chapter six
Design rules and Implementation Support
Design Rule Chp 6
Contents
Universal Design
Universal Design Principles
Design Rules
Principles of usability
Standards and guidelines
Design patterns
Universal design
Universal design is the process of designing products so that they
can be used by as many people as possible in as many situations as
possible
People have different
abilities and weaknesses; they come from different backgrounds and
cultures;
interests, viewpoints and experiences; they are different ages and
sizes.
All of these things have an impact on
the way in which an individual will use a particular computing
application and,
whether or not they can use it at all.
Universal Design Principles
In reality, we may not be able to design everything to be accessible to
everyone
but we can work toward the aim of universal design and try to provide an
equivalent experience.
The seven general principles of universal design may help us in this
regard
Equitable use - No user is excluded or stigmatized
Flexibility in use - allows for a range of ability and preference
Simple and intuitive to use - should not be unnecessarily complex
Perceptible information - different forms & support the range of devices
Tolerance for error – minimizing the damage caused by mistakes
Low physical effort - minimizing physical effort and fatigue
Size and space for approach and use - used regardless of body size, posture
or mobility
Design Rules
Designing for maximum usability is the goal of
interactive systems design.
Design rules
provide designers with the ability to determine the usability
consequences of their design decisions.
are rules a designer can follow in order to increase the
usability of the eventual software product
Three types of design rules
Principles - abstract design rules, low authority and high
generality
Standards - specific design rules, high authority but limited
application
Guidelines - lower authority, more general application
Principles to Support Usability
Three main categories of principles
Learnability
theease with which new users can begin effective
interaction and achieve maximal performance
Flexibility
themultiplicity of ways the user and system exchange
information
Robustness
the
level of support provided to 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 i.e. the user’s ability to determine the
effect of future interactions
assumes that the user has some mental model of how the
system behaves
Examples
0,3, 6, …. Next number?
When I type the title of my task, my digital diary suggests
location of the task on the basis of past task history
Principles of Learnability
Synthesizability
is the ability of the user to assess the effect of past
operations on the current state.
E.g. When an operation changes some aspect of the internal
state, the change is should be seen by the user.
Principles of Learnability…
Familiarity
how prior knowledge applies to new system
E.g. analogy between the word processor and a typewriter
Generalizability
Extending specific interaction knowledge to new situations
E.g. draw a circle as a constrained form of ellipse square
can be drawn as a constrained rectangle
Consistency
likeness in input/output behaviour arising from similar
situations or task objectives
E.g. consistency in command naming, or consistency in
command/argument invocation
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
E.g. Spell-checking
proper names checked by the user others by the system
Principles of flexibility…
Substitutivity
allowing equivalent values of input and output to be
substituted for each other
E.g. Enter an input for length in
meter(1m, 1 meter, 1),
Centimetre (100cm, 100centimeter, 100) or
formula that produces a number
Customizability
modifiability of the user interface by user (adaptability) or
system (adaptively).
Principles of robustness
Observability
ability of user to evaluate the internal state of the system from
its perceivable representation
Recoverability
ability of user to take corrective action once an error has been
recognized
reachability; forward/backward recovery; commensurate effort
Principles of robustness …
Responsiveness
measures the rate of communication between the system and
the user.
Response time is generally defined as the duration of time
needed by the system to express state changes to the user.
Task conformance
degree to which system services support all of the user's tasks
task completeness - the coverage issue
task adequacy - the user’s understanding of the tasks
Standards
Set by national(BSI) or international (ISO) bodies to ensure
compliance with a set of design rules by a large community standards
Standards can apply specifically to either the hardware or the
software used to build the interactive system.
Hardware standards more common than software high authority and
low level of detail
ISO 9241 defines usability as
Effectiveness - accuracy and completeness
Efficiency - the resources (time, memory) expended
Satisfaction - comfort and acceptability
Standards…
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
Example
Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules
Norman’s 7 Principles [Home reading Assignment]
Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics (study on your own)
Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules
1. Strive for consistency
lay-out, terminologies, command usage, etc.
2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts
recognize the requirements of diverse users and technology. For
instance add features for novices e.g. explanations, support expert
users e.g. shortcuts
3. Offer informative feedback
for every user action, offer relevant feedback and information,
keep the user appropriately informed, human-computer interaction.
4. Design dialogs to yield closure
for every user action, offer relevant feedback and information,
keep the user appropriately informed, human-computer interaction.
(e.g. Fill in form submit Confirmation)
Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules…
5. Offer error prevention and simple error handling
prevention and (clear and informative guidance to) recovery;
error management
6. Permit easy reversal of actions
to relieve anxiety and encourage exploration, because the user
knows s/he can always go back to previous states
7. Support internal locus of control
make the user feel that s/he is in control of the system, which responds
to his/her instructions/commands.
8. Reduce short-term memory load
make menus and UI elements/items visible, easily
available/retrievable, ...
Norman’s 7 Principles [study on your own]
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 - intentions to controls & actions to
event
5. Exploit the power of constraints
6. Design for error
7. When all else fails, standardize.
HCI design patterns
An approach to reusing knowledge about successful
design solutions
A pattern is an invariant solution to a recurrent problem
within a specific context
HCI design patterns document interaction models that
make it easier for users to understand an interface and
accomplish their tasks
For patterns to be helpful to the designers and developers
who will make use of them, they need to be findable and
readable
HCI design patterns …
Reasons to use design patterns
Teaching novices some best practices and common
approaches
Giving teams a common language, reducing
misunderstandings that arise from different vocabulary
Reducing time and costs in the design and development
lifecycle
Making usable designs
Eliminate wasted time spent "reinventing the wheel"
Ensuring users have a consistent and predictable experience
within an application or service
Questions ??
Thank You
