L1 - Introduction to HCI

Question 1

What is Interaction Design?

Answer 1

Interaction design is about designing interactive products to support the way people communicate and interact in their everyday and working lives.

Question 2

What is the difference between Good and Poor design?

Answer 2

Good design is:
* user-centered
* easy to learn
* enjoyable

While poor design often leads to frustration due to complexity and inefficiency.

Question 3

What is usability?

Answer 3

Usability refers to how easy and effective an interactive product or technology is for its users, covering aspects like:
- ease of learning
- efficiency
- maximizing satisfaction and effectiveness
- minimizing errors

Question 4

What are Usability goals and User Experience Goals?

Answer 4

Usability goals focus on making products efficient and easy to use.

While user experience (UX) goals emphasise creating enjoyable and meaningful interactions.

Question 5

What is People-Centered Design?

Answer 5

It’s an approach to understand users’ emotional and practical needs. To ensure the product offers pleasure, satisfaction, and effective interaction.

Question 6

Why is Accessibility and Inclusiveness important in UX and HCI?

Answer 6

• Accessibility ensures that products are usable by people with various abilities
• Inclusiveness makes sure no group is excluded from using the product.

Question 7

What is the purpose of prototyping in Interaction Design?

Answer 7

Prototyping allows designers to:
- test and refine ideas
- gather feedback from users to improve usability and UX before final production.

Question 8

What are the key components of interaction design?

Answer 8

Core concepts:
- User interaction
- Design
- Usability

The Focus of interaction design is creating seamless, useful, intuitive and great experiences for the users.
- Not just that they work, but that they also feel good to use

Question 9

Why is design within HCI user-centered?

Answer 9

By understanding user’s needs, the products can be better

Question 10

What is the core of interaction design?

Answer 10

Designing for user interaction with technologies

Question 11

What characterizes a contextual inquiry?

Answer 11

A situational interview and observation

Question 12

What is a persona and how is it used in HCI?

Answer 12

A generalized description of a typical end-user

Question 13

What is ethnography?

Answer 13

A method for studying people and interaction in real-life situations

Question 14

What is wireframes?

Answer 14

A sketching technique

Question 15

What is a script?

Answer 15

A file with a set of commands for a computer

Question 16

What is tangible user interface?

Answer 16

A surface/object that the user can manipulate directly

Question 17

Why is validity of a scientific method important?

Answer 17

It means that the method is scientifically appropriate for investigating the type of problem

Question 18

What is INTERACTION in the context of HCI?

Answer 18

Interaction between humans and technology

Question 19

What is Design in the context of HCI?

Answer 19

Form and behaviour of an artefact

Question 20

What is a USER in the context of HCI?

Answer 20

Anyone who is (directly) affected by the design, aka. Interacting with the design

Question 21

What is the overall focus of Interaction, Design and User within the context of HCI?

Answer 21

It’s in the context which technology is used in relation to functionality and design

Question 22

Why can’t designers decide what’s good design? And what should one do to be able to design good?

Answer 22

It has to be user-centered, focused on starting from the users’ needs.

What needs to be done is:
- Do user studies
- Talk to members of said communities/fields
- Etc
- Ask, observe
- Get the facts (i.e. old people aren’t bad at tech(?) lol)

Question 23

What is the nature of interaction?

Answer 23

The understanding of interaction that we’ve built up.
Examples:

• A smartwatch you interact by wearing it, gestures, voice, touch.
• Chat vs email
  
  • With Chat you expect an immediate response(I think this is changing nowadays)
• Netflix
  
  • Did you choose the movie you decided to watch, or did the algorithm choose it?

Question 24

How to interact with a digital system? And how does a digital system interact back? Give few examples:

Answer 24

• RFID
• Sensors
• Touch screen
• Keyboard/Mouse

How digital system interact back
- Content on screen
- Audio
- Printer
- Vibration

Question 25

What is an interface?

Answer 25

Layers between users and technology

Question 26

What is a representation(in the context of interface)

Answer 26

How the event is represented in the interface

Question 27

Why can’t a designer decide what is good design?
What work/research be done to make good design?

Answer 27

The design has to be user-centered, focused on users’ needs from start to finish.

• Do user studies
• Talk to members of said communities/fields
• Ask, observe
• Get the facts (i.e. old people aren’t bad at tech(?) lol)

Question 28

What is Usefulness in UX?

Answer 28

Usefulness = Utility x Usability

Question 29

What is Utility in UX?

Answer 29

Utility:
- What does the system do?
- Does it have the features?
- Does it solve a real user need?
- Does it do something people wanna do?

Question 30

What is Usability in UX?

Answer 30

Usability is
- The question of:
- Can people learn the interface?
- Can they understand it?
- Can they operate it efficiently?

Question 31

What is good design?

Answer 31

Something that users need (high Utility)
Measure against usability goals
- Impact goals (what effect should the function have?)
- Measurable goals (can be evaluated)

Question 32

What is Disruptive design?

Answer 32

• Radically changes what we previously think or what we want to be doing
  Examples:
• The launch of Spotify and Netflix