469 CH 7 - EXAM 2

similar icon form

(e.g., a picture of a file to represent the object file)

anaological icon form

(e.g., a picture of a pair of scissors to represent cut)

arbitrary icon form

(e.g., the use of an X to represent delete')

advantages of pen based devices

Allows users to quickly and easily annotate existing documents • Can be used to fill in paper-based forms that can readily be convert to a digital record using standard typeface • Can be used by remote teams to communicate about and work on the same documents

Breadcrumbs for navigation

Breadcrumbs are category labels -Enable users to look at other pages without losing track of where they have come from -Very usable -Enable once-click access to higher site levels -Attract first time visitors to continue to browse a website having viewed the landing page

pros/cons of virtual reality

Can have a higher level of fidelity with objects they represent compared to multimedia • Induces a sense of presence where someone is totally engrossed by the experience - a state of consciousness, the (psychological) sense of being in the virtual environment (Slater and Wilbur, 1999) • Provides different viewpoints: 1st and 3rd person • Early head-mounted displays were uncomfortable to wear, and can cause motion sickness and disorientation • Lighter VR headsets now available (e.g. HTC Vive) with more accurate head tracking

Multimedia

Combines different media within a single interface with various forms of interactivity - graphics, text, video, sound, and animations Users click on links in an image or text Can provide better ways of presenting information than can a single media

Command line interfaces

Commands such as abbreviations (e.g. ls) typed in at the prompt to which the system responds (e.g. listing current files) Some are hard wired at keyboard, others can be assigned to keys Efficient, precise, and fast Large overhead to learning set of commands Consistency is most important design principle -e.g. always use first letter of command

virtual reality

Computer-generated graphical simulations providing: - the illusion of participation in a synthetic environment rather than external observation of such an environment (Gigante, 1993) • Provide new kinds of experience, enabling users to interact with objects and navigate in 3D space • Create highly engaging user experiences

Structuring VUI dialogs

Directed dialogs are where the system is in control of the conversation - Where it asks specific questions and requires specific responses • More flexible systems allow the user to take the initiative: e.g. I'd like to go to Paris next Monday for two weeks. • But more chance of error, since caller might assume that the system is like a human • Guided prompts can help callers back on track - e.g. Sorry I did not get all that. Did you say you wanted to fly next Monday?

Website design

Early websites were largely text-based, providing hyperlinks • Concern was with how best to structure information to enable users to navigate and access it easily and quickly • Nowadays, more emphasis on making pages distinctive, striking, and aesthetically pleasing • Need to think of how to design information for multiplatforms -keyboard or touch? - e.g. smartphones, tablets, PCs

Pen-based devices

Enable people to write, draw, select, and move objects at an interface using light pens or styluses - capitalize on the well-honed drawing skills developed from childhood Digital ink, e.g. Anoto, use a combination of ordinary ink pen with digital camera that digitally records everything written with the pen on special paper

appliances

Everyday devices in home, public place, or car - e.g. washing machines, remotes, toasters, printers and navigation systems) • And personal devices - e.g. digital clock and digital camera • Used for short periods - e.g. putting the washing on, watching a program, buying a ticket, changing the time, taking a snapshot • Need to be usable with minimal, if any, learning

pros/cons of multimedia

Facilitates rapid access to multiple representations of information • Can provide better ways of presenting information than can any media alone • Can enable easier learning, better understanding, more engagement, and more pleasure • Can encourage users to explore different parts of a game or story • Tendency to play video clips and animations, while skimming through accompanying text or diagrams

Mobile interfaces

Handheld devices intended to be used while on the move • Have become pervasive, increasingly used in all aspects of everyday and working life -e.g. Phones, fitness trackers, watches • Larger sized tablets used in mobile settings -e.g. flight attendants, marketing professionals, car rental returns

Voice assistants

Have become popular in many homes • Support families playing games, interactive storytelling, jokes, etc. • Can encourage social and emotional bonding • But young children (under 4) find it difficult to be understood by the voice assistants

research and design implicaitons of multimedia

How to design multimedia to help users explore, keep track of, and integrate the multiple representations - provide hands-on interactivities and simulations that the user has to complete to solve a task - Provide quizzes, electronic notebooks, and games • Multimedia good for supporting certain activities, such as browsing but less optimal for reading at length

voice assistants Research and design considerations

How to design systems that can keep conversation on track - help people navigate efficiently through a menu system - enable them to easily recover from errors - guide those who are vague or ambiguous in their requests for information or services • Type of voice actor (e.g. male, female, neutral, or dialect) - do people prefer to listen to and are more patient with a female or male voice, a northern or southern accent?

Icon design

Icons are assumed to be easier to learn and remember than commands • Can be designed to be compact and variably positioned on a screen • Now pervasive in every interface - e.g. represent desktop objects, tools (e.g. paintbrush), applications (e.g. web browser), and operations (e.g. cut, paste, next, accept, change)

Voice user interfaces (VUI)

Involves a person talking with a spoken language app, e.g. train timetable, travel planner, phone service • Used most for inquiring about specific information, e.g. flight times or to perform a transaction, e.g. buy a ticket • Also used by people with visual impairments - e.g. speech recognition word processors, page scanners, web readers, home control systems

mobile interfaces research and design implications

Mobile interfaces can be cumbersome to use for those with poor manual dexterity or 'fat'fingers • Key concern is hit area - area on the phone display that the user touches to make something happen, such as a key, an icon, a button or an app - space needs to be big enough for all fingers to accurately press - if too small the user may accidentally press the wrong key - Fitts' Law can be used to help design right spacing • Minimum tappableareas should be 44pts x 44pts for all controls www

icon forms

Most effective icons are similar ones • Many operations are actions making it more difficult to represent them

appliances Research and design considerations

Need to design as transient interfaces with short interactions • Simple interfaces • Consider trade-off between soft and hard controls -e.g. use of buttons or keys, dials or scrolling

VUI Modeling human conversations

People often interrupt each other in a conversation -especially the case when ordering in a restaurant -rather than let the waiter go through all the options • Speech technology has a similar feature called 'barge-in' -Users can choose an option before the system will has finished listing all the options available

Icons

Pictograms that represent applications, objects, commands, and tools that were opened when clicked on

touch screen Research and design considerations

Provides fluid and direct styles of interaction involving freehand and pen-based gestures for certain tasks • Core design concerns include whether size, orientation, and shape of touch displays effect collaboration • Much faster to scroll through wheels, carousels and bars of thumbnail images or lists of options by finger flicking • Gestures need to be learned for multi-touch so small set of gestures for common commands is preferable • More cumbersome, error-prone and slower to type using a virtual keyboard on a touch display than using a physical keyboard www

Interface Type

Refers to the aspects of hardware or software which can be seen (or heard or otherwise perceived) by the human user - Pertains to the physical part

Windows

Sections of the screen that can be scrolled, stretched, overlapped, opened, closed, and moved around the screen using the mouse

icons

Since the Xerox Star days icons have changed in their look and feel: - black and white -> color, shadowing, photorealistic images, 3D rendering, and animation • Many designed to be very detailed and animated making them both visually attractive and informative • Can be highly inviting, emotionally appealing, and feel alive

Icon Research and design considerations

Text labels can be used alongside icons to help identification for small icon sets • For large icon sets (e.g. photo editing or word processing) can use the hover function There is a wealth of resources for creating icons

Interaction Type

The way a user interacts with a product or application. Focuses on the relationship between users and the machines they use (behavior)

Usability versus aesthetics?

Vanilla or multi-flavordesign? - ease of finding something versus aesthetic and enjoyable experience • Users read the web like a: - billboard going by at 60 miles an hour (Krug, 2014) • Need to determine how to brand a web page to catch and keep 'eyeballs'

website design Research and design considerations

Veen's (2001) threecore questions to consider when designing any website: - Where am I? - Where can I go? - What's here?

virtual reality application areas

Video games • Arcade games for social groups • Therapy for fears • Experience how others feel emotions -e.g. empathy and compassion • Enrich user's planning experience for travel destinations -https://360.iflymagazine.com/ • Architecture, design, and education

5 Research and design considerations GUI

Window management - enables users to move fluidly between different windows (and monitors) • How to switch attention between windows without getting distracted • Design principles of spacing, grouping, and simplicity should be used • Which terms to use for menu options (e.g. "Front" versus "bring to front" • Mega menus easier to navigate than drop-down ones

3 aspects of Window design

Windows were invented to overcome physical constraints of a computer display - enable more information to be viewed and tasks to be performed • Scroll bars within windows enable more information to be viewed • Multiple windows can make it difficult to find desired one - listing, tabbing, thumbnails, are techniques that can help

Graphical user interfaces (GUIs)

Xerox Star first WIMP gave rise to GUIs Windows Icons Menus Pointing device

pointing device

a mouse controlling the cursor as a point of entry to the windows, menus, and icons on the screen

mega menu style

all options shown using 2D drop-down layout

Interaction design is a discipline which

examines the relation via an interface between a system and its user

6 menu styles

flat list drop down pop up contextual collapisable mega

flat list menu style

good for showing large number of options at the same time when display is small

menus

lists of options that can be scrolled through and selected

contextual menu style

provide access to often used commands associated with a particular item (i.e. right click)

drop down menu style

show more options on same screen - e.g. cascading

3 types of icon forms

similar analogical arbiturary

Touchscreens

single touchscreen multi touch surface They do so by registering touches at multiple locations using a grid Now used for many kinds of displays, such as Smartphones, iPods, tablets and tabletops - supports one and two hand gestures, including tapping, zooming, stretching, flicking, dwelling, dragging

multi-touch surfaces

support a range of more dynamic finger tip actions, e.g. swiping, flicking, pinching, pushing and tapping

collapsible menu style

toggle between + and -icons on a header to expand or contract its contents

single touchscreens

used in walk-up kiosks (such as ticket machines and ATMs) detect the presence and location of a person's touch on the display

pop up menu style

when press command key for relevant options

virtual reality research and design implications

• Much research on how to design safe and realistic VRs to facilitate training - e.g. flying simulators - help people overcome phobias (e.g. spiders, talking in public) • Design issues - how best to navigate through them (e.g. first versus third person) - how to control interactions and movements (e.g. use of head and body movements) - how best to interact with information (e.g. use of keypads, pointing, joystick buttons) - level of realism to aim for to engender a sense of presence