Week 4

Question 1

What are guidelines and how can they help us design user interfaces?

Answer 1

Guidelines are low-level focused advice about good practices and cautions against dangers.

Question 2

What are Schneiderman’s three high-level design principles?

Answer 2

1. Determine users’ skill levels.
2. Identify the tasks.
3. Choose an interaction style.

Question 3

What are the eight golden rules of interface design?

Answer 3

1. Strive for consistency.
2. Seek universal usability.
3. Offer informative feedback.
4. Design dialogues to yield closure.
5. Prevent errors.
6. Permit easy reversal of actions.
7. Keep users in control.
8. Reduce short-term memory load.

Question 4

What is an error, and what types are there?

Answer 4

Error is any situation in which an action sequence does not lead to the intented result. There is four unintentional errors split into two categories. Action errors consists of operational slip and memory lapse, whilst thinking error consists of rule-based mistake and knowledge-based mistake.

Question 5

What are Don Norman’s principles?

Answer 5

1. Visibility
2. Feedback
3. Affordances
4. Natural Mapping
5. Constraints.
6. Consistency.

Question 6

What’s the relationship between guidelines, principles and theories in HCI?

Answer 6

Guidance. From concrete to abstract in that order.

Question 7

What different types of theories are there?

Answer 7

Predictive, Explanatory, Descriptive, Prescriptive.

Question 8

What is the difference between micro- and macro-HCI theories?

Answer 8

Micro-HCI theories focus on the individual-level interactions between users and specific systems, examining factors like usability, task efficiency, and cognitive load. Macro-HCI theories, on the other hand, address broader social, cultural, and organizational aspects of technology use, exploring how systems influence and are influenced by larger societal contexts and group behaviors