1. Interaction Design, Usability and User Experience Flashcards
How can we choose appropriate interaction
technologies for a specific context? (6)
Device - Choose devices according to suitability
Task - Task fit, e.g. drawing task requires an input device which readily supports continuous movement.
User - User characteristics, e.g. experience, age, disabilities.
Context of use - e.g. speech input not suitable for noisy environments, touch screen difficult if user cannot focus visual attention
Cost of errors—frequency of errors and time to correct them
Cost of operation—estimated time to complete task
What are examples of interaction styles/ technology (5)
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Voice interface (VUI)
VR or AR
Wearable tech
Persuasive technology
What is ‘interaction design’?
Designing interactive products to support the way people interact and communicate
Applied to apps, websites, smart tvs, games, medical systems,
What is ‘usability’?
The extent to which a product can be used by users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction (Human-centred design for interactive systems)
What are the components of ‘usability’? (6)
User - Person who interacts with system
Goals - Intended outcome of interacting with system
Context of use - What is the situation?
Effectiveness - Can users successfully achieve their goals?
Efficiency/ ease of use - How easily are users able to achieve their goals? time, effort, cost
Satisfaction - How do users perceive the experience?
What is “user experience”?
“A person’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system, or service” (Human-centred design for interactive systems)
What does UX involve?
User experience encompasses all aspects of the user’s interaction with the company, products and services (NNG)
Aside from useable, what are other elements of the user experience that provide a good user experience?
Fun
Motivating
Entertaining
Emotionally fulfilling
Rewarding
Aesthetically pleasing
Why is usability important?
Successful digital products need great usability and a great user experience
Poor usability leads to:
Frustration, stress and fatigue
User errors that make the system more costly
Slower operation
Unsafe systems
Ultimately, systems that are rejected or underused.
How can we measure usability? (4)
Define and measure metrics such as:
Effectiveness (success) - how often users succeed at tasks
Efficiency: How easily are users able to complete tasks? What resources are needed eg time, effort, cost
User experience and satisfaction - Do users enjoy using the system, feel successful, in control, competent, etc.?
Learnability - the time and effort required for a user to meet a specified level of performance
How to achieve excellent usability and UX?
Understand users - their behaviour, needs, motivations, capabilities and limitations - to create interactive technology that is useful, useable and desirable
Understand business - requirements and constraints - to create interactive technology that is economically viable and technically feasible
What is Norman’s Model of Action? (NMA)
A tool to think about usability and the goals of effective interaction design.
It describes the interaction cycle that occurs when a user engages with a system to achieve a goal
There are 2 challenges must overcome:
What is the current state of the system (evaluation)
How do I use the system (execution)
What are the 7 stages of Norman’s Model of Action? (NMA)
- Establishing the goal (Execution)
- Forming the intention (Execution)
- Specifying the action sequence (Execution)
- Executing the action (Execution)
- Perceiving the system state (Evaluation)
- Interpreting the state (Evaluation)
- Evaluating the system state (Evaluation)
What are the gulfs in Norman’s Model of Action? (NMA)
Gulf of execution: Distance between the user’s formulation of the actions needed to achieve his/her goal and the actions allowed by the system. If the two are the same, the interaction will be effective
Gulf of evaluation: Distance between the presentation of system state and the expectation of the user. If the user can readily evaluate the presentation in terms of his/her goal, the gulf is small and the interaction more effective
The goal of interaction design is to reduce the gulfs of execution and evaluation
