chapter 1

the human
the human

• Information i/o …
– visual, auditory, haptic, movement
• Information stored in memory
– sensory, short-term, long-term
• Information processed and applied
– reasoning, problem solving, skill, error
• Emotion influences human capabilities
• Each person is different
Vision

Two stages in vision

• physical reception of stimulus

• processing and interpretation of

stimulus
The Eye - physical reception

• mechanism for receiving light and

transforming it into electrical energy
• light reflects from objects
• images are focused upside-down on
retina
• retina contains rods for low light vision
and cones for colour vision
• ganglion cells (brain!) detect pattern
and movement
Interpreting the signal

• Size and depth

– visual angle indicates how much of view
object occupies
(relates to size and distance from eye)
– visual acuity is ability to perceive detail
(limited)
– familiar objects perceived as constant size
(in spite of changes in visual angle when far away)

– cues like overlapping help perception of

size and depth
Interpreting the signal (cont)

• Brightness
– subjective reaction to levels of light
– affected by luminance of object
– measured by just noticeable difference
– visual acuity increases with luminance as does
flicker

• Colour
– made up of hue, intensity, saturation
– cones sensitive to colour wavelengths
– blue acuity is lowest
– 8% males and 1% females colour blind
Interpreting the signal (cont)

• The visual system compensates for:

– movement
– changes in luminance.

• Context is used to resolve ambiguity

• Optical illusions sometimes occur due to

over compensation
Optical Illusions

the Ponzo illusion the Muller Lyer illusion

Reading

• Several stages:
– visual pattern perceived
– decoded using internal representation of language
– interpreted using knowledge of syntax, semantics,
pragmatics

• Reading involves saccades and fixations

• Perception occurs during fixations
• Word shape is important to recognition
• Negative contrast improves reading from
computer screen
Hearing

• Provides information about environment:

distances, directions, objects etc.
• Physical apparatus:
– outer ear – protects inner and amplifies sound
– middle ear – transmits sound waves as
vibrations to inner ear
– inner ear – chemical transmitters are released
and cause impulses in auditory nerve
• Sound
– pitch – sound frequency
– loudness – amplitude
– timbre – type or quality
Hearing (cont)

• Humans can hear frequencies from 20Hz to

15kHz
– less accurate distinguishing high frequencies than
low.

• Auditory system filters sounds

– can attend to sounds over background noise.
– for example, the cocktail party phenomenon.
Touch

• Provides important feedback about environment.

• May be key sense for someone who is visually
impaired.
• Stimulus received via receptors in the skin:
– thermoreceptors – heat and cold
– nociceptors – pain
– mechanoreceptors – pressure
(some instant, some continuous)

• Some areas more sensitive than others e.g. fingers.

• Kinethesis - awareness of body position
– affects comfort and performance.
Movement

• Time taken to respond to stimulus:

reaction time + movement time
• Movement time dependent on age, fitness etc.
• Reaction time - dependent on stimulus type:
– visual ~ 200ms
– auditory ~ 150 ms
– pain ~ 700ms

• Increasing reaction time decreases accuracy in

the unskilled operator but not in the skilled
operator.
Movement (cont)

• Fitts' Law describes the time taken to hit a

screen target:
Mt = a + b log2(D/S + 1)
where: a and b are empirically determined constants
Mt is movement time
D is Distance
S is Size of target

⇒ targets as large as possible

distances as small as possible
Memory
There are three types of memory function:

Sensory memories

Short-term memory or working memory

Long-term memory

Selection of stimuli governed by level of arousal.

sensory memory

• Buffers for stimuli received through

senses
– iconic memory: visual stimuli
– echoic memory: aural stimuli
– haptic memory: tactile stimuli
• Examples
– “sparkler” trail
– stereo sound
• Continuously overwritten
Short-term memory (STM)

• Scratch-pad for temporary recall

– rapid access ~ 70ms

– rapid decay ~ 200ms

– limited capacity - 7± 2 chunks

Examples

212348278493202

0121 414 2626

HEC ATR ANU PTH ETR EET

Long-term memory (LTM)

• Repository for all our knowledge

– slow access ~ 1/10 second
– slow decay, if any
– huge or unlimited capacity

• Two types
– episodic – serial memory of events
– semantic – structured memory of facts,concepts, skills

semantic LTM derived from episodic LTM

Long-term memory (cont.)

• Semantic memory structure

– provides access to information
– represents relationships between bits of information
– supports inference

• Model: semantic network

– inheritance – child nodes inherit properties of
parent nodes
– relationships between bits of information explicit
– supports inference through inheritance
LTM - semantic network
Models of LTM - Frames

• Information organized in data structures

• Slots in structure instantiated with values for instance
of data
• Type–subtype relationships

DOG COLLIE

Fixed Fixed
legs: 4 breed of: DOG
type: sheepdog
Default
diet: carniverous Default
sound: bark size: 65 cm
Variable Variable
size: colour
colour
 Models of LTM - Scripts
Model of stereotypical information required to interpret situation

Script has elements that can be instantiated with values for context

Script for a visit to the vet

Entry conditions: dog ill Roles: vet examines

vet open diagnoses
owner has money treats
owner brings dog in
Result: dog better
pays
owner poorer
takes dog out
vet richer
Scenes: arriving at reception
Props: examination table
waiting in room
medicine
examination
instruments
paying
Tracks: dog needs medicine
dog needs operation
Models of LTM - Production rules

Representation of procedural knowledge.

Condition/action rules
if condition is matched
then use rule to determine action.

IF dog is wagging tail

THEN pat dog

IF dog is growling
THEN run away
LTM - Storage of information

• rehearsal
– information moves from STM to LTM

• total time hypothesis

– amount retained proportional to rehearsal time

• distribution of practice effect

– optimized by spreading learning over time

• structure, meaning and familiarity

– information easier to remember
LTM - Forgetting

decay
– information is lost gradually but very slowly

interference
– new information replaces old: retroactive
interference
– old may interfere with new: proactive inhibition

so may not forget at all memory is selective …

… affected by emotion – can subconsciously `choose' to
forget
LTM - retrieval

recall
– information reproduced from memory can be
assisted by cues, e.g. categories, imagery

recognition
– information gives knowledge that it has been seen
before
– less complex than recall - information is cue
 Thinking

Reasoning
deduction, induction, abduction
Problem solving
Deductive Reasoning

• Deduction:
– derive logically necessary conclusion from given
premises.
e.g. If it is Friday then she will go to work
It is Friday
Therefore she will go to work.

• Logical conclusion not necessarily true:

e.g. If it is raining then the ground is dry
It is raining
Therefore the ground is dry
Deduction (cont.)

• When truth and logical validity clash …

e.g. Some people are babies
Some babies cry
Inference - Some people cry
Correct?

• People bring world knowledge to bear

Inductive Reasoning

• Induction:
– generalize from cases seen to cases unseen
e.g. all elephants we have seen have trunks
therefore all elephants have trunks.

• Unreliable:
– can only prove false not true

… but useful!
• Humans not good at using negative evidence
e.g. Wason's cards.
 Wason's cards

7 E 4 K
If a card has a vowel on one side it has an even number on the other

Is this true?

How many cards do you need to turn over to find out?

…. and which cards?

Abductive reasoning

• reasoning from event to cause

e.g. Sam drives fast when drunk.
If I see Sam driving fast, assume drunk.

• Unreliable:
– can lead to false explanations
Problem solving

• Process of finding solution to unfamiliar task

using knowledge.
• Several theories.
• Gestalt
– problem solving both productive and reproductive
– productive draws on insight and restructuring of problem
– attractive but not enough evidence to explain `insight'
etc.
– move away from behaviourism and led towards
information processing theories
Problem solving (cont.)

Problem space theory

– problem space comprises problem states
– problem solving involves generating states using legal
operators
– heuristics may be employed to select operators
e.g. means-ends analysis
– operates within human information processing system
e.g. STM limits etc.
– largely applied to problem solving in well-defined areas
e.g. puzzles rather than knowledge intensive areas
Problem solving (cont.)

• Analogy
– analogical mapping:
• novel problems in new domain?
• use knowledge of similar problem from similar domain
– analogical mapping difficult if domains are semantically
different

• Skill acquisition
– skilled activity characterized by chunking
• lot of information is chunked to optimize STM
– conceptual rather than superficial grouping of problems
– information is structured more effectively
Errors and mental models

Types of error
• slips
– right intention, but failed to do it right
– causes: poor physical skill,inattention etc.
– change to aspect of skilled behaviour can cause slip

• mistakes
– wrong intention
– cause: incorrect understanding
humans create mental models to explain behaviour.
if wrong (different from actual system) errors can occur
Emotion
• Various theories of how emotion works
– James-Lange: emotion is our interpretation of a
physiological response to a stimuli
– Cannon: emotion is a psychological response to a
stimuli
– Schacter-Singer: emotion is the result of our
evaluation of our physiological responses, in the
light of the whole situation we are in
• Emotion clearly involves both cognitive and
physical responses to stimuli
Emotion (cont.)
• The biological response to physical stimuli is
called affect

• Affect influences how we respond to situations

– positive → creative problem solving
– negative → narrow thinking

“Negative affect can make it harder to do

even easy tasks; positive affect can make
it easier to do difficult tasks”
(Donald Norman)
Emotion (cont.)

• Implications for interface design

– stress will increase the difficulty of problem
solving
– relaxed users will be more forgiving of
shortcomings in design
– aesthetically pleasing and rewarding
interfaces will increase positive affect
Individual differences

• long term
– sex, physical and intellectual abilities
• short term
– effect of stress or fatigue
• changing
– age

Ask yourself:
will design decision exclude section of user
population?
Psychology and the Design of
Interactive System
• Some direct applications
– e.g. blue acuity is poor
⇒ blue should not be used for important detail

• However, correct application generally requires

understanding of context in psychology, and an
understanding of particular experimental conditions

• A lot of knowledge has been distilled in

– guidelines (chap 7)
– cognitive models (chap 12)
– experimental and analytic evaluation techniques (chap 9)
 chapter 2

the computer
The Computer
a computer system is made up of various elements

each of these elements affects the interaction

– input devices – text entry and pointing
– output devices – screen (small&large), digital paper
– virtual reality – special interaction and display devices
– physical interaction – e.g. sound, haptic, bio-sensing
– paper – as output (print) and input (scan)
– memory – RAM & permanent media, capacity & access
– processing – speed of processing, networks
Interacting with computers

to understand human–computer interaction

… need to understand computers!

what goes in and out

devices, paper,
sensors, etc.

what can it do?

memory, processing,
networks
 A ‘typical’ computer system
? • screen, or monitor, on which there are windows
• keyboard
window 1
• mouse/trackpad
window 2
• variations
– desktop
– laptop
– PDA
12-37pm

the devices dictate the styles of interaction that the system

supports
If we use different devices, then the interface will support a
different style of interaction
How many …

• computers in your house?

– hands up, …
… none, 1, 2 , 3, more!!

• computers in your pockets?

are you thinking …

… PC, laptop, PDA ??
How many computers …

in your house? in your pockets?

– PC – PDA
– TV, VCR, DVD, HiFi, – phone, camera
cable/satellite TV – smart card, card with
– microwave, cooker, magnetic strip?
washing machine – electronic car key
– central heating – USB memory
– security system
try your pockets and
can you think of more? bags
Interactivity?

Long ago in a galaxy far away … batch processing

– punched card stacks or large data files prepared
– long wait ….
– line printer output
… and if it is not right …

Now most computing is interactive

– rapid feedback
– the user in control (most of the time)
– doing rather than thinking …

Is faster always better?

Richer interaction

sensors
and devices
everywhere
 text entry devices

keyboards (QWERTY et al.)

chord keyboards, phone pads
handwriting, speech
Keyboards

• Most common text input device

• Allows rapid entry of text by experienced users

• Keypress closes connection, causing a

character code to be sent
• Usually connected by cable, but can be
wireless
layout – QWERTY

• Standardised layout
but …
– non-alphanumeric keys are placed differently
– accented symbols needed for different scripts
– minor differences between UK and USA keyboards

• QWERTY arrangement not optimal for typing

– layout to prevent typewriters jamming!
• Alternative designs allow faster typing but large social
base of QWERTY typists produces reluctance to change.
QWERTY (ctd)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Q W E R T Y U I O P
A S D F G H J K L
Z X C V B N M , .
SPACE
alternative keyboard layouts

Alphabetic
– keys arranged in alphabetic order
– not faster for trained typists
– not faster for beginners either!

Dvorak
– common letters under dominant fingers
– biased towards right hand
– common combinations of letters alternate between hands
– 10-15% improvement in speed and reduction in fatigue
– But - large social base of QWERTY typists produce market
pressures not to change
special keyboards

• designs to reduce fatigue for RSI

• for one handed use
e.g. the Maltron left-handed keyboard
Chord keyboards
only a few keys - four or 5
letters typed as combination of keypresses
compact size
– ideal for portable applications
short learning time
– keypresses reflect letter shape
fast
– once you have trained

BUT - social resistance, plus fatigue after extended use

NEW – niche market for some wearables
phone pad and T9 entry
• use numeric keys with
multiple presses
2 –abc 6mno-
3 -def 7 -
pqrs
4 -ghi 8tuv-
5 -jkl 9 -
wxyz
hello = 4433555[pause]555666
surprisingly fast!
• T9 predictive entry
– type as if single key for each letter
– use dictionary to ‘guess’ the right word
– hello = 43556 …
– but 26 -> menu ‘am’ or ‘an’
Handwriting recognition

• Text can be input into the computer, using a

pen and a digesting tablet
– natural interaction

• Technical problems:
– capturing all useful information - stroke path,
pressure, etc. in a natural manner
– segmenting joined up writing into individual letters
– interpreting individual letters
– coping with different styles of handwriting

• Used in PDAs, and tablet computers …

… leave the keyboard on the desk!
Speech recognition

• Improving rapidly

• Most successful when:

– single user – initial training and learns peculiarities
– limited vocabulary systems

• Problems with
– external noise interfering
– imprecision of pronunciation
– large vocabularies
– different speakers
Numeric keypads

• for entering numbers quickly:

– calculator, PC keyboard
• for telephones
1 2 3 7 8 9
not the same!! 4 5 6 4 5 6
7 8 9 1 2 3
ATM like phone .
0 # 0 =
*
telephone calculator
positioning, pointing and drawing

mouse, touchpad
trackballs, joysticks etc.
touch screens, tablets
eyegaze, cursors
the Mouse

• Handheld pointing device

– very common
– easy to use

• Two characteristics
– planar movement
– buttons
(usually from 1 to 3 buttons on top, used for
making a selection, indicating an option, or to
initiate drawing etc.)
the mouse (ctd)
Mouse located on desktop
– requires physical space
– no arm fatigue

Relative movement only is detectable.

Movement of mouse moves screen cursor
Screen cursor oriented in (x, y) plane,
mouse movement in (x, z) plane …
… an indirect manipulation device.
– device itself doesn’t obscure screen, is accurate and fast.
– hand-eye coordination problems for novice users
How does it work?
Two methods for detecting motion

• Mechanical
– Ball on underside of mouse turns as mouse is moved
– Rotates orthogonal potentiometers
– Can be used on almost any flat surface

• Optical
– light emitting diode on underside of mouse
– may use special grid-like pad or just on desk
– less susceptible to dust and dirt
– detects fluctuating alterations in reflected light intensity to
calculate relative motion in (x, z) plane
Even by foot …

• some experiments with the footmouse

– controlling mouse movement with feet …
– not very common :-)

• but foot controls are common elsewhere:

– car pedals
– sewing machine speed control
– organ and piano pedals
Touchpad

• small touch sensitive tablets

• ‘stroke’ to move mouse pointer
• used mainly in laptop computers

• good ‘acceleration’ settings important

– fast stroke
• lots of pixels per inch moved
• initial movement to the target
– slow stroke
• less pixels per inch
• for accurate positioning
Trackball and thumbwheels

Trackball
– ball is rotated inside static housing
• like an upsdie down mouse!
– relative motion moves cursor
– indirect device, fairly accurate
– separate buttons for picking
– very fast for gaming
– used in some portable and notebook computers.

Thumbwheels …
– for accurate CAD – two dials for X-Y cursor position
– for fast scrolling – single dial on mouse
Joystick and keyboard nipple

Joystick
– indirect
pressure of stick = velocity of movement
– buttons for selection
on top or on front like a trigger
– often used for computer games
aircraft controls and 3D navigation

Keyboard nipple
– for laptop computers
– miniature joystick in the middle of the keyboard
Touch-sensitive screen
• Detect the presence of finger or stylus on the screen.
– works by interrupting matrix of light beams, capacitance changes
or ultrasonic reflections
– direct pointing device

• Advantages:
– fast, and requires no specialised pointer
– good for menu selection
– suitable for use in hostile environment: clean and safe from
damage.

• Disadvantages:
– finger can mark screen
– imprecise (finger is a fairly blunt instrument!)
• difficult to select small regions or perform accurate drawing
– lifting arm can be tiring
Stylus and light pen

Stylus
– small pen-like pointer to draw directly on screen
– may use touch sensitive surface or magnetic detection
– used in PDA, tablets PCs and drawing tables

Light Pen
– now rarely used
– uses light from screen to detect location

BOTH …
– very direct and obvious to use
– but can obscure screen
Digitizing tablet

• Mouse like-device with cross hairs

• used on special surface

- rather like stylus

• very accurate
- used for digitizing maps
Eyegaze

• control interface by eye gaze direction

– e.g. look at a menu item to select it
• uses laser beam reflected off retina
– … a very low power laser!
• mainly used for evaluation (ch x)
• potential for hands-free control
• high accuracy requires headset
• cheaper and lower accuracy devices available
sit under the screen like a small webcam
Cursor keys

• Four keys (up, down, left, right) on keyboard.

• Very, very cheap, but slow.
• Useful for not much more than basic motion for text-
editing tasks.
• No standardised layout, but inverted “T”, most common
Discrete positioning controls

• in phones, TV controls etc.

– cursor pads or mini-joysticks
– discrete left-right, up-down
– mainly for menu selection
 display devices

bitmap screens (CRT & LCD)

large & situated displays
digital paper
bitmap displays

• screen is vast number of coloured dots

resolution and colour depth
• Resolution … used (inconsistently) for
– number of pixels on screen (width x height)
• e.g. SVGA 1024 x 768, PDA perhaps 240x400
– density of pixels (in pixels or dots per inch - dpi)
• typically between 72 and 96 dpi
• Aspect ratio
– ration between width and height
– 4:3 for most screens, 16:9 for wide-screen TV
• Colour depth:
– how many different colours for each pixel?
– black/white or greys only
– 256 from a pallete
– 8 bits each for red/green/blue = millions of colours
anti-aliasing
Jaggies
– diagonal lines that have discontinuities in due to horizontal
raster scan process.

Anti-aliasing
– softens edges by using shades of line colour
– also used for text
Cathode ray tube

• Stream of electrons emitted from electron gun, focused

and directed by magnetic fields, hit phosphor-coated
screen which glows
• used in TVs and computer monitors

electron beam

electron gun

focussing and
deflection

phosphor-
coated screen
Health hazards of CRT !
• X-rays: largely absorbed by screen (but not at rear!)
• UV- and IR-radiation from phosphors: insignificant
levels
• Radio frequency emissions, plus ultrasound (~16kHz)
• Electrostatic field - leaks out through tube to user.
Intensity dependant on distance and humidity. Can
cause rashes.
• Electromagnetic fields (50Hz-0.5MHz). Create induction
currents in conductive materials, including the human
body. Two types of effects attributed to this: visual
system - high incidence of cataracts in VDU operators,
and concern over reproductive disorders (miscarriages
and birth defects).
Health hints …

• do not sit too close to the screen

• do not use very small fonts
• do not look at the screen for long periods
without a break
• do not place the screen directly in front of a
bright window
• work in well-lit surroundings

 Take extra care if pregnant.

but also posture, ergonomics, stress
Liquid crystal displays
• Smaller, lighter, and … no radiation problems.

• Found on PDAs, portables and notebooks,

… and increasingly on desktop and even for home TV

• also used in dedicted displays:

digital watches, mobile phones, HiFi controls

• How it works …
– Top plate transparent and polarised, bottom plate reflecting.
– Light passes through top plate and crystal, and reflects back to
eye.
– Voltage applied to crystal changes polarisation and hence colour
– N.B. light reflected not emitted => less eye strain
special displays

Random Scan (Directed-beam refresh, vector display)

– draw the lines to be displayed directly
– no jaggies
– lines need to be constantly redrawn
– rarely used except in special instruments

Direct view storage tube (DVST)

– Similar to random scan but persistent => no flicker
– Can be incrementally updated but not selectively erased
– Used in analogue storage oscilloscopes
large displays

• used for meetings, lectures, etc.

• technology
plasma – usually wide screen
video walls – lots of small screens together
projected – RGB lights or LCD projector
– hand/body obscures screen
– may be solved by 2 projectors + clever software
back-projected
– frosted glass + projector behind
situated displays

• displays in ‘public’ places

– large or small
– very public or for small group
• display only
– for information relevant to location
• or interactive
– use stylus, touch sensitive screem
• in all cases … the location matters
– meaning of information or interaction is related to
the location
 Hermes a situated display

• small displays beside office doors

• handwritten notes left using stylus
small displays
•beside
office owner reads notes using web interface
office doors

handwritten office owner

notes left reads notes
using stylus using web interface
Digital paper
appearance

• what?
– thin flexible sheets
– updated electronically cross
section
– but retain display

• how?
– small spheres turned
– or channels with coloured liquid
and contrasting spheres
– rapidly developing area
virtual reality and 3D interaction

positioning in 3D space
moving and grasping
seeing 3D (helmets and caves)
positioning in 3D space

• cockpit and virtual controls

– steering wheels, knobs and dials … just like real!
• the 3D mouse
– six-degrees of movement: x, y, z + roll, pitch, yaw
• data glove
– fibre optics used to detect finger position
• VR helmets
– detect head motion and possibly eye gaze
• whole body tracking
– accelerometers strapped to limbs or reflective dots
and video processing
pitch, yaw and roll

yaw

roll
pitch
3D displays

• desktop VR
– ordinary screen, mouse or keyboard control
– perspective and motion give 3D effect
• seeing in 3D
– use stereoscopic vision
– VR helmets
– screen plus shuttered specs, etc.

also see extra slides on 3D vision

VR headsets

• small TV screen for each eye

• slightly different angles
• 3D effect
VR motion sickness

• time delay
– move head … lag … display moves
– conflict: head movement vs. eyes
• depth perception
– headset gives different stereo distance
– but all focused in same plane
– conflict: eye angle vs. focus
• conflicting cues => sickness
– helps motivate improvements in technology
simulators and VR caves

• scenes projected on walls

• realistic environment
• hydraulic rams!
• real controls
• other people
physical controls, sensors etc.

special displays and gauges

sound, touch, feel, smell
physical controls
environmental and bio-sensing
dedicated displays

• analogue representations:
– dials, gauges, lights, etc.

• digital displays:
– small LCD screens, LED lights, etc.

• head-up displays
– found in aircraft cockpits
– show most important controls
… depending on context
Sounds

• beeps, bongs, clonks, whistles and

whirrs

• used for error indications

• confirmation of actions e.g. keyclick

also see chapter 10

Touch, feel, smell

• touch and feeling important

– in games … vibration, force feedback
– in simulation … feel of surgical instruments
– called haptic devices

• texture, smell, taste

– current technology very limited
BMW iDrive

• for controlling menus

• feel small ‘bumps’ for each item
• makes it easier to select options by feel
• uses haptic technology from Immersion Corp.
 physical controls

• specialist controls needed …

– industrial controls, consumer products, etc.

easy-clean
smooth buttons

multi-function
control
large buttons
clear dials

tiny buttons
Environment and bio-sensing

• sensors all around us

– car courtesy light – small switch on door
– ultrasound detectors – security, washbasins
– RFID security tags in shops
– temperature, weight, location

• … and even our own bodies …

– iris scanners, body temperature, heart rate,
galvanic skin response, blink rate
paper: printing and scanning

print technology
fonts, page description, WYSIWYG
scanning, OCR
Printing

• image made from small dots

– allows any character set or graphic to be
printed,
• critical features:
– resolution
• size and spacing of the dots
• measured in dots per inch (dpi)
– speed
• usually measured in pages per minute
– cost!!
Types of dot-based printers
• dot-matrix printers
– use inked ribbon (like a typewriter
– line of pins that can strike the ribbon, dotting the paper.
– typical resolution 80-120 dpi
• ink-jet and bubble-jet printers
– tiny blobs of ink sent from print head to paper
– typically 300 dpi or better .
• laser printer
– like photocopier: dots of electrostatic charge deposited on
drum, which picks up toner (black powder form of ink)
rolled onto paper which is then fixed with heat
– typically 600 dpi or better.
Printing in the workplace

• shop tills
– dot matrix
– same print head used for several paper rolls
– may also print cheques

• thermal printers
– special heat-sensitive paper
– paper heated by pins makes a dot
– poor quality, but simple & low maintenance
– used in some fax machines
Fonts
• Font – the particular style of text
Courier font
Helvetica font
Palatino font
Times Roman font
∀ ♣×∝≡↵ℜ⊗↵∼ (special symbol)

• Size of a font measured in points (1 pt about 1/72”)

(vaguely) related to its height
This is ten point Helvetica
This is twelve point
This is fourteen point
This is eighteen point
and this is twenty-four point
Fonts (ctd)

Pitch
– fixed-pitch – every character has the same width
e.g. Courier
– variable-pitched – some characters wider
e.g. Times Roman – compare the ‘i’ and the “m”
Serif or Sans-serif
– sans-serif – square-ended strokes
e.g. Helvetica
– serif – with splayed ends (such as)
e.g. Times Roman or Palatino
Readability of text

• lowercase
– easy to read shape of words
• UPPERCASE
– better for individual letters and non-words
e.g. flight numbers: BA793 vs. ba793

• serif fonts
– helps your eye on long lines of printed text
– but sans serif often better on screen
Page Description Languages

• Pages very complex

– different fonts, bitmaps, lines, digitised photos, etc.

• Can convert it all into a bitmap and send to the printer

… but often huge !

• Alternatively Use a page description language

– sends a description of the page can be sent,
– instructions for curves, lines, text in different styles, etc.
– like a programming language for printing!

• PostScript is the most common

Screen and page

• WYSIWYG
– what you see is what you get
– aim of word processing, etc.
• but …
– screen: 72 dpi, landscape image
– print: 600+ dpi, portrait
• can try to make them similar
but never quite the same
• so … need different designs, graphics etc, for
screen and print
Scanners

• Take paper and convert it into a bitmap

• Two sorts of scanner

– flat-bed: paper placed on a glass plate, whole page
converted into bitmap
– hand-held: scanner passed over paper, digitising strip
typically 3-4” wide

• Shines light at paper and note intensity of reflection

– colour or greyscale

• Typical resolutions from 600–2400 dpi

Scanners (ctd)

Used in
– desktop publishing for incorporating
photographs and other images

– document storage and retrieval systems,

doing away with paper storage
+ special scanners for slides and
photographic negatives
Optical character recognition

• OCR converts bitmap back into text

• different fonts
– create problems for simple “template
matching” algorithms
– more complex systems segment text,
decompose it into lines and arcs, and
decipher characters that way
• page format
– columns, pictures, headers and footers
Paper-based interaction
• paper usually regarded as output only
• can be input too – OCR, scanning, etc.
• Xerox PaperWorks
– glyphs – small patterns of /\\//\\\
• used to identify forms etc.
• used with scanner and fax to control applications

• more recently
– papers micro printed - like wattermarks
• identify which sheet and where you are
– special ‘pen’ can read locations
• know where they are writing
 memory

short term and long term

speed, capacity, compression
formats, access
Short-term Memory - RAM

• Random access memory (RAM)

– on silicon chips
– 100 nano-second access time
– usually volatile (lose information if power turned off)
– data transferred at around 100 Mbytes/sec

• Some non-volatile RAM used to store basic

set-up information

• Typical desktop computers:

64 to 256 Mbytes RAM
Long-term Memory - disks

• magnetic disks
– floppy disks store around 1.4 Mbytes
– hard disks typically 40 Gbytes to 100s of Gbytes
access time ~10ms, transfer rate 100kbytes/s

• optical disks
– use lasers to read and sometimes write
– more robust that magnetic media
– CD-ROM
- same technology as home audio, ~ 600 Gbytes
– DVD - for AV applications, or very large files
Blurring boundaries

• PDAs
– often use RAM for their main memory

• Flash-Memory
– used in PDAs, cameras etc.
– silicon based but persistent
– plug-in USB devices for data transfer
speed and capacity

• what do the numbers mean?

• some sizes (all uncompressed) …

– this book, text only ~ 320,000 words, 2Mb
– the Bible ~ 4.5 Mbytes
– scanned page ~ 128 Mbytes
• (11x8 inches, 1200 dpi, 8bit greyscale)
– digital photo ~ 10 Mbytes
• (2–4 mega pixels, 24 bit colour)
– video ~ 10 Mbytes per second
• (512x512, 12 bit colour, 25 frames per sec)
virtual memory

• Problem:
– running lots of programs + each program large
– not enough RAM

• Solution - Virtual memory :

– store some programs temporarily on disk
– makes RAM appear bigger

• But … swopping
– program on disk needs to run again
– copied from disk to RAM
– slows t h i n g s d o w n
Compression

• reduce amount of storage required

• lossless
– recover exact text or image – e.g. GIF, ZIP
– look for commonalities:
• text: AAAAAAAAAABBBBBCCCCCCCC 10A5B8C
• video: compare successive frames and store change
• lossy
– recover something like original – e.g. JPEG, MP3
– exploit perception
• JPEG: lose rapid changes and some colour
• MP3: reduce accuracy of drowned out notes
Storage formats - text

• ASCII - 7-bit binary code for to each letter and

character
• UTF-8 - 8-bit encoding of 16 bit character set
• RTF (rich text format)
- text plus formatting and layout information
• SGML (standardized generalised markup language)
- documents regarded as structured objects
• XML (extended markup language)
- simpler version of SGML for web applications
Storage formats - media

• Images:
– many storage formats :
(PostScript, GIFF, JPEG, TIFF, PICT, etc.)
– plus different compression techniques
(to reduce their storage requirements)

• Audio/Video
– again lots of formats :
(QuickTime, MPEG, WAV, etc.)
– compression even more important
– also ‘streaming’ formats for network delivery
methods of access

• large information store

– long time to search => use index
– what you index -> what you can access
• simple index needs exact match
• forgiving systems:
– Xerox “do what I mean” (DWIM)
– SOUNDEX – McCloud ~ MacCleod
• access without structure …
– free text indexing (all the words in a document)
– needs lots of space!!
 processing and networks

finite speed (but also Moore’s law)

limits of interaction
networked computing
Finite processing speed
• Designers tend to assume fast processors, and make
interfaces more and more complicated

• But problems occur, because processing cannot keep up

with all the tasks it needs to do
– cursor overshooting because system has buffered
keypresses
– icon wars - user clicks on icon, nothing happens, clicks on
another, then system responds and windows fly
everywhere

• Also problems if system is too fast - e.g. help screens

may scroll through text much too rapidly to be read
Moore’s law

• computers get faster and faster!

• 1965 …
– Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, noticed a pattern
– processor speed doubles every 18 months
– PC … 1987: 1.5 Mhz, 2002: 1.5 GHz
• similar pattern for memory
– but doubles every 12 months!!
– hard disk … 1991: 20Mbyte : 2002: 30 Gbyte
• baby born today
– record all sound and vision
– by 70 all life’s memories stored in a grain of dust!

/e3/online/moores-law/
the myth of the infinitely
fast machine

• implicit assumption … no delays

an infinitely fast machine
• what is good design for real machines?
• good example … the telephone :
– type keys too fast
– hear tones as numbers sent down the line
– actually an accident of implementation
– emulate in deisgn
Limitations on interactive
performance
Computation bound
– Computation takes ages, causing frustration for the user
Storage channel bound
– Bottleneck in transference of data from disk to memory
Graphics bound
– Common bottleneck: updating displays requires a lot of
effort - sometimes helped by adding a graphics co-
processor optimised to take on the burden
Network capacity
– Many computers networked - shared resources and files,
access to printers etc. - but interactive performance can be
reduced by slow network speed
Networked computing

Networks allow access to …

– large memory and processing
– other people (groupware, email)
– shared resources – esp. the web

Issues
– network delays – slow feedback
– conflicts - many people update data
– unpredictability
The internet

• history …
– 1969: DARPANET US DoD, 4 sites
– 1971: 23; 1984: 1000; 1989: 10000
• common language (protocols):
– TCP – Transmission Control protocol
• lower level, packets (like letters) between machines
– IP – Internet Protocol
• reliable channel (like phone call) between programs on
machines
– email, HTTP, all build on top of these
 chapter 3

the interaction
The Interaction

• interaction models
– translations between user and system
• ergonomics
– physical characteristics of interaction
• interaction styles
– the nature of user/system dialog
• context
– social, organizational, motivational
What is interaction?

communication

user ↔ system

but is that all … ?

– see “language and action” in chapter 4 …
models of interaction

terms of interaction
Norman model
interaction framework
Some terms of interaction

domain – the area of work under study

e.g. graphic design
goal – what you want to achieve
e.g. create a solid red triangle
task – how you go about doing it
– ultimately in terms of operations or actions
e.g. … select fill tool, click over triangle

Note …
– traditional interaction …
– use of terms differs a lot especially task/goal !!!
Donald Norman’s model

• Seven stages
– user establishes the goal
– formulates intention
– specifies actions at interface
– executes action
– perceives system state
– interprets system state
– evaluates system state with respect to goal

• Norman’s model concentrates on user’s view of

the interface
execution/evaluation loop
goal

execution evaluation
system
• user establishes the goal
• formulates intention
• specifies actions at interface
• executes action
• perceives system state
• interprets system state
• evaluates system state with respect to goal
execution/evaluation loop
goal

execution evaluation
system
• user establishes the goal
• formulates intention
• specifies actions at interface
• executes action
• perceives system state
• interprets system state
• evaluates system state with respect to goal
execution/evaluation loop
goal

execution evaluation
system
• user establishes the goal
• formulates intention
• specifies actions at interface
• executes action
• perceives system state
• interprets system state
• evaluates system state with respect to goal
execution/evaluation loop
goal

execution evaluation
system
• user establishes the goal
• formulates intention
• specifies actions at interface
• executes action
• perceives system state
• interprets system state
• evaluates system state with respect to goal
Using Norman’s model

Some systems are harder to use than others

Gulf of Execution
user’s formulation of actions
≠ actions allowed by the system

Gulf of Evaluation
user’s expectation of changed system state
≠ actual presentation of this state
Human error - slips and mistakes

slip
understand system and goal
correct formulation of action
incorrect action

mistake
may not even have right goal!

Fixing things?
slip – better interface design
mistake – better understanding of system
Abowd and Beale framework
extension of Norman…
their interaction framework has 4 parts O
– user output
– input
S U
– system core task
– output I
input
each has its own unique language
interaction  translation between languages

problems in interaction = problems in translation

Using Abowd & Beale’s model
user intentions
 translated into actions at the interface
 translated into alterations of system state
 reflected in the output display
 interpreted by the user

general framework for understanding interaction

– not restricted to electronic computer systems
– identifies all major components involved in interaction
– allows comparative assessment of systems
– an abstraction
 ergonomics

physical aspects of interfaces

industrial interfaces
Ergonomics

• Study of the physical characteristics of

interaction

• Also known as human factors – but this can

also be used to mean much of HCI!

• Ergonomics good at defining standards and

guidelines for constraining the way we design
certain aspects of systems
Ergonomics - examples

• arrangement of controls and displays

e.g. controls grouped according to function or
frequency of use, or sequentially
• surrounding environment
e.g. seating arrangements adaptable to cope with all
sizes of user
• health issues
e.g. physical position, environmental conditions
(temperature, humidity), lighting, noise,
• use of colour
e.g. use of red for warning, green for okay,
awareness of colour-blindness etc.
Industrial interfaces

Office interface vs. industrial interface?

Context matters!
office industrial
type of data textual numeric
rate of change slow fast
environment clean dirty

… the oil soaked mouse!

Glass interfaces ?

• industrial interface:
– traditional … dials and knobs
– now … screens and keypads
• glass interface
+ cheaper, more flexible, Vessel B Temp
multiple representations,
precise values 0 100 200

– not physically located,

loss of context, 113
complex interfaces
• may need both multiple representations
of same information
Indirect manipulation

• office– direct manipulation

– user interacts
with artificial world system

• industrial – indirect manipulation

– user interacts
with real world
through interface
interface plant
• issues ..
– feedback immediate
feedback
– delays
instruments
 interaction styles

dialogue … computer and user

distinct styles of interaction

Common interaction styles

• command line interface

• menus
• natural language
• question/answer and query dialogue
• form-fills and spreadsheets
• WIMP
• point and click
• three–dimensional interfaces
Command line interface

• Way of expressing instructions to the computer

directly
– function keys, single characters, short abbreviations,
whole words, or a combination

• suitable for repetitive tasks

• better for expert users than novices
• offers direct access to system functionality
• command names/abbreviations should be
meaningful!
Typical example: the Unix system
Menus

• Set of options displayed on the screen

• Options visible
– less recall - easier to use
– rely on recognition so names should be meaningful
• Selection by:
– numbers, letters, arrow keys, mouse
– combination (e.g. mouse plus accelerators)
• Often options hierarchically grouped
– sensible grouping is needed
• Restricted form of full WIMP system
Natural language

• Familiar to user
• speech recognition or typed natural language
• Problems
– vague
– ambiguous
– hard to do well!
• Solutions
– try to understand a subset
– pick on key words
Query interfaces

• Question/answer interfaces
– user led through interaction via series of questions
– suitable for novice users but restricted functionality
– often used in information systems

• Query languages (e.g. SQL)

– used to retrieve information from database
– requires understanding of database structure and
language syntax, hence requires some expertise
Form-fills

• Primarily for data entry or data retrieval

• Screen like paper form.
• Data put in relevant place
• Requires
– good design
– obvious correction
facilities
Spreadsheets

• first spreadsheet VISICALC, followed by

Lotus 1-2-3
MS Excel most common today
• sophisticated variation of form-filling.
– grid of cells contain a value or a formula
– formula can involve values of other cells
e.g. sum of all cells in this column
– user can enter and alter data spreadsheet
maintains consistency
WIMP Interface

Windows
Icons
Menus
Pointers
… or windows, icons, mice, and pull-down menus!

• default style for majority of interactive

computer systems, especially PCs and desktop
machines
Point and click interfaces

• used in ..
– multimedia
– web browsers
– hypertext

• just click something!

– icons, text links or location on map

• minimal typing
Three dimensional interfaces

• virtual reality
• ‘ordinary’ window systems
– highlighting flat buttons …
– visual affordance
– indiscriminate use click me!
just confusing!
• 3D workspaces … or sculptured
– use for extra virtual space
– light and occlusion give depth
– distance effects
elements of the wimp interface

windows, icons, menus, pointers

+++
buttons, toolbars,
palettes, dialog boxes
also see supplementary material
on choosing wimp elements
Windows

• Areas of the screen that behave as if they were

independent
– can contain text or graphics
– can be moved or resized
– can overlap and obscure each other, or can be laid
out next to one another (tiled)

• scrollbars
– allow the user to move the contents of the window
up and down or from side to side
• title bars
– describe the name of the window
Icons

• small picture or image

• represents some object in the interface
– often a window or action
• windows can be closed down (iconised)
– small representation fi many accessible
windows
• icons can be many and various
– highly stylized
– realistic representations.
Pointers

• important component
– WIMP style relies on pointing and selecting things
• uses mouse, trackpad, joystick, trackball,
cursor keys or keyboard shortcuts
• wide variety of graphical images
Menus

• Choice of operations or services offered on the screen

• Required option selected with pointer

File Edit Options Fo nt

Typewriter
Screen
Times

problem – take a lot of screen space

solution – pop-up: menu appears when needed
Kinds of Menus

• Menu Bar at top of screen (normally), menu

drags down
– pull-down menu - mouse hold and drag down menu
– drop-down menu - mouse click reveals menu
– fall-down menus - mouse just moves over bar!

• Contextual menu appears where you are

– pop-up menus - actions for selected object
– pie menus - arranged in a circle
• easier to select item (larger target area)
• quicker (same distance to any option)
… but not widely used!
Menus extras

• Cascading menus
– hierarchical menu structure
– menu selection opens new menu
– and so in ad infinitum

• Keyboard accelerators
– key combinations - same effect as menu item
– two kinds
• active when menu open – usually first letter
• active when menu closed – usually Ctrl + letter
usually different !!!
Menus design issues

• which kind to use

• what to include in menus at all
• words to use (action or description)
• how to group items
• choice of keyboard accelerators
Buttons

• individual and isolated regions within a

display that can be selected to invoke
an action

• Special kinds
– radio buttons
– set of mutually exclusive choices
– check boxes
– set of non-exclusive choices
Toolbars

• long lines of icons …

… but what do they do?

• fast access to common actions

• often customizable:
– choose which toolbars to see
– choose what options are on it
Palettes and tear-off menus

• Problem
menu not there when you want it

• Solution
palettes – little windows of actions
– shown/hidden via menu option
e.g. available shapes in drawing package
tear-off and pin-up menus
– menu ‘tears off’ to become palette
Dialogue boxes

• information windows that pop up to

inform of an important event or request
information.

e.g: when saving a file, a dialogue box is

displayed to allow the user to specify the
filename and location. Once the file is
saved, the box disappears.
 interactivity

easy to focus on look

what about feel?
Speech–driven interfaces

• rapidly improving …
… but still inaccurate
• how to have robust dialogue?
… interaction of course!

e.g. airline reservation:

reliable “yes” and “no”
+ system reflects back its understanding
“you want a ticket from New York to Boston?”
Look and … feel

• WIMP systems have the same elements:

windows, icons., menus, pointers, buttons, etc.

• but different window systems

… behave differently
e.g. MacOS vs Windows menus

appearance + behaviour = look and feel

Initiative

• who has the initiative?

old question–answer – computer
WIMP interface – user

• WIMP exceptions …
pre-emptive parts of the interface

• modal dialog boxes

– come and won’t go away!
– good for errors, essential steps
– but use with care
Error and repair

can’t always avoid errors …

… but we can put them right

make it easy to detect errors

… then the user can repair them
hello, this is the Go Faster booking system
what would you like?
(user) I want to fly from New York to London
you want a ticket from New York to Boston
(user) no
sorry, please confirm one at a time
do you want to fly from New York
(user) yes
………
Context

Interaction affected by social and organizational

context

• other people
– desire to impress, competition, fear of failure
• motivation
– fear, allegiance, ambition, self-satisfaction
• inadequate systems
– cause frustration and lack of motivation
Experience, engagement and fun

designing experience
physical engagement
managing value
Experience?
• home, entertainment, shopping
– not enough that people can use a system
– they must want to use it!

• psychology of experience
– flow (Csikszentimihalyi)
– balance between anxiety and boredom

• education
– zone of proximal development
– things you can just do with help

• wider ...
– literary analysis, film studies, drama
Designing experience

• real crackers
– cheap and cheerful!
– bad joke, plastic toy, paper hat
– pull and bang
Designing experience

• virtual crackers
– cheap and cheerful
– bad joke, web toy, cut-out mask
– click and bang
Designing experience

• virtual crackers
– cheap and cheerful
– bad joke, web toy, cut-out mask
– click and bang
how crackers work
fill in web form

sender receive email recipient

To: wxv
From: ..

closed
cracker page

open
watches recipient clicks
message
progress cracker opens ...
very slowly
open
cracker page
sender joke
links

web toy
mask
The crackers experience
real cracker virtual cracker
Surface elements
design cheap and cheerful simple page/graphics
play plastic toy and joke web toy and joke
dressing up paper hat mask to cut out
Experienced effects
shared offered to another sent by email message
co-experience pulled together sender can't see content
until opened by recipient
excitement cultural connotations recruited expectation
hiddenness contents inside first page - no contents
suspense pulling cracker slow ... page change
surprise bang (when it works) WAV file (when it works)
Physical design

• many constraints:
– ergonomic – minimum button size
– physical – high-voltage switches are big
– legal and safety – high cooker controls
– context and environment – easy to clean
– aesthetic – must look good
– economic – … and not cost too much!
Design trade-offs

constraints are contradictory … need trade-offs

within categories:
e.g. safety – cooker controls
front panel – safer for adult
rear panel – safer for child

between categories
e.g. ergonomics vs. physical – MiniDisc remote
ergonomics – controls need to be bigger
physical – no room!
solution – multifunction controls & reduced functionality
Fluidity

• do external physical aspects reflect

logical effect?
– related to affordance (chap 5)

logical state revealed in physical state?

e.g. on/off buttons

inverse actions inverse effects?

e.g. arrow buttons, twist controls
inverse actions

• yes/no buttons
– well sort of

• ‘joystick’

• also left side control

spring back controls

• one-shot buttons
• joystick
• some sliders

good – large selection sets

bad – hidden state
 a minidisk controller

twist for track movement

series of spring-back controls pull and twist for volume
each cycle through some options – spring back
–natural inverse back/forward – natural inverse for twist
physical layout

controls:
logical relationship
~ spatial grouping
compliant interaction

state evident in rotary knobs reveal internal state

and can be controlled by both user
mechanical buttons and machine
Managing value

people use something

ONLY IF
it has perceived value
AND
value exceeds cost

BUT NOTE
• exceptions (e.g. habit)
• value NOT necessarily personal gain or money
Weighing up value

value
• helps me get my work done
• fun
• good for others
cost
• download time
• money £, $, €
• learning effort
Discounted future

• in economics Net Present Value:

– discount by (1+rate)years to wait

• in life people heavily discount

– future value and future cost
– hence resistance to learning
– need low barriers
and high perceived present value
example – HCI book search

• value for people who have the book

helps you to look up things
– chapter and page number

• value for those who don’t …

sort of online mini-encyclopaedia
– full paragraph of context

… but also says “buy me”!!

… but also says “buy me”!!
Value and organisational design

• coercion
• tell people what to do!
• value = keep your job
• enculturation
• explain corporate values
• establish support (e.g share options)
• emergence
• design process so that
individuals value  organisational value
General lesson …

if you want someone to do something …

• make it easy for them!

• understand their values

chapter 4

paradigms
why study paradigms

Concerns
– how can an interactive system be developed
to ensure its usability?
– how can the usability of an interactive
system be demonstrated or measured?

History of interactive system design

provides paradigms for usable designs
What are Paradigms

• Predominant theoretical frameworks or

scientific world views
– e.g., Aristotelian, Newtonian, Einsteinian
(relativistic) paradigms in physics
• Understanding HCI history is largely about
understanding a series of paradigm shifts
– Not all listed here are necessarily “paradigm” shifts,
but are at least candidates
– History will judge which are true shifts
Paradigms of interaction

New computing technologies arrive,

creating a new perception of the
human—computer relationship.
We can trace some of these shifts in
the history of interactive technologies.
The initial paradigm

• Batch processing

Impersonal computing
Example Paradigm Shifts

• Batch processing
• Time-sharing

Interactive computing
Example Paradigm Shifts

• Batch processing @#$% !

• Timesharing
• Networking

???

Community computing
Example Paradigm Shifts

• Batch processingC…P… filename Move this file here,

• Timesharing dot star… or was
it R…M?
and copy this to there.

• Networking
• Graphical displays % foo.bar
ABORT
dumby!!!

Direct manipulation
Example Paradigm Shifts

• Batch processing
• Timesharing
• Networking
• Graphical display
• Microprocessor

Personal computing
Example Paradigm Shifts

• Batch processing
• Timesharing
• Networking
• Graphical display
• Microprocessor
• WWW

Global information
Example Paradigm Shifts

• Batch processing • A symbiosis of physical

and electronic worlds in
• Timesharing service of everyday
activities.
• Networking
• Graphical display
• Microprocessor
• WWW
• Ubiquitous
Computing
Time-sharing

• 1940s and 1950s – explosive technological

growth

• 1960s – need to channel the power

• J.C.R. Licklider at ARPA

• single computer supporting multiple users

Video Display Units

• more suitable medium than paper

• 1962 – Sutherland's Sketchpad

• computers for visualizing and manipulating

data

• one person's contribution could drastically

change the history of computing
Programming toolkits

• Engelbart at Stanford Research Institute

• 1963 – augmenting man's intellect

• 1968 NLS/Augment system demonstration

• the right programming toolkit provides

building blocks to producing complex
interactive systems
Personal computing

• 1970s – Papert's LOGO language for simple

graphics programming by children

• A system is more powerful as it becomes

easier to user

• Future of computing in small, powerful

machines dedicated to the individual

• Kay at Xerox PARC – the Dynabook as the

ultimate personal computer
Window systems and the
WIMP interface
• humans can pursue more than one task at a
time

• windows used for dialogue partitioning, to

“change the topic”

• 1981 – Xerox Star first commercial windowing

system

• windows, icons, menus and pointers now

familiar interaction mechanisms
Metaphor

• relating computing to other real-world activity

is effective teaching technique
– LOGO's turtle dragging its tail
– file management on an office desktop
– word processing as typing
– financial analysis on spreadsheets
– virtual reality – user inside the metaphor

• Problems
– some tasks do not fit into a given metaphor
– cultural bias
Direct manipulation

• 1982 – Shneiderman describes appeal of

graphically-based interaction
– visibility of objects
– incremental action and rapid feedback
– reversibility encourages exploration
– syntactic correctness of all actions
– replace language with action

• 1984 – Apple Macintosh

• the model-world metaphor
• What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG)
Language versus Action

• actions do not always speak louder than

words!
• DM – interface replaces underlying
system
• language paradigm
• interface as mediator
• interface acts as intelligent agent
• programming by example is both action
and language
Hypertext

• 1945 – Vannevar Bush and the memex

• key to success in managing explosion of

information

• mid 1960s – Nelson describes hypertext as

non-linear browsing structure

• hypermedia and multimedia

• Nelson's Xanadu project still a dream today

Multimodality

• a mode is a human communication

channel

• emphasis on simultaneous use of

multiple channels for input and output
Computer Supported
Cooperative Work (CSCW)

• CSCW removes bias of single user /

single computer system

• Can no longer neglect the social aspects

• Electronic mail is most prominent

success
The World Wide Web

• Hypertext, as originally realized, was a

closed system
• Simple, universal protocols (e.g. HTTP)
and mark-up languages (e.g. HTML)
made publishing and accessing easy
• Critical mass of users lead to a
complete transformation of our
information economy.
Agent-based Interfaces

• Original interfaces
– Commands given to computer
– Language-based
• Direct Manipulation/WIMP
– Commands performed on “world” representation
– Action based
• Agents - return to language by instilling
proactivity and “intelligence” in command
processor
– Avatars, natural language processing
Ubiquitous Computing

“The most profound technologies are those that

disappear.”
Mark Weiser, 1991

Late 1980’s: computer was very apparent

How to make it disappear?

– Shrink and embed/distribute it in the physical world
– Design interactions that don’t demand our intention
Sensor-based and Context-
aware Interaction
• Humans are good at recognizing the
“context” of a situation and reacting
appropriately
• Automatically sensing physical
phenomena (e.g., light, temp, location,
identity) becoming easier
• How can we go from sensed physical
measures to interactions that behave as
if made “aware” of the surroundings?
 chapter 4

Paradigms
(additional materials)
Beginnings – Computing in 1945

• Harvard Mark I
– Picture from http://piano.dsi.uminho.pt/museuv/indexmark.htm

• 55 feet long, 8 feet high, 5 tons

 Context - Computing in 1945

• Ballistics calculations
• Physical switches
(before microprocessor)
• Paper tape
• Simple arithmetic &
fixed calculations
(before programs)

Picture from http://www.gmcc.ab.ca/~supy/ • 3 seconds to multiply

Batch Processing

• Computer had one task,

performed sequentially
• No “interaction” between
operator and computer
after starting the run
• Punch cards, tapes for input
• Serial operations
People

• Who are the people associated with

various interactive paradigm shifts?
Other Resources

• Howard Rheingold – Tools for Thought

– History of interactive breakthroughs

– On-line at http://www.rheingold.com/texts/
tft/
 Innovator: Vannevar Bush
• “As We May Think” - 1945 Atlantic Monthly
– “…publication has been extended far beyond our
present ability to make real use of the record.”
• Postulated Memex device
– Stores all records/articles/communications
– Items retrieved by indexing, keywords, cross
references (now called hyperlinks)
– (Envisioned as microfilm, not computer)
• Interactive and nonlinear components are key
• http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/b
ushf.htm
 More About Vannevar Bush

• Name rhymes with "Beaver"

• Faculty member MIT
• Coordinated WWII effort with
6000 US scientists
• Social contract for science
– federal government funds universities
– universities do basic research
– research helps economy & national defense
Innovator: J. R. Licklider

• 1960 - Postulated “man-computer

symbiosis”

• Couple human brains

and computing machines
tightly to revolutionize
information handling
Innovator: Ivan Sutherland

• SketchPad - 1963 PhD thesis at MIT

– Hierarchy - pictures & subpictures
– Master picture with instances (ie, OOP)
– Constraints
– Icons
– Copying
– Light pen input device
– Recursive operations
Innovator: Douglas Englebart

• Landmark system/demo:
– hierarchical hypertext, multimedia, mouse,
high-res display, windows, shared files,
electronic messaging, CSCW,
teleconferencing, ...

Inventor
of mouse
 About Doug Engelbart
• Graduate of Berkeley (EE '55)
– "bi-stable gaseous plasma digital devices"
• Stanford Research Institute (SRI)
– Augmentation Research Center
• 1962 Paper "Conceptual Model for Augmenting
Human Intellect"
– Complexity of problems increasing
– Need better ways of solving problems

Picture of Engelbart from bootstrap.org

Innovator: Alan Kay

• Dynabook - Notebook sized computer loaded

with multimedia and can store everything
• @PARC
• Personal
computing
• Desktop
interface
• Overlapping
windows
Innovator: Ben Shneiderman

• Coins and explores notion of direct

manipulation of interface
• Long-time Director of
HCI Lab at Maryland
Innovator: Ted Nelson

• Computers can help people, not just

business

• Coined term
“hypertext”
Innovator: Nicholas Negroponte

• MIT Architecture Machine Group

– ’69-’80s - prior to Media Lab
• Ideas
– wall-sized displays, video
disks, AI in interfaces
(agents), speech recognition,
multimedia with hypertext
– Put That There (Video)
Innovator: Mark Weiser

• Introduced notion of Ubiquitous

Computing and Calm Technology
– It’s everywhere, but recedes quietly into
background
• CTO of Xerox PARC
 chapter 5

interaction design
basics
interaction design basics

• design:
– what it is, interventions, goals, constraints
• the design process
– what happens when
• users
– who they are, what they are like …
• scenarios
– rich stories of design
• navigation
– finding your way around a system
• iteration and prototypes
– never get it right first time!
interactions and interventions

design interactions not just interfaces

not just the immediate interaction
e.g. stapler in office – technology changes interaction style
• manual: write, print, staple, write, print, staple, …
• electric: write, print, write, print, …, staple

designing interventions not just artefacts

not just the system, but also …
• documentation, manuals, tutorials
• what we say and do as well as what we make
what is design?
what is design?

achieving goals within constraints

• goals - purpose
– who is it for, why do they want it
• constraints
– materials, platforms
• trade-offs
golden rule of design

understand your materials

for Human–Computer Interaction

understand your materials

• understand computers
– limitations, capacities, tools, platforms
• understand people
– psychological, social aspects
– human error
• and their interaction …
To err is human

• accident reports ..
– aircrash, industrial accident, hospital mistake
– enquiry … blames … ‘human error’
• but …
– concrete lintel breaks because too much weight
– blame ‘lintel error’ ?
… no – design error
we know how concrete behaves under stress
• human ‘error’ is normal
– we know how users behave under stress
– so design for it!
• treat the user at least as well as physical materials!
Central message …

the user
 The process of design

scenarios
what is task analysis
wanted guidelines
principles
interviews analysis precise
ethnography specification
design
what is there
vs. dialogue implement
what is wanted notations and deploy
evaluation
prototype
heuristics architectures
documentation
help
Steps …

• requirements
– what is there and what is wanted …
• analysis
– ordering and understanding
• design
– what to do and how to decide
• iteration and prototyping
– getting it right … and finding what is really needed!
• implementation and deployment
– making it and getting it out there
… but how can I do it all ! !

• limited time ⇒ design trade-off

• usability?
– finding problems and fixing them? ✘
– deciding what to fix? ✔
• a perfect system is badly designed
– too good ⇒ too much effort in design
 user focus

know your user

personae
cultural probes
know your user

• who are they?

• probably not like you!
• talk to them
• watch them
• use your imagination
persona

• description of an ‘example’ user

– not necessarily a real person
• use as surrogate user
– what would Betty think
• details matter
– makes her ‘real’
example persona
Betty is 37 years old, She has been Warehouse Manager for five
years and worked for Simpkins Brothers Engineering for twelve
years. She didn’t go to university, but has studied in her
evenings for a business diploma. She has two children aged 15
and 7 and does not like to work late. She did part of an
introductory in-house computer course some years ago, but it
was interrupted when she was promoted and could no longer
afford to take the time. Her vision is perfect, but her right-hand
movement is slightly restricted following an industrial accident 3
years ago. She is enthusiastic about her work and is happy to
delegate responsibility and take suggestions from her staff.
However, she does feel threatened by the introduction of yet
another new computer system (the third in her time at SBE).
cultural probes

• direct observation
– sometimes hard
• in the home
• psychiatric patients, …

• probe packs
– items to prompt responses
• e.g. glass to listen at wall, camera, postcard
– given to people to open in their own environment
they record what is meaningful to them

• used to …
– inform interviews, prompt ideas, enculture designers
 scenarios

stories for design

use and reuse
scenarios

• stories for design

– communicate with others
– validate other models
– understand dynamics

• linearity
– time is linear - our lives are linear
– but don’t show alternatives
scenarios …

• what will users want to do?

• step-by-step walkthrough
– what can they see (sketches, screen shots)
– what do they do (keyboard, mouse etc.)
– what are they thinking?

• use and reuse throughout design

scenario – movie player
Brian would like to see the new film “Moments of Significance”
and wants to invite Alison, but he knows she doesn’t like “arty”
films. He decides to take a look at it to see if she would like it
and so connects to one of the movie sharing networks. He uses
his work machine as it has a higher bandwidth connection, but
feels a bit guilty. He knows he will be getting an illegal copy of
the film, but decides it is OK as he is intending to go to the
cinema to watch it. After it downloads to his machine he takes
out his new personal movie player. He presses the ‘menu’
button and on the small LCD screen he scrolls using the arrow
keys to ‘bluetooth connect’ and presses the select button. On
his computer the movie download program now has an icon
showing that it has recognised a compatible device and he drags
the icon of the film over the icon for the player. On the player
the LCD screen says “downloading now”, a percent done
indicator and small whirling icon. … … …
also play act …

• mock up device
• pretend you are doing it
• internet-connected swiss army knife …

but where is that thumb?

use toothpick as stylus

… explore the depths

• explore interaction
– what happens when

• explore cognition
– what are the users thinking

• explore architecture
– what is happening inside
use scenarios to ..

• communicate with others

– designers, clients, users

• validate other models

– ‘play’ it against other models

• express dynamics
– screenshots – appearance
– scenario – behaviour
linearity

Scenarios – one linear path through system

Pros:
– life and time are linear
– easy to understand (stories and narrative are natural)
– concrete (errors less likely)
Cons:
– no choice, no branches, no special conditions
– miss the unintended

• So:
– use several scenarios
– use several methods
 the systems

info and help management messages

start

navigation design
add user remove user

local structure – single screen

global structure – whole site
main remove
confirm
screen user

add user
levels

• widget choice
– menus, buttons etc.
• screen design
• application navigation design
• environment
– other apps, O/S
the web …

• widget choice • elements and tags

– <a href=“...”>

• screen design • page design

• navigation design • site structure
• environment • the web, browser,
external links
physical devices

• widget choice • controls

– buttons, knobs, dials

• screen design • physical layout

• navigation design • modes of device
• environment • the real world
think about structure

• within a screen
– later ...
• local
– looking from this screen out
• global
– structure of site, movement between
screens
• wider still
– relationship with other applications
local

from one screen looking out

goal seeking

goal
start
goal seeking

goal
start

progress with local knowledge only ...

goal seeking

goal
start

… but can get to the goal

goal seeking

goal
start

… try to avoid these bits!

four golden rules

• knowing where you are

• knowing what you can do
• knowing where you are going
– or what will happen
• knowing where you’ve been
– or what you’ve done
 where you are – breadcrumbs

shows path through web site hierarchy

top level category sub-category

web site this page

live links
to higher
levels
beware the big button trap

things other things

the thing from

more things
outer space

• where do they go?

– lots of room for extra text!
modes

• lock to prevent accidental use …

– remove lock - ‘c’ + ‘yes’ to confirm
– frequent practiced action
• if lock forgotten
– in pocket ‘yes’ gets pressed
– goes to phone book
– in phone book …
‘c’ – delete entry
‘yes’ – confirm
… oops !
global

between screens
within the application
hierarchical diagrams

the system

info and help management messages

add user remove user

hierarchical diagrams ctd.

• parts of application
– screens or groups of screens

• typically functional separation

the systems

info and help management messages

add user remove user

navigating hierarchies

• deep is difficult!

• misuse of Miller’s 7 ± 2
– short term memory, not menu size

• optimal?
– many items on each screen
– but structured within screen

see /e3/online/menu-breadth/
think about dialogue

what does it mean in UI design?

Minister: do you name take this woman …

Man: I do
Minister: do you name take this man …
Woman: I do
Minister: I now pronounce you man and wife
think about dialogue

what does it mean in UI design?

Minister: do you name take this woman …

• marriage service
• general flow, generic – blanks for names
• pattern of interaction between people
• computer dialogue
• pattern of interaction between users and system
• but details differ each time
network diagrams

main remove
confirm
screen user

add user

• show different paths through system

network diagrams ctd.

• what leads to what

• what happens when
• including branches
• more task oriented then hierarchy

main remove
confirm
screen user

add user
wider still

between applications
and beyond ...
wider still …

• style issues:
– platform standards, consistency
• functional issues
– cut and paste
• navigation issues
– embedded applications
– links to other apps … the web
 Dix , Alan

Finlay, Janet
Abowd, Gregory
Beale, Russell

screen design and layout

basic principles
grouping, structure, order
alignment
use of white space
ABCDEFFHIJKLM
NOPQRSTUVWXYZ
basic principles

• ask
– what is the user doing?

• think
– what information, comparisons, order

• design
– form follows function
available tools

• grouping of items
• order of items
• decoration - fonts, boxes etc.
• alignment of items
• white space between items
grouping and structure

logically together ⇒ physically together

Billing details: Delivery details:

Name Name
Address: … Address: …
Credit card no Delivery time

Order details:
item quantity cost/item cost
size 10 screws (boxes) 7 3.71 25.97
…… … … …
order of groups and items

• think! - what is natural order

• should match screen order!

– use boxes, space etc.
– set up tabbing right!

• instructions
– beware the cake recipie syndrome!
… mix milk and flour, add the fruit
after beating them
decoration

• use boxes to group logical items

• use fonts for emphasis, headings
• but not too many!!

ABCDEFFHIJKLM
NOPQRSTUVWXYZ
alignment - text

• you read from left to right (English and

European)

⇒ align left hand side

boring but
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Winston Churchill - A Biography readable!
Wizard of Oz
Xena - Warrior Princess

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Winston Churchill - A Biography
Wizard of Oz
fine for special effects Xena - Warrior Princess
but hard to scan
alignment - names

• Usually scanning for surnames

⇒ make it easy!

Alan Dix


Janet Finlay
Gregory Abowd
Dix , Alan

Finlay, Janet


Russell Beale Abowd, Gregory
Beale, Russell
Alan Dix
Janet Finlay
Gregory Abowd
Russell Beale
alignment - numbers

532.56
think purpose! 179.3
256.317
which is biggest? 15
73.948
1035
3.142
497.6256
alignment - numbers

visually:
627.865
long number = big number 1.005763
382.583
align decimal points 2502.56
or right align integers 432.935
2.0175
652.87
56.34
multiple columns

• scanning across gaps hard:

(often hard to avoid with large data base fields)

sherbert 75
toffee 120
chocolate 35
fruit gums 27
coconut dreams 85
multiple columns - 2

• use leaders

sherbert 75
toffee 120
chocolate 35
fruit gums 27
coconut dreams 85
multiple columns - 3

• or greying (vertical too)

sherbert 75
toffee 120
chocolate 35
fruit gums 27
coconut dreams 85
multiple columns - 4

• or even (with care!) ‘bad’ alignment

sherbert 75
toffee 120
chocolate 35
fruit gums 27
coconut dreams 85
white space - the counter

WHAT YOU SEE

white space - the counter

WHAT YOU SEE

THE GAPS BETWEEN

space to separate
space to structure
space to highlight
physical controls

• grouping of items
–defrost
defrostsettings
settings
– type of food
type of food
– time to cook
time to cook
physical controls

• grouping of items
• order of items
1)type
1) typeofofheating
heating
2) temperature 1
2) temperature
3) time to cook
3) time to cook
4) start 2
4) start
3

4
physical controls

• grouping of items
• order of items
• decoration
– different colours
different colours for
for different
different functions
functions
– lines around related
lines around related
buttons(temp up/down)
buttons
physical controls

• grouping of items
• order of items
• decoration
• alignment
– centered text in buttons
centred text in buttons
? easy to scan ?
? easy to scan ?
physical controls

• grouping of items
• order of items
• decoration
• alignment
• white space
– gaps to aid grouping
gaps to aid grouping
user action and control

entering information
knowing what to do
affordances
entering information
Name: Alan Dix
Address: Lancaster
• forms, dialogue boxes


– presentation + data input
Name: Alan Dix
– similar layout issues
– alignment - N.B. different label lengths Address: Lancaster

• logical layout
– use task analysis (ch15)
– groupings
?
Name: Alan Dix
Address: Lancaster

– natural order for entering information

• top-bottom, left-right (depending on culture)
• set tab order for keyboard entry

N.B. see extra slides for widget choice

knowing what to do

• what is active what is passive

– where do you click
– where do you type
• consistent style helps
– e.g. web underlined links
• labels and icons
– standards for common actions
– language – bold = current state or action
affordances
mug handle

• psychological term ‘affords’

• for physical objects grasping
– shape and size suggest actions
• pick up, twist, throw
– also cultural – buttons ‘afford’ pushing
• for screen objects
– button–like object ‘affords’ mouse click
– physical-like objects suggest use
• culture of computer use
– icons ‘afford’ clicking
– or even double clicking … not like real buttons!
 appropriate appearance

presenting information
aesthetics and utility
colour and 3D
localisation & internationalisation
presenting information

• purpose matters name size

– sort order (which column, numeric alphabetic) chap10
chap1 17
12
– text vs. diagram chap10
chap5 12
16
chap11
chap1 51
17
– scatter graph vs. histogram chap12
chap14 262
22
chap13
chap20 83
27
chap14
chap8 22
32
• use paper presentation principles! …… …

• but add interactivity

– softens design choices
• e.g. re-ordering columns
• ‘dancing histograms’ (chap 21)
aesthetics and utility

• aesthetically pleasing designs

– increase user satisfaction and improve productivity
• beauty and utility may conflict
– mixed up visual styles ⇒ easy to distinguish
– clean design – little differentiation ⇒ confusing
– backgrounds behind text
… good to look at, but hard to read
• but can work together
– e.g. the design of the counter
– in consumer products – key differentiator (e.g. iMac)
colour and 3D

• both often used very badly!

• colour
– older monitors limited palette
– colour over used because ‘it is there’
– beware colour blind!
– use sparingly to reinforce other information
• 3D effects
– good for physical information and some graphs
– but if over used …
e.g. text in perspective!! 3D pie charts
bad use of colour

• over use - without very good reason (e.g. kids’ site)

• colour blindness
• poor use of contrast
• do adjust your set!
– adjust your monitor to greys only
– can you still read your screen?
across countries and cultures

• localisation & internationalisation

– changing interfaces for particular cultures/languages
• globalisation
– try to choose symbols etc. that work everywhere

• simply change language?

– use ‘resource’ database instead of literal text
… but changes sizes, left-right order etc.
• deeper issues
– cultural assumptions and values
– meanings of symbols
e.g tick and cross … +ve and -ve in some cultures
… but … mean the same thing (mark this) in others

 
prototyping
iteration and prototyping

getting better …
… and starting well
prototyping

• you never get it right first time

• if at first you don’t succeed …

OK?
design prototype evaluate done!

re-design
pitfalls of prototyping

• moving little by little … but to where

• Malverns or the Matterhorn?

1. need a good start point

2. need to understand what is wrong
NUCLEAR REACTOR MAIN CONTROL PANEL
Alarm Control

LOTS OF OTHER alarm

+
–

CONTROLS control
panel
reactor targets
information
panel emergency
shutdown
Reactor Targets
panel
Emergency Shutdown
7934
Pressure
325
manual IMMEDIATE
Temp SHUTDOWN
10256
override keypad COMMENCE
Flow Rate
panel for manual emergency
override confirm
Manual Override 7 8 9
panel Emergency Confirm
6000
Target 4 5 6 CONFIRM

Pressure SET
0 1 2 3 CANCEL
Emergency Scenario

Jenny, the Nuclear Power Plant operator has normal sight and no physical
or perceptual impairments. Her shift started at 11pm and it is now 5am
in the morning. So far the plant has been operating within normal
parameters and the current alarm state is therefore green
1 Jenny notices the core reaction rate has risen very rapidly
2. she realises she must immediately change the reactor
target pressure to correct this
3. she goes to the Alarm Control Panel on the far right of the
main reactor control panel and presses '+' twice (as it is
starting off in green state)
4. the Emergency Confirm button glows red
5. she moves across to the Manual Override panel on the
far left of the main reactor control panel
………
 chapter 6

HCI in the software

process
HCI in the software process

• Software engineering and the design process

for interactive systems

• Usability engineering

• Iterative design and prototyping

• Design rationale
the software lifecycle

• Software engineering is the discipline for

understanding the software design process, or
life cycle

• Designing for usability occurs at all stages of

the life cycle, not as a single isolated activity
The waterfall model
Requirements
specification

Architectural
design

Detailed
design

Coding and
unit testing

Integration
and testing

Operation and
maintenance
Activities in the life cycle

Requirements specification
designer and customer try capture what the system is
expected to provide can be expressed in natural language or
more precise languages, such as a task analysis would
provide

Architectural design
high-level description of how the system will provide the
services required factor system into major components of the
system and how they are interrelated needs to satisfy both
functional and nonfunctional requirements

Detailed design
refinement of architectural components and interrelations to
identify modules to be implemented separately the refinement
is governed by the nonfunctional requirements
 Verification and validation

Real-world
requirements
and constraints The formality gap

Verification
designing the product right
Validation
designing the right product

The formality gap

validation will always rely to some extent on subjective means
of proof
Management and contractual issues
design in commercial and legal contexts
The life cycle for interactive
systems
Requirements cannot assume a linear
sequence of activities
specification

Architectural as in the waterfall model

design

Detailed
design

Coding and
unit testing

Integration

lots of feedback!
and testing

Operation and
maintenance
Usability engineering
The ultimate test of usability based on measurement of user
experience

Usability engineering demands that specific usability measures be

made explicit as requirements

Usability specification
– usability attribute/principle
– measuring concept
– measuring method
– now level/ worst case/ planned level/ best case

Problems
– usability specification requires level of detail that may not be
– possible early in design satisfying a usability specification
– does not necessarily satisfy usability
part of a usability
specification for a VCR

Attribute: Backward recoverability

Measuring concept: Undo an erroneous programming
sequence
Measuring method: Number of explicit user actions
to undo current program
Now level: No current product allows such an undo
Worst case: As many actions as it takes to
program-in mistake
Planned level: A maximum of two explicit user actions
Best case: One explicit cancel action
ISO usability standard 9241

adopts traditional usability categories:

• effectiveness
– can you achieve what you want to?
• efficiency
– can you do it without wasting effort?
• satisfaction
– do you enjoy the process?
some metrics from ISO 9241
Usability Effectiveness Efficiency Satisfaction
objective measures measures measures

Suitability Percentage of Time to Rating scale

for the task goals achieved complete a task for satisfaction

Appropriate for Number of power Relative efficiency Rating scale for

trained users features used compared with satisfaction with
an expert user power features

Learnability Percentage of Time to learn Rating scale for

functions learned criterion ease of learning

Error tolerance Percentage of Time spent on Rating scale for

errors corrected correcting errors error handling
successfully
Iterative design and
prototyping
• Iterative design overcomes inherent problems of incomplete
requirements

• Prototypes
– simulate or animate some features of intended system
– different types of prototypes
• throw-away
• incremental
• evolutionary

• Management issues
– time
– planning
– non-functional features
– contracts
Techniques for prototyping

Storyboards
need not be computer-based
can be animated

Limited functionality simulations

some part of system functionality provided by designers
tools like HyperCard are common for these
Wizard of Oz technique

Warning about iterative design

design inertia – early bad decisions stay bad
diagnosing real usability problems in prototypes….
…. and not just the symptoms
Design rationale

Design rationale is information that explains why

a computer system is the way it is.

Benefits of design rationale

– communication throughout life cycle
– reuse of design knowledge across products
– enforces design discipline
– presents arguments for design trade-offs
– organizes potentially large design space
– capturing contextual information
Design rationale (cont’d)

Types of DR:
• Process-oriented
– preserves order of deliberation and decision-making
• Structure-oriented
– emphasizes post hoc structuring of considered
design alternatives

• Two examples:
– Issue-based information system (IBIS)
– Design space analysis
Issue-based information
system (IBIS)
• basis for much of design rationale research
• process-oriented
• main elements:
issues
– hierarchical structure with one ‘root’ issue
positions
– potential resolutions of an issue
arguments
– modify the relationship between positions and issues

• gIBIS is a graphical version

 structure of gIBIS
supports
Position Argument
responds to
Issue
responds to
objects to
Position Argument
specializes

Sub-issue generalizes

questions

Sub-issue

Sub-issue
Design space analysis

• structure-oriented

• QOC – hierarchical structure:

questions (and sub-questions)
– represent major issues of a design
options
– provide alternative solutions to the question
criteria
– the means to assess the options in order to make a choice

• DRL – similar to QOC with a larger language

and more formal semantics
the QOC notation
Criterion
Option

Question Option Criterion

Option Criterion

… Consequent …
Question
Question
Psychological design rationale

• to support task-artefact cycle in which user tasks are

affected by the systems they use
• aims to make explicit consequences of design for users
• designers identify tasks system will support
• scenarios are suggested to test task
• users are observed on system
• psychological claims of system made explicit
• negative aspects of design can be used to improve next
iteration of design
Summary

The software engineering life cycle

– distinct activities and the consequences for
interactive system design
Usability engineering
– making usability measurements explicit as
requirements
Iterative design and prototyping
– limited functionality simulations and animations
Design rationale
– recording design knowledge
– process vs. structure
 chapter 7

design rules
design rules

Designing for maximum usability

– the goal of interaction design

• Principles of usability
– general understanding

• Standards and guidelines

– direction for design

• Design patterns
– capture and reuse design knowledge
types of design rules

• principles
– abstract design rules
– low authority
– high generality Guidelines

increasing generality
increasing generality
• standards
– specific design rules
– high authority Standards
– limited application
• guidelines
– lower authority increasing authority
increasing authority

– more general application

Principles to support usability

Learnability
the ease with which new users can begin effective
interaction and achieve maximal performance

Flexibility
the multiplicity of ways the user and system exchange
information

Robustness
the level of support provided the user in determining
successful achievement and assessment of goal-
directed behaviour
Principles of learnability

Predictability
– determining effect of future actions based on
past interaction history
– operation visibility

Synthesizability
– assessing the effect of past actions
– immediate vs. eventual honesty
Principles of learnability (ctd)

Familiarity
– how prior knowledge applies to new system
– guessability; affordance

Generalizability
– extending specific interaction knowledge to new
situations

Consistency
– likeness in input/output behaviour arising from similar
situations or task objectives
Principles of flexibility

Dialogue initiative
– freedom from system imposed constraints on input
dialogue
– system vs. user pre-emptiveness

Multithreading
– ability of system to support user interaction for more
than one task at a time
– concurrent vs. interleaving; multimodality

Task migratability
– passing responsibility for task execution between user
and system
Principles of flexibility (ctd)

Substitutivity
– allowing equivalent values of input and
output to be substituted for each other
– representation multiplicity; equal opportunity

Customizability
– modifiability of the user interface by user
(adaptability) or system (adaptivity)
Principles of robustness

Observability
– ability of user to evaluate the internal state of the
system from its perceivable representation
– browsability; defaults; reachability; persistence;
operation visibility

Recoverability
– ability of user to take corrective action once an error
has been recognized
– reachability; forward/backward recovery;
commensurate effort
Principles of robustness (ctd)

Responsiveness
– how the user perceives the rate of
communication with the system
– Stability

Task conformance
– degree to which system services support all
of the user's tasks
– task completeness; task adequacy
Using design rules
G uide line s

increasing generality
increasing generality
Design rules
Sta nda rds
• suggest how to increase usability
• differ in generality and authority
increasing
increasingauthority
authority
Standards

• set by national or international bodies to

ensure compliance by a large community of
designers standards require sound underlying
theory and slowly changing technology

• hardware standards more common than

software high authority and low level of detail

• ISO 9241 defines usability as effectiveness,

efficiency and satisfaction with which users
accomplish tasks
Guidelines

• more suggestive and general

• many textbooks and reports full of guidelines
• abstract guidelines (principles) applicable
during early life cycle activities
• detailed guidelines (style guides) applicable
during later life cycle activities
• understanding justification for guidelines aids
in resolving conflicts
Golden rules and heuristics

• “Broad brush” design rules

• Useful check list for good design
• Better design using these than using nothing!
• Different collections e.g.
– Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics (see Chapter 9)
– Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules
– Norman’s 7 Principles
Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules

1. Strive for consistency

2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts
3. Offer informative feedback
4. Design dialogs to yield closure
5. Offer error prevention and simple error
handling
6. Permit easy reversal of actions
7. Support internal locus of control
8. Reduce short-term memory load
Norman’s 7 Principles

1. Use both knowledge in the world and

knowledge in the head.
2. Simplify the structure of tasks.
3. Make things visible: bridge the gulfs of
Execution and Evaluation.
4. Get the mappings right.
5. Exploit the power of constraints, both natural
and artificial.
6. Design for error.
7. When all else fails, standardize.
HCI design patterns

• An approach to reusing knowledge about

successful design solutions
• Originated in architecture: Alexander
• A pattern is an invariant solution to a
recurrent problem within a specific context.
• Examples
– Light on Two Sides of Every Room (architecture)
– Go back to a safe place (HCI)
• Patterns do not exist in isolation but are linked
to other patterns in languages which enable
complete designs to be generated
HCI design patterns (cont.)
• Characteristics of patterns
– capture design practice not theory
– capture the essential common properties of good examples
of design
– represent design knowledge at varying levels: social,
organisational, conceptual, detailed
– embody values and can express what is humane in
interface design
– are intuitive and readable and can therefore be used for
communication between all stakeholders
– a pattern language should be generative and assist in the
development of complete designs.
Summary

Principles for usability

– repeatable design for usability relies on maximizing
benefit of one good design by abstracting out the
general properties which can direct purposeful
design
– The success of designing for usability requires both
creative insight (new paradigms) and purposeful
principled practice

Using design rules

– standards and guidelines to direct design activity
 chapter 8

implementation support
Implementation support

• programming tools
– levels of services for programmers
• windowing systems
– core support for separate and simultaneous user-
system activity
• programming the application and control of
dialogue
• interaction toolkits
– bring programming closer to level of user perception
• user interface management systems
– controls relationship between presentation and
functionality
Introduction

How does HCI affect of the programmer?

Advances in coding have elevated programming

hardware specific
→ interaction-technique specific

Layers of development tools

– windowing systems
– interaction toolkits
– user interface management systems
Elements of windowing systems

Device independence
programming the abstract terminal device drivers
image models for output and (partially) input
• pixels
• PostScript (MacOS X, NextStep)
• Graphical Kernel System (GKS)
• Programmers' Hierarchical Interface to Graphics
(PHIGS)
Resource sharing
achieving simultaneity of user tasks
window system supports independent processes
isolation of individual applications
roles of a windowing system
Architectures of windowing
systems
three possible software architectures
– all assume device driver is separate
– differ in how multiple application management is
implemented

1. each application manages all processes

– everyone worries about synchronization
– reduces portability of applications

2. management role within kernel of operating system

– applications tied to operating system

3. management role as separate application

maximum portability
The client-server architecture
X Windows architecture
X Windows architecture (ctd)

• pixel imaging model with some pointing

mechanism

• X protocol defines server-client communication

• separate window manager client enforces

policies for input/output:
– how to change input focus
– tiled vs. overlapping windows
– inter-client data transfer
Programming the application - 1
read-evaluation loop

repeat
read-event(myevent)
case myevent.type
type_1:
do type_1 processing
type_2:
do type_2 processing
...
type_n:
do type_n processing
end case
end repeat
Programming the application - 1
notification-based
void main(String[] args) {
Menu menu = new Menu();
menu.setOption(“Save”);
menu.setOption(“Quit”);
menu.setAction(“Save”,mySave)
menu.setAction(“Quit”,myQuit)
...
}

int mySave(Event e) {
// save the current file
}

int myQuit(Event e) {
// close down
}
going with the grain

• system style affects the interfaces

– modal dialogue box
• easy with event-loop (just have extra read-event loop)
• hard with notification (need lots of mode flags)
– non-modal dialogue box
• hard with event-loop (very complicated main loop)
• easy with notification (just add extra handler)

beware!
if you don’t explicitly design it will just happen
implementation should not drive design
Using toolkits

Interaction objects
– input and output
intrinsically linked

move press release move

Toolkits provide this level of abstraction

– programming with interaction objects (or
– techniques, widgets, gadgets)
– promote consistency and generalizability
– through similar look and feel
– amenable to object-oriented programming
interfaces in Java

• Java toolkit – AWT (abstract windowing toolkit)

• Java classes for buttons, menus, etc.

• Notification based;
– AWT 1.0 – need to subclass basic widgets
– AWT 1.1 and beyond -– callback objects

• Swing toolkit
– built on top of AWT – higher level features
– uses MVC architecture (see later)
User Interface Management
Systems (UIMS)
• UIMS add another level above toolkits
– toolkits too difficult for non-programmers

• concerns of UIMS
– conceptual architecture
– implementation techniques
– support infrastructure

• non-UIMS terms:
– UI development system (UIDS)
– UI development environment (UIDE)
• e.g. Visual Basic
UIMS as conceptual architecture

• separation between application semantics and

presentation

• improves:
– portability – runs on different systems
– reusability – components reused cutting costs
– multiple interfaces – accessing same functionality
– customizability – by designer and user
UIMS tradition – interface
layers / logical components

• linguistic: lexical/syntactic/semantic

• Seeheim:
presentation dialogue application

• Arch/Slinky func. core

adaptor
dialogue

lexical

functional
core physical
 Seeheim model

lexical syntactic semantic

Functionality
Dialogue
USER
USER Presentation (application APPLICATION
Control
interface)

switch
conceptual vs. implementation

Seeheim
– arose out of implementation experience
– but principal contribution is conceptual
– concepts part of ‘normal’ UI language

… because of Seeheim …
… we think differently!
e.g. the lower box, the switch
• needed for implementation
presentation dialogue application
• but not conceptual
semantic feedback

• different kinds of feedback:

– lexical – movement of mouse
– syntactic – menu highlights
– semantic – sum of numbers changes

• semantic feedback often slower

– use rapid lexical/syntactic feedback

• but may need rapid semantic feedback

– freehand drawing
– highlight trash can or folder when file dragged
 what’s this?

L exical Syntactic Semantic

Application

Dialogue

USER Presentation Interface APPLICATION

Control

Model
 the bypass/switch

L exical Syntactic Semantic

Application

Dialogue

USER Presentation Interface APPLICATION

Control

Model

direct communication
between application
rapid semantic and presentation
feedback but regulated by
dialogue control
 more layers!

dialogue
func. core
adaptor lexical

functional
core physical
Arch/Slinky

• more layers! – distinguishes lexical/physical

• like a ‘slinky’ spring different layers may be
thicker (more important) in different systems
• or in different components
dialogue
func. core
adaptor lexical

functional
core physical
monolithic vs. components

• Seeheim has big components

• often easier to use smaller ones

– esp. if using object-oriented toolkits

• Smalltalk used MVC – model–view–controller

– model – internal logical state of component
– view – how it is rendered on screen
– controller – processes user input
MVC
model - view - controller

view

model

controller
MVC issues

• MVC is largely pipeline model:

input → control → model → view → output
• but in graphical interface
– input only has meaning in relation to output
e.g. mouse click
– need to know what was clicked
– controller has to decide what to do with click
– but view knows what is shown where!
• in practice controller ‘talks’ to view
– separation not complete
PAC model

• PAC model closer to Seeheim

– abstraction – logical state of component
– presentation – manages input and output
– control – mediates between them

• manages hierarchy and multiple views

– control part of PAC objects communicate

• PAC cleaner in many ways …

but MVC used more in practice
(e.g. Java Swing)
PAC
presentation - abstraction - control
A P A P
C C

abstraction presentation

control

A P
C A P
C
Implementation of UIMS

• Techniques for dialogue controller

• menu networks • state transition diagrams
• grammar notations • event languages
• declarative languages • constraints
• graphical specification

– for most of these see chapter 16

• N.B. constraints
– instead of what happens say what should be true
– used in groupware as well as single user interfaces
(ALV - abstraction–link–view)

see chapter 16 for more details on several of these

graphical specification

• what it is
– draw components on screen
– set actions with script or links to program

• in use
– with raw programming most popular technique
– e.g. Visual Basic, Dreamweaver, Flash

• local vs. global

– hard to ‘see’ the paths through system
– focus on what can be seen on one screen
The drift of dialogue control

• internal control
(e.g., read-evaluation loop)

• external control
(independent of application semantics or presentation)

• presentation control
(e.g., graphical specification)
Summary

Levels of programming support tools

• Windowing systems
– device independence
– multiple tasks
• Paradigms for programming the application
– read-evaluation loop
– notification-based
• Toolkits
– programming interaction objects
• UIMS
– conceptual architectures for separation
– techniques for expressing dialogue
 chapter 9

evaluation techniques
Evaluation Techniques

• Evaluation
– tests usability and functionality of system
– occurs in laboratory, field and/or in collaboration
with users
– evaluates both design and implementation
– should be considered at all stages in the design life
cycle
Goals of Evaluation

• assess extent of system functionality

• assess effect of interface on user

• identify specific problems

 Evaluating Designs

Cognitive Walkthrough
Heuristic Evaluation
Review-based evaluation
Cognitive Walkthrough

Proposed by Polson et al.

– evaluates design on how well it supports user
in learning task
– usually performed by expert in cognitive
psychology
– expert ‘walks though’ design to identify
potential problems using psychological
principles
– forms used to guide analysis
Cognitive Walkthrough (ctd)

• For each task walkthrough considers

– what impact will interaction have on user?
– what cognitive processes are required?
– what learning problems may occur?

• Analysis focuses on goals and

knowledge: does the design lead the
user to generate the correct goals?
Heuristic Evaluation

• Proposed by Nielsen and Molich.

• usability criteria (heuristics) are identified

• design examined by experts to see if these are
violated

• Example heuristics
– system behaviour is predictable
– system behaviour is consistent
– feedback is provided

• Heuristic evaluation `debugs' design.

Review-based evaluation

• Results from the literature used to support or

refute parts of design.

• Care needed to ensure results are transferable

to new design.

• Model-based evaluation

• Cognitive models used to filter design options

e.g. GOMS prediction of user performance.

• Design rationale can also provide useful

evaluation information
Evaluating through user
Participation
Laboratory studies

• Advantages:
– specialist equipment available
– uninterrupted environment

• Disadvantages:
– lack of context
– difficult to observe several users cooperating

• Appropriate
– if system location is dangerous or impractical for
constrained single user systems to allow controlled
manipulation of use
Field Studies

• Advantages:
– natural environment
– context retained (though observation may alter it)
– longitudinal studies possible

• Disadvantages:
– distractions
– noise

• Appropriate
– where context is crucial for longitudinal studies
Evaluating Implementations

Requires an artefact:
simulation, prototype,
full implementation
Experimental evaluation

• controlled evaluation of specific aspects of

interactive behaviour
• evaluator chooses hypothesis to be tested
• a number of experimental conditions are
considered which differ only in the value of
some controlled variable.
• changes in behavioural measure are attributed
to different conditions
Experimental factors

• Subjects
– who – representative, sufficient sample
• Variables
– things to modify and measure
• Hypothesis
– what you’d like to show
• Experimental design
– how you are going to do it
Variables

• independent variable (IV)

characteristic changed to produce different
conditions
e.g. interface style, number of menu items

• dependent variable (DV)

characteristics measured in the experiment
e.g. time taken, number of errors.
Hypothesis

• prediction of outcome
– framed in terms of IV and DV

e.g. “error rate will increase as font size decreases”

• null hypothesis:
– states no difference between conditions
– aim is to disprove this

e.g. null hyp. = “no change with font size”

Experimental design

• within groups design

– each subject performs experiment under each
condition.
– transfer of learning possible
– less costly and less likely to suffer from user
variation.
• between groups design
– each subject performs under only one condition
– no transfer of learning
– more users required
– variation can bias results.
Analysis of data

• Before you start to do any statistics:

– look at data
– save original data

• Choice of statistical technique depends on

– type of data
– information required

• Type of data
– discrete - finite number of values
– continuous - any value
Analysis - types of test

• parametric
– assume normal distribution
– robust
– powerful

• non-parametric
– do not assume normal distribution
– less powerful
– more reliable

• contingency table
– classify data by discrete attributes
– count number of data items in each group
Analysis of data (cont.)

• What information is required?

– is there a difference?
– how big is the difference?
– how accurate is the estimate?

• Parametric and non-parametric tests

mainly address first of these
Experimental studies on groups

More difficult than single-user experiments

Problems with:
– subject groups
– choice of task
– data gathering
– analysis
Subject groups

larger number of subjects

⇒ more expensive

longer time to `settle down’

… even more variation!

difficult to timetable

so … often only three or four groups

The task

must encourage cooperation

perhaps involve multiple channels

options:
– creative task e.g. ‘write a short report on …’
– decision games e.g. desert survival task
– control task e.g. ARKola bottling plant
Data gathering

several video cameras

+ direct logging of application

problems:
– synchronisation
– sheer volume!

one solution:
– record from each perspective
Analysis

N.B. vast variation between groups

solutions:
– within groups experiments
– micro-analysis (e.g., gaps in speech)
– anecdotal and qualitative analysis

look at interactions between group and media

controlled experiments may `waste' resources!

Field studies

Experiments dominated by group formation

Field studies more realistic:

distributed cognition ⇒ work studied in context
real action is situated action
physical and social environment both crucial

Contrast:
psychology – controlled experiment
sociology and anthropology – open study and rich data
Observational Methods

Think Aloud
Cooperative evaluation
Protocol analysis
Automated analysis
Post-task walkthroughs
Think Aloud

• user observed performing task

• user asked to describe what he is doing and
why, what he thinks is happening etc.

• Advantages
– simplicity - requires little expertise
– can provide useful insight
– can show how system is actually use
• Disadvantages
– subjective
– selective
– act of describing may alter task performance
Cooperative evaluation

• variation on think aloud

• user collaborates in evaluation
• both user and evaluator can ask each other
questions throughout

• Additional advantages
– less constrained and easier to use
– user is encouraged to criticize system
– clarification possible
Protocol analysis

• paper and pencil – cheap, limited to writing speed

• audio – good for think aloud, difficult to match with other
protocols
• video – accurate and realistic, needs special equipment,
obtrusive
• computer logging – automatic and unobtrusive, large
amounts of data difficult to analyze
• user notebooks – coarse and subjective, useful insights,
good for longitudinal studies

• Mixed use in practice.

• audio/video transcription difficult and requires skill.
• Some automatic support tools available
automated analysis – EVA

• Workplace project
• Post task walkthrough
– user reacts on action after the event
– used to fill in intention
• Advantages
– analyst has time to focus on relevant incidents
– avoid excessive interruption of task
• Disadvantages
– lack of freshness
– may be post-hoc interpretation of events
post-task walkthroughs

• transcript played back to participant for

comment
– immediately → fresh in mind
– delayed → evaluator has time to identify
questions
• useful to identify reasons for actions
and alternatives considered
• necessary in cases where think aloud is
not possible
Query Techniques

Interviews
Questionnaires
Interviews

• analyst questions user on one-to -one basis

usually based on prepared questions
• informal, subjective and relatively cheap

• Advantages
– can be varied to suit context
– issues can be explored more fully
– can elicit user views and identify unanticipated
problems
• Disadvantages
– very subjective
– time consuming
Questionnaires

• Set of fixed questions given to users

• Advantages
– quick and reaches large user group
– can be analyzed more rigorously
• Disadvantages
– less flexible
– less probing
Questionnaires (ctd)

• Need careful design

– what information is required?
– how are answers to be analyzed?

• Styles of question
– general
– open-ended
– scalar
– multi-choice
– ranked
Physiological methods

Eye tracking
Physiological measurement
eye tracking

• head or desk mounted equipment tracks the

position of the eye
• eye movement reflects the amount of
cognitive processing a display requires
• measurements include
– fixations: eye maintains stable position. Number and
duration indicate level of difficulty with display
– saccades: rapid eye movement from one point of
interest to another
– scan paths: moving straight to a target with a short
fixation at the target is optimal
physiological measurements
• emotional response linked to physical changes
• these may help determine a user’s reaction to
an interface
• measurements include:
– heart activity, including blood pressure, volume and pulse.
– activity of sweat glands: Galvanic Skin Response (GSR)
– electrical activity in muscle: electromyogram (EMG)
– electrical activity in brain: electroencephalogram (EEG)
• some difficulty in interpreting these
physiological responses - more research
needed
Choosing an Evaluation Method

when in process: design vs. implementation

style of evaluation: laboratory vs. field
how objective: subjective vs. objective
type of measures: qualitative vs. quantitative
level of information: high level vs. low level
level of interference: obtrusive vs. unobtrusive
resources available: time, subjects,
equipment, expertise
 chapter 10

universal design
universal design principles
- NCSW
• equitable use
• flexibility in use
• simple and intuitive to use
• perceptible information
• tolerance for error
• low physical effort
• size and space for approach and use
Multi-Sensory Systems

• More than one sensory channel in interaction

– e.g. sounds, text, hypertext, animation, video, gestures,
vision
• Used in a range of applications:
– particularly good for users with special needs, and virtual
reality
• Will cover
– general terminology
– speech
– non-speech sounds
– handwriting
• considering applications as well as principles
Usable Senses

The 5 senses (sight, sound, touch, taste and smell) are

used by us every day
– each is important on its own
– together, they provide a fuller interaction with the natural world

Computers rarely offer such a rich interaction

Can we use all the available senses?

– ideally, yes
– practically – no

We can use • sight • sound • touch (sometimes)

We cannot (yet) use • taste • smell

Multi-modal vs. Multi-media

• Multi-modal systems
– use more than one sense (or mode ) of interaction
e.g. visual and aural senses: a text processor may speak the
words as well as echoing them to the screen

• Multi-media systems
– use a number of different media to communicate
information
e.g. a computer-based teaching system:may use video,
animation, text and still images: different media all using the
visual mode of interaction; may also use sounds, both speech
and non-speech: two more media, now using a different mode
Speech

Human beings have a great and natural

mastery of speech

– makes it difficult to appreciate the

complexities
but
– it’s an easy medium for communication
Structure of Speech

phonemes
– 40 of them
– basic atomic units
– sound slightly different depending on the context
they are in, these larger units are …
allophones
– all the sounds in the language
– between 120 and 130 of them
– these are formed into …
morphemes
– smallest unit of language that has meaning.
Speech (cont’d)

Other terminology:
• prosody
– alteration in tone and quality
– variations in emphasis, stress, pauses and pitch
– impart more meaning to sentences.
• co-articulation
– the effect of context on the sound
– transforms the phonemes into allophones
• syntax – structure of sentences
• semantics – meaning of sentences
Speech Recognition Problems

• Different people speak differently:

– accent, intonation, stress, idiom, volume, etc.
• The syntax of semantically similar sentences may vary.
• Background noises can interfere.
• People often “ummm.....” and “errr.....”
• Words not enough - semantics needed as well
– requires intelligence to understand a sentence
– context of the utterance often has to be known
– also information about the subject and speaker
e.g. even if “Errr.... I, um, don’t like this” is recognised, it is a fairly
useless piece of information on it’s own
The Phonetic Typewriter

• Developed for Finnish (a phonetic language, written as it is said)

• Trained on one speaker, will generalise to others.

• A neural network is trained to cluster together similar
sounds, which are then labelled with the corresponding
character.
• When recognising speech, the sounds uttered are
allocated to the closest corresponding output, and the
character for that output is printed.
– requires large dictionary of minor variations to correct general
mechanism
– noticeably poorer performance on speakers it has not been trained
on
The Phonetic Typewriter (ctd)

a a a ah h æ æ ø ø e e e

o a a h r æ l ø y y j i

o o a h r r r g g y j i

o o m a r m n m n j i i

l o u h v vm n n h hj j j

l u v v p d d t r h hi j

. . u v tk k p p p r k s

. . v k pt t p t p h s s
Speech Recognition: useful?

• Single user or limited vocabulary systems

e.g. computer dictation
• Open use, limited vocabulary systems can
work satisfactorily
e.g. some voice activated telephone systems
• general user, wide vocabulary systems …
… still a problem
• Great potential, however
– when users hands are already occupied
e.g. driving, manufacturing
– for users with physical disabilities
– lightweight, mobile devices
Speech Synthesis

The generation of speech

Useful
– natural and familiar way of receiving information
Problems
– similar to recognition: prosody particularly

Additional problems
– intrusive - needs headphones, or creates noise in the
workplace
– transient - harder to review and browse
Speech Synthesis: useful?

Successful in certain constrained applications

when the user:
– is particularly motivated to overcome problems
– has few alternatives

Examples:
• screen readers
– read the textual display to the user
utilised by visually impaired people
• warning signals
– spoken information sometimes presented to pilots whose
visual and haptic skills are already fully occupied
Non-Speech Sounds

boings, bangs, squeaks, clicks etc.

• commonly used for warnings and alarms

• Evidence to show they are useful

– fewer typing mistakes with key clicks
– video games harder without sound

• Language/culture independent, unlike speech

Non-Speech Sounds: useful?

• Dual mode displays:

– information presented along two different sensory
channels
– redundant presentation of information
– resolution of ambiguity in one mode through information in
another
• Sound good for
– transient information
– background status information

e.g. Sound can be used as a redundant mode in the Apple

Macintosh; almost any user action (file selection, window
active, disk insert, search error, copy complete, etc.) can have
a different sound associated with it.
Auditory Icons

• Use natural sounds to represent different types of

object or action
• Natural sounds have associated semantics which can be
mapped onto similar meanings in the interaction
e.g. throwing something away
~ the sound of smashing glass
• Problem: not all things have associated meanings

• Additional information can also be presented:

– muffled sounds if object is obscured or action is in the
background
– use of stereo allows positional information to be added
SonicFinder for the Macintosh

• items and actions on the desktop have

associated sounds
• folders have a papery noise
• moving files – dragging sound
• copying – a problem …
sound of a liquid being poured into a receptacle
rising pitch indicates the progress of the copy

• big files have louder sound than smaller ones

Earcons

• Synthetic sounds used to convey information

• Structured combinations of notes (motives )
represent actions and objects
• Motives combined to provide rich information
– compound earcons
– multiple motives combined to make one more
complicated earcon
Earcons (ctd)

• family earcons
similar types of earcons represent similar classes of
action or similar objects: the family of “errors” would
contain syntax and operating system errors

• Earcons easily grouped and refined due to

compositional and hierarchical nature

• Harder to associate with the interface task

since there is no natural mapping
touch

• haptic interaction
– cutaneous perception
• tactile sensation; vibrations on the skin
– kinesthetics
• movement and position; force feedback
• information on shape, texture, resistance,
temperature, comparative spatial factors
• example technologies
– electronic braille displays
– force feedback devices e.g. Phantom
• resistance, texture
Handwriting recognition

Handwriting is another communication mechanism

which we are used to in day-to-day life

• Technology
– Handwriting consists of complex strokes and spaces
– Captured by digitising tablet
• strokes transformed to sequence of dots
– large tablets available
• suitable for digitising maps and technical drawings
– smaller devices, some incorporating thin screens to
display the information
• PDAs such as Palm Pilot
• tablet PCs
Handwriting recognition (ctd)

• Problems
– personal differences in letter formation
– co-articulation effects

• Breakthroughs:
– stroke not just bitmap
– special ‘alphabet’ – Graffeti on PalmOS

• Current state:
– usable – even without training
– but many prefer keyboards!
gesture
• applications
– gestural input - e.g. “put that there”
– sign language
• technology
– data glove
– position sensing devices e.g MIT Media Room
• benefits
– natural form of interaction - pointing
– enhance communication between signing and non-
signing users
• problems
– user dependent, variable and issues of coarticulation
Users with disabilities

• visual impairment
– screen readers, SonicFinder
• hearing impairment
– text communication, gesture, captions
• physical impairment
– speech I/O, eyegaze, gesture, predictive systems (e.g.
Reactive keyboard)
• speech impairment
– speech synthesis, text communication
• dyslexia
– speech input, output
• autism
– communication, education
… plus …

• age groups
– older people e.g. disability aids, memory aids,
communication tools to prevent social isolation
– children e.g. appropriate input/output devices,
involvement in design process
• cultural differences
– influence of nationality, generation, gender, race,
sexuality, class, religion, political persuasion etc. on
interpretation of interface features
– e.g. interpretation and acceptability of language,
cultural symbols, gesture and colour
chapter 11

user support
user support

• Issues
– different types of support at different times
– implementation and presentation both important
– all need careful design
• Types of user support
– quick reference, task specific help, full explanation,
tutorial
• Provided by help and documentation
– help - problem-oriented and specific
– documentation - system-oriented and general
– same design principles apply to both
Requirements
• Availability
– continuous access concurrent to main application
• Accuracy and completeness
– help matches and covers actual system behaviour
• Consistency
– between different parts of the help system and paper
documentation
• Robustness
– correct error handling and npredictable behaviour
• Flexibility
– allows user to interact in a way appropriate to experience and task
• Unobtrusiveness
– does not prevent the user continuing with work
Approaches to user support

• Command assistance
– User requests help on particular command
e.g., UNIX man, DOS help
– Good for quick reference
– Assumes user know what to look for

• Command prompts
– Provide information about correct usage when an
error occurs
– Good for simple syntactic errors
– Also assumes knowledge of the command
Approaches to user support (ctd)

• Context sensitive help

– help request interpreted according to context in
which it occurs. e.g. tooltips
• On-line tutorials
– user works through basics of application in a test
environment.
– can be useful but are often in flexible.
• On-line documentation
– paper documentation is made available on computer.
– continually available in common medium
– can be difficult to browse
– hypertext used to support browsing.
wizards and assistants

• wizards
– task specific tool leads the user through task, step by step,
using user’s answers to specific questions
– example: resumé
– useful for safe completion of complex or infrequent tasks
– constrained task execution so limited flexibility
– must allow user to go back

• assistants
– monitor user behaviour and offer contextual advice
– can be irritating e.g. MS paperclip
– must be under user control e.g. XP smart tags
Adaptive Help Systems

• Use knowledge of the context, individual user,

task, domain and instruction to provide help
adapted to user's needs.

• Problems
– knowledge requirements considerable
– who has control of the interaction?
– what should be adapted?
– what is the scope of the adaptation?
Knowledge representation
User modeling

• All help systems have a model of the

user
– single, generic user (non-intelligent)
– user-configured model (adaptable)
– system-configure model (adaptive)
Approaches to user modelling

• Quantification
– user moves between levels of expertise
– based on quantitative measure of what he knows.
• Stereotypes
– user is classified into a particular category.
• Overlay
– idealized model of expert use is constructed
– actual use compared to ideal
– model may contain the commonality or difference
Special case: user behaviour compared to known error
catalogue
Knowledge representation
Domain and task modelling
• Covers
– common errors and tasks
– current task
• Usually involves analysis of command
sequences.
• Problems
– representing tasks
– interleaved tasks
– user intention
Knowledge representation
Advisory strategy

• involves choosing the correct style of advice

for a given situation.
e.g. reminder, tutorial, etc.

• few intelligent help systems model advisory

strategy, but choice of strategy is still
important.
Techniques for knowledge
representation
• rule based (e.g. logic, production rules)
– knowledge presented as rules and facts
– interpreted using inference mechanism
– can be used in relatively large domains.
• frame based (e.g. semantic network)
– knowledge stored in structures with slots to be filled
– useful for a small domain.
• network based
– knowledge represented as relationships between facts
– can be used to link frames.
• example based
– knowledge represented implicitly within decision structure
– trained to classify rather than programmed with rules
– requires little knowledge acquisition
Problems with knowledge
representation and modelling

• knowledge acquisition

• resources

• interpretation of user behaviour

Issues in adaptive help

• Initiative
– does the user retain control or can the system direct the
interaction?
– can the system interrupt the user to offer help?

• Effect
– what is going to be adapted and what information is
needed to do this?
– only model what is needed.

• Scope
– is modelling at application or system level?
– latter more complex
e.g. expertise varies between applications.
Designing user support

• User support is not an `add on’

– should be designed integrally with the
system.

• Concentrate on content and context of

help rather than technological issues.
Presentation issues

• How is help requested?

– command, button, function (on/off), separate
application
• How is help displayed?
– new window, whole screen, split screen,
– pop-up boxes, hint icons
• Effective presentation requires
– clear, familiar, consistent language
– instructional rather than descriptive language
– avoidance of blocks of text
– clear indication of summary and example
information
Implementation issues

Is help What resources are

– operating system available?
command – screen space
– meta command – memory capacity
– application – speed

Structure of help data Issues

– single file – flexibility and extensibility
– file hierarchy – hard copy
– database – browsing