Aesthetics, time perception, navigating and experience Flashcards
(14 cards)
What is the aesthetic-usability effect and which theory has it been coupled to?
“Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that is more usable”.
An aesthetically pleasing design leads users to:
- believe the design actually works better.
- be more tolerant of usability issues, possibly also because the design masks usability problems.
It has been coupled to Kahneman’s theory of system 1 and system 2 (the aesthetics relate to system 1, i.e. quick, involuntary, automatic, first impressions)
What is the Doherty threshold?
Productivity increases when a computer and its users interact at a pace of < 400 ms. System feedback (e.g. loading pages, responding to interactions) should be provided within 400 ms. This ensures that neither the computer nor the user has to wait on the other.
While operations under 400 ms are perceived as fast, operations over 400 ms can feel annoying/frustrating, cause distraction and make the user disinterested and in worst case scenario abandon the task.
How can you accomondate the Doherty threshold in design?
- Provide feedback within 400 ms.
- Perceived performance: how fast and responsive a website/app feels to the user, not necessarily how fast it actually is. Reduce the perception of waiting and visually engage users while loading/processing is happening in the background, e.g. skeleton screens, loading animation, progress bars.
- Blur up technique - the pictures are shown in very low resolution at first to show that the system is working while the high resolution image has the time to load and is then shown.
- Purposefully adding a delay to a process can actually increase its perceived value and create a sense of trust, even when the process itself actually takes much less time.
What is the peak-end rule, which type of bias is it, and how can you use it in design?
“People judge and experience largely based on how they felt at its peak and at its end, rather than on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience”.
A memory bias.
Instead of remembering holistically, the user is more likely to remember the most emotional event (the peak) and the most recent event (the end).
In design:
- Provide some sort of reward when the user has reached the end of some task, e.g. the cartoon figure on Duolingo after completing the last question.
- Used in usability testing, identifying the positive and negative peaks and the end.
What is egocentric representation and which type of map does it correspond to?
When you represent space “as you see it”, i.e. relative to your own body.
Examples: navigation apps or rotating a physical map so that it is oriented to correspond to your point of view.
Corresponds to route maps.
What is allocentric representation and which type of map does it correspond to?
Maps that are not specific to a particular viewpoint.
Corresponds to survey maps.
What is the difference between route maps and survey maps?
Both cognitive maps.
Route maps: Representation of the environment consisting of the paths between locations. Based on the current position. A specification of a series of actions when you go from A to B. The type of maps humans form first, and the type of maps we form when we are engaging with way-finding abilities. Correspond to egocentric representations. Simpler than survey maps.
Survey maps: When you know the relationship between all the places in the environment irrespective of where you are right now. Representation of the environment consisting of the position of locations in space. Takes way longer to form (e.g sometimes years). Correspond to allocentric representations.
What is the difference between search-dominant users and link-dominant users?
Search-dominant users: Looking for the search bar on webpages.
Link-dominant users: Browsing through the hierarchy.
What is a breadcrumb trail?
Shows you the steps you have taken, e.g. the tabs you have pressed to go to a subcategory.
Why is it is important to show people where they are on the site?
Because users rely on route maps. You should assume that people have not visited the webpage before and form route maps based on their interface.
What are other common thresholds?
- Limit at 0.1 sec for users to feel that they are directly manipulating the system.
- Between 0.2 and 1 sec, users notice the delay and get the impression that the computer is “working”. Freely navigate without having to wait for the computer.
- 10 seconds and above should have a progress bar with an estimated time and possibly an action to cancel the operation.
What is a cognitive map?
A mental representation of the location of objects and places in the environment.
How do we use route and survey maps on interfaces?
Users rely mostly on route maps that they create based on their current position and the steps they have taken to reach different parts of the website.
It takes longer for humans to form allocentric maps as it requires understanding of the entire layout from a “bird’s-eye view”
What is an example of the aesthetic-usability effect?
Study with 2 phones (same functionality but one more appealing and one less appealing). Higher perceived functionality and increased performance for the more appealing phone.
