2/9/25, 7:15 PM Exam 1 notes.

md - Grip

Exam 1 notes.md

EXAM #1 NOTES

1.1 Introduction to HCI

Human-computer interaction can take different forms:

Human interacts with computer (and vice-versa)
Human interacts with a task through a computer (computer mediates the
interaction) => the human + computer interact with the task together
Ideally, we focus on making the interface of the computer/program as
invisible as possible, so the human can focus on the task they’re trying to
accomplish
The goal is to let the user spend as much time thinking about the task rather
than thinking about the interface
Video games: the controller behaves as you expect it to, becoming invisible as
you try to accomplish your in-game mission
Having more than one remote control: you need to spend time looking at the
remote, determining which one is best for the task, if you need to use multiple
controls, etc
HCI is ubiquitous - it’s everywhere!
We might be experts at interacting with computers, but that doesn’t make us
experts at designing interactions between other humans and computers.
HCI is a subset of the broader field of **human factors engineering **
Human factors engineering: designing the interactions between people and
products, systems, or devices
We’re interested in designing the interactions between people and
computers, but computers are themselves products or systems.
Human factors is interested in the non-computing parts of this as well
As computers integrate themselves into more and more of our devices, the
gap between human-computer interaction and human factors engineering is
shrinking.

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Can be seen as the merging of engineering + psychology + design +

cognitive science fields
Psychology is a symbiotic field with HCI — psychology informs HCI, and we
use our experiences and feedback in HCI to add to the field of psychology
HCI is largely about understanding the interactions between humans and
computers.
UX design is largely about designing, or dictating, those interactions.
We use what we understand about humans to design user experiences, then
we use the results of these user experiences to examine whether our
understanding was correct.
Called design-based research: using the results of our designs to conduct
research => research informs the design, and feedback from the designs
informs/updates/adds to our research

1.2 Introduction to HCI

This class will be about:

HCI principles: fundamental design principles of HCI
HCI methods: understanding the design life cycle + the role of iteration
Performing user research
Relationship between design principles and user research
HCI applications: how these principles work in other technologies, domains, and
ideas
Design: activity where you apply known principles to a new problem
It’s also: an iterative process of need-finding, prototyping, evaluating, and revising
[process where you gather information, use it to develop design alternatives,
evaluate them with users, and revise them accordingly]
You don’t want to ignore decades of experience when designing new interfaces,
but simply applying known principles to a new problem doesn’t guarantee you
have a good design
Effectiveness goals
Usability
Research
Change
We want to design effective interactions between humans and computers — “WE
DESIGN INTERACTIONS, not interfaces”

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"You are not your own user!” — focusing too much on your own experiences can
give you a false sense of expertise

1.3 Exploring HCI

[TECHNOLOGY] Virtual reality (VR): generally works by replacing the real world’s
visual, auditory, and sometimes even olfactory or kinesthetic stimuli with its own input.
[TECHNOLOGY] Augmented reality (AR): complements what you see and hear in the
real world.
[TECHNOLOGY] Human-robot interaction is going to become more mainstream over
the next few decades
[TECHNOLOGY] Mobile is growing rapidly
Mobile computing is deeply related to fields like context-aware computing,
ubiquitous computing, and augmented reality as it possesses the hardware
necessary to complement all these efforts.
Context is a fundamental part of the way humans interact with other humans.
[IDEA] Context-sensitive computing: equipping user interfaces with historical,
geographical, or other forms of contextual knowledge. Attempts to give computer
interfaces the contextual knowledge that humans have in their everyday
interactions
There’s an enormous amount of research to be done on context-sensitive
computing, especially as it relates to wearables, augmented reality, and
ubiquitous computing
[IDEA] Gesture-based interaction: computers interpret our gestures. Gesture-
based interaction has enormous potential. The fingers have some of the finest
muscle movements, meaning that a system based on finger movements could
support an incredible number of interactions
[IDEA] Pen-based and touch-based interaction
Tablet-based interaction methods have been used even in fields like art and music
[IDEA] Information visualization: representing abstract data visually to help humans
understand it
The goal of information visualization is to match the reader’s mental model of the
phenomenon to the reality of it
[IDEA] Computer-supported cooperative work: how can we use computers to
support people working together?
The CSCW community often breaks things down into two dimensions: time and
place

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We can think of design as whether we’re designing for users in the same time and
place or at different times and in different places

Think of CSCW as mediating cooperation across traditional geographical and

temporal borders, but it can also help with colocated simultaneous cooperation
Examples: museum asking visitors for their location (same place, different times) /
Dr. Joyner recording a video and us watching it (diff place, diff time) / Slack (diff
place, same time)
[IDEA] Social computing: how computers affect the way we interact and socialize
Examples: emojis, social media, Wikipedia, online gaming, dating websites
[DOMAIN] Special needs applications: computing can help us compensate for
disabilities, injuries, and aging
Examples: VR for paralyzed people, AI for autonomous wheelchairs, robotic
prosthetic
Impact is super high
[DOMAIN] Education
Education technology is highly based on HCI principles
You might use HCI to create desirable difficulties as learning experiences for
students
[DOMAIN] Healthcare

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Examples: info visualization for making changes to your lifestyle, context-aware

computing to detect when you’re about to do something unhealthy, FitBit for
fitness tracking, MyFitnessPal for diet tracking, VR for therapy
[DOMAIN] Security
The most secure communication strategies in the world are weakened if people
refuse to use them
And historically, people have very little patience for instances when security
measures get in the way of doing a task.
For security to be useful, it has to be usable -- if it isn’t usable, people just won’t
use it.
Examples: make actions easier to perform, showing password requirements as
met or unmet, password requirements as a game
[DOMAIN] Video gaming
The actions the user takes with the controller should feel like they’re actually
interacting within the game world
Video games are a near-constant feedback cycle as the user takes actions,
evaluates the results, and adjusts accordingly.
Poor interface design can frustrate users, causing the game to be reviewed as
poor

2.1 Introduction to HCI Principles

[GOAL #1] Students will understand the focus of HCI on tasks rather than merely tools.

To design a good interface, we need to understand both the user’s goals and the task
they’re trying to accomplish

[GOAL #2] Students will understand the scope of a task.

How to identify a task

a. Watch real users.
Instead of speculating or brainstorming, get out there and watch real users
performing in the area in which you’re interested.
b. Talk to them!
You don’t have to just watch them. Recruit some participants to come
perform the task and talk their way through it. Find out what they’re thinking,
what their goals are, what their motives are.
c. Start small.

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Start by looking at the individual little interactions. It’s tempting to come in

believing you already understand the task, but if you do, you’ll interpret
everything you see in terms of what you already believe. Instead, start by
looking at the smallest operators the user performs.
d. Abstract up.
Working from those smaller observations, then try to abstract up to an
understanding of the task they’re trying to complete. Keep asking why they’re
performing these actions until you get beyond the scope of your design.
Somewhere in that sequence is likely the task for which we want to design.
e. You are not your user.
Even if you yourself perform the task for which you’re designing, you’re not
designing for you: you’re designing for everyone that performs the task.
Leave behind your own previous experiences and preconceived notions
about it.

[GOAL #3] Students will understand the notions of usefulness and usability.

The ultimate goal of design in HCI is to create interfaces that are both useful and
usable.
Example: maps vs GPS
Useful: the interface allows the user to achieve some task [maps are useful, but
you still have to track your current location, where you’re going, etc]
Usable: a solution that makes the experience easier for the user [GPS device
tracks your car, tells you your speed and location relative to the destination, helps
you plan ahead of time to avoid traffic, etc]
Cognitive load: the total mental effort being used in working memory
By understanding the task of navigation itself, we realized we could offload the
cognitive load of navigation onto an interface, closing the loop between the user
and the task of navigation.

[GOAL #4] Students will understand the different views of a person’s role in a system.

Role of a processor
Think of the human being as nothing more than a sensory processor.
They take input in, and they spit output out
Usability: here, it means that the interface is physically usable [touch/see/etc]
Evaluated by measuring user interaction quantitatively (eg: How long does it take
them to execute a task? How quickly can they react?)
Goes back to the behaviorist school of thought in psychology

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Behaviorism focuses on observable behaviors and outcomes. It attempts to

understand behavior by looking only at behavior, not at the cognition that
underlies behavior
For processors, our design process focuses on testing observable behaviors
“As a processor, we might look at what information is communicated to the user,
when, and how.”
Role of a predictor
When we care deeply about the human’s knowledge, experience, expectations,
and thought process
They’re the predictor: we want them to be able to predict what the outcome will
be for some input, and thus choose the input that will cause the desired output.
We want to understand what is going on in their head as they perform some task,
and create interfaces to make that task easier.
Interface must fit with knowledge: the interface must help the user learn what they
do not already know, as well as efficiently leverage what they do already know
_Evaluated by qualitative ex situ studies _(studies in a controlled or otherwise
inauthentic environment): perform task analyses to see where users are spending
most of their time, or perform cognitive walkthroughs to understand the user’s
thought process throughout the task
Goes back to cognitivism or cognitive psychology
Where behaviorism was only concerned with what we could observe,
cognitivism is concerned with what goes on inside the mind (perception,
attention, memory, creativity, etc)
We care about what the user is thinking
The user, not the interface, is doing the predicting
“As a predictor, we might instead look at how the interface meshes with the user’s
needs with regards to this task, how easy it is to access, how easy the commands
are to perform, and so on.”
Role of a participant
We’re not just interested in what’s going on inside the user’s head; we’re also
interested in what’s going on around them at the time
Example questions: what is competing for their attention? What are their available
cognitive resources? What is the importance of the task relative to everything else
going on?
Interface must fit with the context: the interface cannot just accomplish a task
when analyzed in a vacuum; it must meet the needs of the context in which it is
used

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Evaluated by in situ studies: studies of the interface and the user within the real,
complete context of the task
Resembles the functionalism school of thought in psychology
Emphasizes examining mental behaviors in the context of broader
environments
Also resembles systems psychology
Emphasizes human behavior within complex systems
While the processor and predictor views emphasize only the interaction of the
user with an interface, the participant view looks at the interaction of both within
the broader context of an environment in which they are situated.
Any time you’re looking beyond just the user and the interface, you’re likely
adopting the participant view in some way
“As a participant, we might look at the broader interactions between this interface
and the user’s other tasks and social activities, and how it changes their lives in
other ways.”
EXAMPLE: Redesigning the Tesla Model S’s address entry screen so the user can enter
their destination address more quickly
PROCESSOR
We’re strictly looking at the user’s observable behavior. So, we might
construct a controlled study where we bring participants in, give them
addresses to enter, and time them on different versions of our interface.
Whichever interface has the fastest times would be the interface we might
want to go with
Pros
Can do the research with data, rather than talking to the users
Compare text interface vs voice interface
Cons
There could be other enhancements we could that we don’t know about
Targets experts who already know what to do
Helps optimize, not redesign
PREDICTOR
Gather more robust data: actually start asking our users for input. We could
bring them in for interviews, conduct focus groups, or send out surveys. We
could also show them prototypes for new interfaces and have them describe
their thought process while trying to interact with them
Pros
More complete picture of interaction than processor model
Lets us target beginners and experts

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Cons
Relies on users being accurate reporters of their own experiences
We’re not looking at the context in which the interface is used - excludes
situational factors
Suffers from a lack of awareness of context
PARTICIPANT
View the interface in the actual context in which it is used
Pros
Get even more complete data on the strengths and weaknesses of the
interface
Cons
Usually only usable with real working interfaces
Becomes more difficult to isolate the effect of our changes
We’ll likely use all these models at different times and in different contexts, and the
data we gather from one will inform interface changes that might be tested in another
The results of each design phase inform the next, and different phases call for different
types of evaluation, which echo different models of the user.

[GOAL #5] Students will understand the existence of user experience at the group and
societal level.

At the group level, we can start to think about how interfaces lead to a different user
experience among social or work groups.
Societal changes/progress can affect features in UX and technology (example:
Facebook adding ‘civil union’ when gay marriages become legalized helped normalize

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the societal change for the individual and bring more representation to minority
groups)

2.2 Feedback Cycles

[GOAL #1] Students will understand the overall nature of feedback in interaction design,
including the feedback cycle between user and interface.

Feedback cycles are the way in which people interact with the world and then get
feedback on the results of those interactions.
Nearly all of HCI can be interpreted in some ways as an application of feedback cycles,
whether between a person and a task, a person and an interface, or systems
comprised of people and interfaces.

[GOAL #2] Students will understand the definition of gulfs of execution.

The distance between a user’s goals and the actions required to realize those goals
The user puts some input into the system through the interface, and the system
communicates some output back to the user via the interface.
The gulf of execution can be defined as: how do I know what I can do?
The user has some goals: how do they figure out what to do to make those goals
a reality? How hard is it to do in the interface what is necessary to accomplish
those goals?
Or, alternatively: what’s the difference between what the user thinks they should
have to do, and what they actually have to do?
Components
(#1) Identify intentions
The user needs to be able to identify what their goal is in the context of the
system
There might be a mismatch between their own understanding and the
system’s structure
The user needs to think of their goal in terms of their current system
(#2) Identify actions
They need to be able to identify the actions necessary to accomplish their
goals
(#3) Execute in interface
They need to be able to interface with the system to carry out the actions
Can narrow the gulf of execution by reducing the number of actions required
Bridging gulfs of execution
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Best bridge over the gulf of execution might involve helping the user reframe
their intention
(#1) Make functions discoverable
Ideally, the functions of the interface would be discoverable, meaning that
they can find them, clearly labeled, within the interface
(#2) Let the user mess around
Don’t include any actions that can’t be undone. Avoid any buttons that can
irreversibly ruin their document or setup. That way, the user will feel safe
discovering things in your interface
(#3) Be consistent with other tools
Adopt the same standards many other tools use: this makes it easy for users
to figure out what to do in your interface
Example: use the same save icon (floppy disk) that users are used to from
other programs/OSs
(#4) Know your user
For novice users, identifying their intentions and actions are most valuable, so
making commands discoverable is preferable
For experts, though, actually doing the action is more valuable
Example: using the command line vs using the OS GUI
(#5) Feedforward
Information on what will happen if you keep doing what you’re doing
Feedback on what the user might want to do. It helps the user predict what
the result of an action will be
Example: if you pull down on the Facebook newsfeed on your phone, it starts
to show the refresh icon -- if you don’t finish pulling down, it doesn’t refresh

[GOAL #3] Students will understand the definition of gulfs of evaluation.

The distance between the effects of those actions and the user’s understanding of the
results
The user has taken some action. Now, they need to evaluate whether or not their
action led to the desired goals. This isn’t about whether the action did succeed (it’s
actually inside the system), but how the user becomes aware that their action
succeeded.
Components
(#1) Interface output
What’s displayed or communicated - visual, sound, vibration
(#2) Interpretation

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The user needs to interpret the output to find out what it means for the
system
(#3) Evaluation
Once they have received and interpreted the output, they can evaluate
whether the desired change occurred
Large gulf of evaluation: user has to do a lot to evaluate whether their actions were
successful
Bridging gulfs of evaluation
Best bridge over the gulf of evaluation might involve some feedback on the
performance of a task
(#1) Give feedback constantly
Help the user understand where the system is in executing their action by
giving feedback at every step of the process
(#2) Give feedback immediately
Let the user know they have been heard even when you’re not ready to give
them a full response
(#3) Match the feedback to the action
Subtle actions should have subtle feedback, significant actions should have
significant feedback
(#4) Vary your feedback
Think about how auditory or haptic (touch) feedback can be used instead of
relying just on visual feedback
(#5) Leverage direct manipulation
Whenever possible, let the user feel like they’re directly manipulating things
in the system

Related to both gulfs:

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Seven questions to ask when designing interfaces (by Norman):

[Execution: the goal] 1. How easily can one determine the function of the device?
This relates to the user’s goal: how easily can the user determine that the interface
is capable of accomplishing their goal?
What do I want to do?
[Execution: plan] 2. How easily can one tell what actions are possible? This is
important for the user to be able to construct their plan.
What are the alternatives?
**[Execution: specify] **3. How easily can one determine the mapping from
intention to physical movement?
What can I do?
[Execution: perform] 4. How easily can one actually perform that physical
movement?
How can I do it?
**[Evaluation: perceive] **5. How easily can one tell what state the system is in?
What happened?
[Evaluation: interpret] 6. How easily can one tell if the system is in the desired
state?
What does it mean?
[Evaluation: compare] 7. How easily can one determine the mapping from system
state to interpretation?
Is this okay for me?

PHASES
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Visceral: physical act of performing the plan, or the perceiving the outcome
[perform/perceive]
Behavioral: where we think about what steps to actually take or what we’re seeing
from the interface
[specify/interpret]
Reflective: put it in the context of our goal: either translating a goal into a plan, or
comparing the interpreted results to the original goal
[plan/compare]

3.1 Introduction to Methods

[GOAL #1] Students will understand the notion of user-centered design, especially as it
contrasts with other design philosophies.

When you start to design a new interface, your goal is to design an interface that will
meet the needs of the user better than the existing design.
It’s very rare that we design for tasks users have never even performed before: we’re
almost always developing new ways to accomplish old tasks.
User-centered design: design that considers the needs of the user throughout the
entire design life cycle process
User-centered design is about prioritizing the user’s needs while also recognizing
that we don’t know the user’s needs.
So, we need to involve them at every stage of the process:
Before we start, we need to examine the user’s needs in depth, by observing
them and by asking them direct questions.
After we start designing, we need to present our design alternatives and
prototypes to the user to get feedback.
When we near a design, we need to evaluate the quality of the design with
real users.
We have to interact with our users, understand their needs, and involve them in
the evaluation.

[GOAL #2] Students will understand the fundamental principles and approaches to user-
centered design.

ISO (International Standards Organization) outlined six principles to follow when

pursuing user-centered design:
**[Principle #1] **The design is based upon an explicit understanding of users,
tasks and environments

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This means that we must gather information about the users, the tasks they
perform, and where they perform those tasks, and leverage that knowledge
throughout the design process.
**[Principle #2] **Users are involved throughout design and development
Involvement can take on many forms, from regularly participating in
interviews and surveys about designs and prototypes to actually working on
the design team alongside the designers.
**[Principle #3] **The design is driven and refined by user-centered evaluation
We absolutely must have real users evaluating the prototypes and interfaces
we assemble.
**[Principle #4] **The process is iterative
No tool is developed once, released, and then abandoned. Designs undergo
constant iteration and improvement, even after being released.
**[Principle #5] **The design addresses the whole user experience
Many designers are tempted to delineate a certain portion of the experience
as their primary interest, but we must address the entire user experience.
[Principle #6] The design team includes multidisciplinary skills and perspectives
Good teams for pursuing user-centered design include people with a number
of different backgrounds, including psychologists, designers, computer
scientists, domain experts, and more.
User-centered design is about looking at the impact of our design on all affected
stakeholders:
[Primary stakeholder] “User” in user-centered design: person who uses the
interface that we create -- they use the tool directly
[Secondary stakeholder]: people who do not use our system directly, but who
might interact with the output of it in some way.
[Tertiary stakeholder]: people who never interact with the tool or its output, but
who are nonetheless impacted by the tool.
Over the decades, user experience design really has become a major differentiator
between success and failure.

[GOAL #3] Students will understand the design life cycle.

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We need to know two things: what the design life cycle is, and how to integrate the
user into each phas

[Phase #1: Needfinding]

In needfinding, we gather a comprehensive understanding of the task that
users are trying to perform.
That includes who the user is, what the context of the task is, why they are
doing the task, and any other information related to what we’re designing.
[Phase #2: Design Alternatives]
These are very early ideas on the different ways to approach the task.
It’s important to develop multiple alternatives to avoid getting stuck in one
idea too soon.
[Phase #3: Prototyping]
We take the ideas with the most potential and build them into prototypes
that can actually be put in front of the user.
Early on, we might do this in very low-fidelity ways with pencil and paper,
but, as we go on, we refine and improve.
[Phase #4: Evaluation]
We take our ideas and put them in front of users.
We get their feedback, what they like and don’t like, what works and doesn’t
work.
And then, the cycle begins anew:
The feedback we gained from the users informs and improves our
understanding of the problem.
We now know new areas of the problem we might need to explore.
That informs our continued needfinding and requirements gathering.
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We improve and consolidate our design alternatives.

Then, we improve our prototypes.
Then, we put them in front of users again.
Do this again and again.
Eventually, our prototypes develop to the point of being designs ready for
launch, but the cycle doesn’t end there.
We keep iterating after launch, with live users as the evaluators.

Quantitative data: observations described or summarized numerically

Supports formal tests, comparisons, and conclusions

Provides the “what”
We can perform statistical tests and summaries on it, draw formal conclusions,
and make objective comparisons.
[WEAKNESS] Strong for a small class of things: only captures a narrow view of
what we might be interested in examining
Types: different types inform which statistical tests we should use to analyze it
Nominal data (categorical data): arises when we observe the number of
instances of different categories
Always discrete
Multi-nominal data: let users select multiple categories
Single-nominal data: let users only select one choice
Can be binary: commute/WFH
For example, if we were developing an app targeted at commuters, we
might take a survey and count how many drive, take the subway, walk,
bike, etc. Those would be categories.
Ordinal data: like nominal data, but with an ordered scale implicit in the
categories
Always discrete
Can be binary: pass/fail
For example, if you were to ask a user to rate their satisfaction with their
current commute on a scale of 1 to 5, you would be gathering ordinal
data. The key, though, is that we don’t know how big the gaps between
those numbers are. If someone says 1 instead of 2, are they twice as
unhappy? 10x as unhappy?
Interval data: we know the exact differences between values (unlike with
ordinal data)
Can be discrete or continuous

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Imagine if we asked commuters what time they usually leave for work.
We know the difference between 6AM and 7AM is the same as the
distance between 7AM and 8AM, but 8AM isn’t twice as late as 4AM.
With interval scales, there is no 0 points, and so we can’t compute ratios
between data -- only the intervals.
Ratio data: has a 0 point
Can be discrete or continuous
If we ask our commuters how long it takes them to get to work, then we
know 30 minutes is twice as long as 15 minutes
Examples:
Measures of how long certain tasks take to complete, or how many people
judge a task to be difficult
How much better the user performs certain tasks

Qualitative data: observations described or summarized non-numerically

Supports any kind of response or observation

Provides the “how” or “why”
Often in natural language
Gives us a much broader and more general picture of what we’re examining
[WEAKNESS] More prone to biases: strong because these types of data provide a
much richer picture of whatever we’re investigating, but it’s also more prone to
interpretation biases
Types: types of qualitative data are much more closely integrated with the way in
which they were gathered
Examples:
Descriptions of what the user does when they’re interacting with a task
Whether users prefer our new interfaces
Open-ended survey responses, interview transcripts, bug reports, or personal
observations

Coding: the process by which we convert qualitative data into quantitative data

Distill qualitative data into categories, typically nominal, to arrive at a numeric

summary
Loses some of the richness of the original data, but it provides a systematic way
of controlling for biases and deriving quantitative conclusions, and we never lose
the original data, so we get the best of both worlds

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Mixed method approach: it’s a mix of qualitative and quantitative data to paint a
more complete picture of the results

In HCI, we almost always want to use some mix of these two: our problem spaces
are far too rich to be addressed quantitatively alone, but for that same reason we
risk being dominated by biases if we rely solely to qualitative analysis.
We often start qualitatively and end quantitatively

[GOAL #4] Students will understand the goal of the unit.

3.2 Ethics in Human Research

[GOAL #1] Students will understand the importance and origin of research ethics.

National Research Act of 1974 was passed, which led to the creation of Institutional
Review Boards to oversee research at universities.
The Belmont Report further summarizes basic ethical principles that research must
follow:
The law dictated that the benefits to society outweigh the risks to the subjects.
It also dictated that subjects be selected fairly, a direct response to the Tuskegee
syphilis study.
Perhaps most importantly, it demanded rigorous informed consent procedures.
These efforts all attempt to make sure that the positive results of research
outweigh the negatives and that participant rights are always preserved.

[GOAL #2] Students will understand the role that IRB plays in the research process,
especially how it safeguards against unethical and unsuccessful research.

IRB: Institutional Review Board - governs any research institutions that receive support
from the federal government
IRB’s main task is to make sure the potential benefits of a study are worth the
potential risks. So, as part of that, part of their role is to make sure the potential
benefits are significant.
By recording who is certified, IRB helps ensure that research personnel all
understand the basics of human subjects research.
IRB is there to monitor for those things as well, and many of the steps of the
process ensure that the research we perform is sound and useful.
Protocol: description of a particular research project.
It outlines the procedures that IRB has approved regarding consent, recruitment,
experimentation, and more.
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After a protocol is approved, any changes must be submitted to IRB as an

amendment to be accepted separately.
Components of a protocol:
Title of the project
Certified personnel list - Primary investigator listed first (must be a faculty
member)
Description - covers at a high level the research to be done. This should
briefly touch on what will be done, what the goal of the research is, and what
subjects will be asked to do
Research design and methodology - describes the research (focuses on what
users will experience and in what order), experimental details (like how
subjects might be assigned to different experimental conditions), duration of
human subjects’ participation
Data collection methods - surveys, pre-tests and post-tests, interview scripts,
etc.: anything pre-prepared to elicit data from the participant
Benefits and risks of the study - Benefits may not be to the individual
participants, but rather to the greater community as a whole
Statistical analysis - may or may not be included, depending on the type of
data being gathered in the research
Start and end dates of the research - may be broken into a data collection
phase and a data analysis phase
GT’s IRB review portal asks for:
How many subjects do we anticipate having, and of what genders?
Are we specifically targeting any vulnerable populations?
What is the rationale behind our answer to the first question? If we’re
doing statistical tests, this may be the number of participants necessary
to find a certain effect size.
If we’re doing qualitative research, this would be the number of
participants necessary to get a variety of views.
Alternatively, we might have external limits on our number of
subjects: for example, if you’re doing classroom research, your
maximum number of subjects is the class size.
State the inclusion criteria. Who are we specifically including?
State the exclusion criteria. Who are we specifically excluding?
Oftentimes, these will be inverses of one another, but there may be
times they are more specific. For example, if we were doing research
on undergraduate computer science education, our inclusion criteria
might be undergraduate students, but our exclusion criteria would

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be undergraduate students that have already taken a computer

science class.
If we’re including any vulnerable populations, we note here how we
protect their rights; for example, for children, we obtain both their
consent and their parents’ consent.
Describe how we will recruit participants?
First, we note what we’ll say and how we’ll communicate it to them.
If we’re using the Georgia Tech subject pool, we’ll indicate so here.
Second, we’ll note what compensation we provide to participants, if
any.
Consent procedures
What kind of consent we’ll receive? (most commonly written)
Waiver of Consent can be obtained under certain circumstances
(when subjects will not be directly affected by the research)
Waiver of Documentation of Consent can be obtained under certain
circumstances (for low-risk research where the written consent itself
would be the only record of the participant’s identity)
Describe plan for obtaining informed consent?
Are you using deception or concealment in any way? Describe.
Upload consent forms
Data management
Describe how we’ll keep participants’ data safe? - descriptions of
how we’ll keep any identifying information about participants and
how we’ll safeguard the data itself
Submit to principal investigator to send to the IRB office

[GOAL #3] Students will understand the potential conflict of interests in industry-led
research.

Ethical guidelines developed in the context of academia do not always address some
of the considerations of industry: “existing ethical guidelines for research do not
always robustly address the considerations”
Companies should develop their own principles and practices around research that are
appropriate to the environments in which they operate
At every stage of our design life cycle, we want to keep respect for our participants at
the forefront of our thought.
That means being wary of experimenting in ways that might negatively affect users,
and only asking users to dedicate their time to evaluating interfaces that are well-
thought out.
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And that means respecting users’ viewpoints and position in the design process.

3.3 Needfinding and Requirements Gathering

[GOAL #1] Students will understand the role of needfinding in the design life cycle.

This is the stage where we go and try to find out what the user really needs.
The biggest mistake a designer can make is jumping to the design process before
understanding the user or the task.
We want to develop a deep understanding of the task they’re trying to accomplish
and why.
As we do this, it’s important to try to come in with as few preconceived notions as
possible, but we should enter with some understanding of what data we want to
gather
The first thing we need to do is identify the problem space:
Where is the task occurring?
What else is going on?
What are the user’s explicit and implicit needs?
Define final requirements:
Functionality: what the interface can actually do.
Usability: how certain user interactions must work.
Learnability: how fast the user can start to use the interface.
Accessibility: who can use the interface.
We might also have some that are generated by external project requirements.
Compatibility: what devices the interface can run on.
Compliance: how the interface protects user privacy.
Cost: how much the final tool will cost.
Types of bias
These biases can largely be controlled by engaging in multiple forms of
needfinding
[BIAS #1] Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is the phenomenon where we see what we want to see. We
enter with some preconceived ideas of what we’ll see, and we only notice
those things that confirm our prior beliefs. Try to avoid this by specifically
looking for signs that you’re wrong, by testing your beliefs empirically, and
by involving multiple individuals in needfinding.
[BIAS #2] Observer bias

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When we’re interacting directly with users, we may subconsciously bias them.
We might be more helpful, for example, with users using the interface we
designed than one others designed. On surveys, we might phrase questions
in a way that elicits the answers we want. Try to avoid this by separating
experimenters with motives from the participants, by heavily scripting
interactions with users, and by having someone else review your interview
scripts or surveys for leading questions.
[BIAS #3] Social desirability bias
People tend to be nice. People want to help. If you’re testing an interface and
the participants know you were the designer, they’ll want to say nice things
about it to make you happy. That gets in the way of getting good data,
though. Try to avoid this by hiding what the socially desirable response is, by
conducting more naturalistic observations, and by recording objective data.
[BIAS #4] Voluntary response bias
Studies have shown that people with stronger opinions are more likely to
respond to optional surveys. You can see this often in online store reviews:
the most common responses are 5s and 1s. For us, that means if we perform
quantitative analysis on surveys, we risk oversampling the more extreme
views. Avoid this by limiting how much of the survey content is shown to
users before they begin the survey, and by confirming any conclusions with
other methods.
[BIAS #5] Recall bias
Studies have shown that people aren’t always very good at recalling what
they did, what they thought, or how they felt during an activity they
completed in the past. That can lead to misleading and incorrect data. Try to
avoid this by studying tasks in context by having users think aloud during
activities or conducting interviews during the activity itself

[GOAL #2] Students will understand various methods for conducting needfinding.

As we’re going about needfinding, we want to make sure we’re taking the broad
approach: understanding the entire problem space in which we’re interested, not just
focusing narrowly on the user’s interactions with an interface.
Needfinding methods, starting with the most authentic types of general observation
and moving through progressively more targeted types of needfinding:
User types: we want to understand the full range of users we’re designing for, and
perform needfinding exercises on all of them
Naturalistic observation
When you watch people doing an activity - you cannot engage/talk with
them, but you can take notes by watching them

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Tips:
1. Take notes. Don’t just sit around watching for a while; be prepared to
gather targeted information and observations about what you see.
2. Start specific, then abstract. Write down the individual little actions
you see people doing before trying to interpret or summarize them. If
you jump to summarizing too soon, you risk tunnel vision.
3. Spread out your sessions. Rather than sitting somewhere for two
hours one day and moving on, try to observe in shorter 10-15 minute
sessions several times. You may find interesting different information,
and your growing understanding and reflection on past exercises will
help your future sessions.
4. Find a partner. Observe together with someone else. Take your own
notes, then compare them later so you can see if y’all interpreted the
same scenarios or actions the same way.
5. Look for questions. Naturalistic observation should inform the
questions you decide to ask participants in more targeted needfinding
exercises. You don’t need to have all the answers based on observation
alone: what you need is questions to investigate further.
Participant observation
When you become a participant of the activity to get more information on it
Remember, you are not your user.
When you’re working as a participant observer, you can have useful
insights, but you shouldn’t overrepresent your own experiences.
You should use this experience to inform what you ask users going
forward.
Hacks and workarounds
How do users use interfaces in unintended ways to accomplish tasks?
Or, how do they break out of the interface to accomplish a task that could be
accomplished within the interface?
When you’re looking at hacks, it’s important to note just look at what a user
does and assume you understand why.
Look at the workarounds they’re employing and ask them why.
Errors
When we’re trying to make iterative improvements, one of the best places we
can look is at the errors users make with the tools they currently have
available.
We can fix those errors, but we can also use those errors to understand a bit
more about the user’s mental model.

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You could ask the user why they’re making those specific mistakes
Apprenticeship and ethnography
Ethnography: focuses on living very close to the users you’re studying
Interviews and focus groups
Our most targeted way of gathering information from users is just to talk to
them.
Focus groups can elicit some information and thoughts that wouldn’t come
from 1:1 interviews, but they also present the risk of overly convergent
thinking, so they should be used in conjunction with interviews and other
needfinding methods.
Tips for an effective interview:
1. Focus on the six W’s when you’re writing your questions: Who, what,
where, when, why, and how? Try to avoid questions that lend themselves
to one-word or yes-or-no answers: those are better gathered via surveys.
Use your interview questions to ask open-ended, semi-structured
questions.
2. Be aware of bias. Look at how you’re phrasing your questions and
interactions and make sure you’re not predisposing the participant to
certain views. If you only smile when they say what you want them to
say, for example, you risk biasing them to agree with you.
3. Listen. Many novice interviewers get caught up in having a
conversation with the participant rather than just gathering data from
the participant. Make sure the participant is doing the vast majority of
the talking, and don’t reveal anything that might predispose them to
agree with you.
4. Organize the interview. Make sure to have an introduction phase,
some lighter questions to start to build trust, and a summary at the end
so the user understands the purpose of the questions. Be ready to push
the interview forward or pull it back on track.
5. Practice! Practice your questions on your friends, family, or research
partners in advance. Rehearse the entire interview. Gathering subjects is
tough, so when you actually have them, make sure you’re ready to get
the most out of them.
Think-aloud
Think-aloud protocols are similar to interviews in that we’re asking users to
talk about their perceptions of the task. However, with think-aloud, we’re
asking them to actually do so in the context of the task.
Surveys

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Surveys let us get a much larger number of responses quickly, and the
questions can be phrased objectively, allowing quicker interpretation.
With the internet, they can be administered asynchronously.
Designing and administering effective survey tips:
1. Less is more. The biggest mistake novice survey designers make is to
ask way too much. That affects the response rate and reliability of your
data. Ask the minimum number of questions necessary to get the data
that you need, and only ask questions you know you’ll use.
2. Be aware of bias. Look at how you’re phrasing the questions: are there
positive or negative connotations? Are participants implicitly pressured
to answer one way or the other?
3. Tie them to the data inventory. Make sure every question on your
survey connects to some of the data that you want to gather. Start with
the goals for the survey and write the questions from there.
4. Test it out! Before sending it to real participants, have your coworkers
or colleagues test out your survey. Pretend they’re real users, and see if
you would get the data you need from their responses.
5. Iterate! Survey design is like interface design. Test out your survey, see
what works and what doesn’t, and revise it accordingly. Give participants
a chance to give feedback on the survey itself so that you can improve it
for future iterations.
Good survey question tips:
1. Be clear: we want to make sure the user actually understands what
we’re asking about.
Provide additional detail to ensure that the question is correctly
interpreted.
Part of being clear is also make sure that the user has a clear
foundation for answering the question.
If we’re asking about the frequency of a task, we probably want to
time-box it so they aren’t reflecting on an impossibly long period of
time.
2. Be concise: ask questions in plain language.
Note that conciseness is sometimes at odds with clarity: sometimes
we add extra details to make a question more clear, but that harms
the conciseness of the question.
Use your best judgment on when more information improves clarity
enough to justify the loss of conciseness.
3. Be specific

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Avoid questions about super-big ideas; instead, break those

questions down into smaller, specific questions that get at that big
idea.
Avoid what are called “double barrel” questions: these are questions
that ask about two things at once.
Avoid questions where the user could have conflicting ideas at the
same time: if they could have conflicting ideas about different parts,
break that into multiple short questions.
4. Be expressive: allow the user to be expressive.
Most of your survey questions will be asking your users for their
opinions, so emphasize in the question prompt that they’ll be
providing an opinion -- this makes the user more comfortable
giving their thoughts.
When providing opinion ranges like ‘agree’ vs. ‘disagree’, always
provide an odd number of options so that the user can respond
neutrally, and I’d generally recommend at least 5 options so users
feel more comfortable differentiating their level of agreement.
When asking a multiple-choice question, if there’s a chance a user
could have more than one thought, let them choose more than one.
Instead of asking yes or no questions, give the user a range of
options from which to choose to add more dimension to their
expression.
Give the user the option of “Other”
5. Be unbiased: how do you do that exactly?
One way is the same as allowing the user to be expressive: giving an
‘other’ option limits bias towards your pre-selected options.
You should also note that users will often read your options and
take them as suggestions. Leave potentially open-ended questions
open
Watch for leading questions.
Watch for loaded questions.
Be careful with closed-ended questions: provide an ‘Other’ option
6. Be usable: This refers to the way you design your survey as a whole:
use HCI principles in designing the survey itself.
Some of these will be dictated by the survey tool you use, but
others are up to you.
Provide a progress bar so that the user can evaluate how far they
are into the survey.

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Make the pages approximately consistent lengths so that the user

has an accurate gauge of progress.
Order your questions logically: group questions about
demographics, questions about prior experience, questions about
future desires, etc. such that they follow a natural flow.
Alert users when questions are unanswered, but don’t require them
to be answered: some users will feel uncomfortable answering some
questions, so it’s good to leave them unrequired, but you also want
to avoid users unknowingly skipping. So, tell them if they’ve
skipped, but don’t force them to answer.
And finally, preview the survey yourself. Your users might not tell you if
there are errors, so make sure to take it yourself.
Existing UI evaluation
First, if you’re designing for a task for which interfaces already exist, you
might start by critiquing the interfaces that already exist using some of the
evaluation methods we cover in the Evaluation lesson.
For example, if you wanted to design a new system for ordering take-out
food, you might evaluate the interfaces of calling in an order, ordering via
mobile phone, or ordering via a web site.
Product reviews
If you’re trying to develop a tool to address a problem people are already
addressing, you might go look at user reviews and see what people already
like and dislike about existing products.
For example, there are dozens of alarm clock apps out there, and thousands
of reviews. If you wanted to design a new one, you could start there to find
out what people need.
Data logs
If you’re working on a task that already involves a lot of automatic logging,
like web surfing, you could try to get some logs of user interaction that have
already been generated.
Advantages of each needfinding method:

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[GOAL #3] Students will understand the types of data gathered during needfinding
exercises.

Data inventory questions

a. Who are the users? What are their ages, genders, levels of expertise?
b. Where are the users? What is their environment?
c. What is the context of the task? What else is competing for users’ attention?
d. What are their goals? What are they trying to accomplish?
e. Right now, what do they need? What are the physical objects? What
information do they need? What collaborators do they need?
f. What are their tasks? What are they doing physically, cognitively, socially?
g. What are the subtasks? How do they accomplish those tasks?
When you’re designing your needfinding methods, each thing you do should
match up with one or more of these questions.
Pay special attention to some of the places where the data seem to conflict: are these
cases where you as the designer understand some of the elements of task design that
the users don’t? Or are these cases where your expertise hasn’t quite developed to the
point of understanding the task?

[GOAL #4] Students will understand the relationship between data gathered during
needfinding and synthesized models of human tasks

With an understanding of the user’s needs, it’s time to try to formalize that into
something we can use in design -- user task analyses:
Example task
Create a step-by-step task outline of the user engaging in some task.
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We can break those tasks down into sub-tasks as well.

That helps us focus on places where we might be able to solve a task through
different steps.
Hierarchical network
We can further develop this kind of task outline into a hierarchical network.
This might involve more complexity than simply a linear series of actions.
Structural diagram
We might further augment this with a diagram of the structural relationships
amongst the components in the system and how they interact.
Flow chart
From there, we might develop this even more into a flow-chart equipped
with decision-making points or points of interruptions.
We can use the data gathered here to summarize a more comprehensive task
analysis that will be useful in designing and prototyping our designs.

2.3 Direct Manipulation and Invisible Interfaces

[GOAL #1] Students will understand the power of direct manipulation in designing
interfaces.

Direct manipulation: the user should interact directly with their task

The principle that the user should feel as much as possible like they’re directly
controlling the object of their task
New technologies are making it more and more possible to feel like we’re directly
manipulating something even when there’s an interface in the way (e.g. touch
screens where you can drag icons and pinch the screen to zoom)

Our goal is to narrow the gulf of execution and gulf of evaluation as much as possible.

Arguably, the ultimate form of this is something called direct manipulation.

We can shorten the gulfs of execution and evaluation in a number of ways
without direct manipulation, but direct manipulation is a powerful method for
shortening that distance.
Example: moving files with the command line vs moving them with your mouse --
there’s a narrower gulf of execution because the interface is leveraging real-world
expectation and experience
Example: moving files with a mouse is great, but there is a gulf of execution and
evaluation for novice users => modern touch screens make direct manipulation

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more direct than ever

This gives us a nice general heuristic to keep in mind: how do we help the user
interact most closely with the target of their task? How do we make it so they’re
manipulating it as directly as possible?

The feeling of directness is inversely proportional to the amount of cognitive effort it

takes to manipulate and evaluate a system

In other words, the more cognitive load required to use the system, the less direct
the interaction feels.
The authors break distance into two components: semantic distance and
articulatory distance.
Semantic distance refers to the difference between the user’s goals and their
expression in the system. In other words, it’s how hard it is to know what to
do.
Articulatory distance is the distance between that expression and its
execution. In other words, it’s how hard it is to actually do what you know to
do.
The user starts with some goals, translates them into their form of expression in
the interface, and executes that expression. The system then returns some output
in some form of expression, which is translated by the user into their
understanding of the new state of the system. => This cycle is happening
constantly when you’re interacting with any interface. But distance is only one
component. It’s possible to have interfaces with little distance that are
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nonetheless not examples of direct manipulation. => This is true for feedback
cycles in general, not just direct manipulation.
What sets direct manipulation apart is the second component: direct
engagement: the systems that best exemplify direct manipulation all give the
qualitative feeling that one is directly engaged with control of the objects--
not with the programs, not with the computer, but with the semantic objects
of our goals and intentions.

Virtual reality (VR)

Virtual reality right now is making some incredible strides in facilitating direct
manipulation in places where it hasn’t been possible before.
Traditionally, when designers are designing stuff in 3D, they’re forced to use 2D
interfaces. That translation from 2D to 3D really gets in the way of directly
manipulating whatever is being designed.
Through virtual reality, though, designers are able to view what they’re designing
in 3D, as if it’s in the room there with them.
Gesture interfaces like those used in virtual reality struggle with some feedback
issues.
We aim to make the user feel like they’re physically manipulating the artifact, but
when you’re working with something physically, it pushes back against your
hands.
Direct manipulation is a big challenge for virtual reality as well. Virtual reality
thrives on making you feel like you’re somewhere else visually and auditorily, but
it has a long way to go kinesthetically.
How do you create the feeling of direct manipulation based on physical action
when you can only give feedback visually and auditorily?

[GOAL #2] Students will understand the idea of an invisible interface between a user and
a task.

Invisible Interface: an interface that disappears between the user and their task
At their best, the interface actually disappears, which is what we mean by an
invisible interface.
With an invisible interface, the user spends no time having to think about the
interface they’re using: all their time is dedicated to thinking about the task that
they’re performing. Even though there is an interface in the middle, the user
spends no time thinking about it. Instead, they feel as if they are interacting
directly with the task.

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Whether through using direct manipulation, through innovative approaches to

shrinking these gulfs, or through the user’s patience and learning, our ultimate
goal is for the interface between the user and the task to become invisible.
Tips for designing invisible interfaces
a. Use affordances. We talk more about affordances when we discuss design
principles. Affordances are places where the visual design of the interface
suggests how it is to be used. Buttons are for pressing, dials are for turning,
switches are for flicking. Use these expectations to make your interface more
usable.
b. Know your user. Invisibility means different things to different people.
Invisibility to a novice means that all the interactions are natural, but
invisibility to an expert means maximizing efficiency. Know for whom you’re
trying to design.
c. Differentiate your user. Maybe you’re designing for both novices and
experts. If that’s the case, provide multiple ways of accomplishing tasks. For
example, having copy and paste under the ‘Edit’ menu keeps those options
discoverable, but providing Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V as shortcuts keeps those
actions efficient.
d. Let your interface teach. When we think of teaching users how to use our
software, we usually think of tutorials or manuals, but ideally the interface
itself will do the teaching. For example, when users select copy and paste
from the edit menu, they see the hotkey that corresponds to that function.
The goal is to teach them the more efficient way of performing those actions
without requiring them to already know it in order to work.
e. Talk to your user. We’ll say this over and over again, but the best thing you
can do is talk to the user. Ask them what they’re thinking while they use an
interface. Note especially whether they talk about the task or the interface: if
they’re talking about the interface, then it’s pretty visible.

[GOAL #3] Students will understand that invisibility may come via learning or via design,
but via design is the goal.

Interfaces become invisible not just through great design, but also through users
learning to use them => with enough practice and experience, many users will
become sufficiently comfortable with many interfaces to feel invisibly integrated into
the task.
Just because the interface has become invisible doesn’t mean it’s a great
interface.
Our goal is to create interfaces that are invisible from the moment the user starts
using them. They should feel immediately as if they’re interacting with the task

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underlying the interface.

Direct manipulation isn’t just about designing interactions that feel like you’re directly
manipulating the interface. It’s also about designing interfaces that lend themselves to
interactions that feel direct.

2.4 Human Abilities

[GOAL #1] Students will understand the three main human abilities: perception,
cognition, and action.

Information processing model: involves three major systems: perception, cognition,

and response.
Input = perception
Input: how stimuli are sensed from the world and perceived in the mind.
Processing = cognition
Processing: cognition, how the brain stores and reasons over the input it’s
received.
Output = action
Output: how the brain then controls the individual’s actions in the world.

[GOAL #2] Students will understand the strengths and weaknesses of the different types
of perception in designing interfaces.

Sight
Peripheral vision
We can assume that the most important details should be placed in the
center of the user’s view; peripheral vision is good for detecting motion, but
it isn’t as good for detecting color or detail.
We might use periphery for some alerts, we shouldn’t require the user to
focus closely on anything out there.
Color-blindedness
We want to avoid relying on color to understand an interface. We can use it
to emphasize knowledge that is already present in the system, but using the
system shouldn’t rely on perceiving color
Sight is directional.
If the user is looking the wrong way or has his/her eyes closed, he’ll/she’ll
miss visual feedback.
Visual acuity decreases with age: if we’re designing something with older
audiences in mind, we want to be careful of things like font size. Ideally, these

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would be adjustable to meet the needs of multiple audiences.

The majority of concepts we discuss in HCI are likely connected to visual
perception.
Hearing
Unlike vision, hearing isn’t directional.
Audio might be useful for designing alerts, but can be overwhelming for users or
share too much with people around her.
Sensation / haptic
Unlike listening, touch feedback is generally only available to the person it’s
touching, so it can be used to create more personal feedback.
Traditionally, touch feedback or haptic feedback has been very natural. But with
touchscreens, motion controls, and virtual reality, touch needs to more and more
be designed explicitly into the system if we’re to use it.

[GOAL #3] Students will understand the limitations of human cognition and memory
and its relevance to designing interfaces that strain working memory.

For our purposes, we have three different kinds of memory: the perceptual store, the
short-term memory, and the long-term memory
Perceptual store: very short-term memory, lasting less than a second.
One of the most common models of this working memory came from Alan
Baddeley and Graham Hitch in 1974.
They described it as having three parts:
Visuospatial sketchpad: holds visual information for active manipulation
(example: picture a pencil. The visuospatial sketchpad is where you’re seeing
that pencil.)
Articulatory loop or phonological store: similar to the visuospatial
sketchpad, but for verbal or auditory information. It stores the sounds or
speech you’ve heard recently.
Episodic buffer: added to the model in 2000, refers to taking care of
integrating information from the other systems, as well as chronological
ordering to put things in place.
Central executive: the final component, responsible for coordinating these
various systems.
When the user has domain expertise, he/she is able to better process images
about that domain more quickly: expertise or rehearsal delays the decay of the
perceptual buffer
Short-term memory:

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It’s important we avoid requiring the user to keep too much stored in short-term
memory.
The current state of the art says that people can only hold 4 to 5 chunks in short-
term memory at one time.
It’s far easier to recognize something you know than to recall it independently;
that will be a useful takeaway for us as we design interfaces: we can minimize the
memory load on the user by relying more on their ability to recognize things
than recall them.
Implications of short-term memory for HCI:
We do not want to ask the user to hold too much in working memory at a
time: 4 to 5 chunks is all.
We can increase the user’s effective short-term memory capacity by helping
them chunk things
When possible, we should leverage recognition over recall: the user doesn’t
have to remember specifics, they just need to recognize it when they see it.
Long-term memory: a seemingly unlimited store of memories
It’s harder to put something into long-term memory than to put it into short-term
memory. In fact, to load something into long-term memory, you generally need
to put it into short-term memory several times.
Leitner System: way of memorizing key-value pairs, or in other words, a way of
memorizing flashcards
Learning
When we design interfaces, we are in some ways hoping the user has to learn as
little as possible to find the interface useful.
However, our interfaces should also teach the user over time how to use them
most efficiently.
Procedural learning: how to do something
Declarative learning: knowledge about something
While declarative knowledge is how we generally communicate with one
another, procedural knowledge is generally what we do in HCI
When you have strong procedural knowledge, you may forget how you’re
doing what you’re doing because it’s so second-nature.
You’re unconsciously competent with what you’re doing.
When you’re in that state, it can be difficult to explain to someone who lacks
that competence because you aren’t sure what makes you good at it.
It’s difficult to translate your subconscious procedural knowledge into explicit
declarative knowledge, but declarative knowledge is how we communicate,
especially communicating with novice users.
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Cognitive load
Cognitive load has two major applications to our work in designing interfaces:
One, we want to reduce the cognitive load posed by the interface so the user
can dedicate more of their resources to the task itself.
Second, we want to understand for our context what other tasks are
competing for cognitive resources.
Tips for reducing cognitive load
a. Use multiple modalities. Most often, that’s going to be both visual and
verbal. When only one system is engaged, it’s natural for it to become
overloaded while the other system is bored. So, describe things verbally,
and also present them visually.
b. Let the modalities complement each other. Some people will take that
first tip and use it as justification to present different content in the two
modalities. That actually increases cognitive load because the user has to
try to process two things at once… Instead, focus on letting each
modality support, illustrate, or explain the other instead of competing
with the other.
c. Give the user control of the pace. That’s more pertinent in educational
applications of cognitive load, but often times interfaces have built-in
timers on things like menus fading away or selections needing to be
made. That dictates the pace, increases stress, and raises cognitive load.
Instead, let the user control the pace.
d. Emphasize essential content and minimize clutter. The principle of
discoverability says we want the user to be able to find the functions
available to them, but that could also raise cognitive load if we just
present a list of 500 options to them. To alleviate that, we can design our
interfaces in a way that emphasizes the most common actions while still
giving access to the full range of possible options.
e. Offload tasks. Look closely at what a user has to do or remember at
every stage of the interface’s operation, and ask if you can offload part
of that task. For example, if a user needs to remember something they
entered on a preview screen, show them what they entered. If there’s a
task they need to do manually that can be triggered automatically,
trigger it automatically.

[GOAL #4] Students will understand the role of the motor system (action) in designing
interactions.

Motor system: how the person then interacts with the world in response to their
perception and cognition of the system and their task within the system

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In designing interfaces, we’re also interested in what is physically possible for users to
do: this includes things like how fast they can move and how precisely they can tap.
Consistency: being consistent with other tools and applications
Mapping: can affect the user’s precision and understanding of an icon/feature/symbol
Tolerance: make our interface tolerant of errors

3.4 Design Alternatives

[GOAL #1] Students will understand the value of brainstorming multiple design
alternatives.

The biggest mistake a designer can make is jumping to designing an interface without
understanding the users or the task. The second biggest mistake, however, is settling
on a single design idea or genre too early.
Staying too allegiant to existing designers or products: if you’re working on
improving an existing interface, try to distance yourself from the past solutions, at
least initially during brainstorming.
The reason why this is such a common mistake is that there’s a natural
tendency to think it’s a waste of time to develop interfaces you’re not going
to use. You think you can get the work done faster by picking one early and
sticking to it.
But fleshing out ideas for an interface you don’t end up using is not a waste
of time because by doing so, you continue to learn more about the problem.
The experience of exploring those ideas that you leave behind will make you a
better designer for the ideas you pursue. In all likelihood, your ultimate design
will be some combination of the design alternatives you explored.
Different alternatives won’t always integrate side by side easily, but the
design process as a whole is an iterative process of brainstorming,
combining, abandoning, revising, and improving your ideas: that requires
starting with several ideas in the first place.
Design space: the area in which we design our interfaces
Our goal during the design alternative phase is to explore the possible design
space.
Current design space: current devices available to do the task/goal

[GOAL #2] Students will understand the strengths and weaknesses of individual and
group brainstorming.

Individual brainstorming

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When you first start brainstorming, your goal is to generate a lot of ideas: they
can be very short, very high-level, and very general.
Research generally indicates that it’s better to start with individual brainstorming.
Think about how you’d design with different types of interactions, like gestures,
voice, or touch.
Think about how you’d design for different interfaces, like smartwatches, tablets,
augmented reality.
Think about how you’d design for different audiences, novices and experts, kids
and adults.
It’s important to generate a lot of ideas: you never know what will come up
throughout the rest of the design process. Don’t cross out any ideas, throw away
any papers, or start narrowing any ideas down!
Tips for effective individual brainstorming:
1. Write down the core problem. Keep this visible. You want to let your mind
enter a divergent thinking mode, but you also want to remain grounded in
the problem. Writing down the problem and keeping it available will help you
remain focused while remaining creative.
2. Constrain yourself. Decide that you want at least one idea in a number of
different categories. Personally, I try to make sure to have at least three ideas
that use non-traditional interaction methods, like touch and voice. You can
constrain yourself in strange ways, too: force yourself to think of solutions
that are too expensive or not physically possible. The act of thinking in these
directions will help you out later.
3. Aim for 20. Don’t stop until you have 20 ideas. These ideas don’t have to
be very well-formed or complex, they can be simple one-sentence
descriptions of designs you might pursue. This forces you to think through
the problem rather than getting tunnel vision on an early idea.
4. Take a break. You don’t need to come up with all of these at once. In fact,
you’ll probably find it’s easier if you leave and come back. I’m not talking just
10-minute breaks, either. Stop brainstorming and decide to continue a
couple days later, but be ready to write down new ideas that come to you.
5. Divide and conquer. If you’re dealing with a big problem like helping kids
live more healthy lifestyles, divide it into smaller problems and brainstorm
solutions for those. If we’re designing audiobooks for exercisers, we might
divide things into smaller tasks like the ability to take and review notes or the
ability to control playback hands-free.
Group brainstorming
Should be done after individual brainstorming because groups tend to coalesce
around ideas
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Presents some significant issues

Social Loafing: The tendency to exert less effort working in groups than
working alone.
People often don’t work as hard in groups. It’s easy to feel like the
responsibility for unproductive brainstorming is shared and deflected. In
individual brainstorming, it’s clearly on the individual.
Conformity: The tendency to agree with or follow the group’s reasoning and
ideas.
People in groups tend to want to agree. Studies have shown that group
brainstorming leads to convergent thinking. The conversation the group
has tends to force the participants down the same line of thinking,
generating fewer and less varied ideas than the individuals acting alone.
During brainstorming, though, the goal is divergent thinking: lots of
ideas, of creativity.
Production blocking: The tendency of some individuals in discussions to
block other individuals’ participation.
In group brainstorming, there are often individuals who dominate the
conversation and make it difficult for others to actually be heard. Their
ideas can thus command more weight not because of the strength of the
ideas, but because of the volume of the description.
Performance matching: The tendency to match one’s level of performance to
other collaborators’.
People tend to converge in terms of passion and performance, which can
lead to a loss of momentum over time. That might be able to get people
excited if they’re around other excited people, but more often it saps the
energy of those that enter with enthusiasm.
Power dynamics: The tendency to defer to more senior individuals, or to
overpower less senior individuals.
No matter how supportive and collaborative a boss might be, there likely
always exists a tacit pressure to agree with her suggestions, which
dampens creative brainstorming.
There also exists considerable literature stating that other biases based
on gender, age, or race can play into these group sessions as well.
DO NOT AVOID GROUP BRAINSTORMING ALTOGETHER.
Instead, enter into group brainstorming with strong ideas of how to address
these issues, ideally after a phase of individual brainstorming has occurred
Rules for group brainstorming
Rules by Osborn:

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a. Expressiveness. Any idea that comes to mind, share it out loud, no

matter how strange.
b. Non-evaluation. No criticizing ideas. No evaluating ideas yet.
c. Quantity. Brainstorm as many as possible. The more you have, the
greater your chance of finding a novel one.
d. Building. While you shouldn’t criticize others’ ideas, you should
absolutely try to build on them.
Four more rules added by Oxley, Dzindolet, and Paulus in 1996 to help
individuals understand how to act in group brainstorming:
e. Stay focused. Keep the goal in mind at all times.
f. No explaining ideas. Say the idea and move on. No justifying ideas.
g. When you hit a roadblock, revisit the problem. Say it again outloud.
h. Encourage others. If someone isn’t speaking up, encourage them to do
so.
Note: all eight of these rules prescribe what individuals should do, but they’re
only effective if every individual does them. So, it’s good to cover these rules,
post them publicly, and call one another on breaking from them
More tips - apply less to the individual participants and more to the design of
the activity as a whole
a. Go through every individual idea. Have participants perform individual
brainstorming ahead of time and bring ideas to the group brainstorming
session, and explicitly make sure to go through each one. That will help
avoid converging around an idea too early.
b. Find the optimal size. Social loafing occurs when there’s a lack of
individual responsibility. When you have so many people that not
everyone would get to talk anyway, it’s easy for disengagement to occur.
I’d say a group brainstorming session should generally not involve more
than five people. If more people need to give perspectives than that,
then you can have intermediate groups that then send ideas along to a
later group.
c. Set clear rules for communication. Get a 20 second hour glass or timer,
and when someone starts talking, start it -- once the timer is up,
someone else gets to speak. The goal is to ensure no one can block
others’ ideas, whether intentionally or accidentally.
4.** Set clear expectations**. Enthusiasm starts to wane when people are
unsure how long a session will go or what will mark its end. You might set the
session to go a certain amount of time, or dictate a certain number of ideas

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get generated: no matter how you do it, make sure people can assess where
in the brainstorming session they are.
e. End with ideas, not decisions. It’s tempting to want to leave a
brainstorming session with a single idea on which to move forward.
That’s not the goal, though. Your brainstorming session should end with
several ideas. Then, let them ruminate in everyone’s minds before
coming back and choosing the ideas to pursue later.

[GOAL #3] Students will understand methods for brainstorming design alternatives.

Rule out the ideas that are technologically unfeasible and unrealistic for more practical
reasons
Create some timelines covering the sequence of events in the task
Use user personas to explore the cognitive load of the users
Design alternatives: explore different ways to facilitate the user’s task.
You might need to make sure to create personas for different stakeholders.
Create personas for all types of users, and make sure to explore scenarios that
affect the different stakeholders.

[GOAL #4] Students will understand rapid ways of exploring design alternatives from the
perspectives of personas, timelines, and scenarios.

Personas: create actual characters surrounding our users

Give them a name, face, any details relevant to our design:
why/when/how/what/who/where questions
We want to create at least three or four of these personas, and perhaps more
depending on how many different stakeholders we have for our problem.
The important thing is that these should be pretty different people, representing
different components of the personas.
Using these personas, we revisit our design alternatives
User profiles
Personas are meant to give us a small number of characters we can reason about
empathetically. However, it can sometimes also be useful to formulaically
generate a larger number of user profiles to explore the full design space.
We can do this by defining a number of different variables about our user, and
the possibilities within each.
Example:
We care about novice and expert users.
We care about serious and casual users.
We care about high and low motivation users.
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We care about tech literate and tech illiterate individuals.

We care about users that use the interface rarely and often.
For each of these sets, there are design implications. In deciding what to
design, we need to understand what groups, what profiles we’re designing
for, and use that to inform our design decisions.
Timelines
Can also be called journey maps, although journey maps usually cover much
longer periods of time.
The goal is to take a persona and stretch it out over the timeline of the task in
which we’re interested.
What prompts this persona to start engaging in the task?
What actions lead up to starting the task?
How are they feeling at every stage of the task?
How would each design alternative impact their experience throughout this process?
Exploring the different alternatives in this way allows us to start to gauge which
designs might have the greatest potential to positively impact the user’s
experience.
Scenarios and storyboards
Rather than outlining the whole course of the interaction, scenarios let us discuss
the specific kinds of interactions and events we want to handle.
Storyboard: sequences of diagrams or drawings that outline what happens with a
particular user in a particular scenario
It’s not critical that we explore every combination of persona, scenario, and design
alternative: this is more of a fluid process of exploring what ideas have potential
and are worth exploring further.
We might find there are certain combinations of scenarios and personas that we
really care about that completely rule out some design alternatives
User modeling
Explore design alternatives through task analysis, including cognitive task analysis
and GOMS (Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection) model, as part of our
needfinding
Start to look at how exactly the goals, operators, and methods of a GOMS
model map up to the ideas of our design alternatives
How does the user achieve each of their goals in each interface? How relatively
easy are they between different design alternatives?
With the results of our cognitive task analyses, we can start to ask some
deeper questions about what the user is keeping in mind as well.

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Given what we know about the things competing for our users’ attention, what
are the likelihoods that each interface will work?
In some ways, this is a similar process to using the personas we outlined earlier,
but with a subtle difference.
Personas are personal and meant to give us an empathetic view of the user
experience.
User models are more objective and meant to give us a measurable and
comparable view of the user experience.

2.5 Design Principles and Heuristics

[GOAL #1] Students will understand the 15 design principles described in the lesson.

Don Norman’s six principles of design from “Design of Everyday Things”

Larry Constantine and Lucy Lockwood’s six principles of user interface design from
“Software for Use: A Practical Guide to the Essential Models and Methods of Usage-
Centered Design”
Jakob Nielsen’s Ten Heuristics for user interface design that can be used for both
design and evaluation from “Usability Engineering”
Seven Principles of Universal Design from the Center for Universal Design at NC State
All combine to make 15 principles of interaction design:
#1: Discoverability
Don Norman’s principle of discoverability is very similar to the Visibility
Principle from Constantine and Lockwood, as well as Nielsen’s idea that
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Recognition is preferable to Recall.

Principle of Discoverability advocates that functions be visible to the user so
they can discover them, rather than relying on them learning about them
elsewhere.
Challenging for designing gesture-based interfaces
#2: Simplicity
Simplicity is a part of three of our sets of principles: Nielsen’s heuristics,
Constantine and Lockwood’s principles, and the Universal Design principles.
Simplicity as a universal design principle is especially interested with whether
people of different experiences, knowledges, or languages can figure out
what to do.
#3: Affordances
One way to keep design simple and usable is to design interfaces that, by
their very design, tell you how to use them.
Don Norman describes these as affordances: the design of things affords, or
hints at, the way they’re used
This is extremely common in the physical world because the physical
design of objects is connected to the physical function they serve.
Buttons are meant to be pressed, handles are meant to be pulled, knobs
are meant to be turned.
Our affordances are defined by who the user is
Signifier (Norman): in-context instructions, such as arrows to indicate which
way to swipe or a menu icon to indicate how to access the options
Create our own affordances by creating an intuitive mapping between
controls and their effects in the world, being consistent with what others
have done in the past
Affordances, to Norman, are actually inherent properties of a device.
For example, a door bar has the inherent property that the handle moves
into the crossbar and opens the latch: that is the affordance.
A perceived affordance is a property attributed to the object by a human
observer.
In the door example, pushability is the perceived affordance
A signifier is anything that helps the perceived affordance match the
actual affordance.
For example: a “push” sign is a signifier
For this reason, we can’t add affordances. Affordances are inherent in our
systems. Instead, we can add signifiers, and signifiers raise the likelihood

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that the user will accurately perceive the affordances that are already
present.
#4: Mapping
Norman and Nielsen both talk about the need for a mapping between
interfaces and their effects in the world.
Nielsen’s heuristic describes the general goal.
Norman’s principle describes one way to achieve it. Strong mappings
help make information appear in a natural and logical order.
Affordances were about creating interfaces where their design suggested
how they are used; mapping refers to creating interfaces where their design
makes it clear what the effect will be of using them.
#5: Perceptibility
Refers to the user’s ability to actually perceive the state of the system
Nielsen is interested in perceptibility of the state of the system, like
whether things are on or off.
Universal design is concerned with the perceptibility of information, like
how easy signs can be read.
Nonetheless, though, in designing interfaces we often end up addressing
both of these things together: we want to make the state of the system easily
**#1: **perceptible.
#6: Consistency
Consistency is a principle in Norman’s principles, Nielsen’s heuristics, and
Constantine and Lockwood’s principles.
Also similar to Dix et al’s idea of generalizability
The general idea across all of them is that we should be consistent both
within and across interfaces to minimize the amount of learning the user
needs to do to learn our interface.
In this way, we kind of create affordances of our own: unlike traditional
physical affordances, there is no physical reason for the interface to be
designed that way, but by convention we create expectations for users.
Most of the interfaces we design will have a number of functions in common
with other interfaces, so by leveraging the way things have been done in the
past, we can help users understand our interfaces more quickly.
So in trying to maintain the consistency principle, you’ll encounter some
challenges. There may be multiple conflicting things with which you want to
be consistent. There may be questions about whether the value of a change
is worth the drop in consistency. These are things to test with users.
#7: Flexibility

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From both Nielsen’s heuristics and the principles for universal design
Nielsen is more interested in catering to both novice and expert users.
Universal design definition is more interested in accommodating users of
various abilities and preferences, but the underlying principle is the
same.
Dix et al. also have a category of principles called Flexibility principles that
advocate user customizability and supporting multiple designs for the same
task.
Wherever possible, we should support the different interactions in which
people engage naturally, rather than forcing them into one against their
expertise or preference.
#8: Equity
The principle of flexibility in some ways clashes with the principle of equity,
but both come from the principles of universal design. In reality, though,
they’re actually complementary of one another.
Equity is largely about making the user experience the same for all users, and
flexibility is a means to achieve that.
User experience in this instance means treating every user like they’re
within the target audience and extending the same benefits to all users,
including things related to privacy and security.
Novice vs expert, regular vs disabled, old vs young, etc
#9, #10: Ease and comfort
The principles of universal design have two additional principles that relate to
equitable treatment, specifically in terms of physical and interaction.
For example, when deciding on the size of buttons on a mobile interface, we
should take into consideration that some users may have tremors that make
it more difficult to interact precisely.
As we get into areas like wearable computing and virtual reality, these issues
of ease and comfort will become more and more pertinent.
#11: Structure
The structure principle is concerned with the overall architecture of a user
interface.
Those are largely parts of structure: organizing things in an intuitive way that
groups similar parts, separates dissimilar ones, and helps the user navigate
what they’re consuming.
In many ways, it’s more closely related to user interface design than HCI
more generally. What’s interesting to me about the structure principle is that

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it borrows from a form of user interface design that predates computers

considerably.
#12: Constraints
Constraining the user to only performing the correct actions in the first place:
refers to the need to stop faulty user input before it is received
Nielsen: In its simplest form, constraints can be described as: prevent the user
from entering input that wouldn’t have worked anyway.
Norman: breaks constraints down into four sub-categories:
Physical constraints are those that literally, physically prevent you from
performing the wrong action (e.g. wall plugs)
Cultural constraints are those rules that are generally followed by
different societies, like facing forward on an escalator or forming a line
while waiting
Semantic constraints are those that are inherent to the meaning of the
situation. They’re similar to affordances in that regard. (e.g. rearview
mirror)
Logical constraints are things that are self-evident based on the
situation. (e.g. when building furniture, there’s only one screw and one
hole left at the end)
Constraints are different in that they actively stand in the user’s way: they
become more visible. That’s often a bad thing, but in the case of constraints,
it serves the greater good.
#13, #14, #15: Tolerance, feedback, and documentation
Tolerance means that users shouldn’t be at risk of causing too much trouble
accidentally.
Dix et al. also refers to this as recoverability.
Nielsen’s definition is most interested in supporting user
experimentation; the system should tolerate users poking around with
things.
Constantine and Lockwood’s definition and the principle for universal
design are a little closer to traditional mistakes.
Jef Raskin poses this as a more humorous law of interface design: “A
computer shall not harm your work or, through inactivity, allow your
work to come to harm.”
So, we first have to make sure that the system prevents the user from
doing too much damage accidentally.
Second, the system should give plenty of feedback so that the user can
understand why the error happened and how to avoid it in the future.

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Norman, Constantine, and Lockwood are all interested not just in

feedback in error detection, but also in feedback in the interface more
generally.
Dix et al. have it in their principles as well, as part of observability and
responsiveness.
But since we talk about it on its own so much, here let’s emphasize
Nielsen’s version, error recognition.
Finally, Nielsen has one last heuristic regarding user error: documentation.
One goal of usable design is to avoid the need for documentation
altogether.
We want users to just interact naturally with our interfaces.
However, Nielsen advocates last that we supply comprehensive
documentation anyway, just in case.

[GOAL #2] Students will understand the four sets of design principles that gave rise to
the 15 principles covered here.

Dix, Finlay, Abowd, and Beale propose three categories of principles:

Learnability for how easily a new user can grasp an interface;
Flexibility for how many ways an interface can be used;
Robustness for how well an interface gives feedback and recovers from errors. We
talk about their learnability principles when we discuss mental models.
Jill Gerhardt-Powals has a list of principles for cognitive engineering aimed especially
at reducing cognitive load. Her list has some particularly useful applications data
processing and visualization.

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In The Human Interface, Jef Raskin outlines some additional revolutionary design rules.
I wouldn’t advocate following them necessarily, but they’re interesting to see a very
different approach to design.
In Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice, Jim Foley and others give some
principles that apply specifically to 2D and 3D computer graphics.
And finally, Susan Weinschenk and Dean Barker have a set of guidelines that provide
an even more holistic view of interface design, including things like linguistic and
cultural sensitivity, tempo and pace, and domain clarity.

2.6 Mental Models and Representations

[GOAL #1] Students will understand the nature of mental models in feedback cycles.

Mental model: An internal, simulatable understanding of external reality

It’s the understanding you hold in your head about the world around you and
how it works. It’s an understanding of the processes, relationships, and
connections in real systems.
Simulating a mental model allows you to make expectations and predictions and
figure out how to achieve your goals in the world by matching the outcome to
our mental model.
When reality doesn’t match the mental model, it makes us uncomfortable. When
it happens over and over, it can frustrate us. It can make us feel that we just don’t
and will never understand.
As interface designers, this presents us with a lot of challenges.
We want to make sure that the user’s mental model of our systems matches
the way our systems actually work.
A good interface will give the user a good mental model of the system it
presents
We can do this in two primary ways: by designing systems that act the way
people already expect them to act, and by designing systems that by their
design teach people how they will act.
That way, we can minimize the discomfort that comes from systems acting in
ways that users don’t expect.
When you’re designing an interface, you’re playing very much the role of an
educator. Your goal is to teach your user how the system works through the
design of the interface.
Most users don’t watch tutorials or read documentation. You have to design
interfaces that teach users while they’re using them (make them learnable).

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That’s where representations will come in. Good representations show the
user exactly how the system actually works. It’s an enormous challenge, but
also incredibly satisfying when done well.
Five tips, or principles, to leverage for creating learnable interfaces:
These principles of learnability were proposed by Dix, Finlay, Abowd, and Beale in
their book Human-Computer Interaction.
1. Predictability. Looking at an action, can the user predict what will happen? For
example, graying out a button is a good way to help the user predict that clicking
that button will do nothing.
2. Synthesizability. Not only should the user be able to predict the effects of an
action before they perform it, they should also be able to see the sequence of
actions that led to the current state. This can be difficult in graphical user
interfaces, but the log of actions through the undo menu can make it easier.
Command lines make this easier, actually, as they give a log of the commands in
order.
3. Familiarity. This is similar to Norman’s principles of affordances. The interface
should leverage actions with which the user is already familiar from real-world
experience. For example, if you’re trying to indicate something is either good or
bad, you’d likely want to use red and green rather than blue and yellow.
4. Generalizability. Similar to familiarity and to Norman’s principle of consistency,
knowledge of one user interface should be generalize to others. If your interface
has tasks that are similar to other interfaces’ tasks, like saving, copying, and
pasting, it should perform those tasks in the same way.
5. Consistency. Slightly different than Norman’s principle of consistency, this
means that similar tasks or operations within a single interface should behave
similarly. For example, you wouldn’t want to have Ctrl+X cut text if text is selected,
but close the application if no text is selected. Its behavior should be consistent.
Using these principles can help the user leverage their existing mental models of
other designs, as well as develop a mental model of your interface as quickly as
possible.

[GOAL #2] Students will understand the relationship between representations and
strong mental models.

Representations: Internal symbols for an external reality

In order to develop good mental models, we need to give users good
representations of the system with which they’re interacting.
That way, we can help users learn how to use our interfaces as quickly as possible.
The most powerful tool in our arsenal to help ensure users have effective mental
models of our system is representation.
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We get to choose how things are visualized to users, and so we get to choose
some of how their mental model develops.
Using good representations can make all the difference between effective and
ineffective mental models.

[GOAL #3] Students will understand the criteria for a good representation for forming
mental models.

Audio is a poor representation of complex problems. Visual representation is better

for complex problems
Characteristics of good representations
First, good representations make relationships explicit.
Second, good representations bring objects and relationships together.
We’re visualizing the objects, but in a way that exposes the relationships
among them.
Third, a good representation excludes extraneous details.
Fourth, good representations expose natural constraints.
Representations in interfaces
Representations are all around us in the real world, but they play a huge role in
interfaces as well. Designing representations of the system state is actually one of
the most common tasks you might perform as an interface designer.
Representations, when used correctly, can make many tasks trivial or even
invisible, and we as interface designers have a lot of control over representations
in our designs.
Example: scrollbar is a representation of your relative position in a document
Analogies and metaphors
Analogies make the interface more learnable, but they also risk restricting the
interface to outdated requirements or constraints
Analogies and metaphors have a downside, thought: when you choose to use
them, users don’t know where the analogy ends.
While analogies are powerful ways to help users understand our interfaces, we
also have to pay attention to what misconceptions they might introduce.
While we need to leverage analogies and prior experiences whenever possible, we
also need to be aware that eventually, if we’re doing something interesting or
new, analogies are going to break down. Eventually, we’re going to have to teach
the user to use the unique elements of our interface.
Design principles revisited
First, the idea that people reason by analogy to past interfaces or metaphor to
the real world is one of the reasons the principle of consistency is so important.
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We want to be consistent with the analogies and metaphors that people use to
make sense of our interfaces.
Second, when we say that an interface should teach the user how the system
works, we’re echoing the idea of affordances. The way the system looks should
echo how it’s used. Just by observing the system, the user should be actively
learning how to interact with it.
Third, representations are important because they map the interface to the task
at hand. A good representation is one that users can use to predict the outcomes
of certain actions. In other words, a good representation lets users predict the
mapping between their actions in the interface and outcomes in the world.

[GOAL #4] Students will understand the relationship between learning curves and
representations.

Learning curve: plots expertise against experience

Every interface requires the user to do some learning to understand how to use it.
Very often, we visualize these as learning curves.
Generally, as the user gains more experience, they also gain more expertise.
The shape and steepness of this curve can vary.
Ideally, we want a learning curve that grows quickly in expertise with little experience
(“rapid” or “steep” learning curve).
Slow learning curve
Interfaces that are more difficult to use would have slower learning curves.
The user needs a lot more experience to reach the same level of expertise.
How do we reach proficiency faster?
For one, if we’re consistent with existing conventions and use analogies that users
understand, we can actually start them off with some initial expertise.
From there, we want to make the ascension as rapid as possible. One way we can
do that is by using representations and affordances that help the user
immediately understand how to use the interface.
So, good design is about making a user achieve expertise as quickly as possible,
either through starting them off higher or lifting them up quicker.

[GOAL #5] Students will understand the concepts of learned helplessness, expert
blindspot, slips, and mistakes.

As we design interfaces, we will no doubt encounter instances where the user makes
mistakes. Sometimes this might be because our users are stressed, busy, or distracted,
and other times it might be because our users don’t understand our interfaces or even
their own goals.

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As designers, though, we know that there’s no such thing as user error: any user error
is a failure of the interface to properly guide the user to the right action.
User error: slips and mistakes
Slips: when the user has the right mental model, but does the wrong thing anyway.
Could be a violation of the consistency principle
Norman further divides slips into two categories:
Action-based slips are places where the user performs the wrong action, or
performs the right action on the wrong object, even though they knew the
correct action. They might click the wrong button or right click when they
should left click.
Memory lapse slips are places where the user forgets something they knew
to do. Forgetting to start a timer or initiate logging might be examples of
memory lapse slips.
Mistakes: when the user has the wrong mental model, and does the wrong thing as a
result
Could be a violation of the tolerance principle
Norman divides mistakes into three categories:
The first is rule-based, where the user correctly assesses the state of the
world but makes the wrong decision based on it.
The second is knowledge-based, where the user incorrectly assesses the
state of the world in the first place.
The third is memory lapse, similar to slips, but this is about failing to fully
execute a plan because of distractions or other memory lapses.
We want to help prevent routine errors by leveraging consistent practices. We want to
let our interface offload some of the demands on working memory from the user to
avoid memory lapse errors. And we want to leverage good representations to help
users develop the right mental models to minimize rule-based and knowledge-based
errors. And while errors are inevitable, we should make sure to leverage the tolerance
principle to make sure their repercussions can never be too bad.
Learned helplessness: when the user working with the interface learns that they’re
helpless to actually use the system.
When there is no discernible interaction between the input and the output
When the user acts in the system over and over and over again, but never
receives input that helps them? Never even receives input that makes them think
they’re making progress
Expert blindspot
Generally, when we’re developing interfaces, we’re going to be experts in the
domain. It’s rare that you design an interface to help people do something you
don’t know how to do yourself. But as a result, there’s risk for expert blind spot.
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When you’re an expert in something, there are parts of the task that you do
subconsciously, without even thinking about them. And yet if we were suddenly
asked to train someone else, there are lots of things we’d forget to say, or lots of
things we would think would be obvious.
And that’s exactly what you’re doing when you’re designing an interface. You’re
teaching the user how to use what you designed. You’re teaching them without
the benefit of actually talking to them, explaining things to them, or
demonstrating things for them. You’re teaching them through the design of your
interface.
So you have to make sure that you don’t assume they’re an expert, too. You have
to overcome that expert blind spot because we are not our users.

EXAM #1 END

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