1. Design 2 (Chapter 5) Conceptual Design Physical Design Evaluation
Physical Design Cont
Interface Design Standards
Case Study

2. Physical Design The physical design involves:
What it will look like
What components it will require
How the screens will be laid out
We use the following tools during this phase:
Low-fidelity prototypes
Evaluations
Wireframes
Functional prototypes

3. Evaluation Begin evaluations early in the design process.
Evaluation is an integral part of the development process and can take the form of an informal walkthrough or a more structured heuristic evaluation.
Formal usability testing can begin once a prototype has been developed.
Discuss some of the benefits of starting the evaluation process early in the design phase

4. Cognitive Walkthroughs (Wizard-of-Oz)
Cognitive walkthrough - the evaluator (or user) follows the various scenarios using the flowcharts or the low-fidelity prototypes
The evaluator takes the part of the primary stakeholder and tries to accomplish that stakeholder’s various tasks

5. Wizard-of-OZ
Use the prototype and your imagination to interact with the interface
One person is the computer
One person is the user
One person is the observer
The user might say ‘click’ a button
The computer response by displaying the next screen (or what ever)
There is a nice video of this on youtube “Hanmail Paper Prototype”
Why is it called wizard-of-oz?

6. Evaluation – Heuristic Evaluation
Heuristic evaluations are performed by usability experts using a predetermined set of criteria designed to measure the usability of a proposed design.
The evaluator follows a scenario through the design and tests each step against the heuristic criteria.
The evaluator makes recommendations to the design team either through a written document or during a team meeting.

7. Evaluation – Nielsen’s Heuristics
Nielsen’s 10 heuristics for interface design. From.
Visibility of system status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
Match between system and the real world: The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
User control and freedom: Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
Consistency and standards: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
Error prevention: Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
Recognition rather than recall: Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
Flexibility and efficiency of use: Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Aesthetic and minimalist design: Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
Help and documentation: Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

8. Physical Design Cont. - Wireframes
Wireframes define:
Basic page layout
Screen components
Wireframes are developed from flowcharts and paper prototypes
They are basically more evolved paper prototypes that include detailed information about the interface elements

9. Physical Design Cont. - Wireframes
Wireframes help to create template layouts that can be used to impose a consistent structure throughout the interface

10. Physical Design Cont. – Wireframes
Web Formats
Web sites from different domains use layouts particular to that domain
Use page layouts that are common to the domain
Use flexible design for Web pages

11. Evaluation – Functional Prototypes
Functional prototypes are interactive prototypes that represent various degrees of functionality
Functioning prototypes can be created using RAD environments, such as:
Microsoft Visual Studio
Java Swing
Adobe
Flash
Dreamweaver
Director

12. Interface Design Standards
These tools promote standards-based designs that have a consistent look and feel
Graphical libraries
User interface toolkits
Visual interface builders
Web development tools
Working in a standardized environment increases efficiency and promotes learning (Cooper & Reimann, 2003)

13. Interface Design Standards
Shneiderman and Plaisant (2005, 185) identified the following benefits from the use of high-level software tools
User Interface Independence
They separate interface design from internals.
They enable multiple user interface strategies.
They enable multiple-platform support.
The establish the role of the user interface architect.
They enforce standards.
Methodology and Notation
They facilitate the development of design procedures.
They help in finding ways to talk about design.
They create project management.

14. Interface Design Standards
Rapid Prototyping
The make it possible to try out ideas very early.
They make it possible to test, revise, test, revise,
They engage end users—managers and customers.
Software Support
They increase productivity.
They offer constraint and consistency checks.
They facilitate team approaches.
They ease maintenance.

15. Summarizing Design Keep the users in the picture
Personas and scenarios
Consider many design idea
Use paper for prototypes and early abstract models (semantic/mindmaps flowcharts etc)
Work from the general to the specific
wireframes
Evaluate early and often
Wizard of oz and heuristic evaluations
Conform to standards
Using toolkits makes much of this automatic

16. Case Study – old interface
manufacturing scheduler

17. Attributes by task
This is about ¼ of the table

18. Competitors

19. Lo-fi Prototype

20. Hi-fi Prototype

21. Exam/Test Questions
How does heuristic evaluation assist in developing better software interaction? Explain using Nielson’s 10 heuristics as an example
What is RAD prototyping?