it should be

Sanjay Goel, JIIT, 2012 HCI Lecture Notes descriptions of what it is, what it

does, what it's good for) should

appear when the player mouses

over items

8. Controlling the camera during the game should be smooth

and intuitive

9. The player should be able to quickly jump to important

events that are happening in the game

10. The player should be able to easily group units and cycle

between groups and between units within groups

clear why a player is unable to

build on a certain spot

6. The game should give clear

feedback when a unit has received

experience or increases in statistics

Editor

Challenge AI Social Interaction

The game should include an editor that allows

players to create and share missions, which

extends the re-playability and life of the game.

1. The game should include a map and mission editor that

allows players to create custom content, maps, and

campaigns

2. The game's editor should be easy to use, robust, and flexible

Players should be able

to create custom maps to

share online

Multiplayer

Challenge Social Interaction

1. Multiplayer games should be

accessible to new players

2. Players in multiplayer games

should be allowed time to build

up a base before they are

rushed by other players

3. Multiplayer games should not

be too slow before hostilities

erupt

4. The game should have a

skirmish mode that allows a

large number of players on a

single map (e.g., 12 players)

1. The game should provide an online service for playing multiplayer games

2. The game should make it easy to connect to multiplayer games and start playing

3. The online server should match opponents automatically based on skill level or game-type preference

4. Teams of players should be able to play against other teams

5. The online server should include features such as rank ladders, auto-handicap, ladder statistics, a chat

client, and facilities for tracking friends

6. The online play mode should be integrated into the game

7. The online server should run smoothly and stably

8. The game should include multiplayer support in-game, such as the ability to vote on the course of

action if one player drops out and the ability to talk to other players

9. The game should support cooperative gaming, so that players can effectively play as a team (e.g., the

ability to build walled-in cities next to each other)

10. Multiplayer games should require team work to achieve victory

Help

Player Skills Social

Interactions

1. The player should be able to record and watch matches to learn from previous games

2. The game should have a manual that covers the basics and allows novices to establish the essentials quickly and start

playing

3. The game should include a technology tree to give an overview of some of the strategic avenues

4. The game should have a comprehensive in-game help system that includes detailed information on technology, structures,

and units

5. The player should be able to click a button to view detailed information on a selected unit (e.g., combat statistics and

interesting information)

6. The player should be able to click on most things in the game to access well laid-out help and information screens

7. The player should be able to access the technology tree ingame, with hyperlinks to detailed information on each element

in the tree

8. The game should have a tutorial, so that many of the more unique in-game features do not go unnoticed by the player

9. The game should have a tutorial that explains the basics (e.g., building and combat)

Players

should be able

to record

matches to

replay them to

recount the

events of the

game and

learn from

their previous

experiences

Assignment: (Group of 2 or 3) - Rate (on the scale of 1-5) and compare two RTS games wrt above mentioned 165

heuristics.

------------End of Course-------------Good Luck--------------------

Documents

HCI lecture notes by Sanjay Goel, JIIT 2012