Usability paradigms and principles

Overview

• Designing for maximum usability is the goal of

design
• History of interactive system design provides
paradigms for usable designs
• Principles of usability are more general means of
understanding usability

Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles

A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4
 Introduction

Concerns

• How can an interactive system be developed to

ensure its usability?
• How can the usability of an interactive system be
demonstrated or measured?

Approaches

Paradigms for usability

examples of successful interactive techniques

Principles for usability

theoretically driven from psychological,
computational and sociological knowledge

Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles

A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4 (1)
 Paradigms for usability

Historical perspective on interactive system design

Time-sharing
40s and 50s – explosive technological growth
60s – need to channel the power
J.C.R. Licklider at ARPA
single computer supporting multiple users

Video Display Units

more suitable medium than paper
1962 – Sutherland's Sketchpad
computers for visualizing and manipulating
data
one person's contribution could drastically
change the history of computing

Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles

A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4 (2)
 Paradigms (cont'd)

Programming toolkits
Engelbart at Stanford Research Institute
1963 – augmenting man's intellect
1968 NLS/Augment system demonstration
the right programming toolkit provides building
blocks to producing complex interactive
systems

Personal computing
70s – Papert's LOGO language for simple
graphics programming by children
A system is more powerful as it becomes easier
to user
Future of computing in small, powerful
machines dedicated to the individual
Kay at Xerox PARC – the Dynabook as the
ultimate personal computer

Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles

A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4 (3)
 Paradigms (cont'd)

Window systems and the WIMP interface

humans can pursue more than one task at a
time
windows used for dialogue partitioning, to
"change the topic"
1981 – Xerox Star first commercial windowing
system
windows, icons, menus and pointers now
familiar interaction mechanisms

The metaphor
relating computing to other real-world activity is
effective teaching technique
• LOGO's turtle dragging its tail
• file management on an office desktop
• word processing as typing
• financial analysis on spreadsheets
• virtual reality – user inside the metaphor
Problems
some tasks do not fit into a given metaphor
cultural bias
Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles
A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4 (4)
 Paradigms (cont'd)

Direct manipulation
1982 – Shneiderman describes appeal of
graphically-based interaction
• visibility of objects
• incremental action and rapid feedback
• reversibility encourages exploration
• syntactic correctness of all actions
• replace language with action
1984 – Apple Macintosh
the model-world metaphor
What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG)

Language versus Action

actions do not always speak louder than words
DM – interface replaces underlying system
language paradigm
interface as mediator
interface acts as intelligent agent
programming by example is both action and
language

Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles

A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4 (5)
 Paradigms (cont'd)

Hypertext
1945 – Vannevar Bush and the memex
key to success in managing explosion of
information
mid 60s – Nelson describes hypertext as non-
linear browsing structure
hypermedia and multimedia
Nelson's Xanadu project still a dream today

Multimodality
a mode is a human communication channel
emphasis on simultaneous use of multiple
channels for input and output

Computer Supported Cooperative Work

CSCW removes bias of single user/single
computer system
Can no longer neglect the social aspects
Electronic mail is most prominent success

Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles

A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4 (6)
 Principles to support usability

A structured presentation of general principles to

apply during design of an interactive system.

Learnability
the ease with which new users can begin
effective interaction and achieve maximal
performance

Flexibility
the multiplicity of ways the user and system
exchange information

Robustness
the level of support provided the user in
determining successful achievement and
assessment of goal-directed behaviour

Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles

A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4 (7)
 Principles of learnability

Predictability
determining effect of future actions based on
past interaction history
operation visibility

Synthesizability
assessing the effect of past actions
immediate vs. eventual honesty

Familiarity
how prior knowledge applies to new system
guessability; affordance

Generalizability
extending specific interaction knowledge to new
situations

Consistency
likeness in input/output behaviour arising from
similar situations or task objectives

Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles

A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4 (8)
 Principles of flexibility

Dialogue initiative
freedom from system imposed constraints on
input dialogue
system vs. user pre-emptiveness

Multithreading
ability of system to support user interaction for
more than one task at a time
concurrent vs. interleaving; multimodality

Task migratability
passing responsibility for task execution
between user and system

Substitutivity
allowing equivalent values of input and output to
be substituted for each other
representation multiplicity; equal opportunity

Customizability
modifiability of the user interface by user
(adaptability) or system (adaptivity)

Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles

A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4 (9)
 Principles of robustness

Observability
ability of user to evaluate the internal state of the
system from its perceivable representation
browsability; defaults; reachability; persistence;
operation visibility

Recoverability
ability of user to take corrective action once an
error has been recognized
reachability; forward/backward recovery;
commensurate effort

Responsiveness
how the user perceives the rate of
communication with the system
stability

Task conformance
degree to which system services support all of
the user's tasks
task completeness; task adequacy

Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles

A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4 (10)
 Summary

Paradigms for usability

the history of computing contains examples of
creative insight that enhanced interaction

Principles for usability

repeatable design for usability relies on
maximizing benefit of one good design by
abstracting out the general properties which can
direct purposeful design

The success of designing for usability requires both

creative insight (new paradigms) and purposeful
principled practice

Human–Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall Usability paradigms and principles

A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale © 1993 Chapter 4 (11)