The Human Mind & Usability Flashcards
False- consensus
effect
The tendency to overestimate how much other people share our own beliefs and behaviors
Principle of least effort
If there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will choose the least demanding course of action
Perception
Identificationand interpretation of sensory information in order to make sense of the external environment
Central vision
Cones sensitive to color and fine detail
Peripheral vision
Rods sensitive to movement and low light
Change blindness
People’s inability to detect changes in an image when the change occurs far from their focal point
Strategically place
important visual elements near the user’s focal point
Combatting Change Blindness
1.Strategically place
2.Minimize visual interruptions
3.Use appropriate visual emphasis
4.Consider animated transitions
TOP-DOWN PERCEPTION
From our brain to the world
Our prior knowledge, context, and goals influence how well we perceive a stimulus
BOTTOM-UP PERCEPTION
From the world to our brain
The traits and physical attributes of a stimulus influence how we perceive it
Pre-attentive traits
Stimulus traits that are easily noticeable without effortfully directing attention to them
Gestalt theory of perception
People organize visual elements into unified wholes using a set of heuristics (or rules), such as:
-Proximity
-Common
-Regions
-Similarity
-Closure
Proximity principle
Items near each other are usually perceived as related and part of a larger whole
Fitt’s Law
The further away an action item is the longer it will take to reach the item. It is also related to size of the item. The smaller the longer it will take to get the mouse on it.
Common regions
Multiple items within a boundary are more likely to be perceived as a whole. *Common regions overpower proximity.
Similarity principle
Items similar to each other are usually perceived as related and part of a larger whole
Principle of closure
People will fill in blanks to perceive a complete object whenever the external stimuli partially match that object
Illusion of completeness
Occurs when the visiblecontent on the screen appears to be complete, but more information exists outside the viewable area
Combatting the Illusion of Completeness
- Avoid full-screen hero content
- Be aware of vast white space between content
- Be cautious when interrupting content
- Create obvious cues for horizontal swiping
- Test on several devices
Color blindness
Impaired ability to see some colors or differences in color
Attention
Selective focus on certain aspects of the environmentwhile ignoring the rest.
What factors affect attention?
1 Stimulus Salience
2 Goals
3 Prior Experience
Inattentional blindness
Missing something in plain sight because attention is focused elsewhere
Multitasking
The act of doing two or more tasks
at the same time. Possible for motor, cognitive. Less feasible for cognitive, cognitive. Multitasking = serial task switching. Studied best through field testing.
Effects of multitasking
- Inattentional blindness
- Distraction
- 50% increase in task time * Errors
- Lower productivity
- Stress
Automatic process
Process that occurs without involving conscious awareness and which requires very little cognitive resources
Banner Blindness is Selective Attention
Ignoring visual elements that appear in places associated with ads (e.g., right rail, top of the page)
The Stroop Effect
Our tendency to experience difficulty naming a physical color when it is used to spell the name of a different color.
Modal Model of Memory
SENSORY MEMORY >attention> SHORT-TERM MEMORY(STM) >rehearsal> LONG-TERM MEMORY(LTM)
Short-term memory (STM)
Faculties of the human mind that can hold a limited amount of information in a very accessible state, temporarily
Working memory (WM)
A form of short-term memory used to store informationrelevantto a task
Long-term memory
(LTM)
Stores large amounts of information for an indefinite length of time
* Rehearsed info from STM moves to LTM
Activation of an item in LTM
Measure that characterize show easy and fast that item can be retrieved from LTM. Activation = base-level activation(Familiarity)+spreading activation(context)
Jakob’s Law of the Web User Experience
Users spend most of their time on other websites. Follow design standards on other sites.
1. You will reap the benefits of practice on the other sites.
2. You will give users one more practice opportunity.
Spreading activation
Concepts that are part of the current context spread activation to other items that are related to them
Associative priming
Exposure to a stimulus affects your reaction to a subsequent one
Information scent
Clues that tell us what a webpage is about, or where a link will lead
Information scent is closely related to…
…information architecture.
strong information scent
Words and images that are typical category members for what someone is looking for. Strong Scent = greater accuracy and faster recognition.
usable authentication methods
- Biometrics
- Social login
- One-time passwords
Mental model in UX
What the user believes about the system.
Mental model
Representation of facts (imaginary or real) associated with a certain concept or process.
“Mental models are what people really have in their heads and what guides their use of things.”
Schema is
a Concept
Script is
a Process
“Good-enough” processing
The ability to form an interpretation for a sentence without engaging in full detailed processing of all sentence components
Means-end analysis
Solving a problem by considering the obstacles between the initial state and the final goal, and creating subgoals to eliminate these obstacles
A.k.a “divide-and-conquer”
Cost-benefit analysis
Utility (of an alternative) = Expected Benefit – Expected Cost
People choose the alternative that maximizes the perceived utility.
INTERACTION COST is comprised of
Attention
Interaction
Reading
Thinking
PERCEIVED VALUE entails
MARKETING
BRAND PERCEPTION
OFFERINGS
VISUALS
End steps
Last step in a longer process, which usually restores the “state of the world”. Frequently forgotten.
Take card from ATM
Turn off appliances
Save file
Log out
Cancel trial
Cognitive biases
Heuristics that enable people to estimate cost or value, but are illogical or “irrational”
Availability bias
Determining the likelihood of an event based on previously seen examples
Framing effect
How people react to a particular stimulus depends on the context in which that stimulus is presented.
Loss aversion
The tendency to avoid losses even when the probability of a loss is small
Prospect Theory
The pain from losing is greater than the satisfaction from gaining.
Buyer’s remorse
The sense of regret you feel after purchasing a product or service.
Analysis paralysis
Phenomenon where an individual over-thinks, or over-analyzes a decision to the point where no decision is made and no action is taken.
Multi-attribute decision making
1 - Compensatory strategy
2 - Non-compensatory strategy
Compensatory strategy
Allow positive attributes to compensate for negative ones.
Few alternatives
Non-compensatory strategy
Reject alternatives that have negative attributes without considering the positive ones.
Many alternatives
Maximizing
Looking for the best alternative by thoroughly researching all the options.
Optimal alternative
Satisficing
Picking the first alternative that satisfies some acceptability criterion.
“Good-enough” alternative
Aesthetic-Usability Effect
The tendency to perceive attractive products as more usable
Norman’s theory of emotional processing
1 - VISCERAL >
Fast, automatic judgments based on first impressions
2 - BEHAVIORAL >
Performance and utility-based judgments
3 - REFLECTIVE
Rationalization and intellectualization
Halo effect
Using one trait of a person or thing to make an overall judgment of that person or thing
UX =
People
