bit3 uid lecture_4 part 1
TRANSCRIPT
03/05/23 03:20 AM CSC Alliance — 1
ICS - MUST
User Interface Development-CSC 3213 Lecture 4 – Monday 3rd March 2014
Mr. Richard Kimera
MUST- ICS [email protected]
UI Design Process
Developing a computer system is never easy. The path is littered with obstacles and traps, many of them human in nature. Gould (1988) has made these general observations about design:
Nobody ever gets it right the first time.
Development is chock-full of surprises.
Good design requires living in a sea of changes.
Making contracts to ignore change will never eliminate the need for change.
Even if you have made the best system humanly possible, people will still make mistakes when using it.
Designers need good tools.
You must have behavioral design goals like performance design goals.
MUST- ICS [email protected]
Designing for People: The Five Commandments
1. Gain a complete understanding of users and their tasks. The users are the customers.- system or Web site must be geared to people’s needs, not those of the developers.
2. Solicit early and ongoing user involvement.- Early involvement will provide info on jobs, tasks and needs
3. Perform rapid prototyping and testing.- quickly identifys’ problems and allow you to develop solutions.- It is hard and costly to fix a problem after the product release
4. Modify and iterate the design as much as necessary- problems detected in one stage may force the developer to revisit a previous stage.
5. Integrate the design of all the system components.- software, the documentation, the help function, and training should be developed concurrently
MUST- ICS [email protected]
Common Usability Problems
1. Ambiguous menus and icons.
2. Languages that permit only single-direction movement through a system.
3. Input and direct manipulation limits.
4. Highlighting and selection limitations.
5. Unclear step sequences.
6. More steps to manage the interface than to perform tasks.
7. Complex linkage between and within applications.
8. Inadequate feedback and confirmation.
9. Lack of system anticipation and intelligence.
10. Inadequate error messages, help, tutorials, and documentation.
IBM usability specialists
MUST- ICS [email protected]
Which Members do I need on the Design Team??
Provide a balanced design team, including specialists in:
Development
Human factors
Visual design
Usability assessment
Documentation
Training
MUST- ICS [email protected]
UI Design Process
Executableprototype
Designprototype
Produce paper-based design
prototype
Producedynamic design
prototype
Evaluate designwith end-users
Implementfinal userinterface
Evaluate designwith end-users
Analyse andunderstand user
activities
MUST- ICS [email protected]
Upfront User ResearchMethods
Observational studies Observing how people currently perform work
within their “live” context
User interviews Asking users to describe how they perform work
and what they think about it
MUST- ICS [email protected]
Observational StudiesWhy observe? Why not just ask questions?
People aren’t able to fully articulate what they do
Behavior is often automatic
People take important factors in the social and physical context for granted
MUST- ICS [email protected]
An Observational StudyExample Findings
• User interface for system must be visible and controllable from a distance
• Touch screen has limitations for use Hands are frequently wet and/or dirty
Stylus must be attached to unit
MUST- ICS [email protected]
User InterviewsLess open-ended than observational studies
Questions usually focus on getting information about particular user goals and tasks
Best conducted in the environment where users perform work
