1

UNIT 1

FOUNDATIONS OF
HCI
2 CS6008 SYLLABUS

• The Human: I/O channels – Memory – Reasoning and

problem solving;

• The computer: Devices –Memory – processing and networks;

• Interaction: Models – frameworks – Ergonomics – styles –

elements – interactivity- Paradigms.
INPUT-OUTPUT CHANNELS
3
• Interaction with world
• Occurs through information

• Interaction with computer

• Input and output

• Human Input
• Through Senses

• Human Output
• Through Effectors
4 INPUT VIA SENSES

• Vision

• Hearing

• Touch

• Taste

• Smell
5 OUTPUT VIA EFFECTORS
(RESPONDERS)
• Limbs

• Fingers

• Eyes

• Head

• Vocal system
6 INTERACTION WITH PC USING
INPUT-OUTPUT CHANNELS
• Using a GUI-based computer

• Information received by sight

• Beeps received by ear

• Feel keyboard and mouse with fingers

 VISION
7
• Highly complex activity

• Physical and perceptual limitations

• 2 stages of visual perception:

• Physical reception of the stimulus
• Interpretation/processing of stimulus

• Processing allows construction of images from incomplete information

8 HUMAN EYE
9 IMAGE FORMATION

• Cornea and lens

• Focuses light
into a sharp
image on retina
• An upside down
image is formed
on the retina.
10 PHOTORECEPTORS

• Rods

• Cones
 RODS
11
• Situated towards the edges of retina
• Dominate peripheral vision

• Sensitive to light
• Allow us to see under low level
of illumination

• Unable to resolve fine detail and are

subject to light saturation
• Cause of temporary blindness
when moving from dark areas to
very bright ones

• 120 million rods per eye

 CONES
12
• Less sensitive to light
• Can tolerate more light than Rods

• Basic function is color vision

• Situated in Fovea
• Small area on retina where image is
fixated

• Three types
• Each sensitive to a different wavelength
13 BLIND SPOT

• Area where optic nerve

enters

• No rods or cones in this area

• Visual system compensates

for lack of rods and cones
14 NERVE CELLS

• A.k.a. Ganglion Cells

• Specialized Nerve Cells

• Types
• X-cells
• concentrated in fovea
• detection of patterns

• Y-cells
• widely distributed in retina
• early detection of movement
• can not detect change in patterns
 15 VISUAL PERCEPTION

• Size

• Depth

• Brightness

• Color
16 NOTIONS OF SIZE AND
DISTANCE
• You are standing on a hill

• Rocks, sheep and small tree on summit

• Farmhouse on hillside

• Person walking on track

• Small market town in valley

PERCEIVING SIZE AND DEPTH

• Size specified by visual angle

• Affected by both
• Size of object
• Distance from eye
18 PERCEIVING SIZE AND DEPTH

• Visual angle
• Indicates how much of the field of view is taken by the object
• Measured in degree or minutes of arc
 19 VISUAL ANGLE AND
PERCEPTION
• Visual Acuity
• Visual Acuity is the ability of a person to perceive fine detail
• Objects with visual angles smaller than 0.5 seconds of an arc are not visible.
• Spaces between lines visible at 30s-1min of arc visible

• Law of size constancy

• Perception of the object size remains constant even if it visual angle changes
• Perception depends on factors other than visual angle
20 FACTORS AFFECTING VISUAL
PERCEPTION
• Perception of depth
• Cues to determine relative positions of objects
• Objects overlapping

• Size and height of object

• Provides cue for distance

• Familiarity
• Certain size helps to judge the distance accordingly
21 EXAMPLE

•A B C D E F .HI J K
 22 PERCEIVING BRIGHTNESS

• Brightness
• subjective reaction to levels of light
• affected by luminance of object

• Luminance
• Depends on
• Amount of light falling on object
• Reflective properties of object
• Measured by photometer

• Contrast
• Function of the luminance of an object and the luminance of its background
23 PERCEIVING BRIGHTNESS

• Measured by just noticeable difference caused by luminance

• Rods (periphery) predominate in dim lighting

• Enables better periphery vision

• Cones (center) not dominate in dim lighting

• Cannot fixate on images

• Visual acuity increases with luminance

• Case for using high luminance displays
• Flicker also increases with luminance (>50Hz)
• Larger the display, the more it will appear to flicker
 24 PERCEIVING COLOR

• 3 components
• Hue
• Determined by the spectral wavelength
• Blue (short)
• Green (medium)
• Red (long)
• 150 hues determined by eye
• Intensity
• Brightness of color
• Saturation
• Amount of whiteness in the color

• 7 million colors can be perceived

25 PERCEIVING COLOR

• Color perception best in fovea, worst at periphery

• 3-4% cones in fovea sensitive to blue light

• Blue acuity lower

• Color blindness
• Cannot differentiate between green and red
• 8% males
• 1% females
26 HUMAN VISUAL PERCEPTION

• The visual system compensates for:

• movement
• changes in luminance.

• Context is used to resolve ambiguity

27 CAPABILITIES AND LIMITATIONS
OF VISUAL PROCESSING
• Visual processing allows transformation and interpretation
of a complete image

• Visual processing compensates image movement

• Image moves on retina, but we see it stable

• Color and brightness perceived constant (hue, intensity,

saturation)
28 CONTEXT ILLUSIONS
29 CONTEXT ILLUSIONS
30 CONTEXT ILLUSIONS
31 CONTEXT ILLUSIONS
 32 OVER COMPENSATION
ILLUSIONS
• Optical illusions sometimes occur due to over compensation

• Our perception of size is not reliable

concave

convex

the Muller Lyer illusion

the Ponzo illusion

33 PROOF-READING ILLUSION
34 PROOF-READING ILLUSION
35 LINES & OPTICAL CENTER
ILLUSION
• We do not perceive geometric objects exactly as they are drawn

• Lines
• Horizontal: Magnified
• Vertical: Reduced
• Solution: To display square, increase height

• Perceive actual center of page as a little lower

• Solution: place objects higher
 36 READING
• Stages
1. visual pattern perceived
2. decoded using internal representation of language
3. interpreted using knowledge of syntax, semantics, pragmatics
• Reading involves saccades and fixations (perception here: 94%)
• Perception occurs during fixations
• Regressions: eye move backwards and forwards
• Word shape is important to recognition
• Negative contrast improves reading from computer screen
• Average Reading Speed: 250 words per minute
• Word shape important
• Reading speed is a measure of legibility
• Legibility can be increased using negative contrast
37 HEARING

• Provides information about environment:

distances, directions, objects etc.
• Physical apparatus:
• outer ear – protects inner and amplifies sound
• middle ear – transmits sound waves as
vibrations to inner ear
• inner ear – chemical transmitters are released
and cause impulses in auditory nerve
• Sound
• pitch – sound frequency
• loudness – amplitude
• timbre – type or quality
38 HEARING (CONT)

• Humans can hear frequencies from 20Hz to

15kHz
• less accurate distinguishing high frequencies than low.

• Auditory system filters sounds

• can attend to sounds over background noise.
• for example, the cocktail party phenomenon.
39 TOUCH

• Provides important feedback about environment.

• May be key sense for someone who is visually impaired.
• Stimulus received via receptors in the skin:
• thermoreceptors – heat and cold
• nociceptors – pain
• mechanoreceptors – pressure
(some instant, some continuous)

• Some areas more sensitive than others e.g. fingers.

• Kinethesis - awareness of body position
• affects comfort and performance.
40 MOVEMENT

• Time taken to respond to stimulus:

reaction time + movement time

• Movement time dependent on age, fitness etc.

• Reaction time - dependent on stimulus type:

• visual ~ 200ms
• auditory ~ 150 ms
• pain ~ 700ms

• Increasing reaction time decreases accuracy in the unskilled

operator but not in the skilled operator.
41 MOVEMENT (CONT)

• Fitts' Law describes the time taken to hit a screen target:

Mt = a + b log2(D/S + 1)

where: a and b are empirically determined constants

Mt is movement time
D is Distance
S is Size of target

Þtargets as large as possible

distances as small as possible
42 SENSORY MEMORY

• Buffers for stimuli received through senses

• iconic memory: visual stimuli
• echoic memory: aural stimuli
• haptic memory: tactile stimuli

• Examples
• “sparkler” trail
• stereo sound

• Continuously overwritten
43 SHORT-TERM MEMORY (STM)

• Scratch-pad for temporary recall

• rapid access ~ 70ms

• rapid decay ~ 200ms

• limited capacity - 7± 2 chunks

44 EXAMPLES

212348278493202

0121 414 2626

HEC ATR ANU PTH ETR EET

45 LONG-TERM MEMORY (LTM)

• Repository for all our knowledge

• slow access ~ 1/10 second
• slow decay, if any
• huge or unlimited capacity

• Two types
• episodic – serial memory of events
• semantic – structured memory of facts,concepts, skills

semantic LTM derived from episodic LTM

46 LONG-TERM MEMORY (CONT.)

• Semantic memory structure

• provides access to information
• represents relationships between bits of information
• supports inference

• Model: semantic network

• inheritance – child nodes inherit properties of parent nodes
• relationships between bits of information explicit
• supports inference through inheritance
47 LTM - SEMANTIC NETWORK
48 MODELS OF LTM - FRAMES

• Information organized in data structures

• Slots in structure instantiated with values for instance of data
• Type–subtype relationships

DOG COLLIE

Fixed Fixed
legs: 4 breed of: DOG
type: sheepdog
Default
diet: carniverous Default
sound: bark size: 65 cm
Variable Variable
size: colour
colour
 49 MODELS OF LTM - SCRIPTS

Model of stereotypical information required to interpret situation

Script has elements that can be instantiated with values for context
Script for a visit to the vet

Entry conditions: dog ill Roles: vet examines

vet open diagnoses
owner has money treats
owner brings dog in
Result: dog better
pays
owner poorer
takes dog out
vet richer
Scenes: arriving at reception
Props: examination table
waiting in room
medicine
examination
instruments
paying
Tracks: dog needs medicine
dog needs operation
MODELS
50
OF LTM - PRODUCTION
RULES

Representation of procedural knowledge.

Condition/action rules
if condition is matched
then use rule to determine action.

IF dog is wagging tail

THEN pat dog

IF dog is growling
THEN run away
51 LTM - STORAGE OF
INFORMATION
• rehearsal
• information moves from STM to LTM

• total time hypothesis

• amount retained proportional to rehearsal time

• distribution of practice effect

• optimized by spreading learning over time

• structure, meaning and familiarity

• information easier to remember
52 LTM - FORGETTING

decay
• information is lost gradually but very slowly

interference
• new information replaces old: retroactive interference
• old may interfere with new: proactive inhibition

so may not forget at all memory is selective …

… affected by emotion – can subconsciously `choose' to forget

53 LTM - RETRIEVAL

recall
• information reproduced from memory can be assisted
by cues, e.g. categories, imagery

recognition
• information gives knowledge that it has been seen
before
• less complex than recall - information is cue
54

THINKING
REASONING

DEDUCTION, INDUCTION,
ABDUCTION
PROBLEM SOLVING
55 DEDUCTIVE REASONING

• Deduction:
• derive logically necessary conclusion from given premises.
e.g. If it is Friday then she will go to work
It is Friday
Therefore she will go to work.

• Logical conclusion not necessarily true:

e.g. If it is raining then the ground is dry
It is raining
Therefore the ground is dry
56 DEDUCTION (CONT.)

• When truth and logical validity clash …

e.g. Some people are babies
Some babies cry
Inference - Some people cry

Correct?

• People bring world knowledge to bear

57 INDUCTIVE REASONING

• Induction:
• generalize from cases seen to cases unseen
e.g. all elephants we have seen have trunks
therefore all elephants have trunks.

• Unreliable:
• can only prove false not true

… but useful!

• Humans not good at using negative evidence

e.g. Wason's cards.
 58 WASON'S CARDS

7 E 4 K
If a card has a vowel on one side it has an even number on the other

Is this true?

How many cards do you need to turn over to find out?

…. and which cards?

59 ABDUCTIVE REASONING

• reasoning from event to cause

e.g. Sam drives fast when drunk.
If I see Sam driving fast, assume drunk.

• Unreliable:
• can lead to false explanations
60 PROBLEM SOLVING

• Process of finding solution to unfamiliar task using

knowledge.

• Several theories.

• Gestalt
• problem solving both productive and reproductive
• productive draws on insight and restructuring of problem
• attractive but not enough evidence to explain `insight' etc.
• move away from behaviourism and led towards information
processing theories
61 PROBLEM SOLVING (CONT.)

Problem space theory

• problem space comprises problem states
• problem solving involves generating states using legal operators
• heuristics may be employed to select operators
e.g. means-ends analysis
• operates within human information processing system
e.g. STM limits etc.
• largely applied to problem solving in well-defined areas
e.g. puzzles rather than knowledge intensive areas
62 PROBLEM SOLVING (CONT.)

• Analogy
• analogical mapping:
• novel problems in new domain?
• use knowledge of similar problem from similar domain
• analogical mapping difficult if domains are semantically different

• Skill acquisition
• skilled activity characterized by chunking
• lot of information is chunked to optimize STM
• conceptual rather than superficial grouping of problems
• information is structured more effectively
63 ERRORS AND MENTAL MODELS

Types of error

• slips
• right intention, but failed to do it right
• causes: poor physical skill,inattention etc.
• change to aspect of skilled behaviour can cause slip

• mistakes
• wrong intention
• cause: incorrect understanding
humans create mental models to explain behaviour.
if wrong (different from actual system) errors can occur
64 EMOTION

• Various theories of how emotion works

• James-Lange: emotion is our interpretation of a physiological
response to a stimuli
• Cannon: emotion is a psychological response to a stimuli
• Schacter-Singer: emotion is the result of our evaluation of our
physiological responses, in the light of the whole situation we are
in

• Emotion clearly involves both cognitive and physical

responses to stimuli
 65 EMOTION (CONT.)

• The biological response to physical stimuli is called affect

• Affect influences how we respond to situations

• positive  creative problem solving
• negative  narrow thinking

“Negative affect can make it harder to do even easy tasks; positive affect can make it
easier to do difficult tasks”
(Donald Norman)
66 EMOTION (CONT.)

• Implications for interface design

• stress will increase the difficulty of problem solving
• relaxed users will be more forgiving of shortcomings in design
• aesthetically pleasing and rewarding interfaces will increase positive
affect
67 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

• long term
– sex, physical and intellectual abilities
• short term
– effect of stress or fatigue
• changing
– age

Ask yourself:
will design decision exclude section of user population?
68 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE DESIGN
OF INTERACTIVE SYSTEM
• Some direct applications
• e.g. blue acuity is poor
 blue should not be used for important detail

• However, correct application generally requires understanding of

context in psychology, and an understanding of particular
experimental conditions

• A lot of knowledge has been distilled in

• guidelines (chap 7)
• cognitive models (chap 12)
• experimental and analytic evaluation techniques (chap 9)
69 CHAPTER 2

THE COMPUTER
70 THE COMPUTER
a computer system is made up of various elements

each of these elements affects the interaction

• input devices – text entry and pointing
• output devices – screen (small&large), digital paper
• virtual reality – special interaction and display devices
• physical interaction – e.g. sound, haptic, bio-sensing
• paper – as output (print) and input (scan)
• memory – RAM & permanent media, capacity & access
• processing – speed of processing, networks
 71 INTERACTING WITH
COMPUTERS
to understand human–computer interaction
… need to understand computers!

what goes in and out

devices, paper,
sensors, etc.

what can it do?

memory, processing,
networks
 72 A ‘TYPICAL’ COMPUTER SYSTEM

? • screen, or monitor, on which there are windows

• keyboard
window 1
• mouse/trackpad

window 2
• variations
• desktop
• laptop
• PDA

12-37pm

the devices dictate the styles of interaction that the system supports
If we use different devices, then the interface will support a different style of
interaction
73 HOW MANY …

• computers in your house?

• hands up, …
… none, 1, 2 , 3, more!!

• computers in your pockets?

are you thinking …

… PC, laptop, PDA ??
74 HOW MANY COMPUTERS …

in your house? in your pockets?

• PC • PDA
• TV, VCR, DVD, HiFi,
• phone, camera
cable/satellite TV
• smart card, card with
• microwave, cooker, washing
magnetic strip?
machine
• central heating • electronic car key
• security system • USB memory

can you think of more? try your pockets and bags

75 INTERACTIVITY?

Long ago in a galaxy far away … batch processing

• punched card stacks or large data files prepared
• long wait ….
• line printer output
… and if it is not right …

Now most computing is interactive

• rapid feedback
• the user in control (most of the time)
• doing rather than thinking …

Is faster always better?

76 RICHER INTERACTION

sensors
and devices
everywhere
 77

TEXT ENTRY DEVICES

KEYBOARDS (QWERTY ET AL.)
CHORD KEYBOARDS, PHONE PADS

HANDWRITING, SPEECH
78 KEYBOARDS

• Most common text input device

• Allows rapid entry of text by experienced users

• Keypress closes connection, causing a character

code to be sent
• Usually connected by cable, but can be wireless
79 LAYOUT – QWERTY

• Standardised layout

but …
• non-alphanumeric keys are placed differently
• accented symbols needed for different scripts
• minor differences between UK and USA keyboards

• QWERTY arrangement not optimal for typing

– layout to prevent typewriters jamming!
• Alternative designs allow faster typing but large social base of QWERTY
typists produces reluctance to change.
80 QWERTY (CTD)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Q W E R T Y U I O P
A S D F G H J K L
Z X C V B N M , .
SPACE
81 ALTERNATIVE KEYBOARD
LAYOUTS
Alphabetic
• keys arranged in alphabetic order
• not faster for trained typists
• not faster for beginners either!

Dvorak
• common letters under dominant fingers
• biased towards right hand
• common combinations of letters alternate between hands
• 10-15% improvement in speed and reduction in fatigue
• But - large social base of QWERTY typists produce market pressures not to
change
82 SPECIAL KEYBOARDS

• designs to reduce fatigue for RSI

• for one handed use
e.g. the Maltron left-handed keyboard
83 CHORD KEYBOARDS

only a few keys - four or 5

letters typed as combination of keypresses
compact size
– ideal for portable applications
short learning time
– keypresses reflect letter shape
fast
– once you have trained

BUT - social resistance, plus fatigue after extended use

NEW – niche market for some wearables
84 PHONE PAD AND T9 ENTRY

• use numeric keys with

multiple presses
2–abc 6-mno
3-def 7-pqrs
4-ghi 8-tuv
5-jkl 9-wxyz
hello = 4433555[pause]555666
surprisingly fast!

• T9 predictive entry
• type as if single key for each letter
• use dictionary to ‘guess’ the right word
• hello = 43556 …
• but 26 -> menu ‘am’ or ‘an’
85 HANDWRITING RECOGNITION

• Text can be input into the computer, using a pen and a digesting
tablet
• natural interaction

• Technical problems:
• capturing all useful information - stroke path, pressure, etc. in a natural
manner
• segmenting joined up writing into individual letters
• interpreting individual letters
• coping with different styles of handwriting

• Used in PDAs, and tablet computers …

… leave the keyboard on the desk!
86 SPEECH RECOGNITION

• Improving rapidly

• Most successful when:

• single user – initial training and learns peculiarities
• limited vocabulary systems

• Problems with
• external noise interfering
• imprecision of pronunciation
• large vocabularies
• different speakers
87 NUMERIC KEYPADS

• for entering numbers quickly:

• calculator, PC keyboard
• for telephones

not the same!! 1 2 3 7 8 9

4 5 6 4 5 6
ATM like phone
7 8 9 1 2 3

0 # 0 . =
*
telephone calculator
 88

POSITIONING, POINTING AND

DRAWING
MOUSE, TOUCHPAD
TRACKBALLS, JOYSTICKS ETC.
TOUCH SCREENS, TABLETS
EYEGAZE, CURSORS
89 THE MOUSE

• Handheld pointing device

• very common
• easy to use

• Two characteristics
• planar movement
• buttons
(usually from 1 to 3 buttons on top, used for making a selection,
indicating an option, or to initiate drawing etc.)
90 THE MOUSE (CTD)

Mouse located on desktop

• requires physical space
• no arm fatigue

Relative movement only is detectable.

Movement of mouse moves screen cursor
Screen cursor oriented in (x, y) plane,
mouse movement in (x, z) plane …

… an indirect manipulation device.

• device itself doesn’t obscure screen, is accurate and fast.
• hand-eye coordination problems for novice users
91 HOW DOES IT WORK?

Two methods for detecting motion

• Mechanical
• Ball on underside of mouse turns as mouse is moved
• Rotates orthogonal potentiometers
• Can be used on almost any flat surface

• Optical
• light emitting diode on underside of mouse
• may use special grid-like pad or just on desk
• less susceptible to dust and dirt
• detects fluctuating alterations in reflected light intensity to calculate
relative motion in (x, z) plane
92 EVEN BY FOOT …

• some experiments with the footmouse

• controlling mouse movement with feet …
• not very common :-)

• but foot controls are common elsewhere:

• car pedals
• sewing machine speed control
• organ and piano pedals
93 TOUCHPAD

• small touch sensitive tablets

• ‘stroke’ to move mouse pointer
• used mainly in laptop computers

• good ‘acceleration’ settings important

• fast stroke
• lots of pixels per inch moved
• initial movement to the target
• slow stroke
• less pixels per inch
• for accurate positioning
94 TRACKBALL AND
THUMBWHEELS
Trackball
• ball is rotated inside static housing
• like an upsdie down mouse!
• relative motion moves cursor
• indirect device, fairly accurate
• separate buttons for picking
• very fast for gaming
• used in some portable and notebook computers.

Thumbwheels …
• for accurate CAD – two dials for X-Y cursor position
• for fast scrolling – single dial on mouse
 JOYSTICK AND KEYBOARD NIPPLE
95
Joystick
• indirect
pressure of stick = velocity of movement
• buttons for selection
on top or on front like a trigger
• often used for computer games
aircraft controls and 3D navigation

Keyboard nipple
• for laptop computers
• miniature joystick in the middle of the keyboard
96 TOUCH-SENSITIVE SCREEN

• Detect the presence of finger or stylus on the screen.

• works by interrupting matrix of light beams, capacitance changes or ultrasonic
reflections
• direct pointing device

• Advantages:
• fast, and requires no specialised pointer
• good for menu selection
• suitable for use in hostile environment: clean and safe from damage.

• Disadvantages:
• finger can mark screen
• imprecise (finger is a fairly blunt instrument!)
• difficult to select small regions or perform accurate drawing
• lifting arm can be tiring
 STYLUS AND LIGHT PEN
97
Stylus
• small pen-like pointer to draw directly on screen

• may use touch sensitive surface or magnetic detection

• used in PDA, tablets PCs and drawing tables

Light Pen
• now rarely used

• uses light from screen to detect location

BOTH …
• very direct and obvious to use
98 DIGITIZING TABLET

• Mouse like-device with cross hairs

• used on special surface

- rather like stylus

• very accurate
- used for digitizing maps
 EYEGAZE
99
• control interface by eye gaze direction
• e.g. look at a menu item to select it

• uses laser beam reflected off retina

• … a very low power laser!

• mainly used for evaluation (ch x)

• potential for hands-free control

• high accuracy requires headset

• cheaper and lower accuracy devices available

sit under the screen like a small webcam
100 CURSOR KEYS

• Four keys (up, down, left, right) on keyboard.

• Very, very cheap, but slow.
• Useful for not much more than basic motion for text-editing
tasks.
• No standardised layout, but inverted “T”, most common
101 DISCRETE POSITIONING
CONTROLS
• in phones, TV controls etc.
• cursor pads or mini-joysticks
• discrete left-right, up-down
• mainly for menu selection
102

DISPLAY DEVICES

BITMAP SCREENS (CRT & LCD)

LARGE & SITUATED DISPLAYS
DIGITAL PAPER
103 BITMAP DISPLAYS

• screen is vast number of coloured dots

 RESOLUTION AND COLOUR DEPTH

104
• Resolution … used (inconsistently) for
• number of pixels on screen (width x height)
• e.g. SVGA 1024 x 768, PDA perhaps 240x400

• density of pixels (in pixels or dots per inch - dpi)

• typically between 72 and 96 dpi

• Aspect ratio
• ration between width and height

• 4:3 for most screens, 16:9 for wide-screen TV

• Colour depth:
• how many different colours for each pixel?

• black/white or greys only

• 256 from a pallete

• 8 bits each for red/green/blue = millions of colours

 ANTI-ALIASING
105
Jaggies
• diagonal lines that have discontinuities in due to horizontal raster scan
process.

Anti-aliasing
• softens edges by using shades of line colour
• also used for text
106 CATHODE RAY TUBE

• Stream of electrons emitted from electron gun,

focused and directed by magnetic fields, hit
phosphor-coated screen which glows

• used in TVs and computer monitors

electron beam

electron gun

focussing and
deflection
107 HEALTH HAZARDS OF CRT !

• X-rays: largely absorbed by screen (but not at rear!)

• UV- and IR-radiation from phosphors: insignificant levels

• Radio frequency emissions, plus ultrasound (~16kHz)

• Electrostatic field - leaks out through tube to user. Intensity dependant on distance and
humidity. Can cause rashes.

• Electromagnetic fields (50Hz-0.5MHz). Create induction currents in conductive

materials, including the human body. Two types of effects attributed to this: visual
system - high incidence of cataracts in VDU operators, and concern over reproductive
disorders (miscarriages and birth defects).
 HEALTH HINTS …
108
• Do not sit too close to the screen

• Do not use very small fonts

• Do not look at the screen for long periods without a break

• Do not place the screen directly in front of a bright window

• Work in well-lit surroundings

Take extra care if pregnant.

but also posture, ergonomics, stress
109 LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAYS

• Smaller, lighter, and … no radiation problems.

• Found on PDAs, portables and notebooks,

… and increasingly on desktop and even for home TV

• also used in dedicted displays:

digital watches, mobile phones, HiFi controls

• How it works …
• Top plate transparent and polarised, bottom plate reflecting.
• Light passes through top plate and crystal, and reflects back to eye.
• Voltage applied to crystal changes polarisation and hence colour
• N.B. light reflected not emitted => less eye strain
 SPECIAL DISPLAYS
110

Random Scan (Directed-beam refresh, vector display)

• draw the lines to be displayed directly
• no jaggies
• lines need to be constantly redrawn
• rarely used except in special instruments

Direct view storage tube (DVST)

• Similar to random scan but persistent => no flicker
• Can be incrementally updated but not selectively erased
• Used in analogue storage oscilloscopes
111 LARGE DISPLAYS

• used for meetings, lectures, etc.

• technology
plasma – usually wide screen
video walls – lots of small screens together
projected – RGB lights or LCD projector
– hand/body obscures screen
– may be solved by 2 projectors + clever software
back-projected
– frosted glass + projector behind
112 SITUATED DISPLAYS

• displays in ‘public’ places

• large or small
• very public or for small group

• display only
• for information relevant to location

• or interactive
• use stylus, touch sensitive screem

• in all cases … the location matters

• meaning of information or interaction is related to the location
113 HERMES A SITUATED DISPLAY

• small displays beside office doors

small displays
• handwritten
beside
notes left using stylus
office doors
• office owner reads notes using web interface

handwritten
office owner
notes left
reads notes
using stylus
using web interface
114 DIGITAL PAPER
appearance

• what?
• thin flexible sheets
• updated electronically cross
section
• but retain display

• how?
• small spheres turned
• or channels with coloured liquid
and contrasting spheres
• rapidly developing area
 115

VIRTUAL REALITY AND 3D

INTERACTION
POSITIONING IN 3D SPACE
MOVING AND GRASPING

SEEING 3D (HELMETS AND CAVES)

116 POSITIONING IN 3D SPACE

• cockpit and virtual controls

• steering wheels, knobs and dials … just like real!
• the 3D mouse
• six-degrees of movement: x, y, z + roll, pitch, yaw
• data glove
• fibre optics used to detect finger position
• VR helmets
• detect head motion and possibly eye gaze
• whole body tracking
• accelerometers strapped to limbs or reflective dots and video
processing
117 PITCH, YAW AND ROLL

yaw

roll
pitch
118 3D DISPLAYS

• desktop VR
• ordinary screen, mouse or keyboard control
• perspective and motion give 3D effect

• seeing in 3D
• use stereoscopic vision
• VR helmets
• screen plus shuttered specs, etc.

also see extra slides on 3D vision

119 VR HEADSETS

• small TV screen for each eye

• slightly different angles
• 3D effect
120 VR MOTION SICKNESS

• time delay
• move head … lag … display moves
• conflict: head movement vs. eyes
• depth perception
• headset gives different stereo distance
• but all focused in same plane
• conflict: eye angle vs. focus
• conflicting cues => sickness
• helps motivate improvements in technology
121 SIMULATORS AND VR CAVES

• scenes projected on walls

• realistic environment
• hydraulic rams!
• real controls
• other people
122
PHYSICAL CONTROLS,
SENSORS ETC.

SPECIAL DISPLAYS AND GAUGES

SOUND, TOUCH, FEEL, SMELL

PHYSICAL CONTROLS

ENVIRONMENTAL AND BIO-SENSING

123 DEDICATED DISPLAYS

• analogue representations:
• dials, gauges, lights, etc.

• digital displays:
• small LCD screens, LED lights, etc.

• head-up displays
• found in aircraft cockpits
• show most important controls
… depending on context
124 SOUNDS

• beeps, bongs, clonks, whistles and whirrs

• used for error indications

• confirmation of actions e.g. keyclick

also see chapter 10

125 TOUCH, FEEL, SMELL

• touch and feeling important

• in games … vibration, force feedback
• in simulation … feel of surgical instruments
• called haptic devices

• texture, smell, taste

• current technology very limited
126 BMW IDRIVE

• for controlling menus

• feel small ‘bumps’ for each item
• makes it easier to select options by feel
• uses haptic technology from Immersion Corp.
 127 PHYSICAL CONTROLS

• specialist controls needed …

• industrial controls, consumer products, etc.

easy-clean
smooth buttons

multi-function
control
large buttons
clear dials

tiny buttons
128 ENVIRONMENT AND BIO-
SENSING
• sensors all around us
• car courtesy light – small switch on door
• ultrasound detectors – security, washbasins
• RFID security tags in shops
• temperature, weight, location

• … and even our own bodies …

• iris scanners, body temperature, heart rate, galvanic skin response,
blink rate
129

PAPER: PRINTING AND

SCANNING
PRINT TECHNOLOGY

FONTS, PAGE DESCRIPTION, WYSIWYG

SCANNING, OCR
130 PRINTING

• image made from small dots

• allows any character set or graphic to be printed,
• critical features:
• resolution
• size and spacing of the dots
• measured in dots per inch (dpi)
• speed
• usually measured in pages per minute
• cost!!
TYPES OF DOT-BASED PRINTERS
131
• dot-matrix printers

• use inked ribbon (like a typewriter

• line of pins that can strike the ribbon, dotting the paper.

• typical resolution 80-120 dpi

• ink-jet and bubble-jet printers

• tiny blobs of ink sent from print head to paper

• typically 300 dpi or better .

• laser printer

• like photocopier: dots of electrostatic charge deposited on drum, which picks up toner
(black powder form of ink) rolled onto paper which is then fixed with heat
• typically 600 dpi or better.
132 PRINTING IN THE WORKPLACE

• shop tills
• dot matrix
• same print head used for several paper rolls
• may also print cheques

• thermal printers
• special heat-sensitive paper
• paper heated by pins makes a dot
• poor quality, but simple & low maintenance
• used in some fax machines
133 FONTS

• Font – the particular style of text

Courier font
Helvetica font
Palatino font
Times Roman font
• §´µº¿Â Ä¿~ (special symbol)

• Size of a font measured in points (1 pt about 1/72”)

(vaguely) related to its height
This is ten point Helvetica
This is twelve point
This is fourteen point
This is eighteen point
and this is twenty-four point
 FONTS (CTD)
134
Pitch
• fixed-pitch – every character has the same width

e.g. Courier
• variable-pitched – some characters wider

e.g. Times Roman – compare the ‘i’ and the “m”

Serif or Sans-serif
• sans-serif – square-ended strokes

e.g. Helvetica
• serif – with splayed ends (such as)

e.g. Times Roman or Palatino

135 READABILITY OF TEXT

• lowercase
• easy to read shape of words

• UPPERCASE
• better for individual letters and non-words
e.g. flight numbers: BA793 vs. ba793

• serif fonts

• helps your eye on long lines of printed text

• but sans serif often better on screen
 PAGE DESCRIPTION LANGUAGES
136
• Pages very complex
• different fonts, bitmaps, lines, digitised photos, etc.

• Can convert it all into a bitmap and send to the printer

… but often huge !

• Alternatively Use a page description language

• sends a description of the page can be sent,
• instructions for curves, lines, text in different styles, etc.
• like a programming language for printing!

• PostScript is the most common

137 SCREEN AND PAGE

• WYSIWYG
• what you see is what you get
• aim of word processing, etc.

• but …
• screen: 72 dpi, landscape image
• print: 600+ dpi, portrait

• can try to make them similar

but never quite the same
• so … need different designs, graphics etc, for screen and print
138 SCANNERS

• Take paper and convert it into a bitmap

• Two sorts of scanner

• flat-bed: paper placed on a glass plate, whole page converted into bitmap
• hand-held: scanner passed over paper, digitising strip typically 3-4” wide

• Shines light at paper and note intensity of reflection

• colour or greyscale

• Typical resolutions from 600–2400 dpi

139 SCANNERS (CTD)

Used in

• desktop publishing for incorporating photographs and other

images

• document storage and retrieval systems, doing away with paper

storage

+ special scanners for slides and photographic negatives

140 OPTICAL CHARACTER
RECOGNITION
• OCR converts bitmap back into text
• different fonts
• create problems for simple “template matching” algorithms
• more complex systems segment text, decompose it into lines and arcs,
and decipher characters that way

• page format
• columns, pictures, headers and footers
 PAPER-BASED INTERACTION
141
• paper usually regarded as output only

• can be input too – OCR, scanning, etc.

• Xerox PaperWorks
• glyphs – small patterns of /\\//\\\
• used to identify forms etc.
• used with scanner and fax to control applications

• more recently
• papers micro printed - like wattermarks
• identify which sheet and where you are
• special ‘pen’ can read locations
• know where they are writing
142

MEMORY
SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM

SPEED, CAPACITY, COMPRESSION

FORMATS, ACCESS
143 SHORT-TERM MEMORY - RAM

• Random access memory (RAM)

• on silicon chips
• 100 nano-second access time
• usually volatile (lose information if power turned off)
• data transferred at around 100 Mbytes/sec

• Some non-volatile RAM used to store basic set-up

information

• Typical desktop computers:

64 to 256 Mbytes RAM
144 LONG-TERM MEMORY - DISKS

• magnetic disks
• floppy disks store around 1.4 Mbytes
• hard disks typically 40 Gbytes to 100s of Gbytes
access time ~10ms, transfer rate 100kbytes/s

• optical disks
• use lasers to read and sometimes write
• more robust that magnetic media
• CD-ROM
- same technology as home audio, ~ 600 Gbytes
• DVD - for AV applications, or very large files
145 BLURRING BOUNDARIES

• PDAs
• often use RAM for their main memory

• Flash-Memory
• used in PDAs, cameras etc.
• silicon based but persistent
• plug-in USB devices for data transfer
146 SPEED AND CAPACITY

• what do the numbers mean?

• some sizes (all uncompressed) …

• this book, text only ~ 320,000 words, 2Mb
• the Bible ~ 4.5 Mbytes
• scanned page ~ 128 Mbytes
• (11x8 inches, 1200 dpi, 8bit greyscale)
• digital photo ~ 10 Mbytes
• (2–4 mega pixels, 24 bit colour)
• video ~ 10 Mbytes per second
• (512x512, 12 bit colour, 25 frames per sec)
147 VIRTUAL MEMORY

• Problem:
• running lots of programs + each program large
• not enough RAM

• Solution - Virtual memory :

• store some programs temporarily on disk
• makes RAM appear bigger

• But … swopping
• program on disk needs to run again
• copied from disk to RAM
• slows t h i n g s d o w n
148 COMPRESSION

• reduce amount of storage required

• lossless
• recover exact text or image – e.g. GIF, ZIP
• look for commonalities:
• text: AAAAAAAAAABBBBBCCCCCCCC 10A5B8C
• video: compare successive frames and store change
• lossy
• recover something like original – e.g. JPEG, MP3
• exploit perception
• JPEG: lose rapid changes and some colour
• MP3: reduce accuracy of drowned out notes
149 STORAGE FORMATS - TEXT

• ASCII - 7-bit binary code for to each letter and character

• UTF-8 - 8-bit encoding of 16 bit character set
• RTF (rich text format)
- text plus formatting and layout information
• SGML (standardized generalised markup language)
- documents regarded as structured objects
• XML (extended markup language)
- simpler version of SGML for web applications
150 STORAGE FORMATS - MEDIA

• Images:
• many storage formats :
(PostScript, GIFF, JPEG, TIFF, PICT, etc.)
• plus different compression techniques
(to reduce their storage requirements)

• Audio/Video
• again lots of formats :
(QuickTime, MPEG, WAV, etc.)
• compression even more important
• also ‘streaming’ formats for network delivery
151 METHODS OF ACCESS

• large information store

• long time to search => use index
• what you index -> what you can access

• simple index needs exact match

• forgiving systems:
• Xerox “do what I mean” (DWIM)
• SOUNDEX – McCloud ~ MacCleod

• access without structure …

• free text indexing (all the words in a document)
• needs lots of space!!
 152

PROCESSING AND NETWORKS

FINITE SPEED (BUT ALSO MOORE’S LAW)
LIMITS OF INTERACTION

NETWORKED COMPUTING
 FINITE PROCESSING SPEED
153
• Designers tend to assume fast processors, and make interfaces more and more
complicated

• But problems occur, because processing cannot keep up with all the tasks it needs to do

• cursor overshooting because system has buffered keypresses

• icon wars - user clicks on icon, nothing happens, clicks on another, then system
responds and windows fly everywhere

• Also problems if system is too fast - e.g. help screens may scroll through text much too
rapidly to be read
154 MOORE’S LAW

• computers get faster and faster!

• 1965 …
• Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, noticed a pattern
• processor speed doubles every 18 months
• PC … 1987: 1.5 Mhz, 2002: 1.5 GHz
• similar pattern for memory
• but doubles every 12 months!!
• hard disk … 1991: 20Mbyte : 2002: 30 Gbyte
• baby born today
• record all sound and vision
• by 70 all life’s memories stored in a grain of dust!

/e3/online/moores-law/
155 THE MYTH OF THE INFINITELY
FAST MACHINE

• Implicit assumption … no delays

an infinitely fast machine

• What is good design for real machines?

• Good example … the telephone :

• Type keys too fast

• Hear tones as numbers sent down the line

• Actually an accident of implementation

• Emulate in deisgn
156 LIMITATIONS ON INTERACTIVE
PERFORMANCE
Computation bound
• Computation takes ages, causing frustration for the user

Storage channel bound

• Bottleneck in transference of data from disk to memory

Graphics bound
• Common bottleneck: updating displays requires a lot of effort - sometimes helped by
adding a graphics co-processor optimised to take on the burden

Network capacity
• Many computers networked - shared resources and files, access to printers etc. - but
interactive performance can be reduced by slow network speed
157 NETWORKED COMPUTING

Networks allow access to …

• large memory and processing

• other people (groupware, email)

• shared resources – esp. the web

Issues
• network delays – slow feedback

• conflicts - many people update data

• unpredictability
 THE INTERNET
158

• history …

• 1969: DARPANET US DoD, 4 sites

• 1971: 23; 1984: 1000; 1989: 10000

• common language (protocols):

• TCP – Transmission Control protocol

• lower level, packets (like letters) between machines

• IP – Internet Protocol
• reliable channel (like phone call) between programs on machines

• email, HTTP, all build on top of these

159 CHAPTER 3

THE INTERACTION
160 THE INTERACTION

• interaction models
• translations between user and system

• ergonomics
• physical characteristics of interaction

• interaction styles
• the nature of user/system dialog

• context
• social, organizational, motivational
161 WHAT IS INTERACTION?

communication

user  system

but is that all … ?

• see “language and action” in chapter 4 …
 162

MODELS OF INTERACTION
TERMS OF INTERACTION

NORMAN MODEL

INTERACTION FRAMEWORK
163 SOME TERMS OF INTERACTION

domain – the area of work under study

e.g. graphic design
goal – what you want to achieve
e.g. create a solid red triangle
task – how you go about doing it
– ultimately in terms of operations or actions
e.g. … select fill tool, click over triangle

Note …
• traditional interaction …
• use of terms differs a lot especially task/goal !!!
164 DONALD NORMAN’S MODEL

• Seven stages
• user establishes the goal
• formulates intention
• specifies actions at interface
• executes action
• perceives system state
• interprets system state
• evaluates system state with respect to goal

• Norman’s model concentrates on user’s view of the

interface
 EXECUTION/EVALUATION LOOP
165

goal

execution evaluation
system
• user establishes the goal
• formulates intention
• specifies actions at interface
• executes action
• perceives system state
• interprets system state
• evaluates system state with respect to goal
 EXECUTION/EVALUATION LOOP
166

goal

execution evaluation
system
• user establishes the goal
• formulates intention
• specifies actions at interface
• executes action
• perceives system state
• interprets system state
• evaluates system state with respect to goal
 EXECUTION/EVALUATION LOOP
167

goal

execution evaluation
system
• user establishes the goal
• formulates intention
• specifies actions at interface
• executes action
• perceives system state
• interprets system state
• evaluates system state with respect to goal
 EXECUTION/EVALUATION LOOP
168

goal

execution evaluation
system
• user establishes the goal
• formulates intention
• specifies actions at interface
• executes action
• perceives system state
• interprets system state
• evaluates system state with respect to goal
169 USING NORMAN’S MODEL

Some systems are harder to use than others

Gulf of Execution
user’s formulation of actions
≠ actions allowed by the system

Gulf of Evaluation
user’s expectation of changed system state
≠ actual presentation of this state
170 HUMAN ERROR - SLIPS AND
MISTAKES
slip
understand system and goal
correct formulation of action
incorrect action

mistake
may not even have right goal!

Fixing things?
slip – better interface design
mistake – better understanding of system
171 ABOWD AND BEALE
FRAMEWORK
extension of Norman…
their interaction framework has 4 parts
O
output
• user
• input
S U
• system
core task
• output
I
input
each has its own unique language
interaction  translation between languages

problems in interaction = problems in translation

172 USING ABOWD & BEALE’S
MODEL
user intentions
 translated into actions at the interface
 translated into alterations of system state
 reflected in the output display
 interpreted by the user

general framework for understanding interaction

• not restricted to electronic computer systems
• identifies all major components involved in interaction
• allows comparative assessment of systems
• an abstraction
173

ERGONOMICS
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INTERFACES

INDUSTRIAL INTERFACES
174 ERGONOMICS

• Study of the physical characteristics of interaction

• Also known as human factors – but this can also be used

to mean much of HCI!

• Ergonomics good at defining standards and guidelines for

constraining the way we design certain aspects of systems
175 ERGONOMICS - EXAMPLES

• arrangement of controls and displays

e.g. controls grouped according to function or frequency of use,
or sequentially
• surrounding environment
e.g. seating arrangements adaptable to cope with all sizes of user
• health issues
e.g. physical position, environmental conditions (temperature,
humidity), lighting, noise,
• use of colour
e.g. use of red for warning, green for okay,
awareness of colour-blindness etc.
176 INDUSTRIAL INTERFACES

Office interface vs. industrial interface?

Context matters!

office industrial
type of data textual numeric
rate of change slow fast
environment clean dirty

… the oil soaked mouse!

177 GLASS INTERFACES ?

• industrial interface:
• traditional … dials and knobs
• now … screens and keypads

• glass interface
+ cheaper, more flexible,
multiple representations, Vessel B Temp
precise values
0 100 200
• not physically located,
loss of context,
complex interfaces
113
• may need both

multiple representations
of same information
178 INDIRECT MANIPULATION

• office– direct manipulation

• user interacts
system
with artificial world

• industrial – indirect manipulation

• user interacts
with real world
through interface interface plant

• issues .. immediate
feedbac
• feedback k
instruments
• delays
 179

INTERACTION STYLES
DIALOGUE … COMPUTER AND USER

DISTINCT STYLES OF INTERACTION

180 COMMON INTERACTION STYLES

• command line interface

• menus
• natural language
• question/answer and query dialogue
• form-fills and spreadsheets
• WIMP
• point and click
• three–dimensional interfaces
 COMMAND LINE INTERFACE
181
• Way of expressing instructions to the computer directly
• function keys, single characters, short abbreviations, whole words, or a combination

• suitable for repetitive tasks

• better for expert users than novices

• offers direct access to system functionality

• command names/abbreviations should be meaningful!

Typical example: the Unix system

 MENUS
182
• Set of options displayed on the screen

• Options visible
• less recall - easier to use

• rely on recognition so names should be meaningful

• Selection by:
• numbers, letters, arrow keys, mouse

• combination (e.g. mouse plus accelerators)

• Often options hierarchically grouped

• sensible grouping is needed

• Restricted form of full WIMP system

183 NATURAL LANGUAGE

• Familiar to user
• speech recognition or typed natural language
• Problems
• vague
• ambiguous
• hard to do well!

• Solutions
• try to understand a subset
• pick on key words
184 QUERY INTERFACES

• Question/answer interfaces
• user led through interaction via series of questions
• suitable for novice users but restricted functionality
• often used in information systems

• Query languages (e.g. SQL)

• used to retrieve information from database
• requires understanding of database structure and language syntax,
hence requires some expertise
185 FORM-FILLS

• Primarily for data entry or data retrieval

• Screen like paper form.
• Data put in relevant place
• Requires
• good design
• obvious correction
facilities
186 SPREADSHEETS

• first spreadsheet VISICALC, followed by Lotus 1-2-3

MS Excel most common today
• sophisticated variation of form-filling.
• grid of cells contain a value or a formula
• formula can involve values of other cells
e.g. sum of all cells in this column
• user can enter and alter data spreadsheet maintains consistency
187 WIMP INTERFACE

Windows
Icons
Menus
Pointers

… or windows, icons, mice, and pull-down menus!

• default style for majority of interactive computer

systems, especially PCs and desktop machines
188 POINT AND CLICK INTERFACES

• used in ..
• multimedia
• web browsers
• hypertext

• just click something!

• icons, text links or location on map

• minimal typing
189 THREE DIMENSIONAL
INTERFACES
• virtual reality
• ‘ordinary’ window systems
• highlighting flat buttons …
• visual affordance
• indiscriminate use
just confusing! click me!
• 3D workspaces
… or sculptured
• use for extra virtual space
• light and occlusion give depth
• distance effects
 190

ELEMENTS OF THE WIMP

INTERFACE
WINDOWS, ICONS, MENUS, POINTERS

+++

BUTTONS, TOOLBARS,
PALETTES, DIALOG BOXES

also see supplementary material

on choosing wimp elements
191 WINDOWS

• Areas of the screen that behave as if they were independent

• can contain text or graphics
• can be moved or resized
• can overlap and obscure each other, or can be laid out next to one
another (tiled)

• scrollbars
• allow the user to move the contents of the window up and down or
from side to side
• title bars
• describe the name of the window
192 ICONS

• small picture or image

• represents some object in the interface
• often a window or action
• windows can be closed down (iconised)
• small representation fi many accessible windows
• icons can be many and various
• highly stylized
• realistic representations.
193 POINTERS

• important component
• WIMP style relies on pointing and selecting things

• uses mouse, trackpad, joystick, trackball, cursor

keys or keyboard shortcuts
• wide variety of graphical images
194 MENUS

• Choice of operations or services offered on the screen

• Required option selected with pointer

Fi l e Edi t Opt i o ns Fo nt
Ty p e wr i t e r
Sc re e n
Times

problem – take a lot of screen space

solution – pop-up: menu appears when needed
195 KINDS OF MENUS

• Menu Bar at top of screen (normally), menu drags down

• pull-down menu - mouse hold and drag down menu
• drop-down menu - mouse click reveals menu
• fall-down menus - mouse just moves over bar!

• Contextual menu appears where you are

• pop-up menus - actions for selected object
• pie menus - arranged in a circle
• easier to select item (larger target area)
• quicker (same distance to any option)
… but not widely used!
196 MENUS EXTRAS

• Cascading menus
• hierarchical menu structure
• menu selection opens new menu
• and so in ad infinitum

• Keyboard accelerators
• key combinations - same effect as menu item
• two kinds
• active when menu open – usually first letter
• active when menu closed – usually Ctrl + letter
usually different !!!
197 MENUS DESIGN ISSUES

• which kind to use

• what to include in menus at all
• words to use (action or description)
• how to group items
• choice of keyboard accelerators
198 BUTTONS

• individual and isolated regions within a display that can be

selected to invoke an action

• Special kinds
• radio buttons
– set of mutually exclusive choices
• check boxes
– set of non-exclusive choices
199 TOOLBARS

• long lines of icons …

… but what do they do?

• fast access to common actions

• often customizable:
• choose which toolbars to see
• choose what options are on it
200 PALETTES AND TEAR-OFF
MENUS
• Problem
menu not there when you want it

• Solution
palettes – little windows of actions
• shown/hidden via menu option
e.g. available shapes in drawing package

tear-off and pin-up menus

• menu ‘tears off’ to become palette
201 DIALOGUE BOXES

• information windows that pop up to inform of an important

event or request information.

e.g: when saving a file, a dialogue box is displayed to allow the user
to specify the filename and location. Once the file is saved, the box
disappears.
202

INTERACTIVITY
EASY TO FOCUS ON LOOK

WHAT ABOUT FEEL?

203 SPEECH–DRIVEN INTERFACES

• rapidly improving …
… but still inaccurate

• how to have robust dialogue?

… interaction of course!

e.g. airline reservation:

reliable “yes” and “no”
+ system reflects back its understanding
“you want a ticket from New York to Boston?”
204 LOOK AND … FEEL

• WIMP systems have the same elements:

windows, icons., menus, pointers, buttons, etc.

• but different window systems

… behave differently

e.g. MacOS vs Windows menus

appearance + behaviour = look and feel

205 INITIATIVE

• who has the initiative?

old question–answer – computer
WIMP interface – user

• WIMP exceptions …
pre-emptive parts of the interface

• modal dialog boxes

• come and won’t go away!
• good for errors, essential steps
• but use with care
206 ERROR AND REPAIR

can’t always avoid errors …

… but we can put them right

make it easy to detect errors

… then the user can repair them
hello, this is the Go Faster booking system

what would you like?

(user) I want to fly from New York to London

you want a ticket from New York to Boston

(user) no

sorry, please confirm one at a time

do you want to fly from New York

(user) yes

………
207 CONTEXT

Interaction affected by social and organizational context

• other people
• desire to impress, competition, fear of failure

• motivation
• fear, allegiance, ambition, self-satisfaction

• inadequate systems
• cause frustration and lack of motivation
 208

EXPERIENCE, ENGAGEMENT
AND FUN
DESIGNING EXPERIENCE

PHYSICAL ENGAGEMENT

MANAGING VALUE
209 EXPERIENCE?

• home, entertainment, shopping

• not enough that people can use a system
• they must want to use it!

• psychology of experience
• flow (Csikszentimihalyi)
• balance between anxiety and boredom

• education
• zone of proximal development
• things you can just do with help

• wider ...
• literary analysis, film studies, drama
210 DESIGNING EXPERIENCE

• real crackers
• cheap and cheerful!
• bad joke, plastic toy, paper hat
• pull and bang
211 DESIGNING EXPERIENCE

• virtual crackers
• cheap and cheerful
• bad joke, web toy, cut-out mask
• click and bang
212 DESIGNING EXPERIENCE

• virtual crackers
• cheap and cheerful
• bad joke, web toy, cut-out mask
• click and bang
HOW CRACKERS WORK
213
fill in web form

sender receive email recipient

To: wxv
From: ..

closed
cracker page

open
watches recipient clicks
message
progress cracker opens ...
very slowly
open
cracker page
sender joke
links

web toy
mask
214 THE CRACKERS EXPERIENCE

real cracker virtual cracker

Surface elements
design cheap and cheerful simple page/graphics
play plastic toy and joke web toy and joke
dressing up paper hat mask to cut out
Experienced effects
shared offered to another sent by email message
co-experience pulled together sender can't see content
until opened by recipient
excitement cultural connotations recruited expectation
hiddenness contents inside first page - no contents
suspense pulling cracker slow ... page change
surprise bang (when it works) WAV file (when it works)
215 PHYSICAL DESIGN

• many constraints:
• ergonomic – minimum button size
• physical – high-voltage switches are big
• legal and safety – high cooker controls
• context and environment – easy to clean
• aesthetic – must look good
• economic – … and not cost too much!
216 DESIGN TRADE-OFFS

constraints are contradictory … need trade-offs

within categories:
e.g. safety – cooker controls
front panel – safer for adult
rear panel – safer for child

between categories
e.g. ergonomics vs. physical – MiniDisc remote
ergonomics – controls need to be bigger
physical – no room!
solution – multifunction controls & reduced functionality
217 FLUIDITY

• do external physical aspects reflect logical effect?

• related to affordance (chap 5)

logical state revealed in physical state?

e.g. on/off buttons

inverse actions inverse effects?

e.g. arrow buttons, twist controls
218 INVERSE ACTIONS

• yes/no buttons
• well sort of

• ‘joystick’

• also left side control

219 SPRING BACK CONTROLS

• one-shot buttons
• joystick
• some sliders

good – large selection sets

bad – hidden state
 220 A MINIDISK CONTROLLER

twist for track movement

series of spring-back controls
pull and twist for volume
each cycle through some options
– spring back
–natural inverse back/forward
– natural inverse for twist
221 PHYSICAL LAYOUT

controls:
logical relationship
~ spatial grouping
222 COMPLIANT INTERACTION

rotary knobs reveal internal state and can be

state evident in controlled by both user and machine
mechanical buttons
223 MANAGING VALUE

people use something

ONLY IF
it has perceived value
AND
value exceeds cost

BUT NOTE
• exceptions (e.g. habit)
• value NOT necessarily personal gain or money
224 WEIGHING UP VALUE

value
• helps me get my work done
• fun
• good for others

cost
• download time
• money £, $, €
• learning effort
225 DISCOUNTED FUTURE

• in economics Net Present Value:

• discount by (1+rate)years to wait

• in life people heavily discount

• future value and future cost
• hence resistance to learning
• need low barriers
and high perceived present value
226 EXAMPLE – HCI BOOK SEARCH

• value for people who have the book

helps you to look up things
• chapter and page number

• value for those who don’t …

sort of online mini-encyclopaedia
• full paragraph of context

… but also says “buy me”!!

… but also says “buy me”!!
227 VALUE AND ORGANISATIONAL
DESIGN
• coercion
• tell people what to do!
• value = keep your job

• enculturation
• explain corporate values
• establish support (e.g share options)

• emergence
• design process so that
individuals value  organisational value
228 GENERAL LESSON …

if you want someone to do something …

• make it easy for them!

• understand their values