Human Computer

Interaction
Final Term Assignment - 01
Name: Al – Hasib
ID: 17-34015-1
Sec: C
Dept: Computer Engineering (CoE)

Course Teacher: Dr. Tabin Hasan

Topic: Five Design Issues With Microsoft Excel

Affordance
• What is Affordance ?

• An affordance is a relationship between the properties of an object

and the capabilities of the agent that determine just how the object
could possibly be used. When affordance are taken advantage of, the
user knows what to do just by looking: no picture, label, or instruction
needed.
• In my opinion affordance is, Not being able to understand the function
of a particular component or an option properly.
Figure: 01
Figure: 02
Design Issues

In figure 01, it is seen that an option has been shown with an arrow in the upper
corner of the right side of excel. It is not clear what the function of this option is.

In figure 2, when the mouse is placed on that option, it is seen that there is
written "ribbon display options". But then there is no understanding of what that
thing actually works for, how to work with it. So until we click on that option,
we will not understand how to work with it, what is its actual function.
Visibility
What is Visibility ?

Visibility is the fundamentals that the more visible a component is, the more
likely users will realize them and the way to use them. Equally important is that
the opposite: when something is out of sight, it's difficult to understand about and
use. As simple as this principle is, designers still struggle with adopting it.

An object's function should be visible so that people can see what it is currently
doing and see what buttons or controls are available. Visibility can also be made
available through the use of sound or through touch with for example different
textures, shapes or vibrations. The important thing here is that the visibility is
recogniseable rather than having to rely on recall.
Design Issues

Figure: 01
In the standard view, the indications (affordances) that the user can perform functions on
data are limited to an “fx” symbol off to the side of the info entry bar, and a menu sub-
heading, “Formulas,” placed fifth among the menu items, after such items as formatting.
An experienced user are going to be conversant in the existence of knowledge functions,
as they're extremely useful and powerful, but they're largely invisible on the program’s
main interface.
Even when users approach these limited affordances, they are confronted
with an array of seemingly endless functions, vaguely categorized and listed
alphabetically, with little indication what any of them actually do. The
combined lack of visibility of the functions themselves, and absence of
affordances to suggest what the user can or cannot do, leave the user with
little choice but to search through a list of dozens of functions, hoping to find
one that will be useful, or else to simply assume that a desired function is
unavailable.
Mapping
Mapping is a technical term meaning the relationship between two things,
the controls of an object and what that results in the real world.

Figure: 01
Figure: 02
Design Issues
Nowadays no data scientist or data engineer works alone anymore. We are all
part of bigger or smaller labs and we all need to communicate around the
applications we build. Team debugging, feature discussions, best practices,
documentation are all necessary tasks in the daily work. Excel is really not
made for collaboration in big teams.

In the figure 1 & 2 , We can see that , The options are not right, scattered one
by one. If all these were grouped together, with a specific name, it would be
convenient to find a time to work. It is often seen that if you want to add a
picture, at first you have to click on the insert option, then you have to add a
picture by clicking on the picture option. Again, even if you want to write the
equation, not all the equations are ready to ones hand in time. As a result, it is
very difficult to work.
Gulf of
Execution

Gulf of execution is the degree of ease with which a user can understand the
current state of a system. It is the difference between the intentions of the users
and what the system allows them to do.
For example, a person can look at a light switch and easily tell what the current
state of the system is (i.e., whether the light is on or off) and how to operate the
switch. This means that the gulf of execution is small. Norman states that, in
order to design the best interfaces, the gulf must be kept as small as possible.
Design Issues

Figure: 01
Figure: 02
Figures 1 and 2 show that looking at these options, it is easy to tell what they are
doing. For example: info, here everything is known about ms excel. New, a new
file can be created from here. save as, this means you need to save the file. Again,
looking at the insert option, it is understood that something can be inserted.
Gulf of
Evaluation
Gulf of evaluation is the degree of ease with which a user can perceive and
interpret whether or not the action they performed was successful. This gulf is
small when the system provides information about its state in a form that is
easy to receive, interpret, and matches the way the person thinks of the
system.

An example of a large gulf of evaluation is when an application has a

spinning wheel to show a “loading” state after the user performs an action.
The wheel alone is not enough for the user to interpret the progress that ​the
system is making in response to their action. The gulf can be shortened by
having a loading bar instead.