Devices and output

devices that convert information coming from an electronic, internal representation in a computer system into some form perceptible by a human most common: VDU & printer disabled users: blindness, colour-blindness, partial sight & hearing impairment

Visual output
most common form design considerations: legibility, easy to locate & process, poor lighting, eye fatigue, flicker physical aspects for perception: brightness, contrast, resolution , colour selection & combination way information is displayed (text size, menu items, icons etc.) way information is used

Visual feedback
high quality, timely responses to keep users well informed and feeling in control; warnings tell the user where he is in a file or process indicate progress through a process signify users turn to provide some input confirm input has been received tell the user input just received is unsuitable feedback: current, correct & clearly expressed

List of Output Devices

Monitors Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) Daisy-wheel printer Dot-matrix printer Ink-jet printer Laser printer Braille printer Graphics plotter Speaker Light-emitting diode (LED) Relay switches & motors

Dynamic Visualizations
computer-based:
model-based subject is model under users control data-based external data, e.g. stock market data

usage: programs, algorithms, scientific phenomena, music, stats & financial patterns advantages: new situations produced quickly; controlled interactively; easy to change considerations:
find mapping to make perceptually prominent things which are conceptually prominent principled, consistent way, rather than ad hoc

Dynamic Visualizations
US temperatures

Dynamic Visualizations
MATLAB financial simulations

3D Interactive Animation
powerful graphics processing system rotate, spin, zoom & translate 3D images on a high resolution screen in real time perspective, shadows & lighting effects, together with parallax effect as the image is moved or rotated can generate perceptual cues that give a strong subjective impression of three dimensions

Sound

alerting & feedback purposes speech, musical sounds, natural sounds e.g. computer games complements visual interface particularly when attention required away from screen process control; data sonification & algorithm animation blind or partial sighted users

Natural Sounds
synthesized or digitally recorded rustles, thumps, hits, scrapes, tinkles, creaks, patters, reverberations etc. electronic mail system strong feature - can carry a lot of information that is easy to interpret

Musical Sounds
early stage value depends on individual user signature tunes, clock chimes, alarms, church bells, talking drums etc. blind users

Speech
complex process: grammar; context; tone digital recordings of human speech (sentence, phrase or word segment) e.g. telephone system - problem: smooth delivery & intonation; small vocabularies of < 200 words phoneme: smallest unit of sound that if a single phoneme is changed in a word, the meaning may be changed (English - 40 phonemes) database - much larger range of responses; pitch and tone can be varied

Command Entry
prompt for keyword operating systems e.g. DOS, UNIX keywords often abbreviations or mnemonics function keys sometimes arbitrary names can be fast for experts require a fair amount of knowledge

Menus & navigation

set of options where selection of one or more options change state of interface main advantage: users do not need to remember item they want names or icons have to be self-explanatory pull-down or pop-up save space Organisation: alphabetical, categorical, conventional & frequency; pie menu
http://www.piemenu.com/JavaScriptPieMenus.htm

Question & Answer dialogues

question, set of choices & response from user expected input is constrained automatic bank tellers system-driven dialogues (Wizards) suitable for novice users frustrating for experienced users

Form-fills & Spreadsheets

Forms
repetitive data entry automatic positioning of cursor careful design: required data types for field; how to make corrections

Spreadsheets
elements of direct manipulation calculations graphics

Natural language dialogue

highly desirable vagueness, ambiguity & ungrammatical construction typing eliminates accent & intonation problems but introduces spelling variations, mistakes & keying errors expert systems & intelligent tutoring systems subset language; phrase sentences in specific way; well-defined domains with limited vocab

Direct manipulation
Features:
visibility of the objects of interest rapid, reversible, incremental actions replacement of complex command language syntax

icons e.g. desktop metaphor novices learn basic functionality quickly experienced users can work extremely rapidly knowledgeable intermittent users retain operational concepts - error messages rarely

Direct Manipulation
Examples: Icons for navigation or selection File managers drag and drop Drawing/CAD software
Pens, brushes, lines, shapes, objects can be moved and resized directly

Games

Direct manipulation
users can immediately see if their actions are furthering their goals & if not, simply change the direction of their activity users experience less anxiety because system is comprehensible & actions easily reversible users gain confidence & mastery because they initiate an action, feel in control & can predict system responses problem: not all tasks can be described by concrete objects e.g. buffer (clipboard)

Mappings & Feedback

Mappings:
good: natural & intuitive; bad: relations are inconsistent or incompatible

Feedback
sending back to the user information about what action has actually been done [and] what result has been accomplished (Norman) key principle of design of system images is to provide visual (and if appropriate, auditory and tactile) feedback compatible with principles of d. m.