Block 1

Question 1

Give four questions you need to answer in order to optimise user interaction with an interactive product. Why are these questions so important?

Answer 1

The four questions given in Section 1.2.1 on pages 5–6are:
. Who is going to be using the interactive product?
. How is it going to be used?
.Where are they going to use it?
.What activities will the user be doing when interacting with the product?
These questions are important because they help you to focus on aspects of the context which relate directly to the design of the interaction. For example, for ‘Who is going to be using the interactive product?’, the design is likely to be very different if the product is intended for a five-year-old child rather than for an adult. Similarly, for ‘How is it going to be used?’, a product which is going to be used for enjoyment is likely to have different design priorities to one that is going to be used for working. Thirdly, a product designed to be used outside and be subject to bad weather is likely to use more robust interaction devices and fewer keystrokes than one to be used in a comfortable office environment. Finally, the types of activities the users want to use the product for should directly influence the design. For example, in an ecommerce website, the design should make it as easy as possible to find out about the product range and to purchase a chosen product.

Question 2

ID has a lot of jargon, some of which has been adopted by industry in order to sell products. Some organisations use this jargon in a misleading way. Using Norman’s definition, what is a red flag?
Summarise the possible unfortunate implications of the red flags: ‘fool-proof’, ‘user-friendly’ and ‘intuitive’.
Suggest any other red flags you are aware of, possibly from products you have purchased.

Answer 2

A red flag is a term that claims to indicate sensitivity to human needs but may in fact reflect a complete lack of understanding of people. Some implications of red flags might be:
. ‘fool-proof’ – you think your customers are fools
. ‘user-friendly’ – the product holds users by the hand and forces them to do things one step at a time, in prescribed order, whether they like it or not
. ‘intuitive’ – ‘so automatic it is not conscious’, but almost everything we call intuitive, such as walking or using a pencil, took years of practice.
Another red flag might be ‘easy to use’, which in my experience is rarely true.

Question 3

What is ID, and what are the results of good ID?

Answer 3

ID is surprisingly difficult to define. That is because it is a relatively new term and the meaning of such terms tends to evolve over time. The main definition for the purposes of M364 is on page 8 of the Set Book, where it says ID is ‘designing interactive products to support the way people communicate and interact in their everyday and working lives’. A secondary definition is given on page 0. This concentrates more on what ID aims to achieve: ‘it is about developing interactive products that are easy, effective and enjoyable to use’. Similarly, in Section 1.2 in this book, I state that ‘good ID encourages an easy, natural and engaging interaction between a user and a system’. These are important definitions, which are central to the whole of M364.

Question 4

The ID process involves the following activities:
1 identifying needs and establishing requirements for the user experience
2 developing alternative designs that meet those requirements
3 building interactive versions of the design so that they can be communicated and assessed
4 evaluating what is being built throughout the process and the user experience it offers.
Why are activities 1 and 4 in this list important for the process of ID? I have not asked you about activities 2 and 3, as Section 1.5 does not discuss these.

Answer 4

Activity 1. Establishing requirements is essential when developing any product. However, for interaction design, it is essential to understand the needs and requirements of the people who will be using the product. In particular, the characteristics of the users, how they will be using the product, the environment in which they will be using it, and the activities they will be using it for must all be taken into account. All these issues relate directly to the design of the interaction.
Section 1.5 places a particular emphasis on understanding what the users do, and on the cultural differences between users.
Activity 4. As Section 1.5 explains, evaluation is necessary to establish whether or not the product is usable. This is usually achieved by involving users in the evaluation process, as they are in the best position to establish the effectiveness of the design. The evaluation process also enables you to develop a fuller understanding of the users.

Question 5

The description of each usability goal contains a key question you need to ask when establishing whether the particular goal has been satisfied
Question 1: Is it possible for the user to work out how to use the product by exploring the interface and trying out certain actions? How hard will it be to learn the whole set of functions this way?

Answer 5

Question 1 corresponds to learnability – ‘easy to learn’.

Question 6

The description of each usability goal contains a key question you need to ask when establishing whether the particular goal has been satisfied
Question 2: What is the range of errors that are possible using the product and what measures are there to permit users to recover easily from them?

Answer 6

Question 2 corresponds to safety – ‘safe to use’.

Question 7

The description of each usability goal contains a key question you need to ask when establishing whether the particular goal has been satisfied
Question 3: Is the product capable of allowing people to learn well, carry out their work efficiently, and access the information they need, or buy the goods they want?

Answer 7

Question 3 corresponds to effectiveness – ‘effective to use’.

Question 8

The description of each usability goal contains a key question you need to ask when establishing whether the particular goal has been satisfied
Question 4: Does the product provide an appropriate set of functions that will enable users to carry out all their tasks in the way they want to do them?

Answer 8

Question 4 corresponds to utility – ‘having good utility’.

Question 9

The description of each usability goal contains a key question you need to ask when establishing whether the particular goal has been satisfied
Question 5: What kinds of interface support have been provided to help users remember how to carry out tasks, especially for products and operations they use infrequently?

Answer 9

Question 5 corresponds to memorability – ‘easy to remember how to use’.

Question 10

The description of each usability goal contains a key question you need to ask when establishing whether the particular goal has been satisfied
Question 6: Once users have learned how to use a system to carry out their tasks, can they sustain a high level of productivity? Which question corresponds to which one of the six usability goals?

Answer 10

Question 6 corresponds to efficiency – ‘efficient to use’.

Question 11

Review Question 2 Ten of the user experience goals listed in Section 1.6.2 are satisfying, enjoyable, fun, entertaining, helpful, motivating, aesthetically pleasing, supportive of creativity, rewarding and emotionally fulfilling. These are not defined in the Set Book. Give a brief definition of what you think each of these terms means in the context of ID.

Answer 11

Satisfying. When you use the interactive product it allows you to do what you want to do easily and quickly – it lines up with your expectations.
Enjoyable. Using the interactive product is something you look forward to (for example, choosing a holiday on the Web).Fun. There are light-hearted elements involved in using the interactive product. For example, most games are designed to be fun – presenting enjoyable challenges, giving rewards and so on.
Entertaining. This is similar to enjoyable and fun, but I think that if I am being entertained, I am taking a more passive role. For example, when listening to music on my MP3 player I am being entertained.
Helpful. When you experience difficulties using the interactive product ithelps you achieve your goals. For example, the spelling-checker in Microsoft Word underlines misspelt words and can suggest possible correctly spelt replacements.
Motivating. You want to continue using the device. For example, many young people are highly motivated to use their mobile telephones.
Aesthetically pleasing. The device is visually appealing (aesthetics may also relate to other senses such as the quality of sound or the tactile feel of the device).Supportive of creativity. It helps the user behave in a creative way. For example, the thesaurus option in some word processors helps you to think of better words to use when you are writing.
Rewarding. This is similar to satisfying – you are satisfied because the device gives you rewards in terms of enabling you to achieve your objectives. There are other types of rewards as well, such as moving on to another level in a computer game.
Emotionally fulfilling. The device makes you feel good about yourself. For example, if a particular personal digital assistant (PDA) is perceived as being stylish and only owned by successful people, it may make you feel good if you purchase one.

Question 12

Page 29 of the Set Book describes design principles as ‘generalizable abstractions intended to orient designers towards thinking about different aspects of their designs’. Using this definition, which of the following is a design principle, and why? (a) You must always put the Help menu at the left-hand end of the menu bar at the top of the screen. (b) You should always provide clear feedback which indicates what action has been completed and what has been achieved.

Answer 12

(a) is not a design principle because it is very detailed and prescriptive, so rather than guiding your thinking it tells you precisely what to do. Such statements are usually referred to as design rules and you may find the min style guides such as those for computer operating systems such as Windows or Mac OS. (b) is a design principle, because design principles are high-level informal rules or guidelines which you can use as a checklist when you are creating or evaluating a design. (b) satisfies this definition.

Question 13

List the features of the ID process

Answer 13

A user-centred approach to development, where users’ concerns direct the development, rather than technical concerns.
Balancing conflicting requirements.
Generating several alternative designs .
Communicating the design to others involved in the project. Evaluating alternative designs with users.

Question 14

Give three reasons why user involvement can be useful.

Answer 14

: to ensure users’ activities and goals are taken into account, expectation management (the process of making sure that the users’ views and expectations of the product are realistic) and to ensure ownership (users with a sense of ownership are more likely to be receptive to a product when it is completed).

Question 15

Discuss the main options for user involvement:

Answer 15

Co–opting users onto the project on a full-time or part-time basis
Where there is a large user group, including representatives of different user groups on the project team
Keeping users informed through regular newsletters or other channels of communication, with feedback through workshops or similar events. List the issues that you need to consider when choosing the appropriate level of user involvement. Eight different issues are identified in Section 9.2.2, some of which are only mentioned quite briefly.

Question 16

Discuss issues that need to be considered when deciding upon the degree of user involvement: .

Answer 16

• How many users do you want involved with the project? .
• Do you want users to be major contributors to the project or just to give advice and guidance? .
• Is consistency of user input important? . How important is familiarity with the system? To what extent should involved users remain in touch on a daily or regular basis with the user group they represent?
• How many end users are there likely to be? (10s or 10,000s?) . Do you know who the users are likely to be, or is the product aimed at the open market?
• How long is the project likely to be – for a short project, will it take too long to organise, manage and control the involvement?

Question 17

A user-centred approach to development means that real users and their goals are the driving force behind the development of a product. What are the possible driving forces behind the development process if it is not user-centred?

Answer 17

Where the development is not user-centred, other forces will drive it, such as the characteristics of the technology or the preferences of other stakeholders (for example, managers and the software development team). For a project to be user-centred, whilst these are important, they should not be the main driving force.

Question 18

There are five principles of user-centred development given on page 426 of the Set Book: 1 Users’ tasks and goals are the driving force behind the development. 2 Users’ behaviour and context of use are studied and the system is designed to support them. 3 Users’ characteristics are captured and designed for. 4 Users are consulted throughout development from earliest phases to the latest, and their input is seriously taken into account. 5 All design decisions are taken within the context of the users, their work and their environment. These all expand the principle of ‘early focus on users and tasks’ cited on page 425 of the Set Book. State the principles that seem the most relevant to each of the four activities that make up the ID lifecycle.

Answer 18

There is not a straightforward mapping between the principles and the ID activities, but the following seem reasonable to me. Principles 2 and 3 are most relevant to the ‘Identify needs/establish requirements’ and ‘Design’ activities, as they are concerned with understanding and designing for the needs and characteristics of users. Principles 1 and 4 are relevant to every activity except ‘Build an interactive version’, as they stress the central role of users. The ‘Build an interactive version’ activity is excepted because, typically, the development team builds interactive versions of the design without the help of the users – they just use the specification resulting from the design activity. Principle 5 is particularly relevant to the ‘Design’ activity as it refers to the individual decisions, which result in the design for the interaction.

Question 19

Draw the simple ID lifecycle model in Figure 9.7 on page 448 of the Set Book. Explain the meaning of each arrow.

Answer 19

The meaning of the numbered arrows is as follows:
1 Having created a design, you may realise you need to understand the requirements more fully.
2 Having established the requirements, you have a sound basis to create a design.
3 Whilst evaluating a design with users, you identify additional requirements or you realise you need to modify existing requirements.
4 Having built an interactive prototype, you are able to evaluate the design.
5 Having evaluated a design with users, you realise you need to modify the design.
6 Having created the design, you are able to build the interactive prototype.
7 Whilst building an interactive prototype you realise you need to modify the design (often because it is incomplete).
8 Having evaluated the interactive prototype and found it to satisfy the requirements, the lifecycle is complete.

Question 20

For the following lifecycles briefly explain why it could be less effective than the ID lifecycle when developing an interactive product: the waterfall model

Answer 20

• The waterfall model. Unlike the ID lifecycle, iteration is not built into this model. It is very unusual to create the perfect design first time for an interactive product, so iteration is very important. It also does not emphasise user involvement, which is of particular importance for interaction design.

Question 21

For the following lifecycles briefly explain why it could be less effective than the ID lifecycle when developing an interactive product: the spiral model,

Answer 21

• The spiral model. This incorporates iteration, but unlike the ID lifecycle this was included for the purposes of risk management, rather than to enable user involvement. In our view, user involvement is extremely important for the successful design of interactive products. You can also see from Figure 9.9 that the spiral model is more prescriptive and linear than the ID lifecycle, allowing for less flexibility.

Question 22

For the following lifecycles briefly explain why it could be less effective than the ID lifecycle when developing an interactive product: Rapid Applications Development (RAD),

Answer 22

• Rapid Application Development (RAD) model. Like the ID lifecycle, this takes an iterative, user-centred view. However, unlike the ID lifecycle, the user involvement appears to be limited to the JAD (Joint Application Development) workshops and iteration to the design and build phase.

Question 23

For the following lifecycles briefly explain why it could be less effective than the ID lifecycle when developing an interactive product: Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)

Answer 23

• The Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) appears more flexible than RAD and has a greater emphasis on active user involvement, but does not appear to have such a great emphasis on evaluation as the ID lifecycle and the precise details need to be tailored according to the particular organisation as this is a generic model.

Question 24

For the following lifecycles briefly explain why it could be less effective than the ID lifecycle when developing an interactive product: Usability Engineering Lifecycle

Answer 24

• Usability Engineering Lifecycle. This is explained in more detail in the Comment for Activity 9.8 on page 460 of the Set Book. Essentially, evaluation has a more pivotal role in the ID lifecycle than in the Usability Engineering Lifecycle, and the ID lifecycle is more flexible.

Question 25

Why evaluate an interactive product?

Answer 25

Evaluation checks that users can use the product and that they like it. Evaluation assesses how well, or otherwise, the usability goals and user experience goals for an interactive product have been satisfied in a particular design.

Question 26

What should you evaluate?

Answer 26

The huge diversity of interactive products results in a wide range of features that need to be evaluated. These include the various controls, use of colour, etc. Usability and user experience goals also need to be evaluated

Question 27

Where should you carry out an evaluation?

Answer 27

The best place to perform evaluations varies. Sometimes it is appropriate to evaluate in a controlled environment such as a laboratory, other times it is better to evaluate where the interactive product is going to be used.

Question 28

What is formative evaluation? What is summative evaluation?

Answer 28

Formative evaluation refers to evaluations done during design to check that the product continues to meet users’ needs. Summative evaluation refers to evaluations that are done to assess the success of a finished product, such as those to satisfy a sponsoring agency or to check that a standard is being upheld.

Question 29

What is the defining feature of usability testing?

Answer 29

The defining characteristic of usability testing is that the environment for the evaluation and the task to be carried out by the users are controlled to varying extents by the evaluator.

Question 30

What is the role of users in field studies?

Answer 30

In field studies it is the role of the users to behave naturally, continuing as usual whilst they are being observed by the evaluators.

Question 31

What is heuristic evaluation?

Answer 31

Heuristic evaluation is a method which identifies usability problems by evaluating the design against a collection of heuristics, based on design guidelines and common sense knowledge.