Announcements Office hours to be posted this weekend Starting Monday, bring clickers to class

every day Reminders:

GoPost bios due by 10pm UW Computing Lab due 10pm Mon Clicker Registration due 10pm Mon Week 1 Discussion due 10pm Wed

2012-03-30 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 1

Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 2

Regarding GoPost Discussions

Wednesday by Wednesday schedule Need to post at least once per week Can post multiple times

In the same thread In multiple threads

2012-03-30

What the Digerati KnowFluency with Information Technology

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Katherine Deibel

INFO100 and CSE100

Katherine Deibel

GUIs—Graphic User Interfaces

They’re how people interact with computers, phones, and eReaders, etc.

You’re familiarwith them but how did you learn to use them all?

HUMAN-COMPUTER

INTERACTIONHCI

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Human-Computer Interaction

HCI is the study of how people use computers and making them better What interfaces increase productivity? Is a mouse, a stylus, or touchpad better?

Two key notions for evaluating any computer tool or GUI: Utility Usability

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Qualities of Good GUIs Utility:

Does it do what users need? A spreadsheet GUI is the wrong tool for

laying out a magazine Usability:

Is it easy to use? Far more complex to study

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Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 7

Usability Heuristics Visibility of system status / Feedback Match between system and real world User freedom / Undo and Redo Consistency of interaction Error Prevention / No self-destructs Recognizable features / Common Icons Flexibility / Novice and Expert usage Aesthetically pleasing with a purpose Minimal / What you see is what you need Support error recovery

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Usability in Practice The end user (YOU!!) is the ultimate

decider of whether a GUI is usable Some caveats

Do not trust first impressions Always expect a learning curve Usability may increase as you learn the

specifics of a program

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So How Can We Learn A GUI?

Reading the manual? Booorrrring! Taking a class? Baaadd! Applying your knowledge and past

experience? Yes! How did you learn to use your music player? Designers know you come to technology with

some experience – you live in a technical world, and people are curious – so designers make their tools familiar

How?2012-03-30 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 9

Learning Software Software designers want you to learn

their tool ASAP and therefore strive to make it intuitive Consistent interfaces build on user's

previous user experience Icons bypass terminology for pictures Metaphors exploit analogous reasoning

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Icons Icons tell us a lot about software

functionality by cultural association

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Metaphors Abound Desktops Recycle bins Windows Clipboard Sleep mode Home page Notepad

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Standard Functionality

Any guesses as to what program these menus came from?I honestly have no clue.

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Invasion of the Pod ProgramsAll the software is the same

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Why are applications similar? Form follows function Developer tools promote reuse

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Form Follows Function To solve a task, certain operations must

always be provided Text processing requires

typing / accepting keyboard characters selecting, copying, pasting, finding, etc.

Web browsers require giving a URL [in the location window] navigation, clicking links, scrolling,

displaying images, etc.2012-03-30 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 16

Developer Tools Promote Reuse

Applications are built by programmers using a common set of tools Sample tools: save file, open file, print, scroll

the window, menus, resizing, help, … Programmers build their own solutions when it

is important, but the rest of the time they use the standard tool set

Operating systems perform standard operations (reading and writing files) for all applications s in just one way

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Implications of StandardizationFluency is much much easier

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Mac or PC—what's the difference?

Mac’s and PCs are waaay more alike than they are different

The companies try hard to emphasizethe differences

Any Fluent personcan use either OS(and Linux, too)!

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Extremes of Standardization

You can impress your friends with your foreign language skills

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Web Applications Like desktop applications, Web

applications use consistent features Similar to desktop features Borrow heavily from Web navigation

ideas Look at a Web application that

you’ve never seen before … what do you recognize?

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What’s Familiar

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What’s Familiar

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What’s Familiar

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What’s Familiar

What Do You

Recognize?

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When there’s no GUI… You can still guess a lot!

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Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 27

Getting FamiliarSpeed Dating with Software

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Teach Yourself Applications

What do you know to start? Your experience tells you …

Applications use a consistent interface If you see an icon you recognize, its

meaning is probably the same as last time Form follows function means if you know

what the application does, you should be able to guess a lot

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“Click Around” Because of the consistent interface,

all you need to do is look To learn a new application, explore it

out by clicking around Take a minute to ...▪ Look under all menus to see operations▪ Follow the “…” for menu operations▪ Try to recognize what the icons mean

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“Blazing Away” What does it mean?

Learn an application fast by trying it Beginning with a new instance,

assertively trying menu items Expect to fail and make a mess Exit the application, and if you are asked

“Save?” reply “No” Try repeatedly until it becomes familiar

2012-03-30 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 30

[Almost] Nothing Will Break Clicking Around and Blazing Away

will not break anything, so be bold! Usually, the software catches errors Operations are often reversible “Deleted” information is usually sitting

there in the trash Undo is the first try at recovering, then

restarting the application, then rebooting, then cycling power

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But Still Be Careful Undo has limitations Make backups/copies of files you work on Some playing around can be permanent

Control panel Configuration Options

Take written notes if you need to go back to a previous state

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Summary As you have used some software, you

should assume you can use any software Will it always be true?

No, some tools (E.G. Photoshop, GIMP) take some study

The reasons you can teach yourself apps Consistent Interfaces Form Follows Function Nothing will break, so you can be BOLD

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