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Human-Computer Interaction
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Definition of HCI
• Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.
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Easy to say, Hard to Realize
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Intro
• What is a user interface?• Why do we care about design?
• We see this all the time. – What’s good about the design of this error box?
• The user knows there is an error– What’s poor about the design of this error box?
• Discouraging• Not enough information• No way to resolve the problem (instructions or contact info)
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Disciplines involved in HCI • Computer Science (User interface Management Systems - Techniques) • Cognitive psychology (Perception, attention, memory, learning, thinking) • Social and organizational psychology (attitude, behavior, group work) • Ergonomics (safety, performance, adaptation) • Linguistics (terminology, multilingual systems) • Artificial intelligence (automated behavior) • Philosophy (knowledge) • Sociology (group behavior) • Anthropology (ethnomethodology) • Engineering (tools, techniques, equipment) • Design (graphic design, layout, colors)
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Second annual CTO Forum
• one theme popped up again and again – For the average person, most technology
is still too difficult to use – the situation is not necessarily improving – "Most of us pay far too much attention to
the technology used to implement computer solutions, which distracts us from the user." Alan Cooper
– "I have to be a systems administrator in my own home!“ Don Norman of Unext
A CTO's frustration, Infoworld, July 2001
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Problem or not?
• Is usability a real problem? • Or, maybe technology users are dumb
What do you think?
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US elections - Palm Beach County
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Ballot problems
• Al Gore and Joe Lieberman are the second names on the ballot, but the third hole to punch
• Alignment of the text in each column • The layout of double pages with punch holes in between
was novel & unfamiliar. Ballots in previous elections had used only a single column with punch holes on the right.
• Confusing arrows and numbers • Stress induced by the voting process• “It was so hard to tell who and what you were voting for. I
couldn't figure it out, and I have a doctorate,” voter Eileen Klasfeld said.
• http://danbricklin.com/log/ballotusability.htm • http://www.humanfactors.com/library/election.asp
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Harmless problems
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SQ006 Accident – TaipeiDesign problem = Disaster
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Taipei Airport Runway Layout
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SQ006 – Human Factors in Design
Runways which are closed are normally not lit up to make it clear they are not in use. But this was reported to not be the case at Chiang Kai-shek airport, where a single switch controls green lights on the common taxiway to both runways and down the middle of 05R
the airport does not have ground radar and the plane was out of sight at the time of its takeoff
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Why HCI is Important• The study of our interface with information.• It is not just ‘how big should I make buttons’ or ‘how to layout
menu choices’• It can affect
– Effectiveness– Productivity– Morale– Safety
• Example: a car with poor HCI• a plane with poor HCI
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Examples
• Q-keyboard• Dvorak keyboard (35% more efficient in
English)• F-keyboard for Turkish
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Interaction process
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Usability problems
• -gulf of evaluation: if user doesnt understand the message
• Gulf of execution: if user understands the message but doesnt know what to do
• Usability engineer tries to shorten these gaps
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4 basic strategies for Interface Design
• Visibility: system state and alternatives should be visible
• Good conceptual model: tasks and results should be displayed in a consisted way. Users can predict the results of their actions
• Good mappings: tasks and results should be matched (red is for warning, green is for accept)
• Feedback: users should get complete and continuous feedback
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Reference:As we may think, The Atlantic Monthly, July 1945http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush
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TUBITAK Vizyon 2023 Report• 1. Kullanımı eğitim gerektirmeyen bilgisayarların geliştirilmesi.• Bilgi çağında yaşamanın gereği olan “bilgisayar okur-yazarlığı”,
günümüzde en çok sözü edilen yeteneklerden birisi. Genç kuşaklar bilgisayarla barışık bir biçimde yetiştirilecek, böylece birçok alanda bilgisayar kullanımının önü açılacak. Ne var ki nüfusu giderek yaşlanan AB’de, öğrenme yeteneği zayıflamış, yaşlı insanların çokluğu ve bunların BİT olanaklarıyla örülen yaşam tarzları nedeniyle, bilgisayar kullanmaya giderek daha bağımlı duruma gelmeleri, çözümü ters yüz etme düşüncesini getirmiştir: “İnsanlar bilgisayara ayak uyduracağına, bilgisayarlar insanlara ayak uydurmalı; bir başka deyişle, “insan okur-yazarlığı” olan bilgisayarlar yapılmalı”. Hem yaşam düzeyine, hem ulusal katma değere katkısı olacağından, bilgisayarı “akıllı” kılacak olan yazılım ve donanımların ülkemizde tasarlanması, üretilmesi ve ayrıca dışsatımı hedeflenmektedir. (Sayfa 73)
• http://vizyon2023.tubitak.gov.tr/Strateji_Belgesi-V211.pdf
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What is Human Factors?
• The short definition:– Designing for human use
or– Bridging the gap between design and use
• “When an information system is well designed, it almost disappears.”
(Shneiderman, 1987)
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What is Human Factors?
• Discovers and applies informationabout• Human behavior, abilities, limitations and other
characteristics to the• Design of machines, systems, tasks, jobs, and
environmentsfor• Productive, safe, comfortable, and effective human use
Approach
Focus
Context
Aims
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Four Components of HF
• The actions or inactions of these individuals are influenced by four components:
1. The organizations that they work for2. The procedures (formal, informal, software) they use
to perform their activities3. The structure and equipment involved in these
activities4. The environments in which the individual conducts
activities.
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What Human Factors is NOT
• Not just applying checklists and guidelines (over 30 established graduate programs)
• Not just using oneself as the model for designing things (it recognizes individual differences)
• Not just common sense (a thought process)
• Not applied after the fact (needs to be part of the entire design process)
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Why is Human Factors difficult?
• Human beings are difficult to study
• Human Factors is ‘goal’ centered, rather than ‘content’ centered
• Rapid development/spread of technology
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User concerns
• Will system deliver information I need?
• How quickly and easily can I access data?
• How will system operation fit into my daily business schedule?
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Designer concerns
• How much disk space will master file consume?
• How many lines of program code will this function take?
• How can we reduce cpu time?
• What is the most efficient way of storing this data?
• What database management system should we use?
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Benefits of Human Factors(in relation to IT products in the marketplace)
• Increased product sales
• Increased user satisfaction
• Decreased customer support costs
• Decreased development costs
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Benefits of Human Factors(in relation to IT systems in the workplace)
• Increased user productivity
• Decreased training costs
• Decreased maintenance costs
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Interfaces in the World
• VCR• Mouse• Phone• Copier• Car• Airline reservation• Air traffic control• ………
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• So, What is usability?
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Usability - A definition
• Usability is:‘……the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction
with which specified users can achieve specified goals in particular environments’ (ISO DIS 9241 -part 11)
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Usability measuresEffectiveness
• The extent to which a user’s goal, or task is achieved
• Assessed by examining users’ successes/failures with product, e.g.– % of tasks completed
– Ratio of successes to failures
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Usability measuresEfficiency
• The amount of effort required (resources expended) to accomplish a goal
• Assessed by examining:– Deviations from critical path
– Error rates
– Time on task
– Workload (physical and mental)
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Usability measuresSatisfaction
• The comfort and acceptability of use
• Assessed by measuring:– subjective ratings of ‘ease of use’ (absolute and/or
relative)
– ratings of utility of functionality
– likes and dislikes, etc.
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Nielsen's 10 heuristics• can be applied by expert and non expert evaluators to a
given interface in order to help improve usability
– Simple and natural dialogue– Speak the user's language – Minimize the user's memory load. – Consistency– Feedback– Clearly marked exits– Shortcuts– Good error messages– Prevent errors– Help and documentation
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Shneiderman's Heuristics (8 Golden Rules)
• can be applied during design or afterwards as a means of checking for usability– Strive for consistency– Enable frequent users to use shortcuts– Offer informative feedback– Design dialogs to yield closure– Offer simple error handling– Permit easy reversal of actions– Support internal locus of control– Reduce short term memory load
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Example: Telephone
• Is it easy to use?– you pick up the handset – punch in the number – you are connected
• Some Problems (from Nielsen) :– numbers are actually hard to learn and remember– hard to type, and there is no forgiveness if you mistype a
digit– Talk to a person or a number– How about call-waiting or call-forwarding?
http://www.useit.com/papers/telephone_usability.html
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Activity
• Take the cellular phone of your friend and try to add an appointment to the calendar to June 1st.
• Is your friend as fast as you are?• Ask what is the difficulty in the task?
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Design Diaries• Purpose: analyzing interaction through real-world examples of technological
products
• Document an example of technological products, its usability problems and recommend design improvements
• Look around for bad designed products from your daily life (VCR, Palmtop, Microwave, OS, car, etc)
Section 1-The description– Explain its functionality– Add pictures or figures
Section 2 - Design problems– Explain the problem(s)– Refer to the heuristics (Nielsen, Shneiderman, Norman)
Section 3- Recommended design improvements
Check (but don’t use these examples in your assignment!) http://www.baddesigns.com/
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Next week
• Decide on your project topic• Decide on yor term paper topic• Volunteers for design diaries
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What is interaction design?
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Bad DesignsProblem: to figure out ad remember which chain is for controlling the light and fan
Suggestion: chain that controls the light could have a miniature light bulb on the end. Chain for the fan could have a miniature fan.
www.baddesigns.com
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Bad Designs
• Problem: to confuse the dollar cost of the gas purchased with the amount of gas purchased
• Suggestion: displays may have different size, positions, color
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Bad Designs
• Problem: to figure out how to open the gas cap door
• Suggestion: visible control for opening the gas cap door
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Good and Bad Designs
• Black remote fits hand better• Has logical layout and color-coded,
distinctive buttons• Easy to locate buttons
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What is interaction design?
• Designing interactive products to support the way people communicate and interact in their everyday and working lives
– Sharp, Rogers and Preece (2011)
• The design of spaces for human communication and interaction
– Winograd (1997)
5757 www.id-book.com
Goals of interaction design
• Develop usable products– Usability means easy to learn, effective to use and
provide an enjoyable experience
• Involve users in the design process
5858 www.id-book.com
What to design
• Need to take into account:– Who the users are– What activities are being carried out– Where the interaction is taking place
• Need to optimize the interactions users have with a product– So that they match the users’ activities and needs
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Understanding users’ needs• Need to take into account what people are
good and bad at• Consider what might help people in the way
they currently do things• Think through what might provide quality user
experiences• Listen to what people want and get them
involved• Use tried and tested user-centered methods
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Activity
• How does making a call differ when using a:– Cell phone– Public phone box?
• Consider the kinds of user, type of activity and context of use
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Evolution of HCI interfaces•50s-Interface at the hardware level for engineers -switch panels•60-70s-interface at the programming level -COBOL, FORTRAN•70-90s-Interface at the terminal level -command languages •80s-Interface at the interaction dialogue level -GUIs, multimedia•90s-Interface at the work setting -networked systems, groupware •00s-Interface becomes pervasive–RF tags, Bluetooth technology, mobile devices, consumer electronics, interactive screens, embedded technology
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Which kind of design?
• Number of other terms used emphasizing what is being designed, e.g.– user interface design, software design, user-centered design, product
design, web design, experience design (UX)
• Interaction design is the umbrella term covering all of these aspects– fundamental to all disciplines, fields, and approaches concerned with
researching and designing computer-based systems for people
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HCI and interaction design
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Relationship between ID, HCI and other fields
• Academic disciplines contributing to ID: – Psychology– Social Sciences– Computing Sciences– Engineering– Ergonomics– Informatics
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Relationship between ID, HCI and other fields
• Design practices contributing to ID:– Graphic design– Product design– Artist-design– Industrial design– Film industry
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Working in multidisciplinary teams• Many people from different
backgrounds involved
• Different perspectives and ways of seeing and talking about things
• Benefits– more ideas and designs
generated• Disadvantages
– difficult to communicate and progress forward the designs being create
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Interaction design in business• Increasing number of ID consultancies, examples of well
known ones include:– Nielsen Norman Group: “help companies enter the age of the consumer,
designing human-centered products and services”– Cooper: ”From research and product to goal-related design”– Swim: “provides a wide range of design services, in each case targeted to address
the product development needs at hand”– IDEO: “creates products, services and environments for companies pioneering new
ways to provide value to their customers”
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What do professionals do in the ID business?
• interaction designers - people involved in the design of all the interactive aspects of a product
• usability engineers - people who focus on evaluating products, using usability methods and principles
• web designers - people who develop and create the visual design of websites, such as layouts
• information architects - people who come up with ideas of how to plan and structure interactive products
• user experience designers (UX) - people who do all the above but who may also carry out field studies to inform the design of products
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Interaction design in business• Increasing number of ID consultancies, examples of well
known ones include:– Nielsen Norman Group: “help companies enter the age of the consumer,
designing human-centered products and services”– Cooper: ”From research and product to goal-related design”– Swim: “provides a wide range of design services, in each case targeted to address
the product development needs at hand”– IDEO: “creates products, services and environments for companies pioneering new
ways to provide value to their customers”
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What is involved in the process of interaction design
•Identify needs and establish requirements••Develop alternative designs••Build interactive prototypes that can be communicated and assessed••Evaluate what is being built throughout the process
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Core characteristics of interaction design
• users should be involved through the development of the project
• specific usability and user experience goals need to be identified, clearly documented and agreed at the beginning of the project
• iteration is needed through the core activities
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Usability goals
• Effective to use• Efficient to use• Safe to use• Have good utility• Easy to learn• Easy to remember how to use
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Goals of interaction designThe extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. (ISO standard 9241-11, 1998)•Ease of learning—How fast can a user learn to accomplish basic tasks?•Efficiency of use—How fast can an experienced user accomplish tasks?•Memorability—Can a user remember enough to use it effectively the next time?•Error frequency and severity—How often do users make errors, how serious are these errors, and how do users recover from these errors?•Subjective satisfaction—How much does the user like using the system?From User-Centered Web Site Development: A Human-Computer Interaction Approach, by Daniel D. McCracken, RosaleeJ. Wolfe. Prentice Hall.
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Activity on usability
• How long should it take and how long does it actually take to:– Using a DVD to play a movie?– Use a DVD to pre-record two programs?– Using a web browser tool to create a website?
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User experience goalsDesirable aspectssatisfying helpful funenjoyable motivating provocativeengaging challenging surprisingpleasurable enhancing sociability rewardingexciting supporting creativity emotionally fulfillingentertaining cognitively stimulating
Undesirable aspectsboring unpleasantfrustrating patronizingmaking one feel guilty making one feel stupidannoying cutesychildish gimmicky
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Usability and user experience goals • Selecting terms to convey a person’s feelings, emotions, etc.,
can help designers understand the multifaceted nature of the user experience
• How do usability goals differ from user experience goals?
• Are there trade-offs between the two kinds of goals?– e.g. can a product be both fun and safe?
• How easy is it to measure usability versus user experience goals?
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Design principles
• Generalizable abstractions for thinking about different aspects of design
• The do’s and don’ts of interaction design
• What to provide and what not to provide at the interface
• Derived from a mix of theory-based knowledge, experience and common-sense
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