Human Computer

Interaction
 Design Rationale (foundation)
• In order to achieve this understanding you
need to know
• what design decisions were considered,
assumptions made, alternative solutions
rejected...

• this information is design rationale

 Design Rationale
• Design rationale is information that explains why an
interface is the way it is.

• Benefits of design rationale

– communication throughout life cycle
– reuse of design knowledge across products
– enforces design discipline
– presents arguments for design trade-offs
– organizes potentially large design space
– capturing contextual information
 Design Space Analysis

• Q (Question).O (Option).C (Choice). – hierarchical

structure
• Questions (and sub-questions)
– represent major issues of a design
• Options
– provide alternative solutions to the question
• Criteria
– the means to assess (measure) the options in order to make
a choice
QOC
 Heuristics (Process or Method)
• Use Questions to Generate Options
• Use Options to Generate Questions
• Use Options to Generate Criteria
• Consider Distinctive Options
• Look for new Combinations of Options
• Represent Both Positive And Negative Criteria
• Overcome Negative, But Maintain Positive, Criteria
• Design to a Set of Criteria
• Search for Generic Questions
 What is a prototype?
• In interaction design it can be (among other things):
• a series of screen sketches
• a storyboard, i.e. a cartoon-like series of scenes
• a Powerpoint slide show
• a video simulating the use of a system
• a cardboard mock-up
• a piece of software with limited functionality written
in the target language or in another language
 What to prototype?
• Technical issues

• Work flow, task design

• Screen layouts and information display

• Difficult, controversial, critical areas

What to prototype?

A model of what prototypes prototype

Filtering dimensions of prototyping
Prototypes go through multiple versions
along the way
 Why prototype?
• Colleague feedback
– Does this product meet the requirements?
– Is everyone on the same page?
• Client Feedback
– Does the product meet the requirements?
– What variant do you prefer?
– Is everyone on the same page?
• Users feedback
– Does it work?
– Does it match his/her mental model?
– Is it ergonomic (human factors)?
– How to use the product effectively?
– What to change in the product?
– What other questions arise?
• Ourselves feedback
– Have I thought through all of the details?
– Does it match what I imagined?
 Remember
• Fresh eyes matter. Don’t just rely on yourself
for feedback.

• Two key questions to ask

– What do you want to learn from it?
– What do you want to communicate with it?
 Low-fidelity Prototyping
• Low-fidelity prototype. a prototype that is sketchy and incomplete, that
has some characteristics of the target product but is otherwise simple,
usually in order to quickly produce the prototype and test broad concepts

• Uses a medium which is unlike the final medium, e.g. paper, cardboard

• Is quick, cheap and easily changed

• Examples:
– sketches of screens, task sequences, etc
– ‘Post-it’ notes
– Storyboards
– Wizard
 High-fidelity prototyping
• Uses materials that you would expect to be in
the final product.
• Prototype looks more like the final system
than a low-fidelity version.
• For a high-fidelity software prototype
common environments include Macromedia
Director, Visual Basic, and Smalltalk.
• Danger that users think they have a full system
 During prototyping, options narrow as fidelity
(dependability) increases

Elaboration
(opportunity-seeking: Reduction
From singular to multiples) (decision-making
from broad to specific)

Starting Design Process Focal

point point
 What is Paper Prototyping?
• Paper: materials of paper-and-pencil alike.
• Prototyping: The design and evaluation of the
concept.
• “Paper prototyping is a variation of usability
testing where representative users perform
real tasks by interacting with a paper version
of the interface.
PP Example
Examples:
Q&A