Block 1 Flashcards
Outlining key learning objectives in M364 Interaction Design in order to prepare for the M364 exam (37 cards)
The ID process involves 4 activities. What are they?
- identifying needs and establishing requirements for the user experience
- developing alternative designs that meet those requirements
- building interactive versions of the design so that they can be communicated and assessed
- evaluating what is being built throughout the process and the user experience it offers.
[Interaction Design 1.5]
In addition to the four basic activities of design, what are another three key characteristics of the interaction design process?
- Users should be involved throughout the development of the project.
- Specific usability and user experience goals should be identified, clearly documented and agreed upon at the beginning of the project
- Iteration through the four activities is inevitable.
Source: Preece et al. (2002), p. 13
What is the main definition of ID for the purposes of M364?
‘Designing interactive products to support the way people communicate and interact in their everyday and working lives’.
page 8 of the Set Book
A central concern of interaction design is to develop interactive products that are usable. What is generally meant by ‘usable’ in this context?
By this is generally meant easy to learn, effective to use, and providing an enjoyable user experience.
[Interaction Design 1.2]
Give four questions you need to answer in order to optimise user interaction with an interactive product.
- Who is going to be using the interactive product?
- How is it going to be used?
- Where are they going to use it?
- What activities will the user be doing when interacting with the product?
[Unit 1, Review Question 2]
What are ‘design principles’, and what are they used for?
Design principles are generalizable abstractions intended to orient designers towards thinking about different aspects of their designs. They are used by interaction designers to aid their thinking when designing for the user experience. They are the dos and don’ts of interaction design.
(Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. 1.6.3)
More specifically, they are intended to help designers explain and improve their designs
(Thimbleby, 1990)
Name 5 design principles.
Visibility Feedback Constraints Consistency Affordance
Name the 6 usability goals
Effective to use (effectiveness) Efficient to use (efficiency) Safe to use (safety) Having good utility (utility) Easy to learn (learnability) Easy to remember how to use (memorability).
[Interaction Design
Which usability goal does the sentence below related to?
“Is it possible for the user to work out how to use the product by exploring the interface and trying out certain actions? How hard
will it be to learn the whole set of functions this way?”
Learnability
Which usability goal does the sentence below related to?
“What is the range of errors that are possible using the product and what measures are there to permit users to recover easily from them?”
Safety
Which usability goal does the sentence below related to?
“Is the product capable of allowing people to learn well, carry out their work efficiently, access the information they need, or buy the goods they want?”
Effectiveness
Which usability goal does the sentence below related to?
“Does the product provide an appropriate set of functions that will enable users to carry out all their tasks in the way they want to do them?”
Utility
Which usability goal does the sentence below related to?
“What kinds of interface support have been provided to help users remember how to carry out tasks, especially for products and operations they use infrequently?”
Memorability
Which usability goal does the sentence below related to?
“Once users have learned how to use a system to carry out their tasks, can they sustain a high level of productivity?”
Efficiency
which of the following is a design principle, and why?
(a) You must always put the Help menu at the left-hand end of the menu bar at the top of the screen.
(b) You should always provide clear feedback which indicates what action has been completed and what has been achieved.
(a) is not a design principle because it is very detailed and prescriptive, so rather than guiding your thinking it tells you precisely what to do. Such statements are usually referred to as design rules and you may find them in style guides such as those for computer operating systems such as Windows or Mac OS.
(b) is a design principle, because design principles are high-level informal rules or guidelines which you can use as a checklist when you are creating or evaluating a design. (b) satisfies this definition.
[Unit 1, Review Question 3]
What is the ‘Mapping’ design principle concerned with?
Mapping concerns the relationship between controls and their effects in the world. Where there is a clear mapping between the control and its effect, the device should be easier to use.
Good mapping: up and down keyboard arrows used to represent the up and down movement of the cursor
Bad mapping: Start button on the Windows operating system, which does not actually start anything (instead it reveals a menu).
[Block 1, p. 61, 2.2]
What is the ‘Visibility’ design principle concerned with?
Controls should be clearly visible, so users can see the controls that are available to them. Visual feedback should also be clearly visible, so users can understand what action has been done and what effect has been achieved, and hence what needs to be done next.
[Block 1, p. 61, 2.3]
What is the ‘Feedback’ design principle concerned with?
How can it improve a product?
This is the information sent back to the user to confirm what action has been done and what result has been accomplished.
The better the feedback, the easier it is to perceive what is happening and hence interact with the device.
[Block 1, p. 61, 2.3]
What is the ‘Constraints’ design principle concerned with?
How can it improve a product?
Constraints are ways of restricting the kind of interaction that can take place at a given moment.
Effective constraints can help guide users through the interaction, helping them to avoid errors.
[Block 1, p. 61, 2.3]
What is the ‘Consistency’ design principle concerned with?
How can it improve a product?
This is where a user interface is designed to follow certain rules. There is both internal consistency (within the product) and external consistency (consistent with other products).
Consistency often helps make user interfaces easier to learn and user errors less likely.
[Block 1, p. 61, 2.3]
What is the ‘Affordance’ design principle concerned with?
How can it improve a product?
Affordance is an aspect of a control that makes it obvious how to use it.
Good affordance helps improve usability.
[Block 1, p. 61, 2.3]
List some features of the ID process
- a user-centred approach to development, where users’ concerns direct the development, rather than technical concerns
- balancing conflicting requirements
- generating several alternative designs
- communicating the design to others involved in the project
- evaluating alternative designs with users.
[Block 1, p. 75, review question 1]
Give three reasons why user involvement can be useful.
- To ensure users’ activities and goals are taken into account
- Expectation management (the process of making sure that the users’ views and expectations of the product are realistic)
- To ensure ownership (users with a sense
of ownership are more likely to be receptive to a product when it is completed).
[Block 1, p. 75, review question 2]
List some issues that you need to consider when choosing the appropriate level of user involvement
- How many users do you want involved with the project?
- Do you want users to be major contributors to the project or just to give advice and guidance?
- Is consistency of user input important?
- How important is familiarity with the system?
- To what extent should involved users remain in touch on a daily or regular basis with the user group they represent?
- How many end users are there likely to be? (10s or 10,000s?)
- Do you know who the users are likely to be, or is the product aimed at the open market?
- How long is the project likely to be – for a short project, will it take too long to organise, manage and control the involvement?
[Block 1, p. 75, review question 3]
