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