Design Rules

Human Computer Interaction -Dix, Finlay, Abowd, BeatleAbowd, Beatle(Lecture Notes) Notes)

Vu, Thi Hong Nhan (vthnhan@vnu.edu.vn) Faculty of Information Technology Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Outline
Introduction Principles to support usability

Learnability Flexibility Robustness

Standards Guidelines Golden rules & heuristics HCI patterns

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Types of design rules

Principles

Abstract design rules Low authority (Tnh tin cy thp) High generality (Tnh khi qut cao) Specific design rules High authority Limited application Low authority More general application

Standards

Guidelines

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Principles to support usability

Learnability (Tnh hc c)

The ease with which new users can begin effective interaction and achieve maximal performance

Flexibility(Tnh linh ng)

Refer to the multiplicity of ways the user and system exchange information

Robustness(Tnh vng chc)

The level of support provided to the user in determining successful achievement and assessment of goal-directed behavior

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Principles to support usability

Learnability: Learnability: Predictability

Determining the result of the future interaction based on the users knowledge of the interaction history E.g., to open a file, a window will appear

and allow us to choose the file If the files name is wrongly typed, a message will be popped up

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Principles to support usability

Learnability: Learnability: synthesizability

Assess the effect of past actions on the current state

When an operation changes some aspect of the internal state, its important that the change is seen by the user

The principle of honesty (tnh chn thc)

relates to the ability of the user interface to provide an observable and informative account
of such change

Immediate vs. eventual honesty

E.g., compare moving a file from one directory to another in a command language system, have to remember the destination directory & ask to see the contents of the directory

To verify the file has been moved eventual honesty

in a visual desktop interface, an icon of file is dragged to the destination folder where it remains visible immediate honesty

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Principles to support usability

Learnability: Learnability: familiarity

Tnh quen thuc
The extend to which a users knowledge and experience in other real-world or computer-based domains can be applied when interacting with a new system E.g., when word processor was introduced,

the analog between word processor and typewriter was intended to make the new technology more immediately accessible to those who had little experience with the former but a lot of experience with the later

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Principles to support usability

Learnability (cont.)
generalizability (Tnh khi qut)

Extend users knowledge of specific interaction behaviors to situations that are similar but previously unencountered

Can occur within a single application & across a variety of applications E.g., in multi-windowing systems, cut/copy/paste operations are attempted to provide to all applications in the same way

Consistency (Tnh nht qun)

Likeness in input/output behavior arising from similar situations or similar task objectives

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Principles to support usability

Flexibility
Dialogue initiative (Ch ng hi thoi)

Consider which partner(user/system) has the initiative in the conversation

The system can initiate all dialogs, in which case the user simply responds to request for information

E.g., a modal dialog box prohibits the user from interacting with the system in a way that doesnt direct input to the box

Alternatively, the user may be entirely free to initiate any action towards the system

System-driven interaction hinders flexibility, whereas user-driven interaction favors it

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Principles to support usability

Flexibility (contd)
Multi-threading (a tuyn on)

Ability of the system to support more than one task at a time Thread is a part of a dialog that relates to a given task multi-threading allows simultaneous communication of information pertaining to separate tasks

E.g., in a windowing system, each window represent a different task

Text editing in one window, file management in another, email in another A multi-modal (a phung thc) dialog allows for concurrent multi-threading Youre editing a program when a beep indicates that a new email has arrived

The audible beep has interleaved with your requests from the keyboard to perform edits

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Principles to support usability

Flexibility: Task migratability

Kh nng chuyn giao gia cc nhim v Concerns the transfer of control for execution of tasks between user and system E.g., in spell-checking a paper, the computer can check words against its own list of acceptable spellings (based on an equipped dictionary)

But its not desirable, because most computerized dictionaries dont handle proper names correctly, nor can distinguish correct and unintentional duplicates of words

In those cases, the task is handled over to the user

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Principles to support usability

Flexibility: substitutivity
Tnh thay th c Require the equivalent values can be substituted for each others E.g., the form of an input expression to determine the margin for a letter

You may want to enter the value in either inches or centimeters Or you may want to input the value explicitly (say 1.5 inches)

Substituitivity contributes towards the flexibility

by allowing the user to choose whichever form best suits the needs of the moment

Minimize user errors and cognitive effort

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Principles to support usability

Flexibility: customizability
Tnh ty bin Is the modification of the user interface by the user or system We are concerned with the automatic modification that the system would make based on its knowledge of the user User-initiated vs. system-initiated modification (adaptability vs. adaptivity)

Adaptability refers to the users ability to adjust the form of input and output, is restricted to the surface of the interface

User allowed to adjust the position of soft buttons on the screen or redefine command names

Adaptivity is automatic customization of the user interface by the system

Decision for adaption based on user expertise or observed repetition of certain task sequences
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Principles to support usability

Robustness
observability

ability of the user to evaluate the internal state of the system from its perceivable representation at the interface

Recoverability

Ability to reach a desired goal after recognition of some error in a previous interaction Forward error recovery: accept the current state Backward: return to a prior state before proceeding Measure the rate of communication between the system and user Response time is the duration of time needed by the system to express the state changes to the user Short durations and instantaneous response times are desirable

Responsiveness

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Principles to support usability

Robustness: task conformance

Tnh thch nghi vi nhim v Degree to which system services support all of the users tasks

Task completeness address the coverage issue

Its desirable that the system services be suitably general so that the user can define new tasks

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Standards
Set by national or international bodies to ensure compliance by a large community of designers Standards require sound underlying theory & slowly changing technology Hardware standards more common than software high authority, low level of detail ISO 9241 defines usability as effectiveness(hu dng), efficiency, and satisfaction with which users accomplish tasks
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Guidelines
Kim ch nam
More suggestive and general (khuyn rn v khi qut) Many textbooks and reports full of guidelines Abstract guidelines (principles) applicable during early life cycle activities Detailed guidelines applicable during later life cycle activities Understanding justification(l l ) for guidelines aids in resolving conflicts

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Golden rules & heuristics

broad brush design rules (Lut thit k chi rng) Used as useful check list for good design Different collections, e.g.,

Schneidermans 8 golden rules Normas 7 principles

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Golden rules & heuristics

Schneidermans 8 golden rules

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Strive for consistency (Tnh nht qun) Enable frequent users to use shortcuts Offer informative feedback Design dialogs to yield closure Offer error prevention and simple error handling Permit easy reversal of actions (cho php quay li hnh ng c) Support internal locus of control (h tr v tr iu khin bn trong Reduce short-term memory load

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Golden rules & heuristics

Normas 7 principles
1. Use both knowledge in the real 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

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HCI patterns
An approach to capturing and reusing the knowledge of what made a system (or paradigm) successful A pattern is a variant solution to a recurrent problem within a specific context Patterns dont exist in isolation but are linked to other patterns in languages which enable complete design to be generated

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HCI patterns (contd)

Features of patterns & patterns languages

Capture design practice & embody knowledge about successful solutions

Capture essential common properties of good design

They dont tell the designer how to do something but what needs to be done and why

Represent design knowledge at varying levels, ranging from social and organizational issues through conceptual design to detailed design Intuitive and readable can be used for communication between all stakeholders

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Summary
Have seen how design rules can be used to provide direction for the design process The most abstract design rules are principles

Which represent generic knowledge about good design practice

Patterns

capture design practice and attempt to provide a generative structure to support the design process

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