UX Flashcards
What makes a good UX?
- Useful
- Easy to learn
- Helpful
- Accessible
- Attractive
- Fun
- Connected
- Delightful
- Satisfying
What makes a bad UX?
- Stressful
- Confusing
- Ugly
- Distracting
- Inefficient
- Tedious
- Condescending
- Inconsiderate
- Frustrating
User Experience covers what portion of a product?
All of it, all across the board.
Why is UX hard?
- The designer is not the user, and you don’t represent ALL users
- Computers are weird
- Software is complex
How can you make UX easy?
- Follow iterative prototyping process
- Apply user-centered research and design methods
- Understand human behaviour
- Apply common sense
What are the 3 steps of the iterative process?
- Assess (needs, research)
- Design (take what we learn and get ideas)
- Build (prototypes)
- (repeat until satisfied)
What are the key methods for UX research?
- Interviews
- Observations
- Surveys
- User testing
- Inspection methods
What are the 4 elements of a UX?
- Value (is it useful?)
- Usability (can users do what they need to do?)
- Desirability (is it fun, attractive, sexy, pleasant?)
- Adoptability (how easy is it to find and start using it?)
What is a design?
A plan for arranging elements.
What are the parts of the design process?
- Understand the problem
- Generate possible solutions
- Analyse and select
What is a prototype?
A representation of a design made before the final solution exists.
How wide is the useful field of vision?
5 degrees
How do our eyes pick up different parts of an image?
By jumping around, through saccades
In what pattern do we see when looking at web pages?
F-shaped patterns
What are the 3 stages of visual perception?
- Features (colors, angles) – Fastest
- Patterns (shapes) – Second fastest
- Objects (objects) – Slowest
What features pop out on a screen and allows for quick recognition?
- Colors
- Shades
- Angles
- Slopes
- Length
- Motion
- Textures
What is the name of UX pattern identification?
Gestalt
Which are the gestalt principles in pattern detection?
- Proximity
- Closure and continuation
- Symetry
- Similarity
- Common area
- Common fate (movement)
What does the 3rd stage of visual perception rest on? (object identification)
It rests on prior learning experience.
How many things can most people retain in their short term memory?
3-5
Since short term memory is short, what should you do in your UX?
- Keep lists of items short
- Give users the tools to reduce options
- Don’t expect users to remember stuff
What are the 2 primary ways to commit something in your long-term memory?
- Association (much easier for users)
- Repetition
How do you call a network of related concepts?
A schema
How do you help users remember using association?
- Use metaphors (ex: shopping cart on amazon)
- Leverage standards and consistency (Ex: same UI in all office products)
- Avoid asking users to memorize things
What are the 7 stages of an Action?
-Forming a goal
(execution)
- Forming the intention
- Selecting the action
- Executing the action
–Change the environment–
(evaluation)
- Perceive the state of the world
- Interpret the state of the world
- Evaluate the outcome
What do you call when someone does not know how to use something?
Gulf of execution
How do you call when someone does not know if the system worked?
Gulf of evaluation
How do you bridge gulfs of execution and evaluation?
With discoverability
What supports discoverability?
- Affordance (a feature of an object of environment that indicates the possibility of an action, ex: door knob, buttons)
- Signifier (indication of what an action will do and where an action can occur, ex: buttons with words start/stop)
What are the most accepted UX guidelines?
Jakob Nielsen’s 10 heuristics
What are the 10 UX heuristics?
1: Visibility of system status (what’s going on?)
2: Match between system and real world (speak ENGLISH, not nerd)
3: User control and freedom (back, undo, redo buttons)
4: Consistency and standards
5: Error prevention (eliminate error-prone conditions)
6: Recognition rather than recall (minimize user memory)
7: Flexibility and efficiency of use (shortcuts, bookmarks, personalisation)
8: Aesthetic and minimalist design (no clutter, gestalt principles if a lot of stuff)
9: Help users recognize diagnose and recover from errors (plain language error messages, suggest solutions)
10: Help and documentation (easy to search, focussed on user task, concrete steps, not too large)
What are the 4 UX severity types?
1: Cosmetic problem; no real usability impact
2: minor usability problem; fix if there is time
3: major usability problem; important to fix
4: usability catastrophe; imperative to fix
