MIE344: Ergonomic Design of Information Systems

Week 1: Interaction Design

Pending Grade Breakdown

Midterm exam - 30%
Project 1 - 15%
Project 2 - 15%
Project 3 - 15%
Project 4 - 15%
In class activities - 10%

Interaction Design + Human-Computer Interaction

What is Interaction Design (IxD)?
- Designing for the possibility of a transaction between two entities, people, machines,
systems, services
- Interaction design has a broad scope, looking at interactions not only between humans
and computers via interfaces, but also human-human, human-environment, and
human-system interactions as well

Usability is a Primary Concern of Interaction Design

- Usability means making products and systems easier to use, and matching them more
closely to user needs and requirements.
- Components of usability:
- Usefulness
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Satisfaction (utility met)
- Learnability
- Freedom from risk (safety)
- Context coverage
Usability + User Experience Goals

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

What is HCI?
- Human-computer interaction is a subset of IxD
- Designing for the possibility of a transaction between people and machines
- The design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems and the
study of major phenomena surrounding them.
- Uses qualitative methods drawn from cognitive psychology and computer science as the
basis of creation

Goals of HCI
- Create usable software-enabled products and user-interfaces
- Enhance the usability of existing products
- Identify problems and tasks (such as in the workplace) that can be addressed with
software and technology products.
- Understand the factors that determine how people use technology

4 Approaches to Interaction Design

- Activity-centered design
- Systems design
- Genius design
- User-centered design (UCD)
 Approach Overview Users Designer

User-centered design Focus on user needs The guides of design Translator of user
and goals needs and goals

Activity-centered Focus on the tasks Performers of the Creates tools for

design and activities that activities actions
need to be
accomplished

Systems design Focus on the Set the goals of the Makes sure all the
components of a system parts of the system
system are in place

Genius design Skill and wisdom of Source of validation The source of

designers used to inspiration
make products

Activity-Centered Design
- Focus on behavior surrounding a particular task.
- User preferences are not a focus.
- Can take moments or years.
- Some have set endings, others no fixed ending
- Good for complex activities with varied and large amounts of users
- Making actions more efficient
- Not good for big picture thinking, easy to focus on tasks and not look for solutions for
the problem as a whole

Systems Design
- The focus is on systems not on users
- Very analytical, uses established arrangement of components to create a design solution
- Excellent for tackling complex problems, offers a holistic approach
- Creates models for large teams for shared understanding
- Requires good documentation and coordination
Genius Design
- Focus is on the individual effort and personal skill of a single designer.
- Works best when the designer is also a user of the product and so truly understands its
goals.
- AKA “Rapid Expert Design”
- Good for rapid projects
- Need domain knowledge
- Possible to get a “purer” vision and more radical jumps in products
- Not good for inexperienced designers
- Can be very, very wrong

User-Centered Design
- Designers try to fit products to people instead of the other way around.
- In the 1980’s people began to realize that engineers may not be the best people to
design user interfaces and UCD was “born.”
- Good for understanding unfamiliar domains and new products
- Empathy with users - focus on people
- Can catch problems (and opportunities) up front
- UCD is people - centric, focuses on user goals.
- Sometimes called human -centered design (HCD)
- Designer determines the tasks that must be accomplished in order to achieve those
goals.
- Users are engaged throughout the process to:
- Ensure buy -in to the project vision
 - Identify project stakeholders (not just users)
- Work with stakeholders to identify goals
- Work with users to generate concepts
- Evaluate and test prototypes with users

Design Process
Double Diamond Model

What should we design? And why?

- Takes place at the beginning of the design process
- This process often involves the interplay between design and business strategy
- Divergent Thinking is a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by
exploring many possible solutions
- Convergent Thinking is the opposite of divergent thinking. It generally means the ability
to give the “correct” answer to standard questions that do not require significant
creativity
Iterative Process

Design Strategy
Design strategy helps answer:
- What should we be designing that will meet our organization’s needs and the needs of
our customers?
- How should that solution be created: as a website, app, or something else entirely?
What is Design Strategy?
- Frame the problem or opportunity to be addressed.
- Determine key differentiators for the product to be designed.
- Visualize and sell the strategy to the organization
- Create a product roadmap and a project plan to achieve the goals of the product.

Goals of Design Strategy

Know the boundaries and scope of a project What is this project about?
What are the constraints?

Internal context (driving goals) What are we trying to accomplish?

External context (marketplace and What is the product’s value proposition?

competitors)

Success metrics How will we measure success?

Design Strategy + Business Strategy

- The design strategy for a product needs to work with the organization's overall business
strategy to be successful.
- A design strategy that doesn’t work for the overall organization’s strategy is like a bad
organ transplant: the host body will reject it

Framing the Problem

- Framing means to create some type of border around the project - a shared
understanding of the issues involved.
- Zoom out to establish a boundary around the problem.
- Zoom back in to determine the details of the parts.
- Give the problem some “shape” – “explore the problem space”
Methods to Help Frame the Problem
- These are typical starting points:
- Traditional research
- Design Brief
- Stakeholder Interviews
- Success metrics
- Competitive analysis

Design Challenge
Designing for Social Impact
- Making a difference in the world is always important. No matter how small the effort is,
social impact impacts everyone in many ways we may not realize. It’s not just about
providing equality at the workplace or creating sustainable products to reduce waste.

- When one component of society thrives, many other aspects of their lives will flourish.
This can lead to bigger and better changes

Lecture Questions
A bus transportation company is finding that many of its customers are complaining about
errors with the arrival and wait times shown on digital displays at bus stops. The company
wants to improve the efficiency of its bus service. Which of the 4 approaches to interaction
design seems to fit?
A: Systems design, because a bus service has numerous components to it, so improving
efficiency would be a complex procedure requiring a highly analytical and holistic approach.

A mobile software development company was hired to create an app that uses a mobile
phone and some special accessories to help diabetes patients check their blood sugar levels.
Which approach seems to fit?
A: Activity-centered design, as the app’s main purpose is to support the activity of checking
blood sugar levels.

Shelly has become very familiar with the housing needs of college students. Her company
now needs a design for the mobile app that helps college students find apartments and
roommates. Time and resources are limited to get the app to market. Which approach seems
to fit?
A: Genius Design, as the lead designer is a user herself and she has very limited time to get it
out to the market.
An arts organization wants to create new ways to connect its offerings to high school
students. They don’t have an idea of what students want or need in choosing an arts
program. They hired an interaction design company to help address this challenge. Which
approach seems to fit?
A: User-centered design because they need to understand the needs and wants of the students
in order to deliver a proper arts program offering that benefits them.