HCI and Design Principles Quiz

HCI and Design

• Human-centered design is a process that focuses on understanding user needs.
• Scenarios and task analysis help in understanding user's tasks, goals, and the contexts in which they are used.
• Interviews and ethnography are used to understand what users do, and how they do it in their natural settings.
• Evaluation and heuristics assess if the design meets the requirements and solves problems.
• Design principles provide guidelines for creating designs that are intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable to use.
• Precise specification defines the features and functions for the designed system.
• Prototyping is a very important part of the design process. Paper prototyping has many benefits like quick turnaround, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.
• Low-fidelity prototypes can effectively reveal the big picture, like layout, control mechanisms, and usability issues.
• High-fidelity prototypes are more in depth and represent the final look and feel of the system.
• Mixed fidelity prototypes combine low- and high-fidelity elements.
• Vertical prototyping focuses on a portion of the interface to illustrate structure and large amounts of specific elements.
• Horizontal prototyping provides a broad overview of the interface.
• Prototyping is useful because it allows problems to be addressed before building a full system, minimizing both time and cost. Using prototypes also promotes collaboration, enabling better understanding of user needs and priorities.

Human-Centered Design Process

• The process begins with determining user needs and continues with analysis, design, and implementation.
• This model involves multiple steps like interviews, scenarios, analysis, evaluation, design, prototyping, and implementation.
• The objective is to create a successful product that satisfies user needs.

Paper Prototyping

• Paper prototyping is a low-cost method to test designs and collect feedback from potential users.
• It uses paper materials like unlined paper and 8x5 cards.
• Tools like adhesives, markers, sticky pads, and scissors can help enhance the prototyping process.
• The goal is to get as much user feedback as possible.
• Using a photocopier or camera can assist in quickly recreating elements like buttons, screens and other parts of the design.

Preparing for Testing

• Perform user and task analysis.
• Determine user backgrounds and the kind of tasks they would be doing with the product or system.
• Users can have different levels of knowledge about technology.
• Prepare the scenarios that users will use.
• Identify and resolve bugs or issues that could arise before user testing.
• Preparation includes familiarization with the prototype to improve comfort during the session.

Conducting Testing

• A facilitator guides users through tasks, encouraging feedback without influencing decision-making.
• Users provide input, addressing usability issues, which are then evaluated and prioritized for improvement.
• Observers take notes and focus on possible solutions to problems identified during testing.

Evaluating Results

• Summarize the identified issues.
• Evaluate the results concerning the usability of the prototype and the functionality of the system.
• Prioritize the issues based on their severity and potential impact.
• Develop a revised prototype based on identified usability issues and incorporate updates to address the prioritized issues.

Why Use Paper Prototyping?

• Cost-effective
• Fast turnaround time, allowing for quick iteration
• Facilitates collaboration between stakeholders
• Focuses on fundamental usability issues
• Users provide quick and candid feedback
• Shows how users interact with the interface, and where the major problems are.
• Paper prototypes are a rapid testing method, which significantly reduces overall costs and delays.
• Quick feedback allows for rapid design adjustments.

Why Not Use Paper Prototyping?

• May not represent complex effects or features
• Might not be considered a professional enough method by some users or stakeholders.
• Doesn't produce any tangible or concrete deliverables.