INTERACTIVE SYSTEM DESIGN & EVALUATION
- Introduction
INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS
DEFINITION
DESIGN
- Need to be usable:
Easy to use, fast, safe, easy to understand, easy to remember, few errors, enjoyable. What do you care about getting right? which task? which users? Which environment?
EVALUATION
- Design
- interfaces can have mistakes, spotting then hard
- Evaluate (reveal)
- how well they work
- unexpected usability probs
- additional user requirements
- new possibilities
NON-INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS
- Static Displays.
- Many of the same design principles
- important components of IS
- many of the same design principles
CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work)
USER INTERFACE
- Any boundary between human user and computer system
- Have: shape, feel, controls, information displays, behaviour, help facilities, user manuals, etc.
- What the user sees, manipulates, how the user thinks system works, doesn't show how system really works
HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION
- HCI is branch of Computer Science - concerned with design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them:
- Finding out how people use computers
- to ensure sys designed to match users needs
- users can make sense of the info presented
- user can communicate and interact with system
HUMAN FACTORS (ERGONOMICS)
Human factors discovers and applies information about human behaviour, abilities, limitations and other characteristics, to the design of tools, machines, systems, tasks, jobs and other environments for productive, safe, comfortable and effective human use (Chapanis 1985)
Ergonomics primarily about fitting artefacts to shape, size, abilities, limitations, performance characteristics of human bodies
Cognitive Ergonomics concerned with fitting artefacts to abilities, limitations, performance characteristics of human minds
- Branch of Computer Science
- Concerned with computer support for people interacting with each other
- Started with research on how to enable people to work together, hence name, but broader
- CSCW is to Sociology as HCI is to Psychology
USABILITY
- (Jakob Nielsen) Defined by 5 quality components:
- Learnability: 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?”
USER EXPERIENCE
DEFINITION
- Not just user interface design. Usability is central. But more to it than having a usable system: all aspects of what it’s like to interact with the system
SERVICE DESIGN
- Peter Morville's Honeycomb
(All elements interact)
DEFINITION
- Think big!
- Think about the whole of the user’s interaction with the organization
- If your organization is providing a service, design the entire service, including problem handling
- If you are designing people’s jobs, think about what your design choices entail for them
PROPS
PROCESS
PEOPLE
- Examples include:
- Physical space: storefront, teller window, conference room
- Digital environment through which the service is delivered: Webpages, Blogs, Social Media
- Objects and collateral: Digital files, Physical product
- Examples include: Withdrawing money from an ATM, Getting an issue resolved over support, Interviewing a new employee, Sharing a file
- Examples include: Employees, Customers,Partners
MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAMS
- Many people from different backgrounds involved
- Different perspectives and ways of seeing and talking about things
- Benefits
- Different technical and user experience aspects considered
- Different needs and constraints integrated and balanced
- User experience should be central to design process
- Disadvantages
- Can be hard to communicate ideas and concerns
- Can be hard to understand others’concepts and problems
- WHEN YOU GET IT WRONG
System that may ‘work’ but be Slow, Difficult to control, Confusing, Induce lots of mistakes, Dangerous, Frustrating, Not usable by real people in practice
- Things including virtual things:
- People use for pupose
- People interact with directly
- Do things - respond to user i/p
- Usually (nowadays) computerized
- Relationships between i/p and o/p programmed
- i/p, o/p and behaviour actively designed
- Service design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between customer/client/user
- Across services and client needs-Buying, advice, problem handling, information seeking, etc
- Across modes - In person, by phone, web on smartphone, web on desktop, by letter, etc
- Across contributors - People, computer systems, paper, physical environments
- (Don Norman’s definition)"User experience" encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products. The first requirement for an exemplary user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce products that are a joy to own, a joy to use. True user experience goes far beyond giving customers what they say they want, or providing checklist features.
