Sami's Lab Notebook

 This is the final post in Short excerpts series. This series will be used as a reference. Usability evaluation      After designing we  evaluate  what we have done        Why evaluate ? to get feedback      Making sure we are getting the design right   Evaluation techniques        Expert appraisal , user involved techniques      Cognitive walkthrough + Heuristic evaluation Usability inspection methods       Experts are better testers if they have domain knowledge (if they understand the topic), or we may train developers  to be                testers. Usability inspection methods:  Guideline review    Standard inspection Checklists  Cognitive walkthrough   Heuristic evaluation   ((and more importantly)) Cognitive walkthrough   Heuristic evaluation   ——————————- Guideline re...

In this post I will list some ideas that may be included within my essay on :  What are the major future trends for HCI research and development, and why

Quick notes on Week 4 lectures  Prototyping In interaction design it can be  : screen sketch   storyboard slideshow cardboard mockup piece of software with limited functionality   To get a sense of the design   What to prototype? Work flow Task design   Interaction modality   Prototyping   fidelity   Low-fidelity Sketching low quality Quick, easy and rapid to iterate   can be interactive Simplicity   Medium - fidelity Storyboard Card-based prototypes for websites development   Medium - fidelity   Video Powerpoint Wizard-of-Oz prototyping (human faking functionality of computer) Human may reply in a way computer never can do . High Fidelity   Adobe Experience Design   Axure (Wireframing service) Balsamiq Moqups Mockflow mockingbird Design technique  ( Persona and scenario  ) Persona is a fictitious description of users   Types of personas: A-Data-driven (came from fieldwork data) 1-...

Personas and scenarios are techniques that aim to help in designing users' experience. This post will provide two examples of Personas and brief Scenarios for them.

Some quick titles and acronyms from week 3 lectures:  Fieldwork research methods  Capture requirement from fieldwork Ethnographic field work - what is it   (Direct observation-asking questions) Interpreting what you see   Understanding communities from their perspective   Distilling user requirements   Theoretical positioning        ->Distributed cognition        ->Activity theory      ->Critical ethnography        ->Ethnomethodology (EM) Praxelogical   bag account (flow chart) Analytical approach Mail example [naturally accountable organisation] Flow diagram - sequential progressions   GUI Direct manipulation interface WIMP paradigm   Tangible interface  (TUIs) pointing device resulting   real time feedback + GUI Advantages          => recognition over recalling   - GUI Disadvantages      => Ti...

Some points from lectures , it is not inclusive. Understanding (Single) users Cognitive psychology ( focus on internal process) versus  behavioural psychology (that focus on external behaviour). Modelling the user - advanced cognitive model versus basic one (human as information processor) Cognitive in HCI ( Attention , perception , Memory) Design for recognition (GUI) better than recalling (such as  in command-line). Fitts’ Law ( How long it takes to acquire targets by hand ) Understanding  Groups of  users The second wave of HCI focused on ergonomics within group work places such as in control rooms Users deal with devices and other users The need for organisational design that ensure safety within work places  Groupware Time Space Matrix ( Classifying the types of digital interactions ) The third wave the design for the experience  Experience is extended across space and time Experience is informed by our past and our expectations of  the ...

GOMS and KLM used to model the user interaction. GOMS stands for Goal, operator, methods and selections rules. GOMS depends on HTA. One the other hand, KLM is a refinement for GOMS that it aims to show how long task will take. In this blogpost I will workout this assuming the following:  Expert user types "hello, world" in word processor and change the text to 18point Arial font. GOMS Goal: Typing "hello, world" and change the font. Operators:  Mouse , touchpad or touchscreen , Keyboard either physical or on screen.  Methods:  Type "hello, World" , select the text, move the mouse to the font options or using the keyboard shortcut.   Selection rules:  If there is no mouse expert user will be resourceful to use keyboard shortcuts.So we can assume the mouse will not be used and will examine if the word processor offer this options for the expert user. Note: I will disregard Touchscreen in the example assuming user work on a PC.    HTA  0- ...

HTA technique aims to provide a better understanding of a task. It describes the task in term of its sub-tasks. It has many uses, one of which is interaction design. This blogpost will do the HTA for the following tasks:  Borrowing a book from NCL library through self-service machine  Making a cub of Macchiato  at home using Espresso machine Borrowing a book from NCL library through the self-service machine Click on the image to maximise There should be some dark lines under some sub-tasks but when I drew them the picture became little cluttered so I uploaded them without those lines that clarify which task does not branch to more subtasks. My experience doing this initially was a bit awkward because it perhaps the first time I thought in such manner of usual things. Thinking about what tasks imply more steps, deciding the start point and the endpoint for the task could be arguable stuff. Some steps which have multiple ways to do can confuse. So, I decided to pick only on...