(1) Define HCI. What is the importance of good design?

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the field of study that

focuses on optimizing how users and computers interact by
designing interactive computer interfaces that satisfy users’
needs. It is a multidisciplinary subject covering computer
science, behavioral sciences, cognitive science, ergonomics,
psychology, and design principles.

Today, HCI focuses on designing, implementing, and evaluating

interactive interfaces that enhance user experience using
computing devices. This includes user interface design, user-
centered design, and user experience design.
A basic goal of HCI is
– to improve the interactions between users and computers
– by making computers more usable and receptive to the user's
needs.
A well-designed interface and screen are important to the users
because that’s the window for them to view the capabilities of
the system. It is the vehicle through which many critical tasks
are presented which has a direct impact on the organization’s
relationship with the customers.
Training costs are lowered because training time is reduced.
• support line costs are lowered because fewer assist calls are
necessary.
• Employee satisfaction is increased because aggravation and
frustration are reduced.
• Ultimately, an organization's customers benefit because of the
improved service they receive.
• Identifying and resolving problems during the design and
development process also has significant economic benefits
The benefits of a good design are:
1. Screens are less crowded
2. Would be less time consuming
3. Screen would be 20 percent more productive
4. Fewer error, hence easily understandable
5. Improve decision-making time
6. Training costs are lower
7. The organization’s customers benefit because of improved
services

(2) Define and discuss the importance of User Interface design.

User Interface (UI) Design is the link between users and your
website. It includes the basic design elements that need to be
present in order to for someone to navigate your site and make
decisions.
It is the ever-evolving relationship between a person and the
system that they are using. It includes the way that your website
interacts with users, the overall design, and how information is
presented.
There are many different ways that you can look at the user
interface, but the basics always include a communication from a
product to the user and vice versa.
UI Design is all about structure, user manipulation, and
communication. This is one of the reasons it’s so important that
you pay close attention to it. It is the basic building block of
how your website is set up and functions when visited by your
target audience. If it doesn’t go smoothly, problems tend to
follow. Brand awareness also plays a huge role in UI design. By
having all your designs follow the same guidelines, you can
make sure that your product or service can become more
recognizable.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE USER INTERFACE
 • A well-designed interface and screen is terribly important to
our users. It is their window to view the capabilities of the
system.
• It is also the vehicle through which many critical tasks are
presented. These tasks often have a direct impact on an
organization's relations with its customers, and its profitability.
• A screen's layout and appearance affect a person in a variety
of ways. If they are confusing and inefficient, people will have
greater difficulty in doing their jobs and will make more
mistakes.
• Poor design may even chase some people away from a system
permanently. It can also lead to aggravation, frustration, and
increased stress.

(3) Give a brief history of screen design.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCREEN DESIGN

• While developers have been designing screens since a

cathode ray tube display was first attached to a computer,
more widespread interest in the application of good design
principles to screens did not begin to emerge until the early
1970s, when IBM introduced its 3270-cathode ray tube text-
based terminal.
• A 1970s screen often resembled the one pictured in Figure.
It usually consisted of many fields (more than are illustrated
here) with very cryptic and often unintelligible captions.
It was visually cluttered, and often possessed a command
field that challenged the user to remember what had to be
keyed into it.
• Ambiguous messages often required referral to a manual to
interpret.
• Effectively using this kind of screen required a great deal of
practice and patience.
 • Most early screens were monochromatic, typically
presenting green text on black backgrounds.
• At the turn of the decade guidelines for text-based screen
design were finally made widely available and many screens
began to take on a much less cluttered look through concepts
such as grouping and alignment of elements, as illustrated in
Figure 1.2.
• User memory was supported by providing clear and
meaningful field captions and by listing commands on the
screen, and enabling them to be applied, through function
keys. Messages also became clearer.
• These screens were not entirely clutter-free, however.
Instructions and reminders to the user had to be inscribed on
the screen in the form of prompts or completion aids such as
the codes PR and Sc.
• Not all 1980s screens looked like this, however. In the
1980s, 1970s-type screens were still being designed, and
many still reside in systems today.
(4) Write are the benefits of Well-designed interfaces.

I. Customer Satisfaction
Customer is the key to success for any organization. When
customers feel good using an app, they find joy and feel satisfied.
And this satisfaction of the customers comes from the easy,
creative and catchy user interface design.

II. Growth of the Company

The growth of any company happens for many reasons.
Especially in the Information Technology companies serving with
apps and websites, cool and easy to use, the user interface can
create a long-term effect in the growth and development of the
companies.

As customers always look for something new, their psychological

need drives towards something soothing to their eyes and simple
in nature. Eventually, a company can attract more customers and
get a better amount of revenue in the end.
 III. Increases Traffic
A dynamic website with intuitive and creative UI design is
unstoppable. When the users get what they want from a site, and
the response and the design are entirely satisfactory, the number
of visitors for that site will increase organically.

IV. Making an Impact

For long-term survival; Creating the value and impact of a
particular product is essential in business and technology. And
this kind of influence happens when any organization serves with
better products and experiences to its customers.

V. Communication
Remember that communication is the key to every outstanding
achievement. And your hard work may fail to bring any fruit if
your apps or websites fail to communicate with users because of
poor or low-quality user interface design. You don’t need to bring
something extravaganza; instead, bring the simplest and most
accessible way to reach your users.

VI. Productivity Enhancement

A great app or website helps its user to increase productivity. And
the usability of the product increases when it gives a positive vibe
in times of interaction.

VII. Cost-Effectiveness
Unique and comprehensive User Interface Design can reduce a
company’s operation and marketing costs. If your digital product
provides a brilliant and impressive user interface design, the user
will increase automatically. You don’t have to worry about the
extra cost of marketing. Thus, cost-effectiveness can be achieved
by an improvised policy of providing beautiful user interface
design.

VIII. Brand Awareness

Companies like Apple, Samsung, or Microsoft spend a lot of time
 and money creating competitive user interface designs for their
digital and electronic products. A solid and interactive user
interface design can work as branding of that particular company.

IX. Reducing Confusion

A comprehensive user interface design provides a clear message
of the website, software, or application. As a result, users don’t
get confused about anything they encounter.

X. Vision
Companies hire UX and UI designers at the early stage of product
development to set their vision and mission, and in the long run,
they can communicate with the audiences properly.

(5) Explain the general principle of User Interface design?

Ans. As with everything we do as designers, UI design principles all

revolve around the user, making visual elements and the product more
user-friendly. Our goal as UI designers is to create as streamlined an
experience as possible so that people can enjoy a site and navigate
through it in a breeze.
There 9 principles of user interface design will improve your users’
usability, so make them enjoy your product while using it.

1) Place Users at the Centre

As always, the first UI design principle is to focus on people (or, the

“user” as we all say). A good user interface is easy and natural to use,
avoids confusing the user, and does what the user needs.

You need to understand who your users are as well as understand

what they want to do. Are they experts? The best way to do this is to
talk to them. Creating and structuring interviews is beyond the scope
of this post, but interview your audience, learn who they are, and
develop UI designs for them. Learning about human-cantered
design will help you achieve the right mindset for best interfaces and
focus on people first, design second.

2) Strive for Clarity

The purpose of the user interface is to allow the user to interact with
the website or application (or, more generally in broader design, any
product). Avoid anything that confuses people or doesn’t help them
interact.

3) Minimize Actions and Steps Per Screen

Streamline tasks and actions so they can be done in as few steps as

possible. Each screen should have one primary focus. For example,
the purpose of this blog is for you to read and, hopefully, enjoy it and
learn from it. It’s not to share it on Twitter or email a colleague
(though please do if you find it valuable enough to share).

Keep the primary action front and center and move secondary actions
to deeper on a page or give them lighter visual weight and the right
typography.

4) Aim for Simplicity

Classics exist for a reason; they’re timeless and never go out of style,
though they do benefit from modern touches. Think of the little black
cocktail dress or the tuxedo; each are fashion style staples. They’re
simple, elegant, and add a touch of class to the wearer. A user
interface should be simple and elegant.

5) Be Consistent

Consistency creates familiarity, and familiar interfaces are naturally

more usable. How frustrating would it be to get behind the wheel of a
car and the brake is on the right and the accelerator on the left? Or
filling in a Web form with the “Submit” button in red and the
“Delete” button in green.

6) Your Goal: Make Your User Interface Design Invisible

Don’t draw attention to your user interface. A great UI allows people
to use the product without friction, not spend time figuring out how to
interact with the product.

7) Make It Accessible
UI designs need to take into account accessibility issues. Online, this
often means ensuring the visibly impaired can access and use the
product. Don’t forget about color blindness as well. Roughly 1 in 12
males (that’s about 8%) and 1 in 200 females (about .5%) are color
blind to some degree. Use color to accentuate and emphasize, but
don’t rely entirely on color to communicate information.

9) Flexibility
Create a UI that will work and look great across multiple platforms.
Of course, it may have to be tweaked depending on the form factor of
a device and its operating system (Android and iOS, for example), but
it should be flexible enough to work on anything.

9) Visual Structure

Keep a consistent visual structure to create familiarity and relieve user

anxiety by making them feel at home. A few elements to focus on
include a visual hierarchy with the most important things made
obvious, color scheme, consistent navigation, re-use elements, and
create a visual order using grids

(6) Explain Donald Norman’s model with examples.

http://cs4760.csl.mtu.edu/2016/lectures/normans-interaction-
theory/
(7) Explain the Abowd and Beale models with examples and compare
 them with each other.
(8) What is ergonomics? Explain with an example. *
Ergonomics derives from two Greek words: ergon, meaning work,
and nomoi, meaning natural laws, to create a word that means the
science of work and a person’s relationship to that work environment.
Ergonomics is a way to work smarter and not harder.
There are three types of ergonomics: physical, cognitive, and
organizational.
Physical Ergonomics: - Physical ergonomics is the most commonly
known form of ergonomics, and for good reason. It deals with the
physical load on the human body when performing activities.
Knowing physical ergonomics and how to integrate it heavily
influences on-site safety.

Cognitive ergonomics: - Cognitive ergonomics is the method of

designing and arranging information and data to create a light
cognitive load.
Perception, memory, reasoning, and motor response all affect how
someone interacts with and performs their work. A higher cognitive
workload causes more stress on the worker.
Paper work instructions are one example of increased cognitive
workload, as they require memorization and focus.

Organizational ergonomics: - Organizational ergonomics combines

the knowledge gained from other areas of the factory, like physical
and cognitive ergonomics, to optimize safety and efficiency across the
entire organization.
Business Wire explained that “this entails finding ways to optimize
teamwork, improve communications, increase output and bolster the
overall quality of a product.”
This can show itself in many ways; standardized training, unified data
storage through the cloud, or lean manufacturing techniques.
(9) Discuss different interaction styles with examples.

Ans. Currently, six main interaction styles are used. Each of them will
be considered in a special part of the lesson, with examples,
discussion on advantages and disadvantages and design guidelines.
But first, look at the overview:

 Command line. The user types in commands for the program,

usually one at a time. The program executes the commands and
returns feedback, if necessary. MS-DOS and UNIX use this style.
 Question and answer. The application asks questions and when
the user provide by answers all necessary data, the application
gives the results. Sometimes these are called "walktrough and use"
applications.
 Menus. Possible user actions are listed on the screen and the user
can select one of them. Gopher is an example and most MS
Windows applications also include menus.
 Form filing. The user type the data in specific fields, similar to the
fields on a paper fill-in form. Many office and database
applications use this style.
 Function keys. The interaction is done by a set of special keys or
key combinations for different operations. Typical examples are
computerised ticket machines, computer games, etc.
 Graphical direct manipulation. The objects used in application
are graphically represented on the screen and the user can
manipulate them directly by pointing, clicking, dragging, typing,
etc. Most windowing systems, or GUI's (Graphical User Interface)
are based on graphical direct manipulation.

There are some other interaction styles. For example, a lot of

research is directed towards use of natural language as human-
computer interface.
Combinations of styles are widely used. Most window-based
applications include menus, some of them also form filling; menus
can be used during form filling; command line may be combined with
question and answer, etc. As we will see, there are good reasons for
these combinations, but then more attention have to be paid to the
overall consistency of the application.

Different interaction styles require different levels of computer

hardware and software technology. This explains why they have been
developed at different times. A good overview from a historical
perspective have been developed by Sjoerd Mitchels.

(10) What are the human considerations in design? Explain.

Application Experience
Have users worked with a similar application (for example, word
processing, airline reservation, and so on)? Are they familiar with the
basic application terms? Or does little or no application experience
exist?
Task Experience
Are users experienced with the task being automated? Or do users
possess little or no knowledge of the tasks the system will be
performing?
Other System Use
Will the user be using other systems while using the new system?
Education
What is the general educational level of users? Do they generally have
high school degrees, college degrees, or advanced degrees?
Reading Level
For textual portions of the interface, the vocabulary and grammatical
structure must be at a level that is easily understood by the users.
Typing Skill
Is the user a competent typist or of the hunt-and-peck variety? Is he or
she familiar with the standard keyboard layout or other newer
layouts?

Native Language and Culture

Do the users speak English, another language, or several other
languages? Will the screens be in English or in another language?
Other languages often impose different screen layout requirements.
Are there cultural or ethnic differences between users?
Age
Are the users children, young adults, middle-aged, senior citizens, or
very elderly? Age can have an affect on both computer and system
usage.
(11) Explain one major HCI application.
1. IoT technology
IoT devices and applications have significantly impacted our daily
lives. According to a May 2022 report by IoT Analytics, global IoT
endpoints are expected to reach 14.4 billion in 2022 and grow to 27
billion (approx.) by 2025. As users interact with such devices, they
tend to collect their data, which helps understand different user
interaction patterns. IoT companies can make critical business
decisions that can eventually drive their future revenues and profits.

A recent development in the field of HCI introduced the concept of

‘pre-touch sensing’ through pre-touch phones. This means the phone
can detect how the user holds the phone or which finger approaches
the screen first for operation. Upon detecting the user’s hand
movements, the device immediately predicts the user’s intentions and
performs the task before the user gives any instructions.

Another HCI-related development is that of ‘Paper ID’. The paper

acts as a touchscreen, senses the environment, detects gestures, and
connects to other IoT devices. Fundamentally, it digitizes the paper
and executes tasks based on gestures by focusing on man-machine
interaction variables.
https://www.spiceworks.com/tech/artificial-intelligence/articles/what-
is-hci/
(12) Explain the Adaptive User Interface with an example.
https://elementor.com/resources/glossary/what-is-an-adaptive-user-
interface/

(13) Discuss Evaluation of Interactive system.

Evaluation Techniques
• Evaluation
– tests usability and functionality of system
– occurs in laboratory, field and/or in collaboration
with users
– evaluates both design and implementation
– should be considered at all stages in the design life
Cycle

Goals of Evaluation
• assess extent of system functionality
• assess effect of interface on user
• identify specific problems

https://ovindunambukara.medium.com/evaluation-techniques-for-
interactive-systems-b7021a44c089

https://www.hcibook.com/e3-docs/slides/notes-pdf/e3-chap-09-
6up.pdf