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Course: Human-Computer Interaction: Muhammand Abidoon Qadir

This document provides an introduction to the course on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). It defines HCI as the study of interaction between people and computers. It emphasizes the importance of HCI for designing usable products that are easy to learn, effective to use, and provide an enjoyable experience. The document discusses examples of problematic designs and introduces several usability principles, including visibility, feedback, constraints, mapping, consistency, and affordances, to help avoid such problems and optimize user interactions.

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95 views27 pages

Course: Human-Computer Interaction: Muhammand Abidoon Qadir

This document provides an introduction to the course on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). It defines HCI as the study of interaction between people and computers. It emphasizes the importance of HCI for designing usable products that are easy to learn, effective to use, and provide an enjoyable experience. The document discusses examples of problematic designs and introduces several usability principles, including visibility, feedback, constraints, mapping, consistency, and affordances, to help avoid such problems and optimize user interactions.

Uploaded by

Haider
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Course:

Human-Computer Interaction
Muhammand Abidoon Qadir
Introduction to HCI

• Look at what HCI is


• Ask why it is important
• Look at some bad design
• Understand some usability principles, and
their implications for design
What is human-computer
interaction?

• the study of interaction between people and


computer-based systems

• concern with the physical, psychological and


theoretical aspects of this process
[Dix et al, p3]
Why do human-computer
interaction?
• To enable us to design interactive products to
support people in their everyday and working
lives
[Rogers et al, preface, v]
• Develop usable products:
– easy to learn
– effective to use
– provide an enjoyable experience
Why is human-computer interaction
important?

• There is a lot of design about that can cause


problems for users

• Good design involves understanding how


users interact with computers, and enabling
them to do so effectively
Some problematic designs
How fast am I going?
Some problematic designs (2)
How do I get out of the lift?
Some problematic designs (3)
Where does the mouse go?
To avoid problematic design we need
to…
• Take into account–who the users are–what
activities are being carried out–where the
interaction is taking place

• Optimize the interactions users have with a


product
– such that they match users’ activities and needs
Usability (1)
• Usability goals
– Effectiveness
– Efficiency
– Safety
– Utility
– Learnability
– Memorability
[Rogers at al, pp14-18]
Usability (2)
• Design principles
– Visibility
– Feedback
– Constraints
– Mapping
– Consistency
– Affordance
[Don Norman: The Design of Everyday Things]
Visibility
• This is a control panel for an
elevator.
• How does it work?
• Push a button for the floor
you want?
• Nothing happens. Push any
other button? Still nothing.
What do you need to do?
• It’s not visible
Visibility (2)
• You need to insert your
room key –a card –into the
slot by the buttons
• How would you make this
action more visible?
Feedback
• Sending information back to the user about
what has been done
• Includes sound, highlighting, animation and
combinations of these
– e.g. when screen button clicked on provides
sound or red highlight feedback
– MS Word Spell-check
Constraints
• Restricting the possible actions that can be
performed
• Helps prevent user from selecting incorrect
options
• Three main types
– Physical
– cultural
– logical
Physical constraints
• Refer to the way physical
objects restrict the
movement of things
– E.g. design only one way to
insert a mouse connection;
and only one way to insert a
keyboard connection, and
make them different
Logical constraints
• Exploit people’s reasoning about relationships
between objects in the world
(A) relationship between picture (B)as A, but with an extra step:
and object it represents means ‘it color-coding
goes here’
Cultural constraints
• Learned arbitrary conventions which help us
use technologies
• Can apply in a number of ways
– Icons, menus
– Keyboards, number pads
Mapping
• Relationship between controls and their
movements
• Which is the better mapping?
Consistency
• Design interfaces to have similar operations
and use similar elements for similar tasks
• For example:
– always use ctrl key plus first initial of the
command for an operation –ctrl+C, ctrl+S, ctrl+O
• Main benefit is consistent interfaces are easier
to learn and use
Consistency breakdowns
• What happens if there is more than one
command starting with the same letter?
– e.g. save, spelling, select, style
• Have to find other initials or combinations of
keys, thereby breaking the consistency rule
– E.g. ctrl+S, ctrl+Sp, ctrl+shift+L
• Increases learning burden on user, making
them more prone to errors
Internal and external consistency
• Internal consistency refers to designing
operations to behave the same within an
application
– Difficult to achieve with complex interfaces
• External consistency refers to designing
operations, interfaces, etc., to be the same
across applications and devices
– Very rarely the case, based on different designers’
preference
External inconsistency
(a) phones, remote controls (b) calculators, computer keypads

1 2 3 7 8 9

4 5 6 4 5 6

1 2 3
7 8 9
0
0
Affordances
• Refers to an attribute of an object that allows
people to know how to use it
– e.g. a mouse button invites pushing, a door handle
affords pulling
• Norman (1988) used the term to discuss the
design of everyday objects
• Since has been much popularised in interaction
design to discuss how to design interface objects
– e.g. scrollbars to afford moving up and down, icons to
afford clicking on
Affordances (2)
•Physical affordances
– What do the following physical objects afford? Are
the affordance obvious?
Affordances (3)
•Virtual affordances
– How do the following screen objects afford?
– What if you were a novice user?
– Would you know what to do with them?
Summary
• In Lecture 1 we looked at:
– Definitions of HCI
– The importance of HCI
– Examples of bad design
– The concept of usability
– Usability principles

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