UX Test 2
Bias thinks a cool quote from Sibelius, that drives home an important point in UX design, is, "No one ever raised a statue to a _________."
Critic.
7 stages of action
Actions have two major aspects: 1. Doing something (execution) 2. Checking (evaluation) 1. Goal (form the goal) 2. Plan (the action) 3. Specify (an action sequence) 4. Perform (the action sequence) 5. Perceive (the state of the world) 6. Interpret (the perception) 7. Compare (the outcome with the goal)
A regular, every-day, kitchen chair looks like something you can sit on. And it DOES allow a person to sit on it. In Norman's terms it has good:
Affordances
Which of the following is NOT one of the "ABCs of user-centered design" (according to Dr. Bias)?
Featuritis to keep up with all competitors.
During reading, most information is taken in during:
Fixations.
Which of the following letter strings would probably lead to longer reaction times, if people were asked to indicate it is a "nonword"?
Gaim "gaim" is homophonous with a real word would likely result in a "false match" in the internal lexicon, making it take longer than "baim" to reject as a nonword. The other two don't even match English orthography and so can be dismissed even more quickly.
The Stroop Effect
Having the word "GREEN" printed in red letters causes interference when the task is to name the color of the letters
Analytical design
* - "Armchair" design Sit back and observe, and call shots from afar
Principles of User-Centered Design: C. UI Evaluation (desc. + 8 examples)
* • "Six months and $200,000." • Recent move toward "discount usability engineering" - "Heuristic evaluation" - Usability walkthroughs - UI Guidelines - Some lab testing - Field tests - Password-protected access to prototypes - Remote usability testing - Extant user data that are being lost
Principles of User-Centered Design: B. Perceptual/Cognitive Theory
* • When designing for humans, it is beneficial to know how humans receive and process info. • Primarily an evaluation of cognitive Ex. The ability to remember a 30 digit number depends on: - Whether you hear or see the number. - Whether the number is masked. - Whether you have time to rehearse. - Whether you can "chunk" the numbers. - If there are any intervening tasks. - How meaningful the number is. - WHAT the number is.
Empirical design
* Be Empirical! Dreyfuss "Designing for people" - "Design is an intimate collaboration between engineers, designers, clients."
Cognitive Set
- Context influences perception. - A series of events can "set" a person to perceive things a certain way.
"User-Centered Design" methods (3)
- Heuristic evaluation (professional judgment) - Usability walkthrough - End-user testing in the lab
Heuristic Evaluation: Weaknesses (3)
- If done at end of design, designers may be resistant to changes - Some designers/developers may be unmoved by "just opinions" - Experienced usability evaluators may miss content problems that actual users would find --Can HELP address this issue by using SMEs
Usability is NOT (5 examples)
- Just common sense - all art (and no science) - stumbled onto by accident - tacked on at the end - free
Tradeoff in knowledge in head vs world
- Knowledge in the world acts as its own reminder. - Knowledge in the head is efficient. (You can travel light.) - Knowledge in the world is easier (no learn time), but often difficult to use. Relies heavily on the physical presence of info.
Errors types
- Slips -- result from automatic behavior, when subconscious actions get waylaid en route ("performance errors") - Mistakes -- result from conscious deliberations ("competence errors")
The Design Challenge
- The demands of time (quick product cycles) - The pressure to be distinctive (related to the curse of individuality)
User-centered Design:
- User focus throughout - Prototyping, iteration, collaborative design Dreyfuss "Designing for people" - "Design is an intimate collaboration between engineers, designers, clients." - Studied cabins for ocean liners. - 8 "staterooms" in a warehouse. - "Travelers" packed and unpacked for trips of 1 week to 3 months.
Persona
- Users' expectations. - Users' frustrations. - Users' pain points.
Illusion of Cause
- bias to perceive meaning out of randomness and coincidence -If two events happen together, we infer that one must have caused the other. - Pattern perception is central to our lives. It allows us to draw conclusions in seconds from our surroundings.
End-user Testing: What to test? (3)
- critical tasks - frequent tasks - nettlesome tasks
Usability IS (4 examples)
- intuitive, safe, error-free, enjoyable - best designed in from the beginning - best achieved by knowing your users - "The best predictor of customer satisfaction" - "The next competitive frontier"
Good Design
- the importance of visibility - appropriate clues - feedback of ones actions • Well designed objects: - understanding: are easy for the mind to understand - discoverability: contain visible cues to their operation • Poorly designed objects: - provide no clues, or - provide false clues.
Heuristic Evaluation: Strengths (4)
-Done by people experienced in usability not just "dumb" users -Can identify both major and minor usability problems -Can be done relatively quickly and inexpensively -Unlike EUT, can sometimes cover every corner of a UI or web site
Heuristic Evaluation: Typical Methodology
-Interface is exercised --1st pass to develop the big picture -2nd pass to accomplish typical tasks --Each problem is reported along with the heuristic it violates -Comments are consolidated -Severity levels: Critical, Major, Moderate, Minor
What the usability professional brings to the table (3)
1 - How human beings process information. 2 - How to test human subjects. 3 - A deep, systemic understanding that people differ.
Primary components of usability (3)
1. Discoverability. 2. Learnability. 3. Day-to-day usability.
Seven Principles for Transforming Difficult Tasks into Simple Ones
1. Use both knowledge in the world and knowledge in the head. 2. Simplify the structure of tasks. 3. Make things visible: bridge the gulfs of Execution and Evaluation. 4. Get the mappings right. 5. Exploit the power of constraints, both natural and artificial. 6. Design for error. 7. When all else fails, standardize.
Nielsen's Usability Heuristics (10)
1. Visibility of system status 2. Match between system and the real world 3. User control and freedom 4. Consistency and standards 5. Error prevention 6. Recognition rather than recall 7. Flexibility and efficiency of use 8. Aesthetic and minimalist design 9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors 10. Help and documentation
Why was "sex" relatively easy to recall, in a memory experiment with CVCs (consonant-vowel-consonant strings)?
Because it was a novel stimulus.
Ms. Knight-Torres, which of the following was NOT part of a "deep dive"?
Careful cost-benefit analysis of what is possible Deep dive includes: - Team members impersonating a persona. - A one-to-three-day workshop of events. - Baseball caps.
Dreyfuss (1953), in a book called Designing for people, "Design is an intimate collaboration between engineers, designers, clients." He argued for "user focus throughout" the design/development process. Dr. Bias believes this characterizes the __________ approach to design.
Empirical.
What is a Heuristic Evaluation? (def + 3 points)
Evaluators systematically inspect the application interface to check for compliance with recognized usability guidelines (heuristics). (Thus, an INSPECTION method.) - Identifies major and minor usability problems - Conducted by three to five experienced usability engineers (or one!) - Problems are reported along with the heuristic it violates
Participatory Design:
Including users in the initial design process. - New Zealand approach to building boats
A post-it note on car dashboard with a reminder to buy milk is an example of:
Information in the world.
According to Norman, "Good design allows for a clear (visible) mapping between . . ."
Intended actions and actual operations.
Visual cues to depth: Oculomotor Nerve
Lens accommodation and extraocular muscle convergence are "read" by the brain
What did city planner Robert Moses do to, apparently, keep low-socioeconomic-status folks from getting to the beaches of Long Island, NY?
Make the overpasses low.
Kijana Knight-Torres talked of "MVP." What did that stand for?
Minimally viable product.
Dr. Bias asserts that ambiguous figures are supporting evidence for the notion that:
Perceptions are not just the sum of sensations.
Which of the following is NOT a monocular cue to depth?
Phonological recoding
Cones
RGB
Mapping
Relationship between 2 things, what you want to do vs what appears possible "Natural" mapping is when the arrangement on controls matches what they control Often very complex even if the mapping seems simple. Ex: steering a boat
The retina is composed of:
Rods and cones
The recency effect (and the fact that it goes away when there's an intervening task between presentation of the information and the time of recall) is evidence of:
Short-term memory Whereas items at the first of a list have a better chance of getting into LTM, items at the end of the list are well remembered (the upward curve at the right-hand side of the serial position effect) because they are still in STM, UNLESS something (the task) knocks them out of STM (replaces them).
Visual cues to depth: Visual ○Monocular
Static: • Interposition • Size • Perspective - Linear perspective: Objects further away appear smaller - Texture gradient: As a texture gets further away it appears more concentrated and thus "darker" or "richer" ex. The grass is greener on the other side - Aerial perspective - Shading Motion parallax • Objects you're passing appear to be moving faster
Principles of User-Centered Design
The ABCs of developing useful and usable user interfaces are: A. Products driven by task analysis B. Designs based on perceptual/cognitive theory C. Frequent and intentional UI evaluation and user feedback
According to Norman, "Added functionality generally comes along at the price of added complexity" is the definition of:
The Technology Paradox
In one example discussed in class, an oil-well location decision-support piece of software failed because the designers didn't realize that the people using the software often would be wearing big gloves. This is an example of a task analysis failing to consider:
The environment.
The fact that about half of you (and indeed about half of any group) didn't see the gorilla, in the "invisible gorilla" video, is evidence of:
The illusion of attention
Heuristic Evaluation: Problems Identified
The probability of one evaluator finding . . . - A major usability problem - 42% * - A minor usability problem - 32% More evaluators = more problems identified
Psycholinguistics
The psychology of language -- what goes on between the time I have a thought and you have the same (or similar!) thought, whether I say it or write it.
Iconic memory
The unidentified, "pre-categorical" pattern of lines, curves and angles, formed in about 100 msec., is called:
Usability Walkthroughs: Purpose
To collect user data -- from multiple users at one time -- to help drive the design of a user interface
Principles of User-Centered Design: A. Task Analysis
Understand: -Task to be completed -Environment of the user -What user is like
The "typical" software development process is a problem, from a usability standpoint, because:
User data aren't gathered until the product has shipped or the web site has gone live.
An analogy: "Retina" is to "basilar membrane" as:
Vision is to hearing OR e. Rods and cones are to hair cells
Illusion of Attention
We experience far less of our visual world that we think we do. We are often unaware of aspects that fall outside of our current focus of attention ex. gorilla experiment
Illusion of Knowledge
Whenever people think they know more than they do - Positive illusions do, allow us to take on challenges that we might shrink from if we knew the truth
Illusion of potential
an illusion that there are easy ways to unlock potential o learn new skills & improve cognitive abilities - people look for shortcuts
Visual cues to depth: Visual ○Binocular
depth produced by both your eyes (also called stereopsis)
Perceptual psychology
how humans interpret these sensory signals as perceptions.
Cognitive psychology
how humans think about these perceptions, and previous experiences, and their own mental creations, and . . .
Sensory psychology
is the field that studies how human beings transform physical energy (e.g., light and soundwaves) into signals to the brain.
Illusion of Confidence
it is the people in the bottom half of an ability range who are more likely to be over confident -more expertise one has, the more likely they are to say "I don't know" and mean it
Signifier
something that indicates to the user that an affordance exists for him to DO something
Psychology of Reading
the interpreting of words, the acts that go on to impose meaning, from within, on external visual stimuli. -
HCI
the point of contact between the user and the computer, including all physical and informational content.
Usability definition
the quality of a system, program, web site, or device that enables it to be easily understood and conveniently used. - Usability affords the user easy access to the product's functions.
illusion of memory
when what we remember is different from what we think we remember What is stored in memory is not an exact replica of reality, but a re-creation of it. When we recall a memory, we integrate details we remember with our expectations of what we should remember.
the Gold Standard: End-user Testing
• Also called "lab testing" • Can be done on paper-and-pencil design, prototype, early code, existing product
Role of psychology in software design (8 examples)
• Anthropometry: - Seats, Keyboards • Sensory: - Screen etching • Perception: - Synthetic speech • Cognition: - Desktop metaphor • Memory: - Menu interfaces • Psycholinguistics: - Readable text • Decision Making: - Control programs • Individual Differences: - Display tilt, aliasing
End-user Testing: Limitations (5)
• Artificial situation • Successful test doesn't "prove" the product works -- Aside - It's ALL about confidence. • Need representative users! • Ease of learning vs. ease of use • Hard to test longitudinally
CBA (cost-benefit analysis): UI Evaluation Benefits
• Development efficiencies: - Ex. usability problems identified early on, thus saving a substantial amount of money as developer hours would increase if the adjustment had been made after coding the project. • Reduced call support burden: - Ex. Testing could bring to light tasks that frequently require calls to the help desk, saving an absurd amount of money in help desk expenses, • Increased sales: -Ex. Customer satisfaction could attract customers and generate an increase in revenue. • Increased customer satisfaction brings excellent product reviews in the press: - Priceless
Importance of a CBA (cost-benefit analysis) approach
• Development resources are finite. • Software developers should NOT depend on their own intuitions. • Software development managers like (need!) quantitative data. • Usability needs to (and CAN!) compete for resources on a level playing field.
facts about reading
• Eyes of the mature reader move rhythmically across the page (from left to right). • Eye movement consists of fixations, saccades, regressions, and return sweeps. • No information is taken in during saccades (10-25 msec), regressions (same duration), or return sweeps (40 msec). • During fixation (250 msec) a visual pattern is reflected onto the retina. • Span of perception = amount of print seen during a single fixation. • Span of perception = 12 letter spaces for good readers, 6 for poor readers.
End-user Testing: Benefits (3)
• Gather performance and satisfaction data -- Performance data: time on task, error rates, # calls to the help desk, # references to the documentation, -- Satisfaction data: End-of-test questionnaire • Can be find-and-fix or benchmarking • Ensure coverage of certain parts of the UI -- we have good control over the tasks
Discount usability evaluation methods (2)
• Heuristic evaluation • Pluralistic usability walkthrough
Aspects of UI discipline (8)
• Human Factors • Ergonomics • Man - Machine Interface • Human-Computer Interaction • Human Performance Engineering • Cognitive Engineering • Software Psychology • Usability Engineering
Usability Walkthrough: Benefits (3)
• Lot of data early in the design cycle. • Usability of individual screens, terminology, SOME task flow. • Collaborative redesign on the fly.
Natural Signals
• Natural signals lead to natural design. • A metal plate "naturally" is to be pushed. • Visible hinges "naturally" indicate attachment, and that the other side swings open. (And swings open TOWARD me?)
Methods to address cost (3)
• Remote End-user testing (vs lab testing) • Heuristic Evaluations • Usability Walkthroughs
Remote EUT (6)
• Saves tons of travel money and time! • Allows you to get otherwise hard-to-get test participants. • Allows them to be in their own environments. • Might allow product designers/developers to watch from their own office. • But . . . lose some fidelity of the test environment (video?) • Some added set-up cost (time)
Usability Engineering Methods: General process flow (5 points)
• Someone has an idea for a product/site. -- Maybe there was a problem that needs to be fixed, or an identified efficiency • Gotta figure out WHAT to build -- Gather user requirements • Build something -- Scientific underpinnings, Design support • Don't be satisfied with the first design -- employ iterative design approach -- Evaluation • Don't just throw your findings "over the transom" --Advocacy
Why is poor usability rampant?
• Typical software development process: - product conception (MRD) - design: product mgmt and engineering negotiate features - coding; maybe a visual designer makes a pass - QA / test - deployment - customers & users start complaining, support phones ring - big customers submit modification requests team gets to work addressing issues for R1.1 • Why wasn't the user represented earlier in the process?
Why no usability engineering? (3)
• Website built to satisfy management, not users - "Branding" becomes the focus, site is treated as an advertisement, visual design overrides usability - It takes an act of corporate bravery to put up a relatively austere, simple site • Engineering owns too much responsibility for UI design - Thus, the UI reflects implementation technologies, developers' design model • Teams can't escape featuritis: - Adding too many features
Methods of Usability Engineering (2)
• employed in order to enable you to bring user data (empiricism) to bear on the emerging product design • usability engineer become advocate for the user in the product development process
Mistakes designers make include:
■Putting aesthetics > usability ■Other designers aren't normal users ■Designers clients might not be normal users either
PsychoPATHOLOGY of everyday things
○Human error is often blamed instead of bad design ○people assume technology will have same problems as simpler everyday things
Ponzo Illusion
○Judging object size by background ○Railroad image
Mental Model
○Our conceptual models of the way things work, how events take place, the way people behave -result from our tendency to form explanation of things • Models are essential in helping us . . . - understand our experiences - predict the outcomes of our actions - handle unexpected occurrences.
Affordances
○Perceived and actual properties of a thing; "afford" = "is for" ○When affordances are used correctly the user knows what to do just by looking, no need to label or give instructions
Muller Lyer Illusion
○Stylized arrow to show depth, same length but arrow heads make one look longer ○Wall corner from inside/outside image
Paradox of Technology
○Technology simplifies life but also has complexity that needs explaining
