Riya George

Kei Tomita
User Interface Design II
Final Project Proposal
For my final project I will create a promotional website for the show Derry Girls. Derry Girls is
a British sitcom that initially aired on Channel 4- and was later picked up by Netflix. My project
will have two sections: "Meet the Girls," which will have character descriptions for the main cast
and iconic character quotes from the series, and "Episode Guide" which will entail short episode
summaries and details of all 3 seasons- 18 episodes in total.
Serial Positioning Effect is the tendency that people better recall information presented to them
first and last when given a list of information. I will consider serial positioning effect in my
"Meet the Girls" section by placing a group picture of the main characters with a list of their
names at the beginning and end of the section. This will help users to store information, such as
character names and faces, in their long-term memory.
Zeigarnik Effect is the tendency that people are more likely to remember tasks that are
incomplete or interrupted compared to ones that are complete. To take advantage of this concept,
in my "Meet the Girls" section I will have a "progress bar" in which I will have the names of all
the main characters on the side of the page and each name will be linked to that character and
their description. This lets users see how many character descriptions they have read through and
how many more they need to read.
Miller's Law states that most people only retain seven items, plus or minus two, in their working
memory. To follow this concept, in the "Episode Guide" section I will categorize the episodes
into the show's respective 3 seasons, which will have 6 episodes each season. Sectioning the
episodes this way will allow users to retain information, regarding the episodes, better in their
working memory.
Jakob’s Law states that users prefer sites that have functions that match other sites they have
used before. To take advantage of this concept, I will take schema into consideration to apply
conventions in my project that users have prior knowledge of. Schema shows a pattern of
thought/ behavior in which someone might logically organize categories of information.
Generally, when users see the words “Episode Guide” their prior knowledge would allow them
to associate content, such as episode titles and summaries in the “Episode Guide” section.
Von Restorff Effect is the psychological principle stating amongst similar objects, the one that
is visually different from the others is most likely to be remembered. To take advantage of this
concept, in the “Meet the Girls” section, I boldened and changed the color of the character’s
names so that users can differentiate it from other text on the page and remember it better.
Tesler's Law states all applications have a certain amount of complexity that can't be simplified
and must be dealt with. In my project I have six character descriptions users must remember. To
manage the intrinsic cognitive load, the required mental effort used for essential content within
one’s working memory, I have applied chunking, the process of grouping large units of
information into smaller pieces, so users can retain the essential content from my project
effectively.
Fitts’s Law states that the time taken to reach a certain object is relative to the distance from and
size of said object. I have considered this concept in the “Meet the Girls” section by creating
large clickable links for the “progress bar” so users can easily click on character page links with
little effort and precision.
According to Hick’s Law, decision time increases as the number and complexity of choices
increases. To consider Hick’s Law, the homepage of my project will have limited clickable
options, this way users can quickly choose where they want to go.
Multimedia Principle states that people learn better from the combination of both graphics and
words, rather than learning from just words alone. To apply this principle, each episode in
“Episode Guide” will have a characteristic screenshot which reflects the episode title within the
screenshot.
Spatial Contiguity Principle states that people grasp information better when corresponding
text and graphics are placed near each other. To adhere to this principle, on my character pages I
will include a gif of each character’s iconic quotes. This visual aid with overlapping and
corresponding text helps users understand information better while also supporting their
germane cognitive load. Germane Cognitive Load is the mental effort in an individual’s
working memory that handles non-essential but helpful content. The gif is non-essential content
but is still helpful to its users.
Signaling Principle states that people learn information better when provided with cues that
emphasize the structure of essential content. To apply this principle, on my character pages there
are headings that indicate the organization and give the user an outline of the essential content
within the character page.
Coherence Principle states that learning is more efficient for people when extraneous content is
excluded. To adhere to this principle, I will try to limit the amount of information given in
character descriptions as to reduce the user’s extraneous cognitive load. This is the mental
effort expended on non-essential content by one’s working memory.
The Law of Proximity states that people perceive things that are near each other as a group. To
consider this concept, for the 6 episodes on each season page, each episode will have its episode
details (title, image, description, and air date) near each other compared to the distance between
other episodes and their details.