W9: DESIGN RULES

DESIGN
DESIGN
DESIGN
DESIGN
RULES
DESIGN RULE Designing for maximum usability
– the goal of interaction design

• Principles of usability
• general understanding
Design rules are the form of standards
and guidelines providing direction for • Standards and guidelines
designers in order to enhance the • direction for design
interactive properties of the system.
• Design patterns
• capture and reuse design knowledge
DESIGN RULE
TYPES OF DESIGN RULE
PRINCIPLES TO SUPPORT USABILITY
THE GOLDEN RULE
types of design rules

Principles standards guidelines

A fundamental truth or An idea or thing used as a Is a statement by which to
proposition that serves as the measure, norm, or model in determine a course of
foundation for a system of comparative evaluations. action
belief or behavior or for a
chain of reasoning.

• Abstract design rules • Specific design rules • Lower authority

• Low authority • High authority • More general
• High generality • Limited application application
Principles to Support Usability
Dix et al (1998) split the design principles into three main categories.

Learnability Flexibility Robustness

Concerned with interactive The variety of ways the user The level of support
system features, which aid and system exchange provided the user in
novice users to learn quickly information determining successful
and also allows steady achievement and
progression to expertise. assessment of goal-directed
behavior
Principles to Support Usability

1.Learnability
Concerned with interactive system features, which aid novice
users to learn quickly and also allows steady progression to
expertise.

PREDICTABILITY· SYNTHESIZABILITY · FAMILIARITY · GENERALIZABILITY · CONSISTENCY

Principles of Learnability
Predictability Synthesisability
This interactive design principle requires a Is the ability of the user to assess the effect of
user's knowledge of interaction to be past operations on the current state.
sufficient to determine the outcome of
present or future interaction with the
system.

For example, closing a document should always allow the user to save For example, when the user makes a payment he expects to receive a receipt,
changes not saved already. otherwise he will think that the transaction failed or that he is been scammed.
Principles of Learnability
Familiarity Generalizability
How prior knowledge applies to new This interactive design principle provides
system, or make use of the new users past support for users to extend knowledge of
experience with other applications; specific interaction within, and across
affordance applications, to new, but similar situations.

For example, A recycle bin is a familiar item in the real world and For example, cut/copy/paste/save operations within Microsoft Office
recycle bin icon immediately suggests its function. applications use of same short-cut keys.
Principles of Learnability
Consistency
To support generalizability, consistency is
essential and is probably one of the most
widely applied design principle in user
interface design.
Consistency between application is always
favorable, however consistency within an
application is essential.

For example, a user expects a radio button to allow only one choice of the available options.
Principles to Support Usability

2. Flexibility
The variety of ways the user and system exchange information

DIALOGUE INITIATIVE · MULTI-THREADING · TASK MIGRATABILITY · SUBSTITUTIVITY · CUSTOMISABILITY

 Principles of Flexibility
Dialog initiative Multithreading
Freedom from system imposed The ability of system to support user
constraints on input dialogue. interaction for more than one task at a time

MENU

PLAY/PAUSE

FAST-FORWARD

REWIND

SELECT

For example, user should be able to abandon, suspend or resume. tasks For example, a word processor allow multiple documents to be open, but only
at any point. one can be worked on at any instant.
 Principles of Flexibility
Task migratability Substitutivity
The ability to pass control for the The extent to which an application allows
execution of a given task so that it equivalent input and output values to be
becomes either internalized by the user substituted for each other
or the system or shared between them

For example, It is a waste of time for a user to manually check a very For example, values in output both digital and analog, output/input
long document and correct. A spell checking facility in a word processing
application can check words against its own computerized dictionary.
 Principles of Flexibility
Customizability
The ability of the user or the system to
modify the user interface.
Adaptivity can be automated but in order
to be able to provide such user-centred
system behaviours the system should be
trained to distinguish an expert's
behaviour from a novice user's behaviour.

The customizability principle supports a user's ability to adjust systems

settings or features to a form that best suites the preferred way of
usage.
Principles to Support Usability

3.Robustness
The level of support provided the user in determining successful
achievement and assessment of goal-directed behavior

OBSERVABILITY · RECOVERABILITY · RESPONSIVENESS · TASK CONFORMANCE.

 Principles of Robustness
Observability Recoverability
The extent to which the user can evaluate The extent to which the user can reach the
the internal state of the system from the intended goal after recognizing an error in the
representation on the user interface. previous interaction.

UNDO & REDO

For example, if the system is performing a time consuming operation, For example, Error recovery can be achieved in two ways, forward (negotiation)
the current status of the operation should be displayed - a web browser and backward (undo).
will indicate the on-going status of a page download.
 Principles of Robustness
Responsiveness Task conformance
a measure of the rate of communication The extent to which the system services
between the user and the system. support all the tasks the user would wish to
perform and in the way the user would wish
to perform.

Task completeness covers whether a system

can perform all tasks of interest.
Task adequacy deals with the user ability to
understand the tasks.

For example, When an instantaneous response cannot be given by the

system, the system should be able to indicate to the user that the
system has received the request and in processing an appropriate action
(see definition of observability).
 THE
GOLDEN
RULE
THE GOLDEN RULE
Schneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules of Interface Design

Schneiderman's eight golden rules provide a convenient and succinct summary

of the key principles of interface design. They are intended to be used during
design but can also be applied, like Nielsen’s heuristics, to the evaluation of
systems

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
THE GOLDEN RULE
Norman’s 7 Principles

1. Use both knowledge in the world and knowledge in

the head.
2. Simplify the structure of tasks.
3. Make things visible: bridge the gulfs of Execution and
Evaluation.
4. Get the mappings right.
5. Exploit the power of constraints, both natural and
artificial.
6. Design for error.
7. When all else fails, standardize.