Human-Computer Interaction: Who is General Failure and Why is He Reading Drive A?

Dr Jay Burmeisterjay@burmeister.com.au

QSITE

ACEC 2006

Overview

Know your users HCI – what is it and why is it important? HCI in the IPT syllabus Pedagogical issues Resources Your participation is encouraged and valued

What Do You Think HCI Is?

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

HCI is: “concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them”

(ACM SIGCHI, 1992, p.6)

HCI: What is it About?

The ethos of HCI is that software, computers, and technology should be intentionally and actively designed for people

Software, computers, and technology exist simply to meet human needs and are not an end in themselves

User-Centred Design (UCD): the user should be the centre of the developers

concern users, their needs, and (dis)abilities should be

understood and designed for

HCI: An Interdisciplinary Concern

Computer science (implementation) Software engineering (processes) Psychology (perception) Cognitive science (problem solving) Sociology (context) Ergonomics (physical) Graphic design (visual effect) Technical writing (documentation) Business (marketing)

Fields Associated with HCI

HCI Human Factors Cognitive Engineering Cognitive Ergonomics Computer Supported Co-operative

Work Information Systems

Why is HCI Important to You? To Students?

Why is HCI Important?

Good interfaces don’t just happen – they have to be designed

Bad interfaces don’t get used (or bought) User-centred design is important Understanding how humans use interfaces

improves interface design Interfaces should empower people

Why is Interface Design so Bad?

Why is Interface Design so Bad?

Good design is hard Designers tend to emphasise functionality Designers design for themselves, and

generalise inappropriately Designers run out of time to put a good

interface on at the end of the design process User tolerance of bad interfaces

The Interface/Functionality Distinction

Functionality: what the system does easy to determine success design space less complex

Interface: what the user sees and works with difficult to determine success complex design space

Conceptualising an Interface

Output

Inputarticulation

observationpresentation

performance

System Interface User

evaluation

execution

(adapted from Abowd and Beale)

Queensland IPT Syllabus

A major project must contribute towards the assessment of HCI.

A minor project need not include a contribution towards the assessment of Human–computer interaction.

10% weighting UCD sits well with the

design-develop-evaluate cycle HCI must be integrated within the strands

information and intelligent systems (IIS) and software and system engineering (SSE) strands

Integrating HCI Into the Syllabus

How do you integrate HCI into IIS and SSE?

Pedagogy

What has worked for you? What hasn’t worked and why? What would you like to try? How has embedding HCI in the other strands

affected your pedagogy?

Pedagogy: Website Evaluation

Students may be supplied with a list of web pages to evaluate or they may select (with teacher approval) their own web pages to evaluate

Students should either be supplied with a set of web design principles or select (with teacher approval)

For each design principle: provide clear description of the design principle provide example a web page that adheres to the

principle and describe the beneficial consequences associated with its use

provide example of a web page that does not adhere to the principle and describe the detrimental consequences associated with not using it

Pedagogy: Learning by Example

Examples of good and bad design are useful Articulation of what is good and bad is sometimes

difficult Experience of good and bad design allows

students to understand design principles Good design is “hidden”

Demonstration: EasyChart

Norman’s Usability Principles

Visibility of system status Match between system and the real world User control and freedom Consistency and standards Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from

errors Error prevention Recognition rather than recall Flexibility and efficiency of use Aesthetic and minimalist design Help and documentation

Pedagogy: Prototyping

Paper prototyping Software prototyping Design versus development tension Storyboarding

Pedagogy: Evaluation & User Testing

Think-a-loud protocols Observation Surveys Video User availability is an issue Ethics is an issue

Pedagogy: Users and Clients

Clearly draw the distinction between clients and users Where possible, use real clients and users

Obviously difficult and fraught with danger but also probably impractical

Consider developing a database or website for a non-profit organisation or someone within the school

Teacher to role play client and/or user Use physical hats to clearly show which “hat” you’re wearing

Students as users Peer evaluation is a useful way to learn Be careful: structure feedback process, develop protocols to

protect feelings, teacher not students determine marks Ethics associated with using real clients and users

Pedagogy: Iteration

Iteration through design-develop-evaluate cycle is very useful Clearly demonstrates that the understanding of the

problem is emergent Practically demonstrates that designs improve

through user testing and redesign However, HCI is 10% of syllabus and iteration

in a 6 week project is difficult

Pedagogy: Development Teams

Working in development teams where possible provides experience of what both IT development and UI development are like in practice

Difficulties include Fair sharing of workload Students must complete an individual assessment

piece to ensure their contribution can be assessed Without iteration, concurrent development is

difficult

Resources

What resources have you found effective?

Resources: Poor Design

Interface Hall of Shame http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iarchitect/shame.htm

Bad Human Factors Desings http://www.baddesigns.com/

Web Pages That Suck http://www.websitesthatsuck.com/

Resources: Good design

Interface Hall of fame http://www.frankmahler.de/mshame/HallFame.htm

Resources: Discussion

DontClick.It http://www.dontclick.it/ Alternate interface

Video of Douglas Engelbart’s 1968 demo of the mouse and other innovative UI technologies http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html

Accessible Design for Users With Disabilities http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9610.html

Resources: Usability

IBM Ease of Use site http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/publish/558

Design concepts Web guidelines Style guidelines

IBM Easy Chart http://www-306.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/publish/3072

http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/Web-Design-Usability/EasyChart-a-Usability-Teaching-Tool-to-Demonstrate-Interface-Design-from-Hell/

Usability.gov http://www.usability.gov/basics/index.html

UQ Usability Laboratory http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~uqul/

Resources: Design Principles

Collection of design principles http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/classes/cs6751_97_winter/Topics/design-princ/#ben

PARC http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/ed/subjects/ed1441/topics/topic4.htm

Resources: Gurus

Jakob Nielsen http://www.useit.com/

Video interview (16 mins) http://www.devsource.com/article2/0,1895,1937615,00.asp?kc=ewnws031706dtx1k0000599

(lingerie warning!) Designing Web Usability

http://www.useit.com/jakob/webusability/

Resources: Gurus

Don Norman http://www.jnd.org/

The Design of Everyday Things

Bruce Tognazzini http://asktog.com/index.html

Bad design may even impair democracy http://asktog.com/columns/042ButterflyBallot.html

Resources: Windows 95 Case Study

The Windows® 95 User Interface: A Case Study in Usability Engineering

(graphics seem to be unavailable)

Conclusion, Discussion and Questions