Chapter 1.

Models & Theories

Aim
To familiarize the students on Models & Theories of
user interface so that it can be applied to develop
user interface.

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Instructional Objectives
Objectives of this chapter are:
• Describe a range of models that can be used during interface
design process.
• Explain different design notations and analysis.
• Program interactive system.
• Describe the user within a social and organizational context.
• Explain the hierarchical representation of the user’s task and
goal structure.

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Cognitive Model

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Cognitive Model
Cognition
Cognition is the ideas and concepts, which are running as a process in our mind. We can explain cognition as
the method of gaining knowledge. Cognition means understanding, remembering, acquiring skills and creating
new ideas.
Modes of Cognition:
1. Experiential cognition
• Experiential cognition is the state of mind that we perceive, act, and
react to events around us effectively and naturally.
• It wants to reach a certain level of expertise and engagement.
2. Reflective cognition
• Reflective cognition comprises thinking, comparing, and
decision-making.
• This type of cognition is what leads to new ideas and creativity.

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Cognitive Model
a) Information Processing Model
• The human also takes the information, stores it and process it, just like a computer does.
• Computer takes the input from keyboard or scanner, the input devices of human is different types of sensory
organs like the eyes, ears etc.
• Through these sensory organs, human receives information from surrounding.
• Humans’ short term memory works just like central processing unit of a computer.
• In short term memory information is temporarily stored.
• Later it is transferred to long term memory, as in computer information is stored in hard disk. Computer’s
output is displayed on computer screen or printer.

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Cognitive Model
b) Human processor model
• This model determines the time duration to perform a particular task.

• It helps to analyse the human performance. From this model, a Hypothesis can be stated about how
long a person will take to perceive and respond to a stimulus, which is also called reaction time.

• The human processor model is the cognitive process of a user interacting with system.

• From information processing model, we have seen cognition is a series of processing stages.

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Cognitive Model
c) Hierarchical representation of the user’s task and goal structure
The goal is achieved by the user by solving sub goals- this is the main concept of user’s task and goal
structure. GOMS models are under this category.

G Goals - These are the user’s goals, the user desires to achieve.

O Operators - These are the lowermost level of analysis. They are the elementary actions
that the user must be performed in order to use the system.
Z
M Methods - There are classically numerous ways in which a
goal can be split into sub-goals or methods

S Selection - Selection means choosing between competing methods.

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Quiz / Assessment

1) The main goal in HCI is to understand how human interact with __________.
a) Computers
b) Users
c) Interface
d) Network

2) The time is taken by a user to perceive and respond to a stimulus,

this is also known as __________ time.
a) Alteration
b) Reaction
c) Refresh
d) Renew

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 Communication &
Collaboration Models

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Communication & Collaboration Models
• The collaboration and communication are adopted as new conceptions of human-computer interfaces.

• Initially, the theories of interpersonal collaboration and communication are applied to human-machine
interactions, considering the human-machine interactions as communication.
Face-to-Face Communication
• Face-to-face contact is the most basic form of communication even in the concept of technology.
• The features that are taken into high priority are transfer effects and personal space, Eye contact and gaze,
Gestures and body language, Back channels, confirmation and interruption and Turn-taking.
• The personal space problem can occur in a video conference.
• Sporadic direct eye contact is significant in instituting a sense of engagement and social presence.
• The participants can then merely point at the relevant item on the screen, as they would in face-to-face.

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Communication & Collaboration Models
Text-based communication
There are four types of textual communication in groupware:
• Discrete – directed message as in email. There is no explicit connection between the various messages,
except that if any reference has explicitly specified as the text of the message refers to a previous one.

• Linear – participants’ messages are added in at the end of the single script. These are usually temporal.

• Non-linear – when messages are linked to one another in a hypertext fashion.

• Spatial – where messages are arranged on a two-dimensional surface.

Group working
• Group behaviour is more complex. We have to take into consideration the dynamic social
relationships during group working.
• There are various factors that affect group working and problems in a group working.

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Quiz / Assessment
3) The __________ problem can occur in a video conference.
a) Personal space
b) Communication
c) Text communication
d) Visual communication

4) __________direct eye contact is significant in instituting a sense of

engagement and social presence.
a) Special
b) Sporadic
c) Specific
d) Density

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Task Analysis

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Task Analysis

• Task analysis is the process of analysing the method in which the people do their jobs.
• Task analysis is about existing systems and techniques; its main tools are those of observation in
numerous forms.
• Task analysis is the process of understanding ordinary users by noting them in an activity to
understand.
• It elaborate how they execute their tasks and accomplish their anticipated goals.
• Tasks analysis aids to identify the tasks that your website and applications must support.

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Task Analysis

Methods to perform task analysis

• Task decomposition

• Knowledge-based techniques

• Entity–relation-based analysis

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Task Analysis
Purpose of Task Analysis
• What are the users’ goals and what they are expecting to accomplish

• What users essentially does to attain those goals

• What experiences (personal, social, and cultural) users carry to the tasks

• How users are influenced by their physical environment

• How users’ previous knowledge and experience influence:

o How they think about their work

o The workflow they follow to perform their tasks

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Task Analysis
Implementation of Task Analysis
Task analysis helps maintenance of various aspects of the user-centered
design process, which includes:

• Requirements gathering for Website

• Developing the content and site
structure as required.
• Wire framing and Prototyping
• Execution of usability testing

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Task Analysis
Types of Task Analysis
There are several types of task analysis, the most common techniques are:

• Cognitive Task Analysis

• Hierarchical Task
Analysis

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Task Analysis
Method to Conduct a Task Analysis
The steps to be followed by a broken down process for decomposing a high-level
task are as follows:
• Identify the task to be analysed.
• Split the high-level task into 4 to 8 subtasks.
• A layered task diagram is drawn for each subtasks confirming that it
is complete.
• Create a written document as well as the decomposition diagram.
• Present the analysis to someone else who is not involved in the
decomposition but has the knowledge about the tasks to check for
consistency.

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Quiz / Assessment
5) __________ which considers the method to decompose the task
and split into subtasks, and the order in that these are performed.
a) Task decomposition
b) Task detailed
c) Task decomposed
d) Task deficit

6) __________ is about existing systems and techniques.

a) Task script
b) Task analysis
c) Task file
d) Task system

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Dialog Analysis & Design

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Dialog Analysis & Design

Three Levels of Computer Language

1. Lexical

2. Syntactic

3. Semantic

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Dialog Analysis & Design
1. Action Properties
• Selecting from the main menu (graphics, text or paint), selecting a pop-up menu choice (circle or line), clicking
on a point on the drawing surface and double-clicking a point on the drawing surface.
• The completeness and determinism can be spontaneously checked in a dialog description.
• The consistency cannot be automatically checked as easily.
• In a text entry area of a dialog box, most text-editing keys may behave as normal, but ‘tab' may move to the
next dialog box entry.
• Consistency involves the semantics and the interpretation regarding the similar action.
• The analyst can divide the conditions into major modes where actions may have dissimilar effects or be
inactive.

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Dialog Analysis & Design
2. State Properties

• The states in a dialog signify points where the user has attained information or where the
system has done something beneficial.
• This enables the user to achieve the desired dialog state and preferably to be able to get
there easily.
• These properties are considered as reachability.
• A basic check of any dialog is whether it is completely connected.
• Labelling process may involve duplicating states which will otherwise look alike at the dialog
level.

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Dialog Analysis & Design
3. Presentation and Lexical Properties

• The dialog design should be autonomous of the detailed design of the presentation and lexical
details of the interface.

• Different types of interfaces have exclusive dialog styles.

• The normal dialog a form of a command-based interface is verb–object, for example ‘print free'.

• Mouse-based systems often have an object–verb syntax, for example, select a file icon and then
select ‘print' from a menu.

• Detailed dialog design must be dependent on the type of interface.

• The range of outputs, based on whether it is visual or aural, will restrict the dialog.

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 Quiz / Assessment
7) __________ specifies the order and structure of inputs and outputs. In
human language, the grammar of sentence construction.
a) Syntactic
b) Synaptic
c) System
d) Systematically

8) The __________ and determinism can be spontaneously checked in a

dialog description.
a) Composite
b) Completeness
c) Complete
d) Content

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Interactive Model

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Interactive Model
The PIE model
• The PIE model is considered as a black-box model.
• It does not represent the internal architecture and
construction of a computer system.
• It describes purely in terms of its inputs from the user and
outputs to the user.
• The power of the PIE model is many levels of abstraction
can be implemented and the model will be effectively
functional.
• PIE model can be applied to just a simple user.
PIE Model

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Interactive Model
Predictability and observability
• WYSIWYG is clearly associated with what can be inferred from the display (what you see).

• This corresponds to how perfect you can determine the result from the display.

• The second interpretation is what you see is what you have got in the system.

• For this, we will ask what the display can tell us about the effect.

• These can both be thought of as observability principles.

• The state of the system defines the effects of any future commands.

• Predictability is a special case of observability.

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Interactive Model
Reachability and undo
• A check on the dialog description to see if there were any blind alleys, which ones you had chosen
them, would never let you back to the rest of the dialog.

• Systems can have similar problems at a semantic level. his uses the undo principle when the
command c is undone itself.

• So at most we have two states, a toggle, with all the commands flipping back and forth between them.

• The only alternative is that the system does nothing.

• The simplest fix to the above undo principle is to restrict the commands to anything except undo!

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 Quiz / Assessment

9) The PIE model is considered as a __________ model.

a) Black-box
b) White box
c) Grey box
d) Red box

10) The power of the PIE model is that it can be functional at many
levels of __________.
a) Program
b) Abstraction.
c) Encapsulation
d) Inheritance

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Programming Interactive System

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Programming Interactive System
Objects
• Real-world objects have two characteristics that are the state and behavior.

• An object stores its information in attributes and reveals its behavior through methods.

Data Encapsulation
• Hiding the implementation particulars of the class from the user via an object’s methods is called as
data encapsulation.
• In object oriented programming, it combines the code and the data together and keeps them safe
from outside interference.

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Programming Interactive System
Public Interface
• The point where the software entities interact with each other either on a single computer or in a network is called Public
Interface.
• This enables data security.

Class
• A class is a group of objects that has mutual methods.
• It can be replicated as the blueprint using which the objects are created.
• Classes are passive, they do not communicate with each other but are used to create objects that interact with each other.

Inheritance
• Inheritance as the concept of acquiring properties from the existing classes.
• This enables and implements the property called as reusability.
• In OOP one object inherits the properties of another object.

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Programming Interactive System
Polymorphism
• Polymorphism is the procedure of using Example for Polymorphism
same method name by various classes.

• It redefines methods for the derived

classes.

• The same method name can be used in

the single class which performs different
tasks.

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Programming Interactive System
Object Oriented Modelling of User Interface Design
• Object oriented interface is the association between the users with the real world manipulating
software objects for designing purpose.
• Interface design fights to make the successful accomplishment of user’s goals with the help of
interactive tasks and management.
• The design specifies the structure and components required for each dialogue.

Example for Object Oriented Modelling of User Interface Design

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 Quiz / Assessment
11) __________ are a central concept in the field of computation in the whole
field of software engineering.
a) Programs
b) Statement
c) Iteration
d) Design

12) The __________ example plays a significant role in the human-

computer interface
a) Object based programming
b) Object Oriented programming
c) Object programming
d) Structured programming

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Activity - I
Brief description of activity

• Produce a high-level hierarchical task analysis

Online Activity
showing how you would find information on a
(30 min) website. Assume the site has a search facility as
well as normal links.

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 Summary
✔ The prevailing framework that has described HCI has been cognitive.
✔ It is significant to note that many of these cognitive processes are interdependent.
✔ Effective communication evidently motivates much collaborative work and many systems
intent to upkeep communication at a distance.
✔ Face-to-face contact is the most basic form of communication even in the concept of
technology.
✔ The conversation between the adjacency pair is not just a basic structure of conversation
but the fundamental structure.
✔ The power of the PIE model is that it can be functional at many levels of abstraction.
✔ Predictability is a special case of observability.

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e-References
• Cognitive Architectures and HCI (1st ed.). Retrieved
from http://homepages.rpi.edu/~grayw/pubs/papers/1996/KGY96_SCBul.pdf

• Hierarchical Task Analysis (1st ed.). Retrieved

from http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/02/hierarchical-task-analysis.php

• Using HCI Techniques to Design a More Usable Programming System (1st ed.). Retrieved
from http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pane/ftp/PaneMyersMillerHANDSDesign.pdf

• Theories in Computer human interaction (1st ed.). Retrieved

from https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2002/cmsc838s/tichi/

• Knowledge and Mental Models in HCI (1st ed.). Retrieved

from https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2002/cmsc838s/tichi/knowledge.html

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External Resources
• Caroll, J. HCI Models, Theories, and Frame works: Toward a Multidisciplinary Science. (1st ed.).
San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann publishers.

• Dix, A. & Finlay, J. (2004). Human Computer Interaction (1st ed.). Pearson Education.

• Pinder, S. (2008). Advances in Human-Computer Interaction (1st ed.). InTech.

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