Interaction Design ISB36403: User Needs

Interaction Design ISB36403: Designing for Different Needs

• The course focuses on designing user interfaces for different user needs and levels of experience
• Personas and scenarios help in focusing design efforts on real users' goals, behaviors, needs, and mental models
• Consistent patterns in user needs inform product design
• The lecture covers strategies for serving well-known user needs, including learnability, help, customizability, localization, globalization, and accessibility.

1. Learnability and Help

• Designing interfaces should consider users with varying skill levels
• The following concepts simplify learning: command modalities and working sets
• Online help is a backup option if other methods are insufficient

1. Command Modalities

• User interfaces allow users to enter data and issue commands

• Basic data entry methods are straightforward

  • Dictating to speech recognition
  • Typing
  • Drawing
  • Clicking and dragging
  • Selecting from menus

• Commands that activate functions are more complex for users to learn

• Distinct techniques (command modalities) are crucial for instructing applications

  • Direct manipulation
  • Drop-down and pop-up menus
  • Tool bars
  • Keyboard accelerators
  • Gestures or controls

• Multiple command modalities are useful for critical functions

• Redundancy lets users with diverse skills use the application effectively.

• Mobile apps frequently have fewer interface elements to search through, which makes finding features faster

• Pedagogical commands educate users by directly showing the process

• Immediate commands instantly affect the data without any intermediate steps.

• Invisible commands can be performed without visual indications, often through keyboard accelerators or gestures,

Information in the world vs information in the head

• Information in the world refers to situations in which insufficient interface information is available
• Information in your head refers to knowledge acquired through learning
• Choosing between these two involves factors, like the speed, bulkiness, and dependency

Memorization vectors

• Providing specific methods for remembering commands is crucial
• This can involve documentation, online help, or directly integrating commands into the interface
• Windows applications typically use mnemonics and accelerators
• Mac applications often use accelerators and toolbar icon mappings
• Memorization connections can usually be understood quickly.

Working sets

• Users learn through repetition
• A working set consists of frequently used interface features
• Data entry (e.g., formulas, formatting, printing), drawing graphs, and linking spreadsheets are examples
• Usage analytics can be used to determine the minimal working set
• Working set commands should be quick and easy to use

Contextual help and assistive interfaces

• Help should be provided in the context of use
• Examples of assistive interfaces include:
• Guided tours and overlays
• Galleries and templates
• Input and content area hints
• Pros and Cons of Wizards
• Tooltips and ToolTip overlays

Guided Tours and Overlays

• Guided tours use sequential screens and images to introduce features and behaviors of the app
• Launching automatically is a common method
• Overlays are transparent sheets showing arrows for directions or descriptions
• Best suited for simple apps

Galleries and Templates

• Pre-built templates are part of the interface
• These allow faster development by referencing previously used tools or items

Input and content area hints

• Provide contextual details in the input area

Pros and Cons of Wizards

• Wizards, developed by Microsoft, quickly gained popularity for helping with new tasks
• They lead users step by step to complete actions or functions

Tooltips and ToolTip overlays

• Concise, visual explanations of actions or interface functions

Traditional Online Help

• Complex applications need comprehensive reference documentation, because many users access general internet search engines for solutions.
• These documents provide information like overview descriptions, full-text search, indexing, and in-app user guides

2. Customizability

• Designers often decide whether products should be user-customizable
• Examples of customization include personalization, configuration, and idiosyncratic modal behavior

3. Localization & Globalization

• Localization involves translating applications for specific languages and cultures.
• Globalization aims to make apps universal for various languages and countries

4. Accessibility

• The World Health Organization estimates accessibility needs of 750 million people worldwide

• Interactions should be easy for all types of users, including those with disabilities

• Accessibility personas help in understanding user needs and creating better interfaces for diversity

• Accessibility guidelines, such as leveraging OS tools, avoiding overriding user settings, supporting keyboard access, and tailoring display options, should be followed to improve the UX