Week 7: Usability Flashcards
What is satisficing?
- Making the good enough decision
- Looking at the first option
- E.g. looking through a webpage just to find what you’re looking for
What are affordances?
The relationship between a physical object and the capability of the agent to determine how the object is used
What are signifiers?
Any perceivable indicator that communicates appropriate behaviour
What are constraints?
Designed deliberately to guide our actions by not allowing certain actions to be performed.
List the types of error.
- capture
- description
- data driven
- associative-activation
- loss of activation
- mode
Describe a capture error
When you make a mistake that is something you have learned, e.g. the well learned sequence of quit and save done wrong
Describe a description error
The correct action directed toward the wrong object
Describe a data driven error
Unconscious data processing interference e.g. stroop task
Describe an associative-activation error
An internal, semantic mismatch e.g. sending a text to the person the text is about
Describe a loss of activation error
Working memory failure e.g. forgetting what to do half way through doing it
Describe a mode error
When the user perceives the system to be in a state that it is not e.g. CAPS lock
What user characteristics must be taken into account when designing something?
- experience
- domain knowledge
- cultural background
- age
- disability
What is the difference between mapping and conceptual models?
Mapping refers to the relationship between two things, whereas conceptual models are explanations of how something works
What are the essentials of device feedback?
- must be immediate and appropriate
