F27ID+24-25+Week+3.pdf

Understanding Interaction F27ID Introduction to Interaction Design Overview Where do we start from? Problem space Conceptualisation of design space Conceptual models Metaphors Interaction types Where do we start from? Media sharing app (Photos, movies, documents, etc). Needs to...

Understanding Interaction F27ID Introduction to Interaction Design Overview Where do we start from? Problem space Conceptualisation of design space Conceptual models Metaphors Interaction types Where do we start from? Media sharing app (Photos, movies, documents, etc). Needs to be safe, efficient, and enjoyable to use. What would you do? Where would you begin from? Sketching UI? Looks? System architecture and structure? Start coding? Ask users of their current experiences? Look at existing tools? Dropbox, Google Drive, Onedrive Begin thinking of your design based on this? Where do we start from? In interaction design, you begin with the latter; Ask users of their current experiences and look at existing tools. Gives you a clear understanding on how and why you are designing something before putting it into code. Saves effort, time, and money. vs Where do we start from? Ill thought out ideas, and incompatible designs can be refined and changed easily But once committed to code, is much harder to throw away We will touch on this again in the prototyping lecture. vs Where do we start from? Tempting to start coding; to start making stuff. Design principles and user needs may be overlooked. Re-design / re-implementation is not easy or fun after coding has begun. Also, time == £££ This kind of preliminary thinking and investigation is not an easy task! vs Problem space The problem space is a process that involves components for learning about and defining a problem before we hypothesise solutions. Not a physical space (i.e. not the space a technology is to be used in – common misconception. ) Problem space At some point you will need to define the technologies to use and design the physical aspects of the system. It is better to make these decisions after articulating the nature of the Problem Space. Understand and conceptualise the current user experience and/or product, and how it can be improved or changed. Problem space Understanding the usability and user experience goals of your users is important to understand your problem space. Identify and understand technology(ies) involved. Define any assumptions and claims. Note: Claims and assumptions Assumption: Taking something for granted when we should test it "People want to watch TV in the car" Claim: Stating that something is true when it is still open to question "Using speech to control GPS while driving is safe” Problem Space Articulation of problem space is usually done within a team. Bring different perspectives on the problem space definition Project manager (budgets, timelines, staffing), Software engineer (technical concepts and constraints). Time consuming; cause of disagreements -> benefits outweigh cost Less chance of incorrect assumptions and unsupported claims in final design Reflection upon ideas in early stages is very important in helping everyone understand the design. Problem Space framework Set of core questions to help the team in this process: What are the problems with the existing product or user experience? Why do you think they are problems? How do you think the proposed design ideas might overcome these? If you couldn’t identify any problems and instead you are designing for a new user experience: How do you think your proposed design ideas support, change, or extend the current ways of doing this? Example – class activity Levels of physical inactivity and obesity are very high in children, with fewer than 50% of primary school-aged boys and fewer than 28% of girls meeting the minimum levels of physical activity required to maintain desirable health. "Exergaming" using active console video games that track player movement to control the game, has become popular, and may provide an alternative form of exercise to counteract sedentary behaviours - Elsevier Heath Science, 2013 What is the problem space? Example – class activity What exercises do primary school children do now? Are there problems with children's' current experience of exercise? What are they? What are children's current experiences of interactive games technology and exergaming? What activities do (many) children enjoy doing? What do they dislike? Are they different from older people? What is the social, cultural, and technological context? How will your design ideas overcome the problems? How will your design ideas support, change, or extend current ways of doing things? Example – class activity How could we improve existing technology to encourage primary school aged children to exercise? What kind of new interactive technology could we design? What's the nature of the product we could design? Assumptions / claims? Example 2 – Class activity Technology changes affect user experience Watching TV in 1970s - 1980s What was the user experience? What was the problem space? Example 2 – Class activity Technology changes affect user experience Watching TV now What was the user experience? What was the problem space? Example 2 – Class activity Technology changes affect user experience Watching TV now What was the user experience? What was the problem space? Images: apple.com From problem space to design Having a good understanding of the problem space helps to inform the design Generate a set of research questions to be addressed e.g. what kind of interface, behaviour, functionality to provide But before deciding upon these it is important to develop a conceptual model. Conceptualise the design space Design teams need to work out how best to conceptualise the design space. Involves articulating the proposed solution as a conceptual model with respect to the user experience. Benefits of conceptualising the design space: Orientation: Enabling the design team to ask specific kinds of questions about how the conceptual model will be understood by the targeted users. Open-Mindedness: Allowing the team to explore a range of different ideas to address the problems identified. Common Ground: Allowing the design team to establish a set of common terms that all can understand and agree upon, reducing the chance of misunderstandings and confusion arising later. Conceptual models A model is a simplified description of a system or process that helps describe how it works. A conceptual model is “a high-level description of how a system is organised and how it operates” It is an abstraction outlining what people can do with a product and what concepts users need to understand to interact with it. Having a conceptual model enables “designers to straighten out their thinking before they start laying out their widgets”. Jeff Johnson and Austin Henderson (2002) Conceptual models In a nutshell, a conceptual model provides a working strategy and a framework of general concepts and their interrelations. Core components: Metaphors and analogies that convey to people how to understand what a product is used for and how to use it for an activity. Conceptualise what we are doing, e.g. putting files into folders Conceptualise what an interface is about e.g. the desktop metaphor Visualise hidden operations, e.g. putting items into a shopping trolley to buy later Can be very innovative and enable computer applications to be made more accessible to a greater diversity of users Conceptual models The concepts to which people are exposed through the product, including the task-domain objects they create and manipulate, their attributes, and the operations that can be performed on them. E.g. sorting files alphabetically, a folder contains files. The relationships between those concepts (for instance, whether one object contains another). E.g. a folder may contain a number of files. The mappings between the concepts and the user experience the product is designed to support or invoke E.g. a user can find a file by looking inside different folders, searching for a file, or sorting all files in a logical order. Conceptual Model - Desktop youtube.com/watch?v=Cn4vC80Pv6Q Issues with metaphors May break conventional and cultural rules e.g. recycle bin placed on desktop Can constrain designers in the way they conceptualise a problem space Forces users to only understand the system in terms of the metaphor Designers can use bad existing designs and transfer the bad parts over Limits designers' imagination in producing new conceptual models. Might just choose the wrong metaphor. Interaction types Five main types of interaction: Instructing: issuing commands and choosing options typing in commands, selecting options from menus in a windows environment or multitouch screen, speaking aloud commands, gesturing, pressing buttons etc Conversing: interacting with a system as if having a conversation. Users can speak via an interface or type in questions to which the system replies via text or speech output. Manipulating: Where users interact with objects in a virtual or physical space by manipulating them opening, holding, closing, and placing. Exploring: users move through a virtual environment or a physical space and interact with objects. Sensors in physical spaces help with familiarity. Responding: the system initiates the interaction, and the user chooses whether to respond. E.g. proactive mobile location-based technology can alert people to points of interest. Interaction Types Which interaction type is the best to use? Depends on the problem space! Both the task and the user. You can mix and match, but that needs to be done very carefully. More factors to consider Paradigms – Adopting a set of practices that a community has agreed upon. These are not set to stone – WIMP to GUI. Single user to beyond the desktop. Vision - Utopian (AI will make our lives easier), dystopian (AI will take away our jobs). Powerful driving force that can lead to a paradigm shift in terms of what research and development Theories – imported from other fields and areas. Models - Based on theories to explain the way user interacts with interactive technologies (remember conceptual models for example). Framework - help designers constrain and scope the user experience for which they are designing Reading and HW Chapter 2 up to 2.2 (incl) & Chapter 3 up to 3.5 (incl) Helen Sharp, Jennifer Preece, Yvonne Rogers, Interaction Design. Wiley, 2019. https://discovery.hw.ac.uk/ permalink/f/1el5916/44hwa _alma2169950000003206