Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, Mysuru

Autonomous Institute, Affiliated to VTU

Accredited by NBA | NAAC with ‘A’ Grade

MODULE 2
THE USER INTERFACE DESIGN PROCESS

Anjali R
7 SEM
th
Assistant Professor
Dept. of CSE (AI & ML)
Our Vision: “VVCE shall be a leading Institution in engineering and management education enabling individuals for significant contribution to the society”

07/02/2024 1
The User Interface Design Process
 14 Steps for UI Development
Step 1: Know Your User or Client.
Step 2: Understand the Business Function
Step 3: Understand the Principles of Good Screen Design.
Step 4: Develop System Menus and Navigation Schemes.
Step 5: Select the Proper Kinds of Windows.
Step 6: Select the Proper Device-Based Controls.
Step 7: Choose the Proper Screen-Based Controls.
Step 8: Write Clear Text and Messages.
Step 9: Provide Effective Feedback and Guidance and
Assistance
Step 10: Provide Effective Internationalization and Accessibility.
Step 11: Create Meaningful Graphics, Icons, and Images.
Step 12: Choose the Proper Colors.
Step 13: Organize and Layout Windows and Pages.
Obstacles in the Development Path
• Nobody ever gets it right the first time.
Obstacles in the Development Path
• Development is chock-full of surprises.
• filled to its limit
Obstacles in the Development Path
• Good design requires living in a sea of changes
Obstacles in the Development Path
• Making contracts to ignore change will never eliminate
the need for change.
Obstacles in the Development Path

• Even if you have made the best system humanly possible, people
will still make mistakes when using it.
Obstacles in the Development Path
• Designers need good tools.
Obstacles in the Development Path

• You must have behavioral design goals like performance

design goals.
Pitfalls in the Development Path

• Pitfalls in the design process exist because of a imperfect design

process like failure to address critical design issues, an improper focus
of attention, or development team organization failures.
Some Common pitfalls are:
No early analysis and understanding of the user’s needs and
expectations.
A focus on using design features or components that are “neat” or
“glitzy.”
Little or no creation of design element prototypes.
No usability testing.
No common design team vision of user interface design goals.
Poor communication between members of the development team.
Designing for People: The Five Commandments
• Pitfalls can be eliminated using following design commandments.
1. Gain a complete understanding of users and their tasks:
 The users are the customers.
 People expect a level of design sophistication from all interfaces,
including Web sites.
 The product, system or Web site must be geared to people’s needs, not
those of the developers.
Designing for People: The Five Commandments
2. Solicit early and ongoing user involvement:
 Involving the users in design from the beginning provides a direct conduit to the
knowledge they possess about jobs, tasks, and needs.
 Involvement also allows the developer to confront a person’s resistance to change, a
common human trait.
 People dislike change for a variety of reasons, among them fear of the unknown and
lack of identification with the system.
Designing for People: The Five Commandments
3. Perform rapid prototyping and testing:
 Prototyping and testing the product will quickly identify problems and allow you to
develop solutions.
 Prototyping and testing must be continually performed during all stages of
development to uncover all potential defects.
 If thorough testing is not performed before product release, the testing will occur in
the user’s office.
 Encountering a series of problems early in system use will create a negative first
impression in the customer’s mind, and this may harden quickly, creating attitudes
that may be difficult to change.
 It is also much harder and more costly to fix a product after its release .
Designing for People: The Five Commandments
4. Modify and iterate the design as much as necessary:
 While design will proceed through a series of stages, problems detected in one stage
may force the developer to revisit a previous stage.
 Establish user performance and acceptance criteria and continue testing and
modifying until all design goals are met.
Designing for People: The Five Commandments
5. Integrate the design of all the system components.
 The software, the documentation, the help function, and training needs are
all important elements of a graphical system or Web site and all should be
developed concurrently.
 All the developed pieces are needs to be integrate together.
 Usability
• Usability is one of an interface’s most important qualities.
• If the product is difficult to use interface can cause people to stop
using it.
• Development process will also focus on the concept of usability.
• It’s a quality attribute, assesses how easy a user interface is to use.
• Usability also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use
throughout the entire design process.
• Shackel (1991) simply defined usability as “the capability to be used
by humans easily & effectively.
easily = to a specified level of subjective assessment,
effectively = to a specified level of human performance.”
 Usability
• Nielsen (2003) suggests usability possess these five quality
components:
Learnability for 1st time user, Efficiency, Memorability,
Satisfaction, Errors (How many errors do users make, how severe
are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?)
 Common Usability Problems (GUI)
• Mandel (1994) lists the 10 most common usability problems in GUI
as reported by IBM usability specialists.
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.
 Common Usability Problems (WebUI)
• Visual clutter. A lack of “white space,” meaningless graphics, and
unnecessary and wasteful decoration often turn pages into jungles of
visual noise.
• Impaired information readability. Page readability is iminished by
poor developer choices in typefaces, colors, and graphics.
• Incomprehensible components. Command buttons or areas that give
no visual indication that they are clickable often won’t be clicked.
Language is also often confusing, developer’s terminology may not be
understand by the user.
• Excessive or inefficient page scrolling. Long pages requiring
scrolling frequently lead to the user’s losing context. Important content
are hidden below the page top, they may be missed entirely.
 Common Usability Problems (WebUI)
• Annoying distractions. (Destroy a page’s readability). Motion
elements, scrolling marquees, blinking text, or looping continually
running animations compete with meaningful content for the user’s
eye’s and attention. Music/ sounds interrupt the concentration.
• Confusing navigation. Lead to dead-ends from which there is no return
without you being aware of it. Some navigation elements are invisible.
Confusing navigation violates expectations and results in disturbing
unexpected behavior.
• Inefficient navigation.
• Inefficient operations. Time is wasted doing many things. Page
download times can be excessive. Large graphics and maps, large
chunky headings, or many colors, take longer to download than text.
 Common Usability Problems (WebUI)
• Information overload. Poorly organized or huge amounts of
information tax one’s memory and can be overwhelming. Heavy mental
loads can result for making decisions like which links to
follow/unfollow.
• Design inconsistency.
• Outdated or undated information.
• Bad design caused by imitation of printed documents and past
systems. Web is a new medium with expanded user interaction and
information display possibilities. While much of what we have learned
in the print world and past information systems interface design can be
ported to the Web. This is not right.
 Some Objective Measures of Usability
• Tyldesley (1988) and Shackel (1991) have both presented possible
objective criteria for measuring usability.
• How effective is the interface? Can the required range of tasks
be accomplished:
 At better than some required level of performance (speed and
errors)?
 By some required percentage of the specified target range of
users?
 Within some required proportion of the range of usage
environments?
 Some Objective Measures of Usability
• How learnable is the interface? Can the interface be learned:
 Within some specified time from commissioning and start of
user training?
 Based on some specified amount of training and user support?
• How flexible is the interface? Is it flexible enough to:
Allow some specified percentage variation in tasks and/or
environments beyond those first specified?
What are the attitudes of the users? Are they:
 Within acceptable levels of human cost in terms of
tiredness, discomfort, frustration, and personal effort?
 Satisfaction causes continued & enhanced use of system?
 Some Objective Measures of Usability

• Values for the various criteria should be specified in absolute terms.

• An absolute goal might be “Task A must be performed by a first-
time user in 12 minutes with no errors with 30 minutes of training
and without referring to a manual.”
• “Task B must be performed 50 percent faster than it was using the
previous system.”
The Design Team
Why people have trouble with computers?

• Use of Jargons
• Non-obvious design
• Fine distinctions
• Disparity in problem solving strategies
• Design inconsistency
 Important Human Characteristics in Design

Perception
• Perception is our awareness and understanding of the elements
and objects of our environment through the physical sensation
of our various senses including sight, sound, smell, and so forth.
• Perception is influenced in part by experience.
• We classify excitations based on models stored in our
memories and in this way achieve understanding.
Important Human Characteristics in Design
•Other Perceptual Characteristics include:
•Similarity
• We see objects as belonging together if they share a
common visual property, such as color, size, shape,
brightness, or orientation.
•Matching Patterns
• We respond similarly to the same shape in different sizes
(i.e. the letters of the alphabet)
•Proximity
• We see objects as belonging together if they are near each other in
space.
Important Human Characteristics in Design
•Closure
• Our perception is synthetic; it establishes meaningful wholes.
If something does not close itself; we see it closed anyway.
•Unity
• Objects that form closed shapes are perceived as a group.
• Continuity
• Shortened lines may be automatically extended
• Succinctness
• We see an object as having some perfect or simple shape
because perfection or simplicity is easier to remember.
 Important Human Characteristics in Design
• Balance
• We desire stabilization or equilibrium in our viewing
environment. Vertical, Horizontal and right angles are the
most visually satisfying and easiest to look at.
• Expectancies
• Sometimes we perceive not what is there, but what we expect
to be there.
 Important Human Characteristics in Design
Memory
• The short-term memory limit is generally viewed as 7±2 “chunks”
of information.
• Knowledge, experience, and familiarity manage the size and
complexity of the chunks that can be recalled.
• Short-memory last 15 to 30 seconds.
• Long-term memory is thought to be unlimited.
• Human active vocabulary (2,000 – 3,000 words)
• Passive vocabulary (about 100,000)
• Our power of recognition is much greater than our power of recall.
 Important Human Characteristics in Design
Sensory Storage
• Is a buffer where automatic processing of information collected
from our senses takes place.
• Training.
Information Processing
• Higher level (slow, sequential)
• Our first exposure to screens
• Lower level (work in parallel)
• Subsequent screens…
• We look rather than see
• We perceive rather than see
• Visual distinctiveness in screen design is very important to
process in the lower level
 Important Human Characteristics in Design
Learning
• People prefer to be active, to explore, and to use a trial and error
approach
• People are very sensitive even to minor changes (Shift-Ins; Ctrl-C )
• The perception of having to learn a lot of information is enough to
keep people from using the system.
• Be consistent in your design
• Allow skills acquired in one situation to be used in another
somewhat like it.
Physical Characteristics
• Gender, Age, Handedness, Physical Handicaps
 Important Human Characteristics in Design
Mental Model
• A mental model is simply an internal representation of a person’s
current understanding of something.
• As a result of our experiences and culture we develop mental models
of things and people we interact with.
• The key to forming mental models is design consistency
Individual Differences
• Tailor applications to the specific needs of people with varying and
changing learning or skill level.
Psychological Characteristics
• Attitude (positive, neutral, negative)
• Motivation (Low-High, Interest or Fear)
• Cognitive Style (Concrete/Abstract, Analytic or Intuitive)
 Important Human Characteristics in Design
Skill
• The goal of human performance is to perform skillfully.
• Economy of effort is achieved by establishing a work pace that
represents optimum efficiency.
• It is accomplished by increasing mastery of the system through
such things as progressive learning shortcuts, increased speed,
and easier access to information or data.
• Lower-order skills tend to become routine and may drop out of
consciousness.
• Screen design must permit development of increasingly skillful
performance.
 Important Human Characteristics in Design
Visual Acuity
• The capacity of the eye to resolve details is called visual acuity.
• Visual acuity is halved at a distance of 2.5 degrees from the point of
eye fixation.
• A 5 degree diameter circle centered around and eye fixation character
on a display has been recommended as the area near that character.
• Assuming that the average viewing distance of a display screen is 19
inches, the size of the area on the screen of optimum visual acuity is
1.67 inches.
• Assuming “average” character sizes and character and line spacing,
the number of characters on a screen falling within the visual acuity
circle is 88, with 15 characters being contained on the widest line.
 Important Human Characteristics in Design
Foveal and Peripheral Vision
• Foveal vision is used to focus directly on something.
• Peripheral vision senses anything in the area surrounding where we are
looking.
• Provides clues to where the eye should go next
• Foveal and Peripheral vision have a cooperative and competitive nature.
• Mori & Hayashi experimentally evaluated the effect of windows in both
foveal and peripheral vision.
• Performance of a foveal window weakens when there are peripheral
windows.
• Performance degradation is even greater if the information in the
peripheral is dynamic.
 Important Human Characteristics in Design
Knowledge/Experience
- Task Experience
• Computer Literacy,
- Education
• System Experience
- Reading Level
• App. Experience
- Typing Skill
• Native Language
Job/Task
• Type of System Use (Mandatory or Discretionary)
•Job Category (Executive, Secretary, Clerk)
•Task Structure (repetitiveness)
• Frequency of Use, Turnover Rate
• Task Importance, Primary Training
 Gaining Understanding of Users

• Visit customer locations

• Talk with users/direct contact
• Observe users working (tasks, problems)
• Videotape users working
• Have users think aloud as they work
• Try the job yourself
• Use surveys/questionnaires (bigger sample)
• Establish testable behavioral target goals
• Involve user in the design process (avoid resistance to change)
ASSIGNMENT
Human Interaction Speeds
Average Human Interaction Speeds
Average Human Interaction Speeds
 Performance versus Preference
• Occasionally, when asked, people may prefer an interface design
feature that actually yields poorer performance than another feature.
• Examples include pointing with a mouse or cursor, alternative menu
interaction techniques, use of color, 2-D versus 3-D displays, and
prototype fidelity.
• Preferences are influenced by many things including familiarity,
aesthetics, novelty, and perceived effort in feature use.
• Rarely are people aware of the many human mechanisms responsible
for the speed and accuracy of HCI.
• Ideally, in design, always augment preferences with performance
measures and try to achieve an optimized solution.
• Where optimization is impossible, however, implement the feature
that provides the best performance.
• In stating preferences, the user may not always be right.
Business Function
Business Function
 Business Definition and Requirements Analysis
• A requirement is an objective that must be met.
• A product description is developed and refined, based on input from
users, marketing, or other interested parties.
Information Collection Techniques
• There are many techniques for capturing information for
determining requirements.
• Keil and Carmel (1995), Popowicz (1995), and Fuccella et al.
(1999) described many of the following methods.
• Direct methods consist of face-to-face meetings with, or actual
viewing of, users to solicit requirements.
• Indirect methods impose an intermediary, someone or something,
between the users and the developers.
Business Definition and Requirements Analysis
Business Definition and Requirements Analysis
Business Definition and Requirements Analysis
Business Definition and Requirements Analysis
Business Definition and Requirements Analysis
 Direct Methods - Individual Face-to-Face
Interview
• A one-on-one visit is held with the user.
• Information can be collected in a friendly and fast way.
• It may be structured or more open-ended.
• Generally, structured interviews are easier for the interviewer.
• Open-ended interviews are harder to conduct but provide a greater
opportunity to detect and follow up on relevant issues.
• Data analysis is more difficult, however, with an open-ended
interview
• The interview must have focus and topics to be covered must be
carefully planned so data is collected in a common framework, and
to ensure that all-important aspects are thoroughly covered.
 Direct Methods - Individual Face-to-Face
Interview
• A formal questionnaire should not be used.
• Useful topics to ask the user to describe in an interview include the
following:
 The activities performed in completing a task or achieving a goal or
objective.
 The methods used to perform an activity.
 What interactions exist with other people or systems.
• It is also very useful to uncover any of the following:
 Potential measures of system usability.
 Unmentioned exceptions to standard policies or procedures.
 Relevant knowledge the user must possess to perform the activity.
 Direct Methods - Individual Face-to-Face
Interview
• If designing a Web site, the following kinds of interview questions
are appropriate for asking potential users:
 Present a site outline or proposal and then solicit comments on the
thoroughness of content coverage, and suggestions for additional
content.
 Ask users to describe situations in which the proposed Web site
might be useful.
 Ask users to describe what they like and dislike about the Web sites
of potential competitors.
 Ask users to describe how particular Web site tasks should be
accomplished.
 Direct Methods - Individual Face-to-Face
Interview
• Advantages
 Can give the user your full attention.
 Can easily include follow-up questions to gain additional
information.
 Will have more time to discuss topics in detail.
 Will derive a deeper understanding of your users, their experiences,
attitudes, beliefs, and desires.
 If we conduct an interview at the work site, we can see the user’s
technology and environment.
 Direct Methods - Individual Face-to-Face
Interview
• Disadvantages
 Can be costly and time-consuming to conduct.
 Someone skilled in interviewing techniques should perform them.
 The interviewer must establish a positive relationship with the user,
ask questions in a neutral manner, be a good listener, and know when
and how to probe for more information.
 Time must also be allowed for free conversation in interviews.
 Recording the session for playback to the entire design team
provides all involved with some insights into user needs.
 Direct Methods - Telephone Interview or Survey
• It must have structure and be well planned.
• Arranging the interview in advance allows the user to prepare for it.
• Telephone interviews are less expensive and less invasive than
personal interviews.
• They can be used much more frequently and are extremely effective
for very specific information.
• Disadvantages
• It is impossible to gather contextual information such as a
description of the working environment, replies may be easily
influenced by the interviewer’s comments, and body language cues
are missing.
• Also, it may be difficult to contact the right person for the telephone
interview.
 Direct Methods - Traditional Focus Group

• A small group of users (8 to 12) and a moderator are there to discuss

the requirements.
• While the discussion is loosely structured, the range of topics must
be determined before hand.
• A typical session lasts about two hours.
• The purpose of a focus group is to explore users’ experiences,
attitudes, beliefs, and desires, and to obtain their reactions to ideas or
prototypes.
• Focus groups are not usually useful for establishing how users really
work or what kinds of usability problems they really have.
 Direct Methods - Traditional Focus Group
• What users think or say they will do in focus groups and what they
actually do in usability tests often differs.
• Focus group discussion can be influenced by group dynamics, for
good or bad.
• Recording of the session, either video or audio, permits later detailed
analysis of participants’ comments.
• Again, the recording can also be played for the entire design team,
providing insights into user needs for all developers.
 Direct Methods - Traditional Focus Group
Setting up a focus group involves the following:
• Establish the objectives of the session.
• Select participants representing typical users or potential users.
• Write a script for the moderator to follow.
• Find a skilled moderator to facilitate discussion, to ensure that
the discussion remains focused on relevant topics, and to ensure
that everyone participates.
• Allow the moderator flexibility in using the script.
• Take good notes, using the session recording for backup and
clarification.
 Direct Methods - Facilitated Team Workshop
• Less formal.
• A common technique used in system requirements determination
for many years, it is now being replaced (atleast in name) by focus
groups.
• Team workshops have had the potential to provide much useful
information. Like focus groups, they do require a great deal of time
to organize and run.
 Direct Methods - Observational Field Study
• Observation provides good insight into tasks being performed, the
working environment and conditions, the social environment, and
working practices.
• It is more objective, natural, and realistic.
• However, can be time-consuming and expensive.
• A limitation is the inability of the evaluator to obtain a full record of
the user’s activities in one session.
• When taking notes, the evaluator must quickly decide what to
record, and important aspects may be missed.
• Also, direct observation is considered to be interfering and can
change a user’s performance and behavior.
Direct Methods - Observational Field Study
 Direct Methods - Requirements Prototyping
• A demonstration model, or very early prototype, is presented to
users for their comments concerning functionality and to clarify
requirements.
 Direct Methods - User-Interface Prototyping
• A demonstration model, or early prototype, is presented to users to
uncover user interface issues and problems
 Direct Methods - Usability Laboratory Testing
• A special laboratory is constructed and users are brought in to
perform actual newly designed tasks.
• They are observed, and the results are measured and evaluated to
establish the usability of the product at that point in time.
• Usability tests uncover what people actually do, not what they think
they do.
• The same scenarios can be presented to multiple users, for
comparative data from several users.
• Problems uncovered may result in modification of the requirements.
• Usability labs can generate much useful information but are
expensive to create and operate.
 Direct Methods - Usability Laboratory Testing
• Laboratory tests can also be held in an office, conference room, or a
hotel meeting room.
• To collect test data, laboratories are now available in portable units
that can be easily shipped and set up at remote facilities.
• Portable labs now possess most of the components incorporated
within specially constructed labs and are less expensive to conduct.
 Direct Methods - Card Sorting for Web Sites
• This is a technique used to establish hierarchical groupings and the
information architecture for Web sites.
• It is normally used only after gathering substantial potential site
content information using other analysis techniques.
• Potential content topics are placed on individual index cards and
users are asked to sort the cards into groupings that are meaningful
to them.
• Card sorting assists in building the site’s structure, map, and page
content.

• Briefly explain the process of card sorting for

 Indirect Methods - MIS Intermediary
• A company representative who defines the user’s goals and needs to
designers and developers fulfills this intermediary role.
• This representative may come from the Management Information
Services department.
• Much useful information can be provided, all too often this person
does not have the breadth of knowledge needed to satisfy all design
requirements.
Indirect Methods - Paper Survey or Questionnaire
• A paper questionnaire or survey is used to collect the sample of
users to obtain their needs.
• Questionnaires have potential to be used for arge target audience
located anywhere, and are much cheaper than customer visits.
• However, they generally have a low return rate.
• They may take a long time to collect and may be difficult to
analyze.
• Questionnaires are useful for getting users’ attitudes, experiences
and desires, but not for determining actual tasks and behaviors.
• Questionnaires should be composed mostly of closed questions
(yes/no, multiple choice, short answer, and so on).
 Indirect Methods -Electronic Survey or
Questionnaire
• A questionnaire or survey is administered to a sample of users via e-
mail or the Web.
• Characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages are similar to paper
surveys and questionnaires.
• The speed of their return can also be much faster than those
distributed in a paper format.
• In creating an electronic survey
 Determine the survey objectives.
 Determine where you will find the people to complete the survey.
 Indirect Methods -Electronic Survey or
Questionnaire
 Create a mix of multiple choice and open-ended questions requiring
short answers addressing the survey objectives.
 Keep it short — about 10 items or less is preferable.
 Keep it simple, requiring no more than 5 to 10 minutes to complete.
• Also do iterative surveys.
• Ask people who complete and return the initial survey if they are
willing to answer more detailed questions.
 Indirect Methods - Electronic Focus Group

• An electronic focus group is similar to a traditional focus group

except that the discussion is accomplished electronically using
specialized software on a workstation, e-mail, or a Web site.
• Ratings or rankings of items are easier than traditional focus group.
• Hard-copy form is easier than electronic mode for analysis.
• Depth and richness of verbal discussions does not exist and the
communication enhancement aspects of seeing participant’s body
language are missing
 Indirect Methods - Marketing and Sales
• Company representatives who regularly meet customers obtain
suggestions or needs, current and potential.
• This information is collected inexpensively, because the
representative is going to visit the company anyway.
• Business representatives do have knowledge of the nature of
customers, the business, and the needs that have to be met.
• Some dangers: The information may be collected from the wrong
people, the representative may unintentionally bias questions, there
may be many company “filters” between the representative’s
contact and the end user, and quantities may sometimes be
exaggerated.
 Indirect Methods - Support Line
• Information is collected by the unit (Customer Support, Technical
Support, Help Desk, and so on) that helps customers with day-to-
day problems.
• This is fairly inexpensive and the target user audience is correct.
• The focus of this method is usually only on problems.

User Group
• Improvements suggested by customer groups who convene
periodically to discuss system and software usage are evaluated.
• User groups have the potential to provide a lot of good information,
if organized properly.
• They require careful planning.
Indirect Methods - E-Mail, Bulletin Boards/Guest Book
• Problems, questions, and suggestions by users posted to a bulletin
board, a guest book, or through e-mail are gathered and evaluated.
• Again, the focus of this method is usually only on problems.
• The responsibility is on the user to generate the recommendations,
but this population often includes unhappy users.
• This is a fairly inexpensive method

Competitor Analysis
• Reviews of competitor’s products, or Web sites, can also be used to
gather ideas, uncover design requirements, and identify tasks.
• The designers can perform this evaluation or, even better, users can
be asked to perform the evaluation.
 Indirect Methods - System Testing

• New requirements and feedback stemming from ongoing system

testing can be accumulated, evaluated, and implemented as
necessary.

Other Media Analysis

• Analyze how other media, print or broadcast, present the process,
information, or subject matter of interest.
• Findings can be used to gather ideas, uncover design requirements,
and identify better ways to accomplish or show something.
 Requirements Collection Guidelines
• Establish 4 to 6 Different Developer-User Links
• Provide the Most Reliance on Direct Links

Assignment
 Defining the Domain

• The domain is the area of expertise and specialist knowledge for

which a system is being developed.
• The domain provides the system’s underlying concepts.
• Ex: airline system requires reservations, scheduling, and so forth.
• Ex: court services system might require functions such as pre-trial
monitoring, probation, parole, and drug testing.
• Specialized knowledge to perform the tasks and accomplish goals
must be understood and defined
• Domain experts must also be consulted using some of the previously
described techniques.
 Considering the Environment

• Place of work or task is performed is also important in establishing

requirements.
• Important environmental considerations are physical, safety, social,
organizational, and user support (Stone et al., 2005).
• Physical environment and conditions address issues like lighting,
temperature, noise, and cleanliness.
• Cold, noise, and dust can impact design decisions concerning type of
controls to use and the potential for using voice technology.
• Workspace layout is important as well.
• Safety environment addresses any existing hazards or health and
safety issues.
 Considering the Environment
• Is any special clothing needed? Will stress levels be high?
• Are there any pollution or other poor environmental conditions?
• Social environment addresses the relationships between people and
how they interact or do not interact.
• Do people share tasks and/or computers?
• Do people help each other or distract one another?
• Do people cooperate with one another or work alone?
• Organizational environment addresses how a system will be
integrated within the existing networks of people and technology.
• Does management support the work?
• What is the mission or purpose of the work?
 Considering the Environment
• What are the working hours, potential for interruptions, work
practices, cultural factors, and so on?
• Is performance monitored or is work paced?
• User support environment involves the availability of
documentation and training materials, and colleagues to provide help
when necessary.
• It also includes the availability of assistive devices to the user when
necessary.
• Each of these environmental issues will affect decisions and choices
made in the design of the interface
 Possible Problems in Requirements Collection
• Not enough user, customer, and other interested party involvement in
the process.
• Lack of requirements management or coordination.
• Communication problems among all participants.
• Capturing the relevant information may be difficult.
• People who do understand the problem may be constrained.
• Organizational and political factors and agendas may influence the
process.
• Disparities in knowledge may exist.
• Changing economic and business environments and personnel roles.
 Determining Basic Business Functions
Gain a complete understanding of the user’s mental model based
upon
• The user’s needs and the user’s profile.
• A user task analysis.
Develop a conceptual model of the system based upon the user’s
mental model. This includes
• Defining objects.
• Developing descriptions.
 Understanding the User’s Work
• The technique used to gain an understanding of what the computer
system must do is called task analysis.
• Another object of task analysis is to gain a picture of the user’s
mental model.
 Understanding the User’s Work
Mental Models
• A mental model is an internal representation of a person’s current
conceptualization and understanding of something (i.e., themselves,
other people, the environment, and the thing with which they
interact).
• Mental models are gradually developed through experience,
training, and instruction.
• Mental models enable a person to predict the actions necessary to
do things if the actions have been forgotten or have not yet been
encountered.
 Understanding the User’s Work
Performing a Task Analysis
• User activities are precisely
described in a task analysis.
• This involves breaking down the
user’s activities to the individual task
level.
• TA provides the information
concerning to interrelationships
between people, objects, & actions,
& the user’s conceptual frameworks.
• Output of a task analysis is a
complete description of all user
tasks and interactions
 Developing Conceptual Models

• Output of the task analysis is the creation, by the designer, of a

conceptual model for the user interface.
• Conceptual model is based on the user’s mental model influenced
by a person’s experiences
• The goal of the designer is to facilitate for the user the development
of useful mental model of the system.
• This is accomplished by presenting to the user a meaningful
conceptual model of the system.
 Guidelines for Designing Conceptual Models
Reflect the user’s mental model, not the designer’s

• A user will have different expectations and levels of knowledge

than the designer. So, the mental models of the user and designer
will be different.
• The user is concerned with the task to be performed, the business
objectives that must be fulfilled.
 Guidelines for Designing Conceptual Models
Draw physical analogies or present metaphores

• Replicate what is familiar and well known.

• The success of graphical systems
• A metaphore, to be effective, must be widely applicable within
an interface
• Metaphores that are only partially or occasionally applicable
 Guidelines for Designing Conceptual Models
Comply (fulfil) with expectancies, habits, routines, & stereotypes

• Create a system that builds on knowledge, habits, routines, and

expectancies that already exist.
• Use familiar associations, avoiding the new and unfamiliar.
• With color, for example, accepted meanings for red, yellow, and
green are already well established.
• Use words and symbols in their customary ways.
• Replicate the language of the user, and create icons reflecting
already known images.
 Guidelines for Designing Conceptual Models
Provide action-response compatibility

• All system responses should be compatible with the actions that

draw them.
• Names of commands, for example, should reflect the actions that
will occur.
• The organization of keys in documentation or help screens should
reflect the ordering that actually exists on the keyboard.
 Guidelines for Designing Conceptual Models
Make invisible parts of the system visible.

• Systems are composed of parts and processes, many of which are

invisible to the user. (Example inside the CPU parts)
• In creating a mental model, a person must make a hypothesis about
what is invisible and how it relates to what is visible.
• New users of a system often make erroneous or incomplete
assumptions about what is invisible and develop a faulty mental
model.
• As more experience is gained, their mental models evolve to
become more accurate and complete.
 Guidelines for Designing Conceptual Models
Provide Proper and Correct Feedback

• Provide a continuous indication of status

• Provide visible results of actions
• Display actions in progress.
• Present as much context information as possible
• Provide clear, constructive, and correct error messages
 Guidelines for Designing Conceptual Models
Avoid the unnecessary or irrelevant

• Never display irrelevant information on the screen.

• People may try to interpret it and integrate it into their mental

models, thereby creating a false one.

• Irrelevant information might be unneeded data fields, screen

controls, system status codes, or error message numbers.

• If potentially misleading information cannot be avoided, point

this out to the user.
 Guidelines for Designing Conceptual Models
Provide design consistency

• Design consistency reduces the number of concepts to be learned.

• Inconsistency requires the mastery of multiple models.
• If an occasional inconsistency cannot be avoided, explain it to the
user.
• For example, if an error is caused by a user action that is
inconsistent with other similar actions, explain in the error
message that this condition exists.
• This will prevent the user from falsely assuming that the model he
or she has been operating under is incorrect
 Guidelines for Designing Conceptual Models
Provide documentation and a help system that will strengthen the
conceptual model
• Consistencies and descriptions should be explicitly described in the
user documentation.
• This will assist a person in learning the system.
• Do not rely on the people to uncover consistencies and descriptions
themselves.
• The help system should offer advice aimed at improving mental
models.
 Guidelines for Designing Conceptual Models
Promote the development of both novice (beginner) and
expert mental models.

• Novices and experts are likely to bring to bear different mental

models when using a system.
• It will be easier for novices to form an initial system mental model
if they are protected from the full complexity of a system.
• Employ levels of functionality that can be revealed through
progressive disclosure.
 Defining Objects
• Determine all objects that have to be manipulated to get work done.
Describe
 The objects used in tasks.
 Object behavior & characteristics that differentiate each kind.
 The relationship of objects to each other & the people using them.
 The actions performed.
 The objects to which actions apply.
 Information or attributes that each object in the task must preserve,
display, or allow to be edited.
• Identify objects & actions that appear most often in the workflow.
• Make several most important objects very obvious & easy to
manipulate.
 Developing Metaphors
• Metaphor is a concept where one’s body of knowledge about one
thing is used to understand something else.
• Metaphors act as building blocks of a system, aiding understanding
of how a system works and is organized.
 Choose the analogy that works best for each object and its actions.
 Use real-world metaphors.
 Use simple and common metaphors. .
 Multiple metaphors may coexist.
 Use major metaphors, even if you can’t exactly replicate them
visually.
 Test the selected metaphors.
Design Standards or Style Guides
 Observational Field Study

Value of Standards and Guidelines

 Observational Field Study
Business System Interface Standards,
Guidelines and Style Guides
• International Standards Organization (ISO),
 Observational Field Study
Business System Interface Standards,
Guidelines and Style Guides
User Interface Standards
Web Guidelines and Style Guides
• World Wide Web Consortium (2001).
Customized Style Guides
Design Support and Implementation