HCI Midterm Prep
What does the acronym IMRAD stand for?
Introduction Methods Results Analysis Discussion
Which of the following questionnaires was described by the textbook as an interesting variation from the usual UX questionnaire because, in order to prevent quick responses without reading each question, it alternates positively and negatively worded questions?
The System Usability Scale (SUS)
Which type of prototype holds the highest possible "bang for your buck," in terms of design insights per unit of effort expended?
Paper prototypes
When reporting individual problems, what are three items the textbook identifies as essential facts a designer will need to understand and fix a problem?
A best judgement of the causes of the problem in the design. An estimate of the problem's severity or impact. Suggested solutions (NOT A description of the product)
What is the best description of a wireframe, according to the textbook?
A form of prototype comprising of lines and outlines representing emerging interaction designs.
According to the lecture, what is a simple way to think about conceptual design?
An intermediate step in a design process that falls after initial ideation and critique, but before detailed designs are created
Chromostereopsis is a phenomenon of human vision when which two colors focus at different depths within the eye, causing shifting focus and fatigue?
Red & Blue
What is true of planning for a rigorous UX evaluation, according to the textbook?
Your evaluation plan can include application scope, which limits the parts of the system to be covered.
Reference the Nielsen article on 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design to answer the following question. You are designing a platform to collaborate on ideation sessions remotely. Users can create and share individual sketches and also delete sketches they no longer wish to share. When deleting, the system prompts users to confirm their selection. This relates most closely to which usability heuristic?
#5 Error Prevention
What are three things that are true of a local prototype?
A local prototype focuses on a very specific design and research question, like the wording of a message or shape of an icon. A local prototype does not support any level of interaction. A local prototype can be used to help resolve conflicts within the design team. (NOT A local prototype supports interaction using a local backend "stub" server, rather than connecting over the internet)
If you are counting errors as a method to collect quantitative objective UX data, which of the following would count as an error?
A user makes a wrong turn, but is able to back out of it and recover without assistance.
Quasi-empirical evaluation is called quasi-empirical because it is a less rigorous form of empirical evaluation. What are three things that are true about the differences between empirical and quasi-empirical evaluation?
Both involve volunteer participants, but during quasi-empirical evaluation, there are not rigid protocols or procedures. Both involve a facilitator, but during quasi-empirical evaluation, the facilitator may interrupt or intervene at key moments to elicit more data. Both involve use of the system, but during quasi-empirical evaluation, quantitative data about is not a focus. (NOT Both take place in a formal lab setting, but during quasi-empirical evaluation, data collection is less detailed)
Chapter 1: three scopes of user experience include:
Effects experienced due to: usability, usefulness, and emotional impact factors
What are three things that are true of co-discovery as described in the textbook?
Co-discovery can be especially useful for early, low fidelity prototypes. A practical benefit of co-discovery is that if one person misses the session, you still have at least one participant to work with. Co-discovery is a think aloud protocol involving two or more participants in a team approach. (NOT Because a single participant is the dominant paradigm in UX, you should avoid co-discovery if possible)
What are three of the strategies we have discussed for mapping designer and user mental models?
Cognitive affordances Metaphors Design Patterns (NOT Storyboards)
What are three overall conclusions about the use of guidelines, according to the textbook?
Design by guidelines, rather than politics or personal opinion. Be cautious using guidelines. In practice, guidelines can conflict and overlap.
What are three things that are true when constructing benchmark task content?
Keep some mystery in it for the user. Do not use the same words in the benchmark task that are used in the interaction design. Remove any ambiguities with clear, precise, and specific instructions.
According to the textbook, what are three things that are true about the importance of quality communication and reporting of evaluation info?
To the project team, the report for an evaluation within an iteration is a redesign proposal. Redesign activities are often separated from UX evaluation by delays in time that can cause information loss. Part of ethically reporting evaluation results is maintaining participant anonymity. (NOT Evaluation reports rarely occur as communication across discontinuities of time and location)
According to the lecture video discussion of the IMRAD reporting format, which section is sometimes combined with other sections, resulting in a four part organization instead of five?
Analysis
According to the textbook, what is the definition of "usability"?
Aspect of HCI devoted to ensuring that human-computer interaction is, among other things, effective, efficient, and satisfying for the user.
What are three criticisms of scenarios that are addressed by the textbook?
Concreteness does not facilitate innovative thinking Superfluous details distract from essentials Rarely feasible to model entire task domain
What does the mnemonic device "CRAP" stand for?
Contrast Repetition Alignment Proximity
What evaluation approach would be most suitable for using with design scenarios and storyboards?
Design walkthrough
How do the user and designer mental models differ?
Designers have a great deal of background information about a system that users do not have
We can divide evaluation into formative and summative categories. Formative evaluation helps you to develop your design. In which field did the idea of formative and summative evaluations originate?
Education and curriculum evaluation
What is true of reporting emotional impact problems?
Emotional impact problems can be the most important for product improvement and marketing advantage
What are three things that are true of phenomenological evaluation?
Evaluator triggered reporting can produce more representative data. Long term studies are needed for phenomenological evaluation. The goal is to be able to tell stories of usage and emotional impact over time. (NOT Direct observations and interviews are not an appropriate method)
What are the three paradigms of HCI?
Human Factors Classical Cognitivism Phenomenological Matrix
We have discussed the use of wireframes as a means to represent an interaction during the design phase. If you leverage wireframes to create a prototype that shows the layout and breadth of user interface objects, which level of fidelity would best describe this prototype?
Medium fidelity
Name three kinds of conceptual design.
Metaphors Design Patterns Cognitive Affordances
What are three of the main goals when introducing UX engineering to an unfamiliar audience?
Present results Teach concepts Engender awareness and appreciation (NOT Convey heuristics)
During a UX inspection, a dual expert can provide a great deal of unique insight. According to the textbook, which of the following is the best definition of a "dual expert"?
Someone who has both UX expertise and subject-matter knowledge.
What does the acronym SMART stand for? (i.e. SMART goals)
Specific Measurable Actionable Relevant Time Bound
What does "Chindogu" mean?
Unuseless
Match the following description of a role during a paper prototype session to the correct role: "Move transparencies and provide 'computer' responses to user actions"
Executor
Match the following description of a role during a paper prototype session to the correct role: "To keep the session moving, to interact with participants, and to take notes on critical incidents (pick a person who has leadership abilities and "people" skills)"
Facilitator
What is true about interacting with participants following a lab session?
Facilitators often use a standard structured interview immediately after an evaluation session.
(T/F) According to the textbook, user experience can be designed.
False
(T/F) Inductive thinking is top-down. It begins from a general truth that is applied to specific observations.
False
(T/F) Think very carefully before placing a work activity note (WAN) in a work activity affinity diagram (WAAD). Clusters should be considered very stable and notes should not be moved once in place in order to avoid confusion.
False
When creating objects for users to directly manipulate through clicking, we know that larger objects are easier to click on than smaller ones and nearby objects are easier to click on than far away objects. This isn't just an assumption--It was in fact proven by a researcher. What is the model predicting the relationship between interaction efficiency and object size and distance called?
Fitts' Law
Your team wants to create a prototype that can be shown during a presentation to help communicate your general design to your client in order to help them understand the design and to get some initial feedback. Which of the following would be the most suitable prototype to create in this case?
Horizontal Prototype
How should you best document a WAAD in a project report?
Include a few photos and diagrams, with written text explaining each graphic.
What are three limitations of heuristic evaluation identified by the textbook?
It can get in the way of experts conducting evaluations. Novice practitioners may become too comfortable with the heuristics and miss important details. The method can generate a lot of false negatives. (NOT It is difficult to keep more than four or five heuristics in mind during an evaluation)
How many hierarchical "levels" should you have in your WAAD, according to the textbook?
Let the data determine the number of levels needed.
If you are creating a shopping app, and you decide to use the concept of a physical store to model how information and processes on the app will be organized for the user, which strategy are you using to map user and designer mental models?
Metaphors
What are two advantages of prototyping, according to the textbook?
Offer concrete baseline for communication between users and designers. Help sell management an idea for a new product.
Based on the "UX Design Basics: Mental Models" video, which of the following can be a weakness of relying on physical metaphors for digital interfaces?
Once the knowledge base of a population grows, physical metaphors can begin holding you back.
What are three things that are true about the use of video to record critical incident data?
Operating without video recording results in the immediate loss of raw data. For a large portion of UX evaluation sessions, capturing screen recordings is sufficient. It is more efficient to not use video to record critical incident data. (NOT With the development of new evaluation technologies, manual note taking should be avoided)
What is the textbook definition of Conceptual Design?
Part of an interaction design containing a theme, notion, or idea with the purpose of communicating a design vision about a system or product
What are three things that are true about about the use of personas as a design tactic?
Personas need to get lots of visibility and be memorable. Specify a single persona to be a primary persona, the single best design target. As work domains become more complex, personas do not offer as many benefits.
In the textbook, we have been considering HCI through a lens of User Experience (UX). The objective is to bring a vision of the desired user experience and product appeal, and how the design of a product can induce that experience and appeal, to our design and development work. This most closely aligns to which of the Three Paradigms of HCI that we have discussed?
Phenomenological matrix
What are three things that are true about tailoring of scope and process to your project?
Tailoring of scope and process is a real-world requirement that you will encounter outside of this class. There is a great variety among the project research sites and designs, requiring specific tailoring within each group. The pandemic will require additional adjustments, as this Phase often requires extensive in-person activities.
What is true of the think aloud protocol?
The technique is rooted in psychological and human factors experimental methods.
What is true about determining the number of participants to use during an evaluation?
There is no hard and fast rule, it depends on your specific circumstances
The textbook authors argue that UX analysts too often get caught up in enumerating detailed observations, rather than doing what?
Thinking carefully about the underlying patterns and causes of the problems.
According to the Nielsen article "How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation," as a general rule what is the ideal number of evaluators?
Three to five
What is true about beginning your UX lab session?
Do not give participants any additional time to get familiar with the system if walk up and use is a goal.
You are designing a high-end espresso machine and focusing on feelings of joy and excitement that the user might experience while engaging with the interface when using the machine in their kitchen each morning. Which designer's mental model from the textbook does this most align with?
Emotional perspective
In the paper prototyping 101 video from the Nielsen Norman Group, what are two of the benefits of paper prototyping directly discussed by the presenter?
It's great for early stages of design and experimenting with new ideas. It's inexpensive, allows for rapid iteration, and anyone can contribute to the design.
Why is "mapping" an important activity in the design phase?
Mapping helps us create something new that fits with reality by aligning user and designer mental models
Questionnaires with semantic differential scales used for collecting self-reported retrospective emotional impact data share what three qualities?
Product independent Subjective Quantitative
What is true of using questionnaires during evaluation?
Questionnaires can yield quantitative data as well as qualitative user opinions.
According to the textbook, which of the following is more important to the success of your empirical UX evaluation sessions? Rapport with participants Amount of heuristics Quality of facilities Available equipment
Rapport with participants
What are three things that are true about reporting informal summative evaluation results?
Sometimes you will need to produce a formative evaluation report for dissemination beyond the project group. The audience for informal summative evaluation results should be limited to your own project group. There are no standards for reporting informal summative results in connection with formative evaluation. (NOT If required, you can produce an informal summative evaluation report that proves the need for design changes)
What is true of experienced UX experts?
They are ready to adapt and change directions and techniques
Match the following description of a role during a paper prototype session to the correct role: "To time participants performing tasks and/or count errors (to collect quantitative data)"
Timer
According to the Phase 3 assignment instructions, which of the following is the goal of making a prototype?
To learn something about the design
During Phase 3, you will need to run a pilot test of your evaluation plan. What are three of the main purposes of a pilot test?
To make sure instructions for the participant are worded clearly and unambiguously. To make sure the prototype supports all necessary user actions. To make sure all session materials are sufficient. (NOT To determine the number of participants to use during the evaluation)
List three of the best practices for synthesizing work activity notes (WANs) identified by the textbook.
Try to quote raw data text as much as possible rather than paraphrase Avoid repetition of the same information in multiple places Keep a note to one to three succinct sentences
What are three things we use to refer to evaluations with users?
UX testing UX evaluation Call it whatever you like, it is a trivial PC issue (NOT User testing)
Name three types of user models.
User classes User personas Work roles
What are the key questions to think about when making observations of a user during contextual inquiry?
What is the user struggling with? How are they responding to unexpected challenges? How does the tool make them feel? What could be improved?
What is a reason why you might choose a rapid evaluation method?
You are in the early stages of progress, when things are changing a lot anyway
What is true about participant recruiting?
You can "reuse" participants, so long as you are not addressing an "initial use" UX attribute.
What is true of UX evaluation after deployment?
You can continue to evaluate the system via remote surveys and/or questionnaires