HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION

LECTURE 2. LEARNABILITY AND EFFICIENCY/MEMORABILITY

-making interfaces easier for new users to learn, and for casual users to remember

MEMORY
1. Working Memory-is where you do your conscious thinking
-Small: 7+ 2 chunks
-short-lived: ~10 sec
-maintenance rehearsal fends off decay (but costs attention)
2. Long term Memory
-Practically infinite in size and duration
-Elaborative rehearsal transfers chunks to long-term memory

CHUNK-element of perception and memory

-defined symbols that represents the activation of past experience

Hard: MWBCRALOABI MBPI

Easier: MWB CRA LOA BIM BFI
Easiest: BMW RCA AOL IBM FBI

RECOGNITION vs RECALL
RECOGNITION
-remembering with the help of visible cue
-aka Knowledge in the world
RECALL
-remembering with no help
-aka Knowledge in the head

RECONITION IS MUCH EASIER

so menus are more learnable than command

INTERACTION STYLES
1. Command Language
-the earliest computer interface
-User types commands in an artificial language
2. Menus and Forms
-user is prompted to choose from menus and fill in forms
-GUI
3. Direct Manipulation
-user interacts with visual representation of data objects
a. Continuous visual representation-icons representing files and folders on your desktop; graphical
objects in a drawing editor; text in a word processor; email messages in your inbox. The representation
may be verbal (words) or iconic (pictures), but its continuously displayed, not displayed on demand.
b. Physical actions and labeled button presses-Physical actions might include clicking on an object to
select it, dragging it to move it, or dragging a selection handle to resize it. Physical actions are the most
direct kind of actions in direct manipulation youre interacting with the virtual objects in a way that
feels like youre pushing them around directly.

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 HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION

c. Rapid, incremental, reversible, immediately visible effects-rapid (visible as quickly as possible),

incremental (you can drag the scrollbar thumb a little or a lot, and you see each incremental change),
reversible (you can undo your operation with physical actions this is usually as easy as moving your
hand back to the original place, but with labeled buttons you typically need an Undo command), and
immediately visible (the user doesnt have to do anything to see the effects.

Why is direct manipulation so powerful? It exploits perceptual and motor skills of the human machine
and depends less on linguistic skills than command or menu/form interfaces. So its more natural in a
sense, because we learned how to manipulate the physical world long before we learned how to talk,
read, and write.

COMPARISON OF INTERACTION STYLES

Command Language Menus and Forms Direct Manipulation

Knowledge in the KITH-reading, training KITW-interface KITW
head vs. Knowledge and practice
in the world
Error Messages often often rarely/none
Efficiency experts can be efficient good shortcuts/tab manual labor w/ the
mouse
User Type expert novice novice
Synchrony synchronous synchronous asynchronous
Programming Easy to implement Substantial toolkit Hardest to program
difficulty support
Accessibility textual textual harder to read

MODEL
- is a way of describing how the system works
- specifies what the parts of the system are, and how those parts interact to make the system do what
its supposed to do
1. System Model- sometimes called implementation model
- is how the system actually works
2. Interface Model- manifest model
- is the model that the system presents to the user through its user interface.
3. User Model- conceptual model
- is how the user thinks the system works.

Interface model should be:

-simple
-appropriate: reflect users model of the task
-well-communicated

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LEARNABILITY PRINCIPLES
1. Cues that communicate the system models
-Affordances-perceived and actual properties of a thing that determine how the thing could be used
-Natural Mapping=physical arrangement of controls should map arrangement of functions/Best
mapping should be direct
-Visibility-relevant parts of the system should be visible
-Feedback-Actions should have immediate visible effects
2. Consistency-aka principle of least surprise; similar things should look and act similarly
-Internal (within the application), external (with other applications on the same platform), metaphorical
(similar world objects)
-Speak the users language-use common words
-Metaphors- one way you can bring the real world into your interface
-Platforms- ensures consistency among different applications running on the same platform

Prepared by: erwinlcahapin