UX Design
The Ponzo Illusion
The fact that the human mind judges an object's size based on its background
Recency Effect
When asked to recall a list of items in any order (free recall), people tend to begin recall with the end of the list, recalling those items best (the recency effect).
Why use personas?
- They lend a personal face to our user population. - They provide guidance for design. - They help us understand who it is we are designing for. - They fill in for users when you can't—or it isn't practical to—talk to them
When doing End-User Testing (EUT), it's especially important to test:
- critical tasks - frequent tasks - nettlesome tasks
Rubin's 4 Types of EUTs: (C.A.V.E.)
1. Comparison Test (1 UI vs. another) 2. Assessment Test (meat and flesh of UI) 3. Validation Test (does it meet objectives?) 4. Exploratory Test (skeleton/info. architecture);
What is the Waterfall Method?
1. Requirements 2. Design 3. Implementation 4. Verification 5. Maintenance
Kijana Knight-Torres talked of "MVP." What did that stand for?
Minimally Viable Product.
Empirical Approach to Design
A collaboration between designers, engineers, and clients with focus on users throughout the development process
What is a Minimally Viable Product?
A product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future development.
Cognitive Set
A temporary readiness to think or to interpret information in a particular way
Nielsen Heuristic: Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
Primacy Effect
Among earlier list items, the first few items are recalled more frequently than the middle items (the primacy effect)
Mental Model
An explanation of someone's thought process about how something works in the real world. It is a representation of the surrounding world, the relationships between its various parts and a person's intuitive perception about his or her own acts and their consequences.
What are the limitations of End-User Testing?
Artificial situation; successful test doesn't prove product works; MUST find representative sample; ease of learning vs. ease of use is unclear
The Illusion of Attention
As evidenced by "The Invisible Gorilla" study, we often completely miss events or stimuli that we do not already expect to see. Looking isn't always seeing.
Stereopsis
Binocular cue to depth; perception of depth and 3D structures on the basis of info derived from both eyes
What are some benefits of a usability walkthrough?
Can't get some data (e.g., time on task).• You can't browse, as you might online --tendency to "lose your place."• Feel free to turn BACK in your packet, but not ahead
An explanation of the way in which a user expects a thing to work. i.e. pushing the tiller to the left makes the boat turn right
Conceptual Model (aka. Mental Model)
Photoreceptors in your eye active at higher light levels, capable of color vision and responsible for high spatial acuity.
Cones
Nielsen Heuristic: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
Consistency and Standards
According to Norman, the 2 most important aspects of design are _______ and ______.
Discoverability (HOW to use it) and Understanding (WHY to use it)
Finding the right problem to solve, then finding the right solution to address it is called the ________ _______ ________.
Double Diamond Model (of design)
Our approach, within usability engineering of web sites and other user interfaces, is ________, _________, and __________.
Empirical • Iterative • User-Centered Design
The "gold standard" for usability testing:
End-User Testing (aka. "Lab Testing")
Nielsen Heuristic: Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
Error Prevention
Long-term memory that has to do with remembering facts and events
Explicit Memory (aka. Declarative Memory)
An indication to the user that he has done something
Feedback
During reading, most information is taken in during __________.
Fixations
Nielsen Heuristic: Accelerators — unseen by the novice user — may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Flexibility and Efficiency of Use
Research that is done at the beginning of the development process
Formative Research
Nielsen Heuristic: Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.
Help and documentation
Nielsen Heuristic: Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
The TILT AFTEREFFECT is taken as evidence for __________.
Hubel and Wiesel cells responding to different fundamental stimuli
The expectations what a device is supposed to do and how (influenced by past experience, advertising etc.)
The System Image
Long-term memory that has to do with unconscious skills and remembering how to do things
Implicit Memory (aka. Procedural Memory)
What are some materials needed for a EUT?
Instructions, Informed Consent Form, NDA, Permission to Videotape, Test Scenarios, Questionnaire
According to Norman, "Good design allows for a clear (visible) mapping between ________."
Intended actions and actual operations
Primary components of usability
Learnability, Discoverability, day-to-day usability
What are some benefits of a usability walkthrough?
Lots of data early in the design cycle • Usability of individual screens, terminology, SOME task flow • Collaborative redesign on the fly
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 so buses could not pass underneath them
The relationship between the elements of two sets of things. i.e. a series of switches to lights specifying which switch controls which light.
Mapping
Nielsen Heuristic: The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order
Match Between System and Real World
Hubel and Weisel cells
Orientation-sensitive cells in the visual cortex that help the brain with topographical mapping of the images it sees
Ambiguous figures are supporting evidence for the fact that_________.
Perceptions are not just the sum of sensations.
How humans interpret these sensory signals as perceptions
Perceptual Psychology
What are the advantages of End-User Testing?
Performance data, satisfaction data; can be find-and-fix or benchmarking; have good control over tasks
4 Types of Constraints, according to Norman
Physical, Cultural, Semantic, and Logical
What are the ABC's of user-centered design?
Products driven by task analysis; Designs based on cognitive theory; Frequent UI evaluation
Personas is about demographics AND ___________________.
Psychographics
The psychology of language: what goes on between the time I have a thought and you have the same our similar thought, whether I say it or write it
Psycholinguistics
What steps to UX researchers take after a EUT?
Quick data to product team• Assign severities and build recommendations • Build archival report • Serve as change agents
Nielsen Heuristic: Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
Recognition Rather Than Recall
Photoreceptors responsible for vision at low light levels
Rods
What makes up the retina in your eye?
Rods and Cones
What are the advantages of doing a remote usability test?
Saves travel money • You can get otherwise hard-to-get test participants.• Participants can be in their own environments • designers/developers can watch from their own office
According to Krug, design webpages for ________ not reading.
Scanning
Retina is to basilar membrane as _________ is to ___________.
Seeing is to hearing
How humans transform physical energy (light, sound waves etc.) into sensory signals to and in the brain
Sensory Psychology
The recency effect shows ___________ memory at work.
Short-term memory
According to Norma, a SIGNIFIER is ____________.
Something that indicates to the user that an affordance exists for him to do something (i.e. a "Push" sign on a door)
Cognitive Psychology
Studies how humans think about perceptions, their past experiences, and their own mental creations
Research that is done at end of the development process
Summative Research
What is a deep-dive study?
Team members impersonating a persona and a one-to-three-day workshop of events.
The Technology Paradox
The idea that added functionality generally comes along at the price of added complexity
Iconic Memory
The recognition of unidentified, "pre-categorical" pattern of lines, curves and angles, formed in about 100 msec
Why do developers use a Minimally Viable Product?
They develop sufficient features to satisfy early adopters. The final, complete set of features is only designed and developed after considering feedback from the product's initial users.
Why do we have mental models?
They result from our tendency to form explanation of things; They are essential in helping us predict the outcomes of our actions and in helping us handle unexpected occurrences.
Nielsen Heuristic: Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
User Control and Freedom
The 3 Levels of Cognition, according to Norman
Visceral (instinct, survival), Behavioral (Habits, learned), Reflective (conscious thought)
Nielsen Heuristic: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
Visibility of System Status
The Stroop Effect
a demonstration of interference in the reaction time of a task when the name of a color is printed in a different color
Ambiguous Figures (aka. "Reversible Figures")
a picture of a subject which the viewer may see as either of two different subjects or as the same subject from either of two different viewpoints depending on how the total configuration is interpreted
Saccade
a rapid movement of the eye between fixation points; a quick jump or jerking motion
The Zeigarnik Effect
states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks, because the tension of an uncompleted task makes it more memorable.
Fixation
the maintaining of the visual gaze on a single location lasting 1/4 to 1/5 of a second
Affordances
the perceived and actual properties of the thing; properties that help users determine how the thing could possibly be used without any instructions.
The 3 most important things UX pros bring to the table
understanding: how humans process info, how humans differ, how to test people
What are some disadvantages of doing a remote usability test?
• Lose some fidelity of the test environment • Some added set-up cost (time)
3 Methods to Address the issue of Cost in Usability Engineering:
• Remote End-user testing (lab testing) • Heuristic Evaluations • Usability Walkthroughs
