chapter 7

design rules
 Design rules
Design– the goal driven problem solving process
Design rules- rules a designer can follow in order
to increase the usability of the eventual software
product.
Classified along two dimensions,
• Authority-an indication of whether or not the
rule must be followed in design or whether it is
only suggested.
• Generality- whether the rule can be applied to
many design situations or whether it is focussed
on a more limited application situation.
Types of design rules
• Principles
– abstract design rules
– low authority
– high generality
• Standards

increasing generality
– specific design rules
– high authority
– limited application
• Guidelines
– lower authority
– more general application
increasing authority
Distinction between types of
design rules - Principles
• Derived from knowledge of the
psychological, computational and
sociological aspects of the problem
domains
• Largely independent of the technology
• Depend on a deeper understanding of the
human element in the interaction
• Can be applied widely but are not so
useful for specific design advice.
Distinction between types of design
rules – Guidelines & Standards
• Guidelines - are less abstract and
often more technology oriented.
• Standard -A designer will have less of
a need to know the underlying theory
for applying a standard.
– Since standards carry a much higher level
of authority, it is more important that the
theory underlying them be correct or sound.
 Principles to support usability
-Application of abstract design rules to promote
its usability
-Divided into 3 main categories
•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
 Principles of learnability
Learnability-Concerns the features of the
interactive system that allow novice users
to understand how to use it initially and
then how to attain a maximal level of
performance.
Principles that support Learnability
–Predictability
–Synthesizability
–Familiarity
–Generalizability
–Consistency
 Principles of learnability
1. Predictability
– User centered concept
– Determining effect of future actions based on past
interaction history
– Operation visibility – how the user is shown the availability
of operations that can be performed next.
– Mathematical Puzzle
2. Synthesizability
– Ability of the user to estimate the nature of past
operations on the current state
– the user should see the changes of an operation
– immediate vs. eventual honesty
– File management in Cmd lang. Sys and Visual desktop
– New folder creation in Apple Macintosh
– Global search and replace
 Principles of learnability (ctd)
3. Familiarity
– how prior knowledge applies to new system
– Affordance (guessability)
– Word processor Vs Typewriter
– Soft button in forms
4. Generalizability
– extending specific interaction knowledge to new situations
– Within a single appln. – drawing shapes
– Variety of appln. – cut / copy/ paste
5. Consistency
– likeness in input/output behaviour arising from similar
situations or task objectives
– Applied relative to something
– Arrow keys e,x,s,d
– Warning to pilot (Imm, Eventual but not imm, no action)
Principles of flexibility
• Flexibility refers to the multiplicity of ways in
which the end-user and the system exchange
information.
• Several principles that contribute to the
flexibility of interaction,
– Dialogue initiative
– Multithreading
– Task migratability
– Substitutivity
– Customizability
 Principles of flexibility
1. Dialogue initiative
– Freedom from system imposed constraints on input dialogue .
– System vs. user pre-emptiveness
– Two users editing a document
– Pilot about to land
2. Multithreading
– ability of system to support user
interaction for more than one task at a time
– Concurrent-simultaneous communication
– Interleaved – temporal overlap between separate tasks but
permitted only one at a time
– Multimodality - Opening a window,
– Single expression formed by error warning – text msg with
beep
– Audible bell when a electronic mail arrives while editing a
program
Principles of flexibility
3. Task migratability
– Passing responsibility for task execution between user
and system
– Spell checking a paper – automated
– Safety critical application like flight deck which
contains so many controls on aircraft is automated
4. Substitutivity
– allowing equivalent values of input and output to be
substituted for each other
– Substitutivity w.r.t output - Temperature- numerical
value, graph or both
– Equal opportunity blurs the distinction between input
and output at the interface.
– Spread sheet programs- user fills in some cells and
system automatically determines the values of others
and vice versa
Principles of flexibility (ctd)
5. Customizability
– modifiability of the user interface by user or system
– Adaptability refers to the user’s ability to adjust the
form of input and output. user only allowed to adjust
the position of soft buttons on the screen or redefine
command names
– Adaptivity is automatic customization of the user
interface by the system. Decisions for adaptation can
be based on user expertise or observed repetition of
certain task sequences.
– Automatic macro construction is a form of
programming by example, combining adaptability with
adaptivity
Principles of robustness
Robustness - Interaction that covers features
that support the successful achievement and
assessment of the goals
Principles of robustness
• Observability
• Recoverability
• Responsiveness
• Task conformance
 Principles of robustness
1. Observability
– Ability of user to evaluate the internal state of the system
from its perceivable representation
– Browsability; defaults; reachability; persistence;
operation visibility
2. Recoverability
– Ability of user to take corrective action once an error has
been recognized
– Reachability; forward/backward recovery;
– Commensurate effort - if it is difficult to recover files
which have been deleted in an operating system, then it
should be difficult to remove them, or at least it should
require more effort by the user to delete the file
 Principles of robustness (ctd)
3. Responsiveness
– Rate of communication with the system and the user
– Response time-duration of time needed by the system to
express state changes to the user
– Response time stability covers the invariance of the duration
for identical or similar computational resources - pull-down
menus are expected to pop up instantaneously as soon as a mouse
button is pressed
4. Task conformance
– degree to which system services support all of the user's
tasks
– task completeness addresses the coverage issue
– task adequacy addresses the user’s understanding of the
tasks
Using design rules

increasing generality
Design rules
• suggest how to increase usability
• differ in generality and authority
increasing authority
Standards
• Set by national or international bodies to
ensure compliance by a large community of
designers standards require sound underlying
theory and slowly changing technology

• Hardware standards more common than

software, high authority and low level of detail

• ISO 9241 defines usability as effectiveness,

efficiency and satisfaction with which users
accomplish tasks
 Standards
• Usability- The effectiveness, efficiency and
satisfaction with which specified users achieve
specified goals in particular environments.
• Effectiveness- The accuracy and completeness
with which specified users can achieve specified
goals in particular environments.
• Efficiency- The resources expended in relation to
the accuracy and completeness of goals achieved.
• Satisfaction- The comfort and acceptability of
the work system to its users and other people
affected by its use.
Guidelines

• More suggestive and general

• Abstract guidelines (principles) applicable
during early life cycle activities
• Detailed guidelines (style guides) applicable
during later life cycle activities
• Understanding justification for guidelines aids
in resolving conflicts
Golden rules and heuristics

• “Broad brush” design rules

• Useful check list for good design
• Better design using these than using nothing!
• Different collections e.g.
– Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics (see Chapter 9)
– Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules
– Norman’s 7 Principles
Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules
1. Strive for consistency-in action sequences,
layout, terminology, command use and so on.
2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts, such as
abbreviations, special key sequences and
macros, to perform regular, familiar actions
more quickly.
3. Offer informative feedback for every user
action, at a level appropriate to the magnitude
of the action.
4. Design dialogs to yield closure so that the user
knows when they have completed a task.
 Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules
5. Offer error prevention and simple error handling so that,
ideally, users are prevented from making mistakes and, if they
do, they are offered clear and informative instructions to
enable them to recover.
6. Permit easy reversal of actions in order to relieve anxiety and
encourage exploration, since the user knows that he can
always return to the previous state.
7. Support internal locus of control so that the user is in control of
the system, which responds to his actions.
8. Reduce short-term memory load by keeping displays simple,
consolidating multiple page displays and providing time for
learning action sequences.
Norman’s 7 Principles

1. Use both knowledge in the world and

knowledge in the head.
2. Simplify the structure of tasks.
3. Make things visible: bridge the gulfs of
Execution and Evaluation.
4. Get the mappings right.
5. Exploit the power of constraints, both natural
and artificial.
6. Design for error.
7. When all else fails, standardize.
HCI design patterns

• An approach to reusing knowledge about

successful design solutions
• Originated in architecture: Alexander
• A pattern is an invariant solution to a
recurrent problem within a specific context.
• Examples
– Light on Two Sides of Every Room (architecture)
– Go back to a safe place (HCI)
• Patterns do not exist in isolation but are linked
to other patterns in languages which enable
complete designs to be generated
HCI design patterns (cont.)
• Characteristics of patterns
– capture design practice not theory
– capture the essential common properties of good examples
of design
– represent design knowledge at varying levels: social,
organisational, conceptual, detailed
– embody values and can express what is humane in
interface design
– are intuitive and readable and can therefore be used for
communication between all stakeholders
– a pattern language should be generative and assist in the
development of complete designs.
Summary

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

Using design rules

– standards and guidelines to direct design activity