1. Design
How do we come up with new (good) designs for interactive systems?
Why is it so difficult?

2. What is design? achieving goals within constraints goals - purpose
who is it for, why do they want it
constraints
materials, platforms
trade-offs

3. Interactions and Interventions
design interactions not just interfaces
not just the immediate interaction
e.g. stapler in office – technology changes interaction style
designing interventions not just artefacts
not just the system, but also …
documentation, manuals, tutorials
what we say and do as well as what we make

4. Why is HCI Design Difficult?
Difficult to deeply analyze human behavior
May be too close to the domain
Cost/features may be considered over good human factors
Creativity is challenging!

5. How to be creative?
How do we create and develop new interface ideas and designs?
Ideas come from
Imagination
Analogy
Observation of current practice
Observation of current systems
Borrow from other fields
Animation
Theatre
Information displays
Architecture
..… metaphor

6. Challenge: design fixation
Keep an open mind
Don’t get wedded to an idea
Don’t let design review become about whose idea wins

7. The process of design scenarios task analysis what is wanted
guidelines
principles
analysis
interviews
ethnography
what is there
vs.
what is wanted
precise specification
design
dialogue notations
implement
and deploy
evaluation
heuristics
prototype
architectures
documentation
help

8. The Star Model Implementation task/functional analysis Requirements
specification
Prototyping
Evaluation
UCD is a very general philosphy that instantiates itself in the context of a design project. Within HCI there have been many attempts to come up with actual life cycles where users are central. Examples include Rubinstein and Hersch successive iteration of 5 stages, info collecion, design, implementation, evaluation and deploment. The one here is taken fromHartson and Hix
model came about by analysing how design takes place in practice
evaluation is central: results of each ativity are evaluated before going onto next one
both bottom-up and top -down required in waves
software designers are familiar with this in their work and call it ‘yo-yoing’
it is important to do both structure and detail at the same time
in practice this is what is done - but the end result suggests otherwise corporate requirments dictate a top=down approach which is wha gets recorded
ch 5 of Developing User Interfaces (An Overview of Systems Analysis and Design) p- nice step-by-step methodology for doing user-centred design
Conceptual/
formal design
The Star Model (Hartson and Hix, 1989)

9. The Tao of UCD
DESIGN
IMPLEMENT
USE &
EVALUATE

10. User-Centered Design Process
1. Understand constraints/context
2. User analysis
2. Task analysis
4. Function allocation
5. Define usability criteria
All of the above included in requirements definition and task analysis.

11. User-Centered Design (cont’d)
6. Design UI - including help and documentation
Consider alternatives!
Apply formative evaluation techniques & iterate
7. Build & test prototypes
Apply formative / summative evaluation techniques & iterate
8. Build & test the real application
Apply summative evaluation techniques & iterate
9. Release, update and maintain

12. Other HCI design “methods”
Usability engineering
Focus on usability metrics and evaluation
Iterative design
Participatory design
User as participant in the design process
Contextual design
Based around contextual inquiry, focusing on the customer

13. Discussion What do methods have in common? Where do they differ?
How would you choose or adapt a method?

14. SE traditional ‘waterfall’ lifecycle
Requirements analysis
Design
Code
Test
Maintenance

15. Spiral Lifecycle model
From cctr.umkc.edu/~kennethjuwng/spiral.htm

16. Discussion
How would you incorporate HCI design into larger SE design frameworks?

17. Design rationale Recall: design is achieving goals within constraints
How do you document the
Constraints?
Alternatives?
Decisions?

19. In class exercise – observe someone
On your cell phone
Look up most recently called and return call
Add each other’s name to the phone book
Swap phones
Now look up your name and call yourself

20. What did we learn? What was surprising? What problems did you observe?
How would this be different in real world?
How did you feel about being observed?

21. Know Thy User You want to know Who your users are What they are doing
When they are doing it
Why they are doing it
What tools they are using
How they are using them

22. Know They User
Physical attributes (age, gender, size, reach, visual angles, etc…)
Physical work places (table height, sound levels, lighting, software version…)
Perceptual abilities (hearing, vision, heat sensitivity…)
Cognitive abilities (memory span, reading level, musical training, math…)
Personality and social traits (likes, dislikes, preferences, patience…)
Cultural and international diversity (languages, dialog box flow, symbols…)
Special populations, (dis)abilities

23. Design implications Consider the implications: Fact Implications
Users yrs
Range of text sizes
Range of grip strength
Some French speakers
Multilingual interface
Astronaut users
Extensive training available
Military context
Aesthetics less of an issue
Ruggedness is critical

24. What are the implications?
Young, busy professionals. Product for use in their home/personal lives
Busy professionals. Product for use in the office, discretionary use.
Range of office workers. Product for us in the office, mandatory use.

25. Persona Description of user and what user wishes to do
Be specific/detailed, even give names and picture
Three personas for ATM usage follow
Adapted from User Interface Design and Evaluation, The Open University
Developed by Cooper (1999)

26. Felix (representing teenage ATM users)
Felix is 13 and gets pocket money each week. He spends it with his friends, so doesn’t make regular deposits. He does receive gifts for his birthday, Christmas, etc. and saves that money for special purchases, such as a computer games console or trendy clothes. He has an ATM card allowing him to make withdrawals when needed for his purchases.

27. Sandra (representing young adults thru middle age)
Sandra is 30, is married to Jason, has two children Todd(6) and Carly (18 months). They live in a subdivision that is about three miles from the town center, where the bank and stores are located. Jason uses the car for work, and works long hours, leaving at 6:45 am and returning at 8:00 pm. Sandra does not drive, so has to use public transportation. She tries to run errands and shop while Todd is in school, so she only has to take Carly to town with her. She typically needs to make two trips to town each week to get everything done. She uses a stroller with Carly, and the bank is one flight up via escalator, so she prefers to use the ATM outside the first floor, even though there is no canopy to protect customers from bad weather.

28. Grandpa Marvin (representing middle age to senior citizens)
Marvin is 68 years old, and his social security is deposited into his bank account at the start of each month. He goes to the bank every week, withdrawing enough cash for the week - for miscellaneous expenditures. Regular bills are paid by check. He stands in line for a live teller, as he prefers the social interaction to using an ATM, even though his new artificial hip makes standing in line uncomfortable. He does not have an ATM card.

29. Example: bus stop kiosk
Make a persona

30. Interacting with Users
Observation
Think Out Loud
Cooperative Evaluation
Questionnaires
Interviews
Focus groups
Ethnography - learn by immersion/doing
Ethnography is emphasis here.
Jeff - please say somemore about 2 and 3 and more about diff with 1

31. Observation & Thinking Out Loud
Watch user(s) doing activity of interest to you
Video or audio record (with permission)
Think out loud - encourage user to verbalize what they are thinking
Not everyone is good at this
Hard to keep it up for long time while also doing something; need breaks

32. Observing Tips
Carefully observe everything about users and their environment
Think of describing it to someone who has never seen this activity before
What users say is important, so are non-verbal details

33. Cooperative (Participative) Evaluation
Sit with user doing activity of interest to you
Talk with user as the do their activity
Ask questions
Why are you doing that?
How did you know the result was what you wanted?
Are there other ways to achieve the same goal?
How did you decide to do things this way?
Relaxed version of thinking out loud
Observer and participant can ask each other questions

34. Example: bus stop kiosk
What things could you observe?
How could you use think aloud or coop eval?
What kinds of information would you be looking for?

35. Interviews Structured Unstructured Semi-structured Efficient
Require training
Unstructured
Inefficient
No training
Semi-structured
Good balance
Often appropriate

36. Semi-Structured Interviews
Predetermine data of interest - know why you are asking questions - don’t waste time
Plan for effective question types
How do you perform task x?
Why do you perform task x?
Under what conditions do you perform task x?
What do you do before you perform…?
What information do you need to…?
Whom do you need to communicate with to …?
What do you use to…?
What happens after you…?
What is the result or consequence of…?
What is the result or consequence of NOT…?

37. Example: bus kiosk Who could you interview?
What information would you be looking for?
What would you ask them?

38. Focus Groups
Get at people’s desires, motivations, values and experiences
Group of individuals - 3 to 10
Use several different groups with different roles or perspectives
And to separate the powerful from those who are not
Careful about few people dominating discussion
Use structured set of questions
More specific at beginning, more open as progresses
Allow digressions before coming back on track
Relatively low cost, quick way to learn a lot
Audio or video record, with permission

39. More practice Pair up with someone from your group
Create a small set of interview questions to gather information about user(s) of your project
Interview a pair from another group
Group, or one at a time, your choice
Impressions? What did you learn?

40. Questionnaires General criteria Make questions clear and specific
Ask some closed questions with range of answers
Sometimes also have a no opinion option, or other answer option
Do test run with one or two people

41. Questionnaires - Example
Seven-point Likert Scale (use odd #)
Could also use just words
Strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree

42. Typical Open-Ended Questions
Why do you do this (whatever the task is you are studying)
How do you do this?
Gets at task-subtask structure
Then ask about each subtask
Why do it this way rather than some other way?
Attempts to get user to explain method so you can assess importance of the particular way of doing task
What has to be done before you can do this?
To understand sequencing requirements

43. Other Typical Questions
Rank the importance of each of these tasks (give a list of tasks)
List the four most important tasks that you perform (this is an open question)
List the pieces of information you need to have before making a decision about X, in order of importance
Are there any other points you would like to make? (open-ended opinion question; good way to end)

44. Typical Open-Ended (cont’d)
Please show me the results of doing this
Do errors ever occur when doing this?
If answer is ‘yes,’ then learn why occur
How do you discover the errors, and how do you correct them?
(Adapted from Nielsen et al, CHI ‘86)

45. Example: bus stop kiosk
Questionnaire: what could you do with this?
Tradeoffs of interview, focus group, questionnaire

46. Ethnography Deeply contextual study
Immerse oneself in situation you want to learn about (has anthropological and sociological roots)
Observing people in their cultural context
Behavior is meaningful only in context
For UI designers: improve system by finding problems in way it is currently being used

47. Field Tools and Techniques
In person observation
Audio/video recording
Interviews
“Wallow in the data”

48. Observations Things of interest to evaluator
Structure and language used in work
Individual and group actions
Culture affecting work
Explicit and implicit aspects of work
Example: Office work environment
Business practices, rooms, artifacts, work standards, relationships between workers, managers, …

49. Why is Ethnography Useful?
Can help designer gain a rich and true assessment of user needs
Help to define requirements
Uncovers true nature of user’s job
Discovers things that are outside of job description or documentation
Allows you to play role of end-user better
Can sit in when real users not available
Open-ended and unbiased nature promotes discovery
may yield more unexpected revelations

50. Drawbacks of Ethnographic Methods
Time required
Can take weeks or months for large systems
Scale
Most use small numbers of participants just to keep somewhat manageable
Type of results
Highly qualitative, may be difficult to present/use
Acquired skill – “learn by doing”
Identifying and extracting “interesting” things is challenging