4. Interaction Design
Overview
4.1. Ergonomics4.2. Designing complex interactive systems
4.2.1. Situated design4.2.2. Collaborative design: a multidisciplinary team effort
4.3. Design activities4.3.1. Analysis4.3.2. Specification4.3.3. Evaluation
4.4. Literature4.5. U.I.D: a practical assignment
4.1. Ergonomics
• Is about human-artifact interaction: – how humans interact with artifacts, organizations (design of systems, procedures,
organizations…)
• ergonomics and antropometrics: – the classical ergonomics start with antropometrics– but to design complex systems it is important to consider the human information
processing (and mental models)– we are going to design knowledge (what the user should understand, what it is
relevant to the user)
4.2. Designing complex interactive systems
human-computer systems that feature in situations where people work in groups.
Work activities in these cases include:• communication and coordination between people• actions of several persons on shared objects and in shared work spaces.
Work is not isolated: it occurs in • a “context of use”• physical• conceptual • historical• and cultural.
Information technology, in this environment, is used by many partners for a variety of tasks.
Learning how to design complex interative systems
Learning how to choose which is the most appropriate technique to cope with a specific design problem in a specific design phase.
– Design is a situated activity, that is to say that it cannot be planned and fully specified in advance.
– Design is a collaborative activity: a multidisciplinary activity
4.2.1. Situated Design
Complex interactive systems are strongly situated, and so is any actual design of them.
The only sensible way to proceed is to try to be aware of:– the state of the art of techniques– applicability in actual design processes– restricted validity of this knowledge
designing interactive systems requires permanent awareness of the changing world and the changing map of sources of state of the art information (Van der Veer & Mariani, 1997).
4.2.2. Collaborative Design
Different domain experts need to contribute with their own views on possible actions and options for specifications, as well as need to be open to consider
those contributed by other disciplines.
DESIGN AS A MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM ACTIVITY
Complex systems design from our approach requires the education of designers, in respect on how to deal with:
– a variety of disciplines
– a variety of viewpoints
– and the continuous iteration between analysis, specification, and evaluation
Design as a multidisciplinary team activity
• humanities• psychology• anthropology /
ethnography (how cultures develop in the work situation)
• engineering• hardware engineers• software engineers• architects
• ergonomics• workplace design• organizational design• cognitive ergonomics
• representations: arts & crafts• graphical design• typography• theater and cinematography
(to direct attention; to make sure the important thing is processed)
• sound & music, motion & touch
4.3. Design as a process
Design activities:• analysis• specification: technical details• evaluation: usability, easy of use, likeability...
Iterative design
A systematic design approach - DUTCHDesign for Users and Tasks from Concepts to Handles
Design process :• design activities• sources (and sincs)• products and models:
– analysis– specification– evaluation
work organization/practice
Client
users’knowledge/behavior/needs
Technology
Task Model 1
Task Model 2
Scenario
Simulation
Prototype
Functionality
Dialog
Representation
Implementation
usabilitymeasuring
ethnography
psychologicalknowledgeacquisition/hermeneutics
problemanalysis/specification
specification/negotiation
constraints/opportunitiesfeedback
specification
early evaluation
earlyevaluation
UVM maintainingconsistency
Documents/artifacts
validity analysis
As soon as the system is implemented
UID – the design process and the design team
• Design team– “specialists” of different design
aspects and methods
• The team collaborates in an interactive manner
• Design process– Start: an initial statement from
a real client– End: presentation of a
complete design
4.3.1. Analysis of the complete work situation
• task model 1 – describing the current situation
• task model 2– envisioning the future: how the
world would be after the design is implemented
TM1 and TM2 can be done using the same task modeling tool (GTA… EUTERPE)
TM1
UVM
TM2
When designing an innovative product, it is important to make sure the new product has some
ADDED VALUE
And only with a clear understanding of the CURRENT SITUATION you can look for possible improvements to create this added value
Providing new possibilities
Improvingalready existing
possibilities
Modeling
The main purpose is to gather as much relevant knowledge as possible about the users and their tasks
• people (users and user groups)Specifying roles and their task-related attributes
• workSpecifying tasks and a task structure, actions that relate to tasks, and protocols and strategies
• situation Specifying objects ("things" people manipulate performing tasks), the structure of objects (hierarchy and semantic relations between objects), and the situation where certain tasks are performed
task modeling techniques
• collecting and modeling current task knowledge– task model 1
• deciding and modeling future task world– task model 2
• provide input for detail design• provide knowledge about user
characteristics• provide input for scenario and
evaluation • revise task model 2 based on
evaluation and detail design
TM1
UVM
TM2
4.3.2. Specification
• details of technology
• The User Virtual Machine: aspects of the system that are directly relevant for a specific group of users.
– the "user interface"– including conceptual aspects– dialogue– and representation
UVM can be modeled using the same task modeling tool (GTA… EUTERPE)
UVM
Specification(2)
• functionalityspecifying want the tool will do to the user ; strongly related to the task (the semantic level of Moran)
• dialoguehow the user and the system will communicate; commands? menu? (the syntactic level of Moran)
• representationhow the system looks like (the key-stroke level of Moran)
UVM
detail design techniques
UVM: all aspects of the system the user should be aware of during the interaction
• Develop details of the UVM:– functionality (incl. formalism)– dialogue (incl. formalism)– representation
• Guidelines and style guides
• provide input for scenario and prototyping• provide input for evaluation• iterate and improve based on results of these• feed-back to task model 2
UVM
4.3.3. Evaluation
as soon as you are making decisions
What should be evaluated?• task model 2• the UVM
How to represent this for client, prospective users and other stakeholders
Goals• detect problems• collect ideas and visions
UVM
Evaluation techniques (1):scenario and prototyping
• develop needed representations, simulations, mock-ups, and prototypes for evaluation
• from task analysis (TM2) and detail design
UVM
Evaluation techniques (2):assess design ideas
• evaluate specifications of task model 2 and detail design
• based on representations like scenario and prototype
• for users as specified by task analysis group and for client
• feed back to task model 2 and detail design
UVM
4.4. Literature etc.:
• Van der Veer, G. C. and Mariani, M. (1997). Teaching Design of Complex Interactive Systems Learning by Interacting. TeaDIS - Teaching Design of Interactive Systems, Schaerding, Austria, 20 - 23 May 1997
• http://www.cs.vu.nl/~gerrit/gta/uid– UID Project Management– Task Analysis– Dialog design and Representation– Prototyping and Scenarios– Design Rationale– Evaluation– Tools
• http://www.cs.vu.nl/~mmc/index3.htm– go to “ONDERZOEK” for tool “EUTERPE”
• Journals, Conferences, Sites, Projects