CO32005 Interaction Design Lecture for Week 5 Understanding the User.

CO32005 Interaction Design

Lecture for Week 5Understanding the User

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Reflection

Using the post-it note provided write down the main lessons you have learnt so far

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Recap

Interaction Design - a body of theory and of practice

Interaction Design is about people using technologies to act in context

Perspectives on ‘users’: interact with computers/systems/devices interact through computers/ systems/devices

Contexts of use highly varied and highly dynamic (e.g. Internet)

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Learning Outcomes

After completing this unit you will be able: explain the contribution that an understanding

cognitive psychology can make to Interaction Design explain the importance of considering context-of-use

when designing and evaluating interactive systems describe the influences of sociology, anthropology

and ethnography on Interaction Design

The lecture only provides a general overview – you should follow this up with further reading. You might find it helpful to share ideas with others in your group.

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Relationship to Module Learning Outomes

Understand the relationship between designer-centric and user-centric views of interaction and interaction design.

Choose and apply appropriate techniques for representing and presenting design thinking and also for evaluating that thinking

Apply the principles and techniques of effective HCI/design practice to the design of an interactive system prototype for a new or emerging platform.

Plan and justify an interactive system usability evaluation, understand the different uses of expert and

user centred evaluation techniques

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Interaction Design

Draws on psychology, physiology and sociology (and more)

Evolution of design principles and guidelines

Emphasis on a systematic user-centred approach rather than rigid rules

Evaluation throughout lifecycle

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Goals

To design usable products ie. those which the user can use safely effectively effeciently enjoyably

This generally required a user-centred approach to design

Task: search for other definitions of usability

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User-Centred Design

Popular ‘design philosophy’: based on the needs and interests of the user emphasis on making products usable and

understandable

Focus is both: the user (and their cognitive/physical capabilities) the user’s tasks and actions(motivated by needs

and interests and set in context)

Should (ideally) involve the user in the design

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Putting the User first

Requires understanding and consideration of the

usertheir capabilitiestheir goalscognitive pyschology, sociology and

anthroplogy (amongst other disciplines) can help here

involving the user in the design throughout the lifecycle

Cognitive Psychology

Study of how people learn, structure, store and use knowledge

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Cognitive Psychology is essentially

What goes on in the mind?

perceiving..thinking..remembering..learning..

understanding otherstalking with othersmanipulating others

planning a mealimagining a trippaintingwritingcomposing

making decisionssolving problemsdaydreaming...

adapted from http://www.id-book.com

Don Norman’s view

Early pioneer & ‘guru’ of user-centred design

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Norman’s 7 stage model of action

havegoal

Perceiveresult

Interpretperception

evaluate

Executeaction

Decide on action

Form intentionTo act

Activity space

Mentalspace

Gulf ofexecution

Gulf ofevaluation

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Exploring the Gulfs

What examples can you think of Gulfs of Execution and Evaluation

in everyday devices ?

computer applications ?

How would you overcome such gulfs ?

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See http://www.baddesigns.com/ for some examples

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Bridging the gulfs

The gulfs have to be bridged

semantically (relating to meaning of words or symbols) use meaningful names, icons, have good messages use metaphor to help people transfer knowledge

physically (relating to body/senses) use recognition rather than recall actions are (physically) easy to execute

and help users to develop a “mental model” of the system that reflects the designers model

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Principles of good design:

Perceptibility state of device/alternatives for action

Good conceptual model e.g. consistency

Good mappings e.g. action/result, controls/effects

Feedback should be full and continuous

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Cogntive Pyschology and Design for Interaction

Looking at the user from a cognitive perspective focuses on

PerceptionAttentionMemory

also includes skill acquisition, critical thinking and problem solving

Why is this useful ? Anything missing ?

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Other Considerations

applying cogntive pyschology to Design for Interaction is focused on interacting with a computer

But what about interacting through a computer ?

Understanding the user - getting a perspective on context

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Understanding the user - what cognitive pyschology can tell us

Cognitive psychology: focus on individual human ‘information

processors’ has been very influential

attention, memory, learning styles, errorscontributions via guidelines, design methods

but has been criticised: ‘the turn to the social’ growing emphasis on context

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leaving the lab ….

Cognitive science doesn’t solve two big problems for design: designers thinking other people are like them

even in cases where the designer has direct experience of the activity being designed for

designers believing human action is easy to understand/predict/can be easily formalised

broken down into rules, which can predict what will happen at a given point in an interaction and thereby guide design

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Context-of-useInteraction Design must deal with richness

of human action: we act in context therefore we use tools like computers in

context understanding context-of-use can (should?)

inform design

Context(s)-of-Use: environmental, social,cultural, historical,

economic, emotional, political, etc

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Sociology

Taking context into account has entailed adopting (and adapting) techniques from sociology and anthropology

Sociology focuses on people as social rather than individual beings

Long history of interest in how people work: e.g. Taylorists

Uses both qualitative and quantitative methods

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Anthroplogy

Concerned with understanding ‘other cultures’

Anthropologists also interested in work: scientists, photocopy repair staff, teachers,

etc.

Anthropologists now study ‘own culture’ as well as ‘the other’

Principle method in anthropology is ethnography

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Key Differences

Sociologists tend to be interested in: social/economic/political/cultural macro

contexts of work e.g. relationship between gender and job

satisfaction

Anthropologists tend to be interested in: the micro contexts of work e.g how do people ‘achieve’ work, in a

practical, ‘day in the life’ sense

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Context and Design

Increasingly accepted that need some understanding of context-of-use

Difference of opinion about the key challenge: is it gathering context-of-use

information in the first place or is it how to use that information in

design?

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Design and Ethnogrpahy

Ethnography is a method for studying people acting in the social world, not a theory

Widely used in anthropologyRecently has been influential in

design circles (particularly CSCW but also HCI/ID)

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Ethnographic Method

Lot of debate but generally: participant observation interviews materials gathering desk research

All can be more or less ‘structured’Involves prolonged contact with ‘a

field’

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A small scale example

Heath & Luff’s analysis of the use of paper and computer records in GP consultation

“….both patient and doctor are not only sensitive to the use of a document, but how the other orients to its use…”

very close analysis of actions (video) and the transcript of the session

other classic studies: air traffic control, London Underground control, newsrooms, the stock exchange...

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Design Ethnography

Range from full-blown studies to ‘quick and dirty’ studies

Many companies now use ethnographersProblems:

timescales leveraging findings into design unpredictability generalizability

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Discussion

What are the advantages of taking an ethnographic approach?

What are the disadvantages?

A

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How context has influenced design methods

Participatory design/evaluation methods (‘involving users’)

Range of techniques: scenarios rapid prototyping contextual design future workshops

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New challenges

Context-oriented methods and techniques have been ‘work’ focussed: do they translate to non-work domains

(edutainment, household technologies, etc)?

Internet is extremely fast moving: can designers afford the time to worry

about context?

A

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In summary

Recognition that consideration of context is essential

Strong theoretical influencesSome well-tried techniques for

gathering contextual data

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Parting Thought

“The lack of usability of software and the poor design of programs are the secret shame of the industry. […] Computing professionals themselves should take responsibility for creating a positive user experience. Perhaps the most important conceptual move to be taken is to recognize the critical role of design, as a counterpoint to programming, in the creation of computer artifacts.”

Mitch Kapor in ‘Bringing Design to Software’ (Edited by Terry Winograd)

Appendix 1:Cognitive Psychology - Application to Design

3 mini-case studiesattentionperception and recognitionmemory

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Attention

Selecting things to concentrate on from the mass around us, at a point in time

Focussed and divided attention enables us to be selective in terms of the mass of competing stimuli but limits our ability to keep track of all events

Information at the interface should be structured to capture users’ attention, e.g. use perceptual boundaries (windows), colour, reverse video, sound and flashing lights

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Design implications for attention

Make information salient when it needs attending to

Use techniques that make things stand out like colour, ordering, spacing, underlining, sequencing and animation

Avoid cluttering the interface - follow the google.com example of crisp, simple design

Avoid using too much because the software allows it

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An example of over-use of graphics

Our Situation

State the bad news

Be clear, don’t try to obscure thesituation

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Perception and recognition

How information is acquired from the world and transformed into experiences

Obvious implication is to design representations that are readily perceivable, e.g. Text should be legible Icons should be easy to distinguish and read

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Which is easiest to read and why?

What is the time?

What is the time?

What is the time?

What is the time?

What is the time?

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Memory

Involves encoding and recalling knowledge and acting appropriately

We don’t remember everything - involves filtering and processing

Context is important in affecting our memory

We recognize things much better than being able to recall things The rise of the GUI over command-based interfaces

Better at remembering images than words The use of icons rather than names

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The problem with the classic ‘72’

George Miller’s theory of how much information people can remember

People’s immediate memory capacity is very limited

Many designers have been led to believe that this is useful finding for interaction design

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What some designers get up to…Present only 7 options on a menuDisplay only 7 icons on a tool barHave no more than 7 bullets in a listPlace only 7 items on a pull down menuPlace only 7 tabs on the top of a website

page• But this is wrong? Why?

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Why? Inappropriate application of the theory

People can scan lists of bullets, tabs, menu items till they see the one they want

They don’t have to recall them from memory having only briefly heard or seen them

Sometimes a small number of items is good design

But it depends on task and available screen estate

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Follow-up

Carry out additional reading on cognitive psychology When exploring different aspects of this

spend time considering what the implications are for good interface design

Appendix 2: Involving Users

Practical Considerations

Observing users*

* taken from http://www.id-book.com Chapter 12

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What and when to observe

Goals & questions determine the paradigms and techniques used.

Observation is valuable any time during design.

Quick & dirty observations early in designObservation can be done in the field (i.e.,

field studies) and in controlled environments (i.e., usability studies)

Observers can be:- outsiders looking on- participants, i.e., participant observers- ethnographers taken from http://www.id-book.com

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Frameworks to guide observation

- The person. Who? - The place. Where?- The thing. What?

The Goetz and LeCompte (1984) framework:- Who is present? - What is their role? - What is happening? - When does the activity occur?- Where is it happening? - Why is it happening? - How is the activity organized?

taken from http://www.id-book.com

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You need to consider

Goals & questionsWhich framework & techniquesHow to collect dataWhich equipment to useHow to gain acceptanceHow to handle sensitive issuesWhether and how to involve informantsHow to analyze the dataWhether to triangulate

taken from http://www.id-book.com

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Observing as an outsider

As in usability testingMore objective than participant observation In usability lab equipment is in placeRecording is continuousAnalysis & observation almost simultaneousCare needed to avoid drowning in dataAnalysis can be coarse or fine grainedVideo clips can be powerful for telling story

taken from http://www.id-book.com

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Participant observation & ethnographyDebate about differencesParticipant observation is key component of

ethnographyMust get co-operation of people observed Informants are usefulData analysis is continuous Interpretivist techniqueQuestions get refined as understanding

growsReports usually contain examples

taken from http://www.id-book.com

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Data collection techniques

Notes & still cameraAudio & still cameraVideoTracking users:

- diaries- interaction logging

taken from http://www.id-book.com

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Key points

Observe from outside or as a participant

Analyzing video and data logs can be time-consuming.

In participant observation collections of comments, incidents, and artifacts are made. Ethnography is a philosophy with a set of techniques that include participant observation and interviews.

Ethnographers immerse themselves in the culture that they study.taken from http://www.id-book.com

Asking users *

* taken from http://www.id-book.com (slides for Chapter 13)

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Basics of interviewing

Goals and questions guide all interviewsTwo types of questions:

‘closed questions’ have a predetermined answer format, e.g., ‘yes’ or ‘no’‘open questions’ do not have a predetermined format

Closed questions are quicker and easier to analyze

taken from http://www.id-book.com

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Things to avoid when preparing interview questions

Long questions Compound sentences - split into two Jargon & language that the interviewee

may not understand Leading questions that make

assumptions e.g., why do you like …? Unconscious biases e.g., gender

stereotypes

taken from http://www.id-book.com

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Components of an interview

Introduction - introduce yourself, explain the goals of the interview, reassure about the ethical issues, ask to record, present an informed consent form.

Warm-up - make first questions easy & non-threatening.

Main body – present questions in a logical order

A cool-off period - include a few easy questions to defuse tension at the end

Closure - thank interviewee, signal the end, e.g, switch recorder off. taken from http://www.id-book.com

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The interview process

Dress in a similar way to participantsCheck recording equipment in advanceDevise a system for coding names of

participants to preserve confidentiality.Be pleasantAsk participants to complete an

informed consent form

taken from http://www.id-book.com

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Probes and prompts

Probes - devices for getting more information.e.g., ‘would you like to add anything?’

Prompts - devices to help interviewee, e.g., help with remembering a name

Remember that probing and prompting should not create bias.

Too much can encourage participants to try to guess the answer.

taken from http://www.id-book.com

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Group interviews

Also known as ‘focus groups’Typically 3-10 participantsProvide a diverse range of opinionsNeed to be managed to:

- ensure everyone contributes- discussion isn’t dominated by one person- the agenda of topics is covered

taken from http://www.id-book.com

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Analyzing interview dataDepends on the type of interviewStructured interviews can be

analyzed like questionnairesUnstructured interviews generate

data like that from participant observation

It is best to analyze unstructured interviews as soon as possible to identify topics and themes from the data taken from http://www.id-book.com

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Follow-up

Reading Chapters 12 and 13 of the recommended text

(Interaction Design) are a useful starting point Activity:

Visit a museum or similar and watch people using any interactive devices

Interview a friend about their experiences of using a selected device