J31/3655/2019
SHEM ABERI
SIT 308
HUMAN COMPUTER INTERFACE
CAT 2 ASSIGNMENT
INSTRUCTOR: HARRISON NJOROGE
1. State and explain briefly the multi-store model of memory.
Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin proposed the multi-store model of memory which is
commonly known as the modal model, in 1968. It is a structural model. A sensory memory,
short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM) were suggested as the three
stores that made up memory (LTM).
In class, we learnt that the sensory memory receives information from the 5 senses:
Iconic memory- this includes the visual stimuli
Echoic memory- consists of the aural stimuli
Haptic memory-this is the sense of touch
Taste
Smell
If a person is very attentive to his surrounding stimuli, they will receive information which
will be then transferred to the short-term memory.
The short-term memory encodes information acoustically and has a duration of 0-18
seconds. Its capacity is 7+-2 items and information is through displacement or decay.
Continued rehearsal of information renews the information in the memory trace and stores it
in the long-term memory.
The long-term memory has an unlimited duration, an unlimited capacity and encoding is
mainly semantic but can also be visual or auditory. When needed, information can be recalled
from the long-term memory to the short-term memory.
2. Evaluation in HCI is an important activity, justify this statement, explaining at what
stages it can be carried out.
Evaluation is basically an important activity as tests usability, functionality and
acceptability of an interactive system. Its main role in HCI is to assess the designs made and
test the systems to ensure that they behave as expected and meet the users wants and needs.
The three major objectives of evaluation are to determine the scope and accessibility of the
system's functioning, to gauge how well users interact with it, and to spot any systemic
issues.
Evaluation shouldn't be viewed as a process that is carried out as a single phase in the design
process. The evaluation process should go on continuously throughout the design life
cycle, with the revisions to the design being influenced by the evaluation's findings.
At the usability stage evaluation is important as it helps in assessing the user’s
experience of the interaction and its impact upon him/her. This includes how easy it is
to learn and use the system and how it generally satisfies them.
During the testing functionality stage, evaluation is quite important in according the
user with the requirements and designing of a system that works smoothly and easily
while matching the tasks to the user’s expectations.
During the stage of testing the design for acceptability, evaluation helps in gathering
the aspects of the system that may cause confusion and problems which might bring
unexpected results among users. These trouble-spots are then analyzed and rectified to
suit the user’s requirements.
3. Explain how you would cope with the problem of designing for expert users and
novice users.
Expert user’s systems are much harder to design than regular user systems which at times
have novices who rely on trial and error. Luckily, the solution to coping with the problem of
designing for expert and novice users can easily be solved once you establish the core
requirements of both users and being able to prioritize their wants and needs. Here’s how you
can try to satisfy both users on the same system.
Apply the appropriate personas at each phase of the design phase- User profiles
serve as a depiction of the application's actual users and their behavioral traits, and
they can be used as a guide to verify the design suggestions at different phases.
Persona-driven design methodology is always effective. Before beginning, it is always
a good idea to develop separate personas for novices and experts.
Providing alternate paths to novice and expert users-Help and support domains
can be built for novices while experts will have the chance to skip these steps and go
straight to the task.
Use affordances to leverage prior experience- For beginners and professionals,
knowledge or prior experience with other apps can be used as reference to build
designs that accommodate both experts and novices.
Allow for customizations to match increasing expertise-the system design can be
made in such a way that it allows users to gain a degree of competence where they
start as novices, become intermediaries and soon become experts.
A good example of such an interactive system design for novices and experts is the
Lichess application for playing chess. It has a dashboard where novices can navigate and
learn to play chess while solving basic chess puzzles. Experts on the other hand are provided
with the option to skip the learning part and go directly to the lobby where they can be paired
to play with different people worldwide, customize their profiles and solve complex puzzles.
As a beginner continues training and playing more games, they gain the necessary skills to
improve their game and become experts eventually.
