1. Trends in UCD HCDE 518 Winter 2011
Hand outs: syllabus, A1, R1, Group form
With credit to Jake Wobbrock, Dave Hendry, Andy Ko, Jennifer Turns, & Mark Zachry

2. Agenda Announcements, Hand in assignments Sketching Critiques
Lecture – Analytical Evaluation
Class Exercise: Heuristic Evaluation
Break – 10 mins
Discussion of UCD readings
Break – 10 mins
P3 Demos
Class Evaluations
Group Project Work Time

3. Announcements
R7 returned today
A3 returned today

4. Sketching Critiques – Friends & Family
Break into groups of about 4 people
Take turns showing off and explaining your 3 sketches with each other
Each critic should offer advice and feedback about the idea
Strengths, Weaknesses, Originality, Feasibility
Sketcher: take notes about what feedback was offered
Critic: be critical, but constructive and courteous!
Each critic should sign the page after the sketches and date it with today’s date

5. lecture – Analytical Evaluation

6. Analytical Evaluation
Heuristic Evaluation
Have usability experts go through your prototype to uncover common usability problems
Cognitive Walkthrough
Have experts analyze your prototype in a detailed way to understand how uses will understand it
Best for understanding novel use, not expert use

7. Heuristic Evaluation Developed by Jakob Nielsen
Helps find usability problems in a UI design
Small set (3-5) of evaluators examine UI
independently check for compliance with usability principles (“heuristics”)
different evaluators will find different problems
evaluators only communicate afterwards
findings are then aggregated
Can perform on working UI or on sketches

8. Heuristic Evaluation Process
Evaluators go through UI several times
inspect various dialogue elements
compare with list of usability principles
consider other principles/results that come to mind
Usability principles
Nielsen’s “heuristics”
supplementary list of category-specific heuristics
competitive analysis & user testing of existing products
Use violations to redesign/fix problems

9. Heuristics (Nielsen, 1994) Visibility of system status
Match between system and the real world
User control and freedom
Consistency and standards
Error prevention
Recognition rather than recall
Flexibility and efficiency of use
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Help and documentation

10. Phases of Heuristic Evaluation
1) Pre-evaluation training
give evaluators needed domain knowledge & information on the scenario
2) Evaluation
individuals evaluates UI & makes list of problems
3) Severity rating
determine how severe each problem is
4) Aggregation
group meets & aggregates problems (w/ ratings)
5) Debriefing
discuss the outcome with design team

11. How to Perform Evaluation
At least two passes for each evaluator (3-5 people)
first to get feel for flow and scope of system
second to focus on specific elements
If system is walk-up-and-use or evaluators are domain experts, no assistance needed
otherwise might supply evaluators with scenarios
Each evaluator produces list of problems
explain why with reference to heuristic or other information
be specific & list each problem separately

12. Example Errors from Evaluators
Can’t copy info from one window to another
violates “Minimize the users’ memory load” (H3)
fix: allow copying
Typography uses different fonts in 3 dialog boxes
violates “Consistency and standards” (H4)
slows users down
probably wouldn’t be found by user testing
fix: pick a single format for entire interface

13. Severity Rating Used to allocate resources to fix problems
Estimates of need for more usability efforts
Combination of
frequency
impact
persistence (one time or repeating)
Should be calculated after all evals. are in
Should be done independently by all judges

14. Severity Ratings (cont.)
0 - don’t agree that this is a usability problem
1 - cosmetic problem
2 - minor usability problem
3 - major usability problem; important to fix
4 - usability catastrophe; imperative to fix

15. Debriefing
Conduct with evaluators, observers, and development team members
Discuss general characteristics of UI
Suggest potential improvements to address major usability problems
Dev. team rates how hard things are to fix
Make it a brainstorming session
little criticism until end of session

16. Severity Ratings Example
1. [H4 Consistency] [Severity 3]
The interface used the string "Save" on the first screen for saving the user's file, but used the string "Write file" on the second screen. Users may be confused by this different terminology for the same function.

17. HE vs. User Testing HE is much faster
1-2 hours each evaluator vs. days-weeks
HE doesn’t require interpreting user’s actions
User testing is far more accurate (by def.)
takes into account actual users and tasks
HE may miss problems & find “false positives”
Good to alternate between HE & user testing
find different problems
don’t waste participants

18. Class Activity: Heuristic Evaluation
Electronic voting machine
Download prototype:
Download form:
Use form and Nielsen’s 1994 heuristics to evaluate the voting interface

19. Break – 10 minutes

20. Trends in UCD discussion

21. Readings
Spinuzzi, C. (2005). The methodology of participatory design. Technical Communication, 52(2), 163–74.
Sears, A. and Jacko, J. (2008) Future trends in human-computer interaction. The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook, A. Sears, J.A. Jacko (eds). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp
Vredenburg, K. Mao, J.Y., Smith, P.W., and Carey, T. (2002). A survey of user-centered design practice. CHI '02. pp
Mao, J.Y., Vredenburg, K. Smith, P.W. Carey, T. (2005). The state of user-centered design practice. Commun. ACM 48, 3 (March 2005),
Norman, D.A  Human-centered design considered harmful.interactions 12, 4 (July 2005),
OPTIONAL: Hendry, D.G. (2008). Public participation in proprietary software development through user roles and discourse. Int. J.Hum.-Comput. Stud. 66, (7),

22. Participatory Design What is it? Why should you do it?
What advantages?
What disadvantages?

23. Activity Centered Design vs. HCD
Define Activity Centered Design
Example?
Thoughts?

24. Trends in UCD How does this relate to your own experiences?
Is it still up to date?

25. Sears & Jacko Six questions to 5 members of the HCI community
What are HCI’s 3 grand challenges?
What are the three most important relevant results from the last 10 years?
What are the exciting emerging domains?
Most innovative changes in next 5 years?
What do educators need to change?
What is the future?

26. Grand Challenges Carroll Ogawa Rau Salvendy Stephanidis Kientz
Organizational issues, Ubicomp, End user programming, Collaboration
Ogawa
Integration of telecom & broadcast, HCI for mobile appliances, communication tools (“cyberspace”)
Rau
Make HCI profitable, new methodologies, impact user experience (e.g., “killer apps”
Salvendy
Science base for HCI, comprehensive education program, push the needed technology
Stephanidis
Universal access, HCI theories and methodologies, digitization of HCI practices
Kientz
Scaling novel computing technologies, personalizing technologies in meaningful ways, supporting activities and long-term goals

27. Important Results Carroll Ogawa Rau Salvendy Stephanidis Kientz
Interactive information visualization, collaboration via the web, powerful information retrieval tools
Ogawa
Universal designs, portable devices, dispatching individual information (e.g., blogs and homepages)
Rau
Website usability, UIs for handheld devices, cellphones & mp3 players
Salvendy
Concepts, metaphors, and tools; visualization, adaptive interfaces
Stephanidis
User-centered approach to design, computer accessibility, user interface personalization
Kientz
Usable mobile devices and always-on internet (e.g., iPhone), sensing activities of human behavior, shift to engaging user experiences rather than goal-oriented tasks

28. Exciting Emerging Domains
Carroll
Security and privacy, universal accessibility, applications (e.g., healthcare), affect
Ogawa
Portable devices for elderly, search functions
Rau
Emotional design, computer games, smart environments, cross-cultural designs, fun
Salvendy
Nanotechnology, different cultures, system science
Stephanidis
Services, multimodal interaction, cooperation, access to information, robots
Kientz
Healthcare (especially preventive health and public health), games with a purpose, ubiquitous computing

29. Innovative Changes of next 5 years
Carroll
Cell phones, agents
Ogawa
Agents/robots
Rau
Wearable & ubiquitous computing
Salvendy
Disappearing computer, miniaturized computing systems, intelligent interfaces
Stephanidis
Mobile interaction, home environment, biometrics
Kientz
Personalization of computing, activity-based computing

30. Visions of the Future Where will human-computer interaction be in
10 years?
25 years?
50 years?

31. Apple’s Knowledge Navigator

32. Microsoft Labs’ Visions of the Future
Productivity:
Manufacturing:
Health Care:
Retail:
Banking:
Home:

33. Minority Report Vision

34. Class Activity: Envisioning the future
In small groups, come up with YOUR answers to three of the questions posed by Sears & Jacko
What are HCD’s grand challenges?
What are exciting emerging domains?
What are the innovative changes of next 5 years?
Spend 10 minutes, then we’ll share

35. Next Class Tuesday, March 1st Due Next Week
Final Project Presentations
Overview of Class (in prep for final take-home exam)
Due Next Week
P4 Final Presentations
Sketching Reflection

36. P3 Demos

37. Order (random!) Healthy Eating Teleworkers Health Bridge Daily Errands
Urban Gardeners

38. Course Evaluations & Group Project Meet Time