Understanding &

Conceptualizing
Interaction
TIM Dosen
 Recap

 HCI has moved beyond designing interfaces for desktop

machines
 About extending and supporting all manner of human
activities in all manner of places
 Facilitating user experiences through designing interactions
 Make work effective, efficient and safer
 Improve and enhance learning and training
 Provide enjoyable and exciting entertainment
 Enhance communication and understanding
 Support new forms of creativity and expression
Understanding the problem space

 What do you want to create?

 What are your assumptions?
 Will it achieve what you hope it will?
 A framework for analysing the problem space
Insert the title of your subtitle Here

 Are there problems with an existing product?

 Why do you think there are problems?
 Why do you think your proposed ideas might be useful?
 How would you see people using it with their current way of
doing things?
 How will it support people in their activities?
 Will it really help them?
 An example

 What were the assumptions made by cell phone

companies when developing WAP services?

 Was it a solution looking for a problem?

 Assumptions: realistic or wish-list?
 People want to be kept informed of up-to-date
news wherever they are - reasonable
 People want to interact with information on the
move - reasonable
 People are happy using a very small display
and using an extremely restricted interface
- not reasonable
 People will be happy doing things on a cell
??? phone that they normally do on their PCs (e.g
surf the web, read email, shop, bet, play video
games) - reasonable only for a very select
bunch of users
From problem space to design space

 Having a good understanding of the problem

space can help inform the design space
e.g. what kind of interface, behavior,
functionality to provide
 But before deciding upon these it is important to
develop a conceptual model
Conceptual model
Need to first think about how the system
will appear to users (i.e. how they will
understand it)

A conceptual model is a high level

description of:
“the proposed system in terms of a
set of integrated ideas and concepts
about what it should do, behave
and look like, that will be
understandable by the users in the
manner
intended”
First steps in formulating a conceptual model

What will the How will the What kind of interface What kinds of
users be doing system support metaphor, if any, will interaction modes
when carrying these? be appropriate? and styles to use?
out their tasks?

Always keep in mind when

making design decisions how
the user will understand the
underlying conceptual model
Conceptual models
* Many kinds and ways of classifying them

* Here we describe them in terms of core activities & objects

* Also in terms of interface metaphors

 Conceptual models based on activities

 Giving instructions
issuing commands using keyboard and function keys and
selecting options via menus
 Conversing
interacting with the system as if having a conversation
 Manipulating and navigating
acting on objects and interacting with virtual objects
 Exploring and browsing
finding out and learning things
1. Giving Instructions

 Where users instruct the system and tell it what to do

e.g. tell the time, print a file, save a file
 Very common conceptual model, underlying a diversity of
devices and systems
e.g. CAD, word processors, VCRs, vending machine
 Main benefit is that instructing supports quick and efficient
interaction
good for repetitive kinds of actions performed on
multiple objects
 Both support the
interaction style of
issuing instructions

Figure 2.3 Two vending machines, (a) one selling soft drinks, (b) the other selling a range of snacks
  Underlying model of having a conversation with another
human

 Range from simple voice recognition menu-driven

systems to more complex ‘natural language’ dialogues

 Examples include timetables, search engines, advice-

2. Conversing giving systems, help systems

 Recently, much interest in having virtual agents at the

interface, who converse with you, e.g. Microsoft’s Bob
and Clippy
 Pros and cons of conversational model

 Allows users, especially novices and technophobes, to interact with

the system in a way that is familiar
makes them feel comfortable, at ease and less scared

• Misunderstandings can arise when the system does not know how
to parse what the user says
e.g. child types into a search engine, that uses natural language
the question:
“How many legs does a centipede have?”
and the system responds:
You asked: How many legs does a centipede have?

Jeeves knows these answers:

Where can I find a definition for the math term

leg?

Where can I find a concise encyclopedia article on ?

centipedes?

Where can I see an image of the human

appendix?

Why does my leg or other limb fall asleep?

Where can I find advice on controlling the garden pest ?

millipedes and centipedes?

Where can I find resources from Britannica.com on

leg ?
 3. Manipulating and navigating
 Involves dragging, selecting, opening, closing and zooming
actions on virtual objects

 Exploit’s users’ knowledge of how they move and manipulate

in the physical world

 Exemplified by (i) what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG)

and (ii) the direct manipulation approach (DM)

 Shneiderman (1983) coined the term DM, came from his

fascination with computer games at the time

***
 Core principles of DM
 Continuous representation of objects and actions
of interest

 Physical actions and button pressing instead of

issuing commands with complex syntax

 Rapid reversible actions with immediate feedback

on object of interest

***
 Why are DM interfaces so enjoyable?

 Novices can learn the basic functionality quickly

 Experienced users can work extremely rapidly to carry out a wide range of tasks,
even defining new functions
 Intermittent users can retain operational concepts over time
 Error messages rarely needed
 Users can immediately see if their actions are furthering their goals and if not do
something else
 Users experience less anxiety
 Users gain confidence and mastery and feel in control
 What are the disadvantages with DM?

 Some people take the metaphor of direct manipulation too literally

 Not all tasks can be described by objects and not all actions can be done directly
 Some tasks are better achieved through delegating
e.g. spell checking
 Can become screen space ‘gobblers’
 Moving a mouse around the screen can be slower than pressing function keys to
do same actions
 4. Exploring and browsing
 Similar to how people browse information with
existing media (e.g. newspapers, magazines,
libraries, pamphlets)
 Information is structured to allow flexibility in way
user is able to search for information
 e.g. multimedia, web

***
 Conceptual models based on objects

• Usually based on an analogy with something in the physical world

• Examples include books, tools, vehicles
• Classic: Star Interface
based on office
objects

Johnson et al (1989)
 Another classic: the spreadsheet (Bricklin)

 Analogous to ledger sheet

 Interactive and computational
 Easy to understand
 Greatly extending what accountants
and others could do

www.bricklin.com/history/refcards.htm
 Which conceptual model is best?

 Direct manipulation is good for ‘doing’ types of

tasks, e.g. designing, drawing, flying, driving,
sizing windows
 Issuing instructions is good for repetitive tasks,
e.g. spell-checking, file management
 Having a conversation is good for children,
computer-phobic, disabled users and
specialised applications (e.g. phone services)
 Hybrid conceptual models are often employed,
where different ways of carrying out the same
actions is supported at the interface - but can
take longer to learn
 Interface Metaphors

 Interface designed to be similar to a physical enity

but also has own properties e.g. desktop
metaphor, web portals
 Can be based on activity, object or a combination
of both
 Exploit user’s familiar knowledge, helping them to
understand ‘the unfamiliar’ 
 Conjures up the essence of the unfamiliar activity,
enabling users to leverage of this to understand
more aspects of the unfamiliar functionality
 Benefits Of Interface Metaphors

 Makes learning new systems easier

 Helps users understand the underlying conceptual model
 Can be very innovative and enable the realm of computers and their applications
to be made more accessible to a greater diversity of users
 Problems With Interface Metaphors 

 Break conventional and cultural rules

e.g. recycle bin placed on desktop
 Can constrain designers in the way they conceptualize a problem space
 Conflict with design principles
 Forces users to only understand the system in terms of the metaphor
 Designers can inadvertently use bad existing designs and transfer the bad parts
over
 Limits designers’ imagination in coming up with new conceptual models
 Conceptual models: from interaction mode to style

Interaction mode:  Interaction style:

 what the user is doing when  the kind of interface used to
interacting with a system, support the mode,
e.g. instructing, talking, e.g. speech, menu-based, gesture
browsing or other
 Many Kinds Of Interaction Styles Available…

 Command
 Speech
 Data-entry
 Form fill-in
 Query
 Graphical
 Web
 Pen
 Augmented reality
 Gesture       and even...
 Interacting Via GPRS Enabled Cell Phone…

 Drawing an elephant by walking round the streets

of a city (or other mode of transport) and entering
data points along the way via the cell phone 
 Example:  Brighton and Hove(UK) by J. Wood by
foot,  track length 11.2km
(see www.gpsdrawing.com for more examples)
Making Art By Recording Where Walking In A City
 Which interaction style to choose?
 Need to determine requirements and user needs
 Take the budget and other constraints into account
 Also will depend on suitability of technology for
activity being supported 
 This topic will be covered more later when discuss
how to actually design conceptual models

***
 Interaction paradigms
 Another form of inspiration for conceptual models
 From the desktop to ubiquitous computing
(embedded in the environment)

***
 Examples of new paradigms
 Ubiquitous computing (mother of them all)
 Pervasive computing
 Wearable computing
 Tangible bits, augmented reality
 Attentive environments
 Transparent computing
 and many more….

***
 Two examples: BlueEyes (IBM) and Cooltown (HP)
Visionary approaches for developing novel conceptual paradigms

Almalden.ibm.com/cs/blueeyes/
cooltown.hp.com/mpulse/backissues/0601/0601-cooltown.asp
 Summary points

 Important to have a good understanding of the problem space

 Fundamental aspect of interaction design is to develop a con-
ceptual model
 Interaction modes and interface metaphors provide a
structure for thinking about which kind of conceptual model to
develop
 Interaction styles are specific kinds of interfaces that are
insta-ntiated as part of the conceptual model
 Interaction paradigms can also be used to inform the design
of the conceptual model
  THANKS