Module 2: Understanding and

Conceptualizing Interaction
Cognitive aspects and Social,
Emotional Interaction
Understanding the Problem Space and Conceptualizing Design

Understanding Problem Space

As emphasized in Module 1, identifying usability and user

experience goals is a prerequisite to understanding the problem
space.

Another important consideration is to writing down your

assumptions and claims and then trying to defend and support
them can highlight those that are vague or wanting.

In many projects, this process involves identifying human activities

and interactivities that are problematic and working out how they
might be improved.

The process of articulating the problem space is typically done as

a team effort. Invariably, team members will have differing
perspectives on the problem space. Hence, this can be time
consuming but provides with better design solutions.

In conclusion, the following questions can be used to aid in this

process: COUNT - 4

 Are there problems with an existing product or user

experience? If so, what are they?

 Why do you think there are problems?

 How do you think your proposed design ideas might overcome

these?

 If you have not identified any problems and instead are

designing for a new user experience, how do you think your

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 proposed design ideas support, change, or extend current
ways of doing things?

Having a good understanding of the problem space

greatly helps design teams to then be able to
conceptualize the design space.

Conceptualizing Design

A conceptual design is the part of an interaction design containing

a theme, notion, or idea with the purpose of communicating a
design vision about a system or product. A conceptual design is
the manifestation of the designer’s mental model within the system.

Conceptual design is where you establish the metaphor or the

theme of the product—in a word, the concept.

Perspectives for Conceptual Design

COUNT - 3

Ecological

from the ecological perspective is to communicate a design

vision of how the system works as a black box within its
environment.

Interactional

from the interaction perspective is used to communicate a

design vision of how the user operates the system.

Emotional
from the emotional perspective is used to communicate a
vision of how the design elements will evoke emotional impact
in users.

Benefits of Conceptualization
COUNT - 3

 Similar Orientation of Team

 Open - Mindedness

 Common Grounds

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 Using this conceptualization, conceptual model is made.

Conceptual Model/ Mental model

Conceptual model is the designer’s conceptualization of the envisioned

system—what the system is, how it is organized, what it does, and how
it works.

As shown in the above diagram, the designer’s conceptual model is

created from what is learned in contextual inquiry and analysis and is
transformed into design by ideation and sketching.

The conceptual model includes: Metaphors, analogies, and mappings

between those concepts and the task domain or work practice the
design is intended to support. The closer the designer’s conceptual
model orientation is to the user’s work domain and work practice, the
more likely users will internalize the model as their own.

The best conceptual models are those that appear obvious; the
operations they support being intuitive to use.

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 Most interface applications are actually based on well-established
conceptual models.

Interface Types
COUNT - 6

According to the study of HCI Human Computer Interaction) there are

5 types of interfaces:

 Command - Line Interface (cli)

 Graphical User Interface (gui)/ WIMP (windows, icons, menus and

pointers)

 Menu driven Interface (mdi)

 Form based Interface (fbi)

 Natural Language Interface (nli)

 Gesture driven Interface (gdi)

Explanation of these interfaces:

 cli

oldest of the interfaces.

involves the computer responding to commands typed by the

operator.

drawback that it requires the operator to remember various

commands.

 gui

Operators use a pointing device to control a pointer on the

screen which then interacts with other on-screen elements.

It allows the user to interact with devices through graphical

icons and visual indicators such as secondary notations.

 mdi

commonly used on cash/ ticket machines

interface comprised of a series of menus and sub-menus which

the user accesses by pressing buttons, often on a touch-screen
device

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  fbi

uses text-boxes, drop-down menus, text areas, check boxes,

radio boxes and buttons to create an electronic form.

 nli

a spoken interface where the user interacts with the computer

by talking to it.

 gdi

This is an interface which is controlled by a human making

physical gestures

This uses cameras to detect human motion which it uses to

determine what the user wants to do.

There are many other interfaces derived from the above interfaces.
Some of them are:
VR, Web, Multimodal, Wearable, AR, MR (mixed reality), Haptic, Robot.

Cognitive aspects

Cognition

 Experiential Cognition - It is a state of mind in which we perceive,

act, and react to events in our environment. EG Driving, Reading,
gaming.

 Reflective Cognition - It involves thinking, comparing, Decision

making. Eg: Learning, Writing.

Humans use these cognitive features and build experiences, memories

etc. Hence, understanding these cognitive aspects we can build up
better designs which can provide the desired experience and
interaction to users.

Now, we'll learn about the various cognitive aspects:

COUNT - 6

Attention

This is the process of selecting things to concentrate on, at a

point in time, from the range of possibilities available. Attention
involves our auditory and/or visual senses.

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 Hence, the interface elements which require attention must be
structured accordingly using audio (small sounds) and visual
(colors, highlights) elements in interface.

Design Implication - color, ordering, spacing, sequencing and

animation.

Perception and Recognition

It refers to how information is acquired from the environment

and transformed into experiences.

Better Perception helps users distinguish and select the

required element faster.

Design Implications - icons, borders, spacing and text.

Memories

How information is stored in user's memory is widely

dependent upon how the user as interpreted it and interacted
with it.

The more the user interacts with and pays attention to a

segment of information, the better he/ she can memorize and
recall it.

Design Implications - keeping procedures to complete tasks

ass less complicated as possible, design interfaces which
promote recognition rather than recall.

Learning

Learning to use a system must be easy and fun. Manuals bore

out people. Instead, they much prefer to learn through doing.

Design Implication - building interfaces which help explore

system, and also guides and constraints user with it's action.

Reading, Speaking and Listening

These cognitive aspects can be used upon requirement basis.

While written language is permanent, and faster to read and

scan. Dyslexic people cannot work with it. Hence, then we
require sound to let users interact with system.

Problem - solving, Planning and Decision making

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 These are reflective cognitive aspects.

We must design system which help overcome these cognitions

easily. Eg; Faster decision making etc.

Cognitive Frameworks

The 3 Internal frameworks

Mental models

User learns about the system by using it and hence

develops a understanding of it. As they learn they develop
mental model which they use to carry out tasks.

Gulf of Execution and Evaluation

The gulf of execution – describes the distance from the

user to the physical system while the second one – The gulf
of evaluation – is the distance from the physical system to
the user.

We need to bridge this gulf by either by designing usable

interfaces that match the psychological characteristics of
the user and, or by the user learning to create goals, plans,
and action sequences that fit with how the interface works.

Information Processing

The information processing model provides a basis from

which to make
predictions about human performance.

The 3 External Frameworks

Distributed cognition

Distributed cognitive frameworks involve cognitive

activities around individuals, their surrounding artifacts and
things etc.

Information is transferred through different media.

For eg: a scenario of an airline cockpit. Here, the pilot,

captain, the various buttons and levers, the Air Traffic
Control center all work together cognitively to attain a goal
— Flight.

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 External cognition

Concerned with explaining the cognitive processes involved

when we interact with different external representations.
Eg: Maps, diagrams etc.

To help even more following computer based

representations can be build:

 Externalizing to reduce Memory load - Reminders,

Calendars, Notes, Marked Emails etc.

 Computational Offloading - Using external tools for

computation. Hence reducing those cognitive usage.

 Annotation and Cognitive tracing - Annotation is

modifying existing representations and tracing is
externally manipulating orders and structures.

Embodied cognition

Embodied interaction is when people interact mentally and

physically with technology.

Embodied interaction is the creation, manipulation and

sharing of meaning through engaged interaction with
artifacts.

Social Interaction and the Emerging Social Phenomena NOT SURE

OF THIS ANSWER

A fundamental aspect of everyday life is being social – interacting with

each other.

While face-to-face conversations remain central to many of our social

interactions, the use of social media has dramatically increased.

Ismein abb Face Time, Skype, Snapchat ke baare mein fekna hai. Most
importantly snapchat. Kyuki woh sabse jyada popular hua recent 45
years mein. Snapchat pe users easily aur rapidly communicate kar
sakte dusron sey, while maintaining privacy and zero traces of
interaction.

Face -to Face conversations, Remote Conversations.

Telepresence

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 Projecting a person from one place to another. Using holograms or
something.

One line of research has been to superimpose images of the other

person on a workspace

Telepresence targets in taking part in a form of socializing that

overlays the virtual and physical environments so as to make them
appear seamless, where digital avatars and objects populate a
world of real people and objects.

Emotions and the User Experience

Emotional interaction is about considering what makes us happy, sad,

annoyed etc. and then using this devise different aspects of design.

However, it is not straightforward to achieve as people's moods and

feelings are constantly changing.

Understanding how emotions work provides a way of considering how

to design interfaces and apps that can trigger affect or reflection in
the user.

Model of emotion and behavior is couched in terms of different levels

of the brain.

At the lowest level are parts of the brain that are pre-wired to
automatically respond to events happening in the physical world. This
is called the visceral level.

At the next level are the brain processes that control our everyday
behavior. This is called the behavioral level.

At the highest level are brain processes that contemplate. This is called
the reflective level.

Expressive and Frustrating Interfaces

Expressive Interfaces

Expressive forms like emoticons, sounds, icons, and virtual agents

have been used at the interface to (i) convey emotional states
and/or (ii) elicit certain kinds of emotional responses in users.

These methods of conveying expressions is useful for users in

many cases where the user is reassured after receiving a smile icon
after completing a task etc.

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 Other more ways to enable the system to express are:

 Dynamic Icons

 Animations

 Spoken messages

 Various sonifications Sounds)

 Vibrations

The design of aesthetically pleasing interfaces has become of

central concern to interaction design. Empirical studies have shown
that the aesthetics of an interface can have a positive effect on
people's perception of the system's usability.

Frustrating Interfaces

In many situations, computer interfaces may inadvertently elicit

negative emotional responses such as anger and disgust. This
typically happens when something that should be simple to use or
set turns out to be complex.

Interfaces, if designed poorly, can make people look stupid, or feel

insulted or threatened.

Persuasive Technologies

Interactive computing systems are deliberately designed to change

people's attitudes and behaviors.

Persuasive technologies are technologies being used to draw people's

attention to certain kinds of information in an attempt to change what
they do or think. Pop-up ads, warning messages, reminders, prompts,
recommendations etc.

Here, the emphasis is on changing habits or doing something that will

improve an individual's well-being through monitoring their behavior.

Eg: Nintendo Pokemon required players to daily walk, run, jump etc. to
keep their pokemons alive.

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