Usability

• Usability has three components − effectiveness,

efficiency and satisfaction, using which, users
accomplish their goals in particular environments.
• Effectiveness − The completeness with which
users achieve their goals.
• Efficiency − The competence used in using the
resources to effectively achieve the goals.
• Satisfaction − The ease of the work system to its
users.
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 Usability Study
• The methodical study on the interaction
between people, products, and environment
based on experimental assessment. Example:
Psychology, Behavioral Science, etc

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 Usability Testing
• The scientific evaluation of the stated usability
parameters as per the user’s requirements,
competences, prospects, safety and
satisfaction is known as usability testing.

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 Acceptance Testing
• Acceptance testing also known as User
Acceptance Testing (UAT), is a testing
procedure that is performed by the users as a
final checkpoint before signing off from a
vendor. Let us take an example of the
handheld barcode scanner.

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 barcode scanner
• Let us assume that a supermarket has bought
barcode scanners from a vendor.
• The supermarket gathers a team of counter
employees and make them test the device in a
mock store setting.
• By this procedure, the users would determine if the
product is acceptable for their needs.
• It is required that the user acceptance testing
"pass" before they receive the final product from
the vendor.
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 Software Tools

• A software tool is a programmatic software used to

create, maintain, or otherwise support other
programs and applications. Some of the commonly
used software tools in HCI are as follows −
• Specification Methods − The methods used to
specify the GUI. Even though these are lengthy and
ambiguous methods, they are easy to understand.
• Grammars − Written Instructions or Expressions that
a program would understand. They provide
confirmations for completeness and correctness.
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• Transition Diagram − Set of nodes and links that can
be displayed in text, link frequency, state diagram, etc.
They are difficult in evaluating usability, visibility,
modularity and synchronization.
• Statecharts − Chart methods developed for
simultaneous user activities and external actions. They
provide link-specification with interface building tools.
• Interface Building Tools − Design methods that help in
designing command languages, data-entry structures,
and widgets.

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• Interface Mockup Tools − Tools to develop a
quick sketch of GUI. E.g., Microsoft Visio,
Visual Studio .Net, etc.
• Software Engineering Tools − Extensive
programming tools to provide user interface
management system.
• Evaluation Tools − Tools to evaluate the
correctness and completeness of programs.

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 HCI and Software Engineering
• Software engineering is the study of
designing, development and preservation of
software. It comes in contact with HCI to make
the man and machine interaction more
vibrant and interactive.

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• Revisit the following models in software
engineering for interactive designing.
• The Waterfall Method
• Interactive System Design

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• The uni-directional movement of the waterfall model
of Software Engineering shows that every phase
depends on the preceding phase and not vice-versa.
However, this model is not suitable for the interactive
system design.
• The interactive system design shows that every phase
depends on each other to serve the purpose of
designing and product creation. It is a continuous
process as there is so much to know and users keep
changing all the time. An interactive system designer
should recognize this diversity.
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 Prototyping
• Prototyping is another type of software
engineering models that can have a complete
range of functionalities of the projected system.
• In HCI, prototyping is a trial and partial design
that helps users in testing design ideas without
executing a complete system.
• Example of a prototype can be Sketches.
Sketches of interactive design can later be
produced into graphical interface.
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• A Low Fidelity Prototype uses manual
procedures like sketching in a paper.
• A Medium Fidelity Prototype involves some
but not all procedures of the system. E.g., first
screen of a GUI.
• Finally, a Hi Fidelity Prototype simulates all
the functionalities of the system in a design.
This prototype requires, time, money and
work force.
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 User Centered Design (UCD)
• The process of collecting feedback from users to
improve the design is known as user centered
design or UCD.
• UCD Drawbacks
• Passive user involvement.
• User’s perception about the new interface may
be inappropriate.
• Designers may ask incorrect questions to users.

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 Interactive System Design Life Cycle (ISLC)

• The stages in the following diagram are

repeated until the solution is reached.

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Diagram

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 GUI Design & Aesthetics
• Graphic User Interface (GUI) is the interface from
where a user can operate programs, applications or
devices in a computer system. This is where the
icons, menus, widgets, labels exist for the users to
access.
• It is significant that everything in the GUI is
arranged in a way that is recognizable and pleasing
to the eye, which shows the aesthetic sense of the
GUI designer. GUI aesthetics provides a character
and identity to any product.
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 HCI Analogy
• Let us take a known analogy that can be
understood by everyone. A film director is a
person who with his/her experience can work
on script writing, acting, editing, and
cinematography. He/She can be considered as
the only person accountable for all the
creative phases of the film.

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• Similarly, HCI can be considered as the film
director whose job is part creative and part
technical. An HCI designer have substantial
understanding of all areas of designing. The
following diagram depicts the analogy −

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 Interactive Devices
• Several interactive devices are used for the
human computer interaction. Some of them
are known tools and some are recently
developed or are a concept to be developed in
the future.
• These devices include
• Touch Screen
• Gesture Recognition

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• Speech Recognition
• Keyboard
• Response Time

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 Design Process & Task Analysis

• HCI design is considered as a problem solving

process that has components like planned
usage, target area, resources, cost, and
viability. It decides on the requirement of
product similarities to balance trade-offs.

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• The following points are the four basic
activities of interaction design −
• Identifying requirements
• Building alternative designs
• Developing interactive versions of the designs
• Evaluating designs

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• Three principles for user-centered approach
are −
• Early focus on users and tasks
• Empirical Measurement
• Iterative Design

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 Design Methodologies
• Various methodologies have materialized
since the inception that outline the techniques
for human–computer interaction. Following
are few design methodologies −
• Activity Theory − This is an HCI method that
describes the framework where the human-
computer interactions take place. Activity
theory provides reasoning, analytical tools and
interaction designs.
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• User-Centered Design − It provides users the
center-stage in designing where they get the
opportunity to work with designers and
technical practitioners.
• Principles of User Interface Design −
Tolerance, simplicity, visibility, affordance,
consistency, structure and feedback are the
seven principles used in interface designing

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• Value Sensitive Design − This method is used for
developing technology and includes three types of
studies − conceptual, empirical and technical.
– Conceptual investigations works towards understanding
the values of the investors who use technology.
– Empirical investigations are qualitative or quantitative
design research studies that shows the designer’s
understanding of the users’ values.
– Technical investigations contain the use of technologies
and designs in the conceptual and empirical
investigations.
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