Module 6: Design and Usability

Learning Objectives:
The students will be able to do the following by the end of the lesson:
 Develop an understanding of HCI and the techniques used for gathering information;
 Examine how each of the techniques presented is different from each other;
 Draw attention to how detailed and meticulous the process of designing is before a product is
shipped for the general public;
 Explore how different processes and prototyping affect the design process for every product in
the market;
 Describe each of the topics with pinpoint accuracy; and
 Know how technology affects human beings' lives and the daily routine around the world.

When the idea of using a device that could automate difficult tasks with the push of a button rose during
the 1980s, it was no coincidence that the technological revolution was already on full throttle: different
companies gearing for the so-called 'tech race, companies like Apple with their Macintosh line, IBM and
the PC 5150, and the Commodore 64, being mass produced and delivered to almost every household
and office in the United States. It was also during this time where the public got their hands on
previously considered as military-grade equipment, hence the overwhelming tide of change and
adaption sweeping all across the country, and soon, the world. Since computers are no longer the size of
a room, various concepts of interaction rose in order to visualize human interaction with this newly
marketed technology on a very compact level. Hence, the concept of Human-Computer Interaction was
born, slowly slipping in the known studies and incorporating itself which will soon be in every aspect of
human life.

Figure 6.1: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-computer-which-launched-the-pc-revolution/

Why physical design is easier than HCI design: human error and mistakes

HUMAN ERROR AND MISTAKES

Individuals are familiar with the worsening of errors we make with daily devices, such as turning on the
heat under on an empty pot, making errors in our videocassette recorders' programming series
individuals tend to blame themselves for "human mistakes." The use and misuse of the word, however,
has led some to inquire into the very concept of "human error" (Wagenaar & Groeneweg, 1988). In the
absence of technical explanation, human error is frequently cited.
Figure 6.2: https://uxdesign.cc/human-error-an-important-ingredient-in-great-designs-5cd1c278ba7f

In any embedded system, human administrators are often the weak link. Failure levels for humans as
system components are elevated in different order of magnitude than in other parts of the system.
Nearly all of components of the system hardware are considered safe if they have 10 ^ -6 or lower failure
rates. For an operator working in absolute conditions, the performance limit is a failure rate of 10 ^ -4. If
a group of employed operators develops the failure rate to 10 ^ -5. See the image below for the
probability data of rising human errors taken from [Kirwan94]. It makes enhancing the HI and a crucial
part of scheming a safe critical framework for human error correction. Through recognizing that certain
circumstances will reduce human efficiency and designing the HI to stay away from putting the operator
in those situations, we may be able to improve HCI design.

Figure 6.3: https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/des_s99/human/

Slips from taxonomy List of errors

Slips that result from errors in target formation Mode errors: Incorrect situation classification
Design errors: Ambiguous or incomplete intent
specification
Capture errors: Similar action sequences, where
more grounded sequence takes control
Data-driven activation errors: Outer events
which cause mapping activation
Slips resulting from defective schema activation Association-activation errors: Currently active
mappings running other schemes relating to
them
Loss-of-activation errors: Maps which lose
activation after operation
 Blend errors: Components combined from
competing schemes
Premature activation errors: Schemes which
activate too early
Slips resulting from defective triggered schemes Failure to activate errors: Default in trigger state
or schema activation case

Heuristic Assessment/Evaluation

Based on a set of usability criteria, heuristic assessment involves having a set of individuals (the
evaluators) evaluate a user interface design and conclude. Such criteria are arbitrary and cannot be
robustly measured, but the evaluators can make reasonable assumptions about how quickly the UI is
sticking to the rules.

An example set of the usability heuristics would be:

1. Quick and realistic dialog
2. Talk user language
3. Minimize user memory load
4. Consistency
5. Feedback
6. Clearly marked exits
7. Shortcuts
8. Precise and positive error messages
9. Avoid mistakes
10. Information and assistance

This approach is typically applied early in a system's life cycle, since it is not necessary to introduce a
functioning user interface. Each individual evaluator can examine the UI on their own and decide on it
according to the heuristics set without the interface having to work. That is a form of inspection entirely.
It has been discovered that around five or more independent evaluators are vital for achieving optimum
coverage for all interface issues. However, if this is prohibitive cost, heuristic evaluation with as few as
three evaluators can achieve good results.

Know your user: What they want, how they think, how to implement

Figure 6.4: https://uxplanet.org/what-really-know-you-user-means-bfaba378c092

In designing User Interface, you should know the user wants, their expectations and how it flows. You
can't just know someone's desire just by interviewing, as a designer your goal is to figure out by your
own on how you will acquire and suffice your users through your design. More particularly, it is about
how individuals feel about an item and their pleasure and fulfillment when utilizing it, seeing it, holding
it, and opening or closing it. It includes their general impression of how excellent it is to use, right down
to the physical effect small details have on them, such as how it will work in a smooth way as which
rotates or the sound of a click and the touching of a button when pressing it.

WHAT THEY WANT?

When knowing our users' desire, we can conduct such survey and a focus group discussion to have a
better interpretation about their desired expectations and aims. Generally, the survey is focused to the
users' information, users' job, users experience and user's annoyance. Basically, this kind of survey
questions is very helpful to the designer on how they will start their design.

Figure 6.5: https://www.shutterstock.com/search/what-do-you-want

The designer must also consider their users' cultural beliefs, because some people have different
cultures, different perspectives and different ways of seeing and communicating about the world. Some
users tend to use such User Interface based on their mood or emotions. It may be mental, behavioral
and emotional mood. We can also know what our users want based on their actions and beliefs.

HOW THEY THINK?

To know your users on how they think, it's extremely important to have a testing procedure or interview
a few people in a set up when you start fabricating a User Interface. Ask yourself, your group, your
customer... Who would I like to utilize this? What do they ask for from it? What do I need them to do
with it? What kind of state of mind would they say they're probably going to be in when utilizing it? You
may perceive this as the process of building up users' personas.

This will enable anybody associated with the project to see where things probably won't be working. It
will enable you to make proof based on recommendations and it will imply that you can try different
things with increasingly unique ideas and thoughts safe in the information that you will have the option
to recognize and correct an issue that your users might have.

Four different people looking at the same monitor (see the picture below), but each seeing quite
differently. The more individuals in a design group that have different backgrounds, the easier it appears
to be to impart and progress with the designs being made. Why? For what? People with different
backgrounds have different viewpoints and ways of seeing and questioning the universe. Could not even
see what one person considers as significant others (Kim, 1990).
Figure 6.6: https://www.innovation.ca/news/innovation-now

HOW TO IMPLEMENT?

Figure 6.7: https://uxplanet.org/improving-your-ux-with-data-8d46047e0dd4

According to Rashi Desai, there are four different ways to implement information for a superior user
experience design. Here are the following:

1. Understanding User Personas from Data

Personas are character portrayals of an individual, object, circumstance, issue, challenge,
redesign created dependent on the exploration to represent the different user types that will
utilize the service, product or site. Making personas comprehends users' needs, encounters,
practices, and objectives.
2. Designing the task models
It frequently includes documenting the comprehensive business and user data prerequisites in a
precise and steady format. Presently, as data come into our image, we should depend on
information for the insights.
3. Redesigning the User Interface
A terrible User Interface design can fate your next project, regardless of how great the thought
or idea driving it truly is. Analyze components that worked or didn't function admirably for your
User Experience configuration upheld by the information grouping or division. Divide your
information into positives and negatives; what works or not ought to be clear at this point. Draw
out a connection between the factors of consideration and determine whether the relations are
solid or frail.
 4. Heuristic Evaluation with Data
Heuristic evaluation is a methodology of usability to identify user-friendly problems in a user
interface system with the aim of being able to take care of them as part of an iterative design
process. It includes looking at the User Interface and reviewing its conformity with defined
usability requirements by a limited group of evaluators.

Designer Bias/Egocentrism

THE EGOCENTRIC BIAS: WHY IT’S HARD TO SEE THINGS IN A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW

Figure 6.8: Figure 6.9: https://miro.medium.com/max/600/1*Nf-

http://effectiviology.com/wp-content/uploads/The- rNhrfkfsycOG-I-SvWQ.png
Egocentric-Bias.jpg

The egocentric bias is a cognitive bias that causes humans to rely too heavily on their own point of view
when analyzing events in their life, or when attempting to see things from the perspective of others. In
fact, the egocentric tendency causes people either to disregard how different the point of view of other
people is from their own, or to fully ignore the point of view of other people.

For example, if you do something embarrassing, the egocentric bias will cause you to overestimate the
degree to which other humans are likely to perceive it, because you automatically expect your activities
to be as concerned as you are.

Note: There is a related cognitive bias called the alter centric bias which has a slightly opposite effect
than the egocentric bias, as it causes the opinion of people about their own emotional condition to be
affected by the emotions of others. Individuals experience both of these biases to varying degrees and in
different circumstances exhibit different stages of egocentrism and alter centrism.
Examples of how the egocentric tendency affects people in their daily lives include:
1. Egocentric bias can cause someone to believe that their nervousness is more likely than it is to
others.
2. Egocentric bias can cause somebody to maximize the amount of work they have put into a group
project.
3. Egocentric bias may cause somebody to assume that they all share their political opinions and
social values with their companions.
4. Egocentric bias can lead somewhere
Are Tools Neutral?

Figure 6.10: https://www.alamy.com/graphic-design-software-user-interface-with-real-tools-creativity-

image155213855.html

Humans think technologies are neutral. Your gadgets and applications are simply tools, how can tools be
biased in any case, it is somewhat guileless to perceive any devices as neutral. Designers project their
perspective of the world into the design of stuff, even if intentionally or not. For instance, Kat Ely defines
how everyday things are designed by men and for men, marginalizing women and opposition. Seat belts,
medicine, work surroundings, power tools - they are all normally created by men and for men, making it
harder for other people to utilize.

It happens because of the disparity in the technology and design industry, as most tech and design
points are still held by males. Gender is a basic social classification and, if you are a male, you tend to
understand males preferred than people of other genders. Individuals think technologies are neutral.

How can we reduce bias in design?

1. User involvement
Communicating with varied people helps to avert the unintended biases and stereotypes. ISO
guidelines for human-centered design advocate that we affect users throughout the process of
design and progress.
2. Recognizing scripts and metaphors
When we design things, we use sure scripts explicitly or implicitly. An accessible example is when
we use personas and user scheme. We construct imaginary characters and write scripts about
what they assume, do and feel. Such scripts can reverse our biases and wrong assumptions, even
when they are based on the user research.
3. Designing accountably
Design cannot include everything. Some user wants are always cut out during the design
procedure. In the complex digital society, design success can be evaluated only within the
situations in which the product is designed for.

SUMMARY
Human beings are the most complex aspect of any system and therefore, the most difficult to model for
HCI design. Higher rates of deception among people with high feelings of anxiety are still increasingly
adaptable for recovery from crisis circumstances and last hopes in a potential disaster. HCI needs to
provide an adequate level of input without too much information overloading the administrator. Test the
software for the customer. People tend to create a lot of information. With new advancements and items
surfing up each new day in technology, we can't pass up a major opportunity to examine the information
created without efforts and provide insightful insights to a better decision making in the business.

Design is certainly not neutral. Each of your design option enables or restricts the ways in which people
interrelate with the technology and information. It constructs people's performances in everyday life. It
creates interpretations, reinforcing or changing the existing norms about who we are and how we live.

Techniques used to gather user needs: Interview, focus groups, observation, participatory design

Up-to-date information is always a major priority with businesses, and with technology implemented in
every sector of businesses, its need is often reiterated. But information captures its true importance
when proper actions are taken. As such, these information must be gathered, processed, and analyzed in
order for one to have an accurate assessment and have a better purview on the User Experience.

User Experience and User Needs

User experience focuses on an advanced understanding of the users, to assess their needs, their value(s),
their scope, abilities, and ultimately, their limitations. User experience also takes into consideration the
goal of its resident business, what are those business' goals and aspirations, and its overall management.
The primary goal of user experience is to promote improvement of quality of the user's interaction on
the product and any accommodating services and how should it be improved; the user's requirements.
Although never explicitly made, user needs is considered a synonym for user requirements, in that it
describes the nature of the action of the user, the product specifications, the system and how it is
methodologically involved, and the specific sets of activities it follows and performs. User requirements
are then recorded in a narrative-style documentation called User Requirements Document, or URD.
Generally, user requirements are given the go signal by the user to be used as the main input for the
creation of system requirements and other system-related procedures.

Tools for Gathering User Experience

Figure 6.11: https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2021/09/27/here-are-the-job-interview-questions-you-

should-expect/

Interview - An interview is a structured conversation, usually between two people, where one
participant asks a series of questions (called the interviewer), and the other answers (the interviewee).
Information is offered by the interviewee towards the interviewer, and the information gathered will be
used or provided to other people, either at real time, or to a later date. The most common version of an
interview is face-to-face and in person but because of the technological surge, most people enhance the
endeavor by implementing modern marvels like recording devices like cameras, or broadcasting
capabilities.

Types of Interviews

1. Unstructured Interview - This interview the least

advanced preparation. This kind of interview
also welcomes follow-on questions from initially
planned questions. It provides rich data and has
a very low chance of data duplication.

Figure 6.12:
https://www.jobsoid.com/structured-vs-
unstructured-interview/
2. Structured Interview - This is meticulously
planned and are scripted and is comparable to a
questionnaire. Because of the information, data
are generally comparable, and are possible to
replicate.

Figure 6.13:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/unstructured-
interview-definition-advantages-disadvantages-
example.html
3. Semi-structured Interview - This interview has a
general list of topics, questions prepared prior to
the interview but the format of which is more
open to alteration and exploitation. Data are
somewhat comparable with other interviews,
and are replicable, but not exactly.

Figure 6.14: https://intromagic.io/difference-

between-structured-and-unstructured-
interviews/

FOCUS GROUPS
As the name suggests, it is a group of people or participants, who engages in discussion about a topic
that is directed or arbitrated by a leader, usually a part of the research team. Focus groups are inducive
to opinion sharing because of suggestive thoughts, an efficient way to testing ideas as it tackles it on a
single go and is valuable because of its multi-member discussion.

Participation and Participation Design

Participation is an act that involves the users on the process of coming up with the system. This process
usually involves people on a project's innovation stage, the process of aiding the evaluation during the
development.

DESIGN PROCESS AND METHODS

Design Process
A clear and reasonable process will lead to better results with half the time and work spent, in which
every aspect of the process is optimized so that maximum output is expected. Thus, all great products
need a good beginning in the process of design. A well thought-out process can lead to a simple and
ergonomic way in design, and one can achieve better ways to solving problems, of which all can be
achieved if the proper method is used.

Design Process Methodology

Persona - Persona is the process of creating products with a specific, non-generic user. Personas are
archetypes, users that represent the group or an environment's goals and characteristics. It is presented
in a document that details its behavior patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, and its background: where it
operates. Most designers sometimes add fictional information in a persona's identification to make it as
realistic as possible, inputs from an actual person to be used as a trademark for that specific design.
Depending on the nature of the design, personas could contain a plethora of variables that ultimately
lead to a more sophisticated design process.

Scenario - In support of the persona, a generally a fictitious story for a user in terms of the journey to the
completion of a process, a goal or an action through a product. Scenario's usual focus is on the user's
motivation, drive for accomplishing a goal and along the process, documents it for analysis, emphasizing
on the use of the design. It is regarded as a helpful tool in understanding the motivations behind users
every time one interacts with a design, providing a meticulous consideration for testing. One should
always consider that scenarios do not cover every possible user. Alternatively, it accounts the common
ones, the most used, the most templated of personas. For a scenario to be considered great, it must
provide context to the topic or product, it is as every bit of a representative to the user and is a source of
insight and critical information that will be used in the process of designing.
Figure 6.15: https://zety.com/resume-examples

Storyboard - a culmination of the other two components, storyboards are illustrations that represent the
scenes that, in turn, represents the story. Storyboards are a work of art: images arranged together to
visualize a story, which usually comes from a motion picture production. Based on history, most experts
agree that the credit for coining and popularizing storyboarding goes to Walt Disney studios. For a
storyboard to be considered great, it must possess the following general characteristics:

Figure 6.16: https://www.newline.co/@AmitM30/storyboarding-the-right-way-to-build-apps--c0e89118

A visual treat – A picture paints a thousand words, and as such, proper visualization using
images will always be the cornerstone of a great storyboard.
Leaves a mark – Stories are immortalized, provided that it is memorable to the viewers.
Empathic – A story becomes an instant classic if it does not portray itself as something that is
above the society but rather within it, becoming something that is relatable and is at home to a
normal person’s daily routine.
Engaging – Stories that beg for the viewers’ attention is an automatic hit, especially when it
provides the entertainment that caters to the audience’s need.

Prototyping Design Types

Figure 6.17: https://www.shutterstock.com/search/prototype

Three main types of Prototyping

1. Throw-away Prototyping - A kind of prototype design that prototypes a small portion of the
whole product and specifically develops it. The result of this surgical development is then given
to the user to use and evaluate. Once the results of the evaluation is received and analyzed, the
results are then incorporated for the development of the whole project. The prototype then is
discarded or 'thrown away as it is not considered part of the final system but a mere
developmental aspect. Advantageous to developers as it provides a quick and accurate
assessment and significantly aids in the development of the system but is offset through the
possibility of the users requesting the product to be the final output.
2. Evolutionary Prototyping - This kind of prototype takes the initial produce and is then handed to
the user. The user then provides information and dat based on their usage, the duration of
thereof, and other information necessary for the user experience. After the developers gather
such information, they develop a more refined, polished version of the prototype and then sent
out to the public again. This process is done repeatedly until the desired effect has been
reached, hence the term 'evolutionary.'
3. Incremental Prototyping - The incremental prototype is considered as more 'heads-on' approach
as the goal of this type of prototype is to create a model and subject it to a cycle of designing,
implementation, and testing until the product is declared as passed or finished, of which is only
attainable if all of the requirements set prior to testing has been fulfilled. This model technically
combines elements on the previous types of prototyping and incorporates it to the process,
conceptually minimizing the cost and length of the development.

SUMMARY
Human-Computer Interaction discusses the design and implementation of computer technology,
concentrating on people-machines interactions. User experience is the overall experience of a person
using a product like a website or a computer program, particularly as to how easy or pleasurable it is to
use it. Focus groups are a group of people or participants, who engages in discussion about a topic that is
directed or arbitrated by a leader, usually a part of the research team. Participation is an act that involves
the users on the process of coming up with the system. This process usually involves people on a
project's innovation stage, the process of aiding the evaluation during the development. A well thought
out process can lead to a simple and ergonomic way in design, and one can achieve better ways to
solving problems, of which all can be achieved if the proper method is used. Persona is the process of
creating products with a specific, hon-generic user. In support of the persona, generally a fictitious story
for a user in terms of the journey to the completion of a process, a goal or an action through a product.
Storyboard is a culmination of the other two components, storyboards are illustrations that represent
the scenes that, in turn, represent the story. Throwaway Prototyping is a kind of prototype design that
prototypes a small portion aware whole product and specifically develops it Evolutionary Prototyping is a
kind of prototype takes the initial product and is then handed to the user. The incremental prototype
that is considered as more heads-on' approach as the goal of this type of prototype is to create a model
and subject it to a cycle of designing, implementation, and testing.