Quiz 1 Flashcards

Question

What is a mental model?

Answer 1

How we think of things. Designs that align with a user's mental model will be easier for him or her to use. Transparent object expose their functions. Opaque objects hide their function. They are unscientific, partial, unstable (can evolve and adapt to context; not static), Inconsistent, Personal.

Answer 2

Describes how we make connections between things; patterns.

Answer 3

Mental distance between what people want to do and the meaning of interface elements. Gulf of Execution: Complexity between user's intention and what the user must specify to the system to satisfy the intention. Gulf of evaluation: Complexity between the system output and the users evaluation of it and subsequent actions

Answer 4

Mental distance between an interface element's physical appearance and what it actually means. Gulf of Execution: complexity between the meaning of user specified output expression and form of output expression. Gulf of Evaluation: The complexity between the form of system output and the output meaning.

Answer 5

The purpose and usage of an interface object are intuitively understood by the user. Help make predictions about the results of actions and create usable mental models.

Answer 6

How we interact with computers. Command Line, menu navigation form info entry, question and response sequences, etc. Apply interaction frameworks when evaluating interaction styles. Gulf of execution and Gulf of Evaluation. Consider tradeoffs for comping with complexity: mental models, mapping, semantic and articulatory distance, affordance.

Answer 7

Efficient, powerful, simple, good for experts. However, learning curve, memorability, high error rate.

Answer 8

Intention formation, specification of the action, and the execution stages are complex. Requires a mental model of the computer's internal processing.

Answer 9

Translating the user's task language into the input language requires knowledge of the core language. The output language can be confusing for an inexperienced users.

Answer 10

Articulatory distance is large as user is presented with only command prompt and no indication of functionality.

Answer 11

Visual representation of real world objects to create a mental model. Bad metaphors contradict user experiences or real world behavior.

Answer 12

- Choose the appropriate interaction styles - Design the details of the interaction - Avoid the gulfs of execution and evaluation - Achieve good usability in terms of learnability, memorability, understandability, etc. - Discover the problem, solution, users, ...

Answer 13

A philosophy and process for user interface design that emphasizes how the interface will be understood and used by a human user. Less emphasis on business goals, features, technology but on user experience. Who are the users, goals and tasks? experience, knowledge, and skill lelvels? what features do they need? what info do they need? how do they think the system should work? Focus on the user's goals and tasks leads to usability goals for the interface design that supports them. Apply proven design pricinples to satisfy usability goals. Develop project guidelines for the application of design pricniples.

Answer 14

Discovery (Task Analysis, Storyboarding, Use Cases, Primary Stakeholder Profiles, Documenation) -> Design: Conceptual Design (personals, scenarios, flowcharts), Physical Design (Low Fidelity Prototypes, Wireframes, Functional Protopyes) -> Evaulatuon: Usability, Testing

Answer 15

Requirements (Discovery: req elicitation, user modeling, task modeling, specifications) -> Architecture and Design (Design): Conceptual design, physical design, interactive design models, -> Construction (usability testing) -> Deployment

Answer 16

People involved, Things used, Processes involved, Information required, Constraints, Inputs required, outputs created, computing environments, mental models.

Answer 17

Observation (Direct, Indirect). OR Elicitation (Direct: structured, unstructured, Indirect: Open-Ended, Constrained)

Answer 18

A conversation between stakeholders, users, and software engineers, a negotation to achieve mutual understanding and consensus, a documentation of joint understanding and agreements.

Answer 19

Domain learning curve, user and stakeholder diversity, user and stakeholder missions and needs anre constantly changing, new system will impact user needs, complex systems never fully understood, hard to understand the constraints of legacy systems and system environments.

Answer 20

Identify stakeholders (especially users) Discover and learn the problem domain and stakeholders’ point of view Identify user goals, needs, and tasks Observe and elicit requirements – what, when, where, who, why, and how Identify the system boundaries and scope Interpret to derive system requirements using analysis modeling techniques Design and prototype the interface Innovate - invent a better solution and interface

Answer 21

``` Interviews Surveys Apprenticing Ethnographic studies Requirements workshops Literature and competition research Document archeology ```

Answer 22

A stakeholder is any individual or organization which is materially affected by the outcome of the system

Answer 23

Primary —directly uses the system Secondary —either supplies input or receives output from the system Facilitator—maintains or develops the system Indirect — person affected by the use of the system but has no contact with it E.g., the user’s superior or coworkers, or the customer who is paying for the project

Answer 24

The tree root represents the initial problem statement Each branch represents a decision Each leaf represents a possible solution

Answer 25

User oriented questions: Goal-oriented; e.g.; what is most important to you? System-oriented; e.g., what are the most frequent things you do? Workflow-oriented; e.g., what happens in a typical day? Motivation and attitude-oriented; e.g., what do you enjoy most about your job? Context free questions – more general questions about the process and system; e.g., what problem, solution, cost, etc Meta questions – about the process itself; e.g., who else should I interview?

Answer 26

Template to structure and focus questions. What/How Where/When Who/Why

Answer 27

``` Filter through four perspectives for how people work Physical – objects and environment Cultural – relationships among people Functional – actual work activities Informational – information required ``` ``` What/How Functional Physical Informational Where/When Physical Functional Who/Why Cultural Functional Informational ```

Answer 28

Functionality, Usability, Reliability, Performance, Supportability

Answer 29

Identify, analyze, and structure user goals, needs, domain knowledge and skills, problems and frustrations, behavioral relationship to the system, relationship to other users, work environment. Two techniques: personas and user roles

Answer 30

``` A descriptive model of a generic user Represent a class of users Composite user archetypes based on behavioral data gathered from many actual users Aggregate patterns of behavior Specific work or lifestyle related roles ```

Answer 31

Represent the direct relationship between users and the system as roles (i.e., system context). Same thing as Actor.

Answer 32

Describe the characteristics of the user population in a structured manner – the user profile Concentrate on the primary user roles Want accuracy – analyze and refine profiles as needed

Answer 33

Context of use – personal motivation (goals), problems and frustrations, frequency of use, type of work and system interaction, social/physical/technical environment Abilities – education, level of expertise, skills, domain knowledge, physical abilities and disabilities Personal - age, gender, cultural ethnicity

Answer 34

"a narrow view of something

Answer 35

Represent information the way your brain stores it: Concepts Associations Visually organize your thoughts through a combination of drawing and text Emphasize diagrams to replace words and trigger easier memory recall Useful for grouping related items, building menu structures Use for note taking, planning, summarizing, exploring ideas Mind Maps, fishbone diagrams

Answer 36

Low fidelity prototypes Passive Walk the user through scenarios, with a "When you do this, this happens" explanation Electronic or paper - sketches, pictures, screen shots, storyboards, wireframes, PowerPoint slides, or sample application outputs Functional prototypes Active Automated description of system behavior in typical scenarios Interactive Direct user experience as realistic as practical

Answer 37

``` Advantages Can be used early and often. Easy to create, modify and share Make design ideas visual. They don’t crash Complete enough to be useful but incomplete enough to limit expectations ``` Disadvantages They are not interactive. They cannot be used to evaluate performance They do not deal with interface issues such as color or font size They quickly become obsolete

Answer 38

An abstract representation of reality and behavior

Answer 39

Model human information processing through a metaphor of a computational system Input sensors – eyes and ears Output motor subsystem – e.g., arm-hand-finger Working and long term memory Perceptual processor for processing input stimuli Cognitive processor to transform inputs to output actions, and to move information into long term memory

Answer 40

A more tangible model of interaction performance to capture and calculate user performance for task completion based on physical actions Execution time is estimated by listing the sequence operators and then summing the times of the individual operators. Prediction is the time an expert user will take to execute the task using the system without error Comprised of: Operators K Press a key or button (.2 s) P Point with mouse (1.1 s) H Home hands to keyboard or peripheral device (.4 s) D Draw line segments (.9nD+.16lD; n = # of lines, l is length) in cm M Mental preparation (1.35 s) R System response (t) Encoding methods M 9K [ipconfig RETURN] (for DOS ipconfig command) Heuristics for the placement of mental (M) operators Before K’s and P’s *

Answer 41

The techniques does not address user fatigue. The technique is very explicit about basic movement operations, but are generally less rigid with basic cognitive actions. In reality slips happen, but the model does not allow for any type of error. Most applicable to expert users. User personalities, learning, recall and habits are not accounted for in the model. All users are assumed to be exactly the same.

Answer 42

Problem – breadth (number of choices in a given level) versus depth (number of levels) in menu tree Hick’s Law states that increasing the number of choices has a logarithmic effect on decision time (T) Studies show that, given all menu items are equally probable, breadth is better

Answer 43

Model of human movement The time taken to hit a target (e.g. a button, menu or icon on screen) is a function of the size of the target and the distance that has to be moved to the target A larger target is easier to hit than a small one A close target is easier to hit than a distant one

Answer 44

Large targets and small distances between targets are advantageous Screen elements should occupy as much of the available screen space as possible The largest Fitts-based pixel is the one under the cursor (why?) Screen elements should take advantage of the screen edge whenever possible The edges of the screen have infinite depth and no targeting required Large menus like pie menus are easier to use than other types