Chapter 2

Understand Design
Rules for Interactive
System

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 LEARNING OUTCOME:

• Explain the concept of user interface design to

elevate technical complexity for usable
product that accepted by user. (C3, PLO2)

Prepared by Mdm PYTan

 Design Rules for Interactive System
• Rules a designer can follow in order to increase the
usability of the eventual software product
• Design rules are mechanisms for restricting the space
of design options, preventing a designer form pursuing
design options that would be likely to lead to an
unusable system
• To provide designers with the ability to determine the
usability consequences of their design decision
• Can be supported by psychological, cognitive,
ergonomic, sociological, economic or computational
theory
Types of design rules

• principles
– abstract design rules
– low authority
– high generality Guidelines

• standards

increasing generality
– specific design rules
– high authority
Standards
– limited application
• guidelines
– lower authority increasing authority
– more general application
Standards

• set by national or international bodies to

ensure compliance by a large community of
designers standards

• require sound underlying

theory and slowly changing technology

• hardware standards more common than

software high authority and low level of detail
 ISO 9241

• ISO 9241 is a multi-part standard covering a

number of aspects for people working with
computers.
• Originally known as Ergonomic Requirements
for Office Work with Visual Display Terminals
(VDT).
• Revised in 2006, re-titled as Ergonomics of
Human-System Interaction.
 ISO 9241
• The revised multipart standard is numbered in
series as follows:
– 100 series: Software ergonomics
– 200 series: Human system interaction processes
– 300 series: Displays and display related hardware
– 400 series: Physical input devices - ergonomics
principles
– 500 series: Workplace ergonomics
– 600 series: Environment ergonomics
– 700 series: Application domains - Control rooms
– 900 series: Tactile and haptic interactions
• The revised multipart standard is numbered in
series as follows:
– 100 series: Software ergonomics
– 200 series: Human system interaction processes
– 300 series: Displays and display related hardware
– 400 series: Physical input devices - ergonomics
principles
– 500 series: Workplace ergonomics
– 600 series: Environment ergonomics
– 700 series: Application domains - Control rooms
– 900 series: Tactile and haptic interactions
Guidelines

• more suggestive and general

• many textbooks and reports full of guidelines
• abstract guidelines (principles) applicable
during early life cycle activities
• detailed guidelines (style guides) applicable
during later life cycle activities
• understanding justification for guidelines aids
in resolving conflicts
 Break: Illusion
• There should be 11 faces on this picture. Average people see 4-6, sensible
8-10. The best see all 11, schizophrenics and paranoids 12 and more. And
you?

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The principle to support usability in
interactive systems design
• Applied to design of an interactive
system in order to promote its usability
• The principles divided into 3 main
categories:
• Learn ability
• Flexibility
• Robustness
 Learn ability
• Concerns the features of the interactive
system that allow novice users to understand
how to use it initially and then how to attain a
maximal level of performance
– Predictability
– Synthesizability
– Familiarity
– Generalizability
– Consistency
 Summary of principles affecting learnability

Principle Definition Related Principles

Predictibility Support for the user to determine the effect of Operation visibility
future action based on past interaction history
Synthesizability Support for the user to assess the effect of Immediate/eventu
past operations on the current state al honesty
Familiarity The extent to which a user’s knowledge and Guessability,
experience in other real-world or computer- affordance
based domains can be applied when
interacting with a new system

Generalizability Support for the user to extend knowledge of -

specific interaction within and across
applications to other similar situations
Consistency Likeness in input-output behaviour arising -
from similar situations or similar task
objectives
Break: Illusion

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 Flexibility
• Flexibility refers to the multiplicity of ways in
which the end-user and the system exchange
information
– Dialog initiative
– Multi-threading
– Task migratability
– Substitutivity
– Customizability
 Summary of principles affecting Flexibility
Principle Definition Related Principles
Dialog Initiative Allowing the user freedom from artificial System/user
constraints on the input dialog imposed by the pre-emptiveness
system
Multi-threading Ability of the system to support user Concurrent vs.
interaction pertaining to more than one task at interleaving, multi-
a time modality
Task The ability to pass control for the execution of -
migratability a given task so that it becomes either
internalized by the user or the system or
shared between them

Substitutivity Allowing equivalent values of input and output Representation

to be arbitrarily substistuted for each other multiplicity, equal
opportunity
Customizability Modifiability of the user interface by the user Adaptavity,
or the system adaptability
Is this cat going

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 Robustness
• Covers features that support the successful
achievement and assessment of the goals
– Observability
– Recoverability
– Responsiveness
– Task conformance
 Summary of principles affecting robustness

Principle Definition Related Principles

Observability Ability of the user to evaluate the Browsability,
internal state of the system from its static/dynamic defaults,
perceivable reachability,persistence,
operation visibility
Recoverability Ability of the user to take corrective Reachability,
action once an error has been forward/backward
recognizes recovery, commensurate
effort
Responsiveness How the user perceives the rate of Stability
communications with the system

Task The degree to which the system Task completenes, task

conformance services support all of the tasks the adequacy
user wishes to perform and in the way
that the user understand them
 Activity
• By using some of the principles, use two to
provide a usability specification for a system or
product (of your own choice).
– 1.www.lelong.com
– 2.www.airasia.com
– 3.www.cimbclicks.com
– 4.www.metro.com
– 5.www.amazon.com
– 6.www.jobstreet.com
– 7.www.malaysia.gov.my
• Present your works.
Prepared by Mdm PYTan
 Chapter 2

Describe
Schneiderman’s Eight
Golden Rules

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 LEARNING OUTCOME:
Explain the concept of user interface design to
elevate technical complexity for usable product
that accepted by user. (C3, PLO2)

Prepared by Mdm PYTan

Schneiderman’s Eight Golden
Rules of Interface Design
 Golden rules and heuristics

• Provide a convenient and succinct summary of the key

principles of interface design.
• ‘Broad brush’ design rules – may not always applicable
to every situation.
• There are many sets of rules :
– Nielsen‘s 10 Heuristics (Chapter 3)
– Norman‘s 7 Principles (chapter 1)
– Shneiderman‘s 8 Golden Rules
 Schneiderman’s Eight
Golden Rules of Interface
1. Strive for consistency
2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts
3. Offer informative feedback
4. Design dialogs to yield closure
5. Offer error prevention and simple error handling
6. Permit easy reversal of actions
7. Support internal locus of control
8. Reduce short-term memory load
 Strive for consistency
• Strive for consistency in action sequences, layout, terminology, command
use and so on.
• Identical Terminology (prompts, menus, help)
• Consistent visual layout (fonts, color, etc.)
• Exceptions:
– Confirmation of deletion
– No password echoing
– Limited
 Enable frequent users to use
shortcuts
• Enable frequent users to use shortcuts, such as abbreviations, special
key sequences and macros, to perform regular, familiar actions more
quickly.
 Offer Informative Feedback
• Offer informative feedback for every user action, at a level appropriate to
the magnitude of the action.
• For every user action, the system should provide feedback
 Design Dialogs To Yield Closure
• Design dialogs to yield closure so that the user
knows when they have completed a task.
• Action sequences should have a beginning,
middle, and end.
• Feedback provides sense of accomplishment.
• Ex. Purchasing items via internet has a clearly
defined step-by-step process
 Offer Error Prevention and Simple
Error Handling
• Offer Error Prevention and Simple Error Handling so
that, ideally, users are prevented from making
mistakes and, if they do, they are offered clear and
informative instructions to enable them to recover.
 Permit Easy Reversal of Actions
• Permit Easy Reversal of
Actions in order to
relieve anxiety and
encourage exploration,
since the user knows
that he can always
return to the previous
state.
 Support Internal Locus of Control
• Support Internal Locus of Control so that user is in control of
the system, which responds to his actions.
• Experienced operators want to feel in control.
– User is in charge of the interface
– Interface rapidly responds to the user
• Lack of control builds anxiety and dissatisfaction.
- Surprising interface actions
- Tedious actions
- Difficulty in obtaining necessary ability
- Difficulty in producing action
• Good rules: Avoid a causality, make users initiators rather
than responders
 Reduce Short Term Memory Load
• Reduce short term memory load by keeping
display simple, consolidating multiple page
displays and providing time for learning action
sequences.
 Reduce Short-term Memory Load
►Rule of thumb: Humans can remember 7 +/- 2
chunks of information
►Displays kept simple
►Multiple page displays should be consolidated
►Training if using codes, mnemonics, long
sequence of actions
►Online access to command-syntax,
abbreviations, codes, etc.

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Prepared by Mdm PYTan
 ACTIVITY
• Based on Shneiderman‘s 8 Golden Rules,
Discuss in Group :
1. www.psp.edu.my
2. www.poliku.edu.my
3. www.ptss.edu.my
4. www.polimas.edu.my
5. www.puo.edu.my
6. www.uthm.edu.my
7. www.unimas.edu.my
• Present Your Finding
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Prepared by Mdm PYTan