Lecture 22
●
●
Questions about the group project?
Reminder: Group project final report (including
peer review forms) and implementation due no
later than Tuesday, December 16, 10am.
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
1
Outline
●
Chapter 22 – UX Guidelines
–
●
Overall guidelines
Wrap up
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
2
Overall guidelines
●
Simplicity
–
Do not try to achieve appearance of simplicity by
just reducing usefulness
–
Organize complex systems to make most frequent
operations simple
●
Examples: phone systems, car radios
●
Simple things should stay simple
–
“For emergency road information, go to 1620 on
your AM dial”
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
3
Overall guidelines
●
Consistency
–
“Be consistent” is one of most often quoted
guidelines
–
Things that work same way in one place as they do
in another
●
Just makes logical sense
–
Not always clear what “consistency” means in given
design situation
–
Maintain custom style guide to support consistency
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
4
Overall guidelines
●
Consistency
–
Do same kind of thing the same way in different
places
●
●
●
●
Example: “Next” and “Previous” buttons for photo gallery
These buttons are opposite in meaning
But both are similar kind of thing, symmetric
“Go forward” and “Previous picture” are not symmetric
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
5
Overall guidelines
●
Consistency
–
Consistency is not absolute
–
Consistency can work against innovation
–
Being the same all the time is not necessarily best
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
6
Overall guidelines
●
Avoid poor attempts at humor
●
Avoid use of anthropomorphism
●
Avoid using first-person speech in system
dialogue
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
7
Overall guidelines
●
Avoid condescending offers to help
●
Examples: Clippy and Bob
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
8
Overall guidelines
●
Use positive psychological tone in dialogue
●
Avoid violent, negative, demeaning terms
●
●
Avoid use of psychologically threatening terms,
such as “illegal,” “invalid,” and “abort”
Avoid use of term “hit”; instead use “press” or
“click”
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
9
Overall guidelines
●
Use of sound and color
–
Avoid irritating and annoying sound and color in
displays
●
●
Use color conservatively
Use pastels, not bright colors
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
10
Overall guidelines
●
Use of color
–
Be aware of color
conventions (e.g.,
avoid red, except
for urgency)
–
Example: Am I on
land or at sea?
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
11
Overall guidelines
●
Use of color
–
Watch out for chromostereopsis
●
●
●
●
Focusing problem with red and blue
At opposite ends of visual frequency spectrum
Focus at slightly different depths within eye
Difficult to focus on both at same time
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
12
Overall guidelines
●
Example: chromostereopsis
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
13
Overall guidelines
●
Text legibility
–
Make font size large enough for all users
–
Use good contrast with background
●
Amazing how often this rule is broken in real designs
–
Use both color and intensity to provide contrast
–
Use mixed case for extensive text, not all caps
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
14
Overall guidelines
●
Text legibility
–
Avoid too many different fonts, sizes
–
Use legible fonts
●
–
Try Ariel, sans serif Verdana, or Georgia for online
reading
Use color other than blue for text
●
It is difficult for human retina to focus on pure blue for
reading
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
15
Overall guidelines
●
Accommodate sensory disabilities and
limitations
–
●
●
Support visually challenged, color blind users
Allow user settings, preference options to
control presentational parameters
Accommodate different levels of
expertise/experience with preferences
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
16
Overall guidelines
●
Lead, follow, and get out of the way
–
Lead novice users with adequate cognitive
affordances
–
Follow intermediate users with lots of feedback to
keep them on track
–
Get out of the way of expert users
●
Don’t let affordances for new users be performance
barriers to experienced users
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
17
Conclusions
●
Be cautious using guidelines
●
Use careful thought and interpretation
●
●
●
In application, guidelines can conflict and
overlap
Guidelines do not guarantee a good user
experience
Using guidelines does NOT eliminate need for
UX evaluation
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
18
Wrap up: Connection with
software engineering
●
Three scenarios
–
SE as primary product architects
●
●
–
UX as primary product architects
●
–
UX comes in at the end when it is difficult to change
“Easy to use” is often is NOT “easy to implement”
Designs can be “blue sky”, either pushing SE to update
technology or resort to “hacking” existing infrastructure
SE and UX as collaborators
●
●
Both roles are essential and complementary
Update each other during development/design process
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
19
Foundations for success
in SE-UX development
●
Communication
–
●
Needs to be structured and managed
Coordination
–
Avoid duplicate work, e.g., interviewing users
–
Avoid incompatible specifications
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
20
Foundations for success
in SE-UX development
●
●
Synchronization
–
Early and often
–
Implementation time is too late
Dependency and constraint enforcement
–
UX task requires SE specification
–
SE specification reflects need for UX task
December 9, 2014
CS 350 - Computer/Human Interaction
21