To be covered:What is HCI?

Goal of HCI HCI - An Interdisciplinary Area Concerns in HCI Interface and interaction design Goals of interaction design Utility, Usability, Likeability Structured Process for Creating Usable Products Principles to support usability How to Achieve Usability

Human Computer Interaction (HCI)

Humancomputer Interaction (HCI) involves the study, planning, and design of the interaction between people (users) and computers. Interaction between users and computers occurs at the user interface (or simply interface), which includes both software and hardware. Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them

Human Computer Interaction (HCI)

Because humancomputer interaction studies a human and a machine in conjunction, it draws from supporting knowledge on both the machine and the human side. On the machine side, techniques in computer graphics, operating systems, programming languages, and development environments are relevant. On the human side, communication theory, graphic and industrial design disciplines, linguistics, social sciences, cognitive psychology, and human factors such as computer user satisfaction are relevant.

Goal of HCI
A basic goal of HCI is to improve the interactions between users and computers by making computers more usable and receptive to the user's needs. Specifically, HCI is concerned with:
Methodologies and processes for designing interfaces (i.e., given a task and a class of users, design the best possible interface within given constraints, optimizing for a desired property such as learnability or efficiency of use). Methods for implementing interfaces (e.g. software toolkits and libraries; efficient algorithms). Techniques for evaluating and comparing interfaces. Developing new interfaces and interaction techniques. Developing descriptive and predictive models and theories of interaction.

The Goals of HCI

To Produce
Usable Safe

Functional

Functional
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In order to produce computer system with good usability; Developers must attempt to
Understand Develop Achieve Put People 1st Their needs, capabilities and preferences for conducting various tasks should direct developers in the way that they design systems People should not change their way they use the system to fit with it, instead system should match their requirements

The factors that determine how people use technology

Tools and techniques to enable building suitable systems

Efficient, effective, and safe interaction

The long term goal: To design systems that minimize the barrier between the humans cognitive model of what they want to accomplish and 6 the computers understanding of the users task

HCI - An Interdisciplinary Area/

Disciplines that Contribute to HCI Computer Science Application design and engineering of human-computer Interfaces Psychology The application of theories of cognitive processes and the empirical analysis of user behavior Sociology and Anthropology Interactions between technology, work, and organization Design and Industrial Design Creating interactive products

Concerns in HCI
Science, Engineering, and Design Aspects The joint performance of tasks by humans and machines The structure of communication between human and machine Human capabilities to use machines (including the learn ability of interfaces) Algorithms and programming of the interface itself Engineering concerns that arise in designing and building interfaces The process of specification, design, and implementation of interfaces

Interface and interaction design

Interface design (ID) Primarily design of 2D/3D widgets Designing interactive products to support people in their everyday and working lives Sharp, Rogers and Preece (2002) The design of spaces for human communication and interaction Winograd (1997)

Goals of interaction design

Develop usable products Usability means: easy to learn effective to use enjoyable experience Usable products = successful products? Involve users in the design process

Utility, Usability, Likeability

Utility a product can be used to reach a certain goal or to perform a certain task. This is essential! Usability relates to the question of quality and efficiency. E.g. how well does a product support the user to reach a certain goal or to perform a certain task. Likeability this may be related to utility and usability but not necessarily. People may like a product for any other reason

What is Usability Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to
use. The word usability also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process. Usability has five quality components: Learn ability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design? Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks? Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency? Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors? Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

USABILITY
One of the key concepts in HCI. It is concerned with making systems easy to learn and use
A Usable system is:

Easy to learn

Easy to remember how to use

Effective to use

Efficient to use

Safe to use

Enjoyable to use

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Why is Usability Important

Frustration

Many everyday systems and products seemed to be designed with little regard to usability.
Wasted time

This leads to:

Errors

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Why Usability is Important?

Mobile phone Remote Control Computer

Photoco pier

Example of Interactive products

Personal Organizer

Watch

Soft Drink Machine

How many systems are easy, effortless, and enjoyable to use?

ATM

The Web
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Why is Usability Important?

Improving usability can increase productivity of users reduce costs (support, efficiency) increase sales/revenue (web shop) enhance customer loyalty win new customers

Why is Usability Important in the Context of WWW and New Media?

Competition is very close (just another link) User Interface is often the central discriminating factor Comparison is easily possible Example Online-Shop Direct correlation between usability and sales is reported in many cases. Users who cant find the product in the shop can not buy it. Users who are not able to fill in correctly the order form are not going to buy.

HCI is Central to the Design and Development Process

even if done unconsciously. Decisions made in the development process are likely to influence how a product can be used. thinking about the user interface when a first version of a product is finished is to late!
good user interfaces and often good products are a joined effort of all participants in the design and development process

Structured Process for Creating Usable Products

Precondition Understanding how people interact with their environment Understanding the capabilities and limitations of users Basic ergonomics Analyze what interaction is required and what technical options are available in a user centered way, evaluate the results of the analysis Design and prototype user interfaces with user involvement, evaluate prototypes Implement an interactive digital product Test and study the product created Usability Engineering is a part of the overall development The process is iterative (overall and at each step)

Evolution of the Software Development Process

How it does NOT work Usability tests at the end when the product is ready and needs to be shipped. Designing a new and pretty skin to a product. Introducing HCI issues after the system architecture and the foundations are completed. Comparison: An interior designer can not make a great house if the architect and engineers forgot windows, set the doors at the wrong locations, and created an unsuitable room layout.

Principles to support usability

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

Flexibility
the multiplicity of ways the user and system exchange information

Robustness
the level of support provided the user in determining successful achievement and assessment of goaldirected behaviour

Principles of learnability
Predictability
determining effect of future actions based on past interaction history operation visibility

Synthesizability
assessing the effect of past actions immediate vs. eventual honesty

Principles of learnability (ctd)

Familiarity
how prior knowledge applies to new system guessability; affordance

Generalizability
extending specific interaction knowledge to new situations

Consistency
likeness in input/output behaviour arising from similar situations or task objectives

Principles of flexibility
Dialogue initiative
freedom from system imposed constraints on input dialogue system vs. user pre-emptiveness

Multithreading
ability of system to support user interaction for more than one task at a time concurrent vs. interleaving; multimodality

Task migratability
passing responsibility for task execution between user and system

Principles of flexibility (ctd)

Substitutivity
allowing equivalent values of input and output to be substituted for each other representation multiplicity; equal opportunity

Customizability
modifiability of the user interface by user (adaptability) or system (adaptivity)

Principles of robustness
Observability
ability of user to evaluate the internal state of the system from its perceivable representation browsability; defaults; reachability; persistence; operation visibility

Recoverability
ability of user to take corrective action once an error has been recognized reachability; forward/backward recovery; commensurate effort

Principles of robustness (ctd)

Responsiveness
how the user perceives the rate of communication with the system Stability

Task conformance
degree to which system services support all of the user's tasks task completeness; task adequacy

How to Achieve Usability

Identify what utility and usability for the product means main purpose of the product anticipated users, target audience compare with similar/competing products (if applicable) Common effort in the design and development process trade-offs between design, engineering, and usability Iterative evaluation usability testing with different methods at various stages of the development process Improvement after product release monitoring user behavior. evaluation of changes to the product (e.g. adding a new feature to a web shop)

Design principles
When evaluating a current user interface, or designing a new user interface, it is important to keep in mind the following experimental design principles:
Early focus on user(s) and task(s): Establish how many users are needed to perform the task(s) and determine who the appropriate users should be; someone who has never used the interface, and will not use the interface in the future, is most likely not a valid user. In addition, define the task(s) the users will be performing and how often the task(s) need to be performed. Empirical measurement: Test the interface early on with real users who come in contact with the interface on an everyday basis. Keep in mind that results may be altered if the performance level of the user is not an accurate depiction of the real human-computer interaction. Establish quantitative usability specifics such as: the number of users performing the task(s), the time to complete the task(s), and the number of errors made during the task(s).

 Iterative design: After determining the users, tasks, and empirical measurements to include, perform the following iterative design steps: 1. Design the user interface 2. Test 3. Analyze results 4. Repeat Repeat the iterative design process until a sensible, user-friendly interface is created

Design methodologies