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User-CentricThe Human Factor in Design

Susanne M. Furman, PhDUsability EngineerWeb Communication and New Media DivisionU.S. Department of Health & Human Services

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What is Human Factors?

• Science of understanding the properties of human capability

• The application of this understanding to the design and development of systems

• The art of ensuring successful application of Human Factors Engineering

The study of all aspects of the way humans relate to the world around them.

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History of Human Factors

• Origin in the Industrial Revolution

• Full-fledged discipline during WWII

• Aircraft cockpit design needed to consider human interface for controls and displays

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What Does Human Factors Involve?

• Cognition – mental processes, memory, recognition

• Perception – how we perceive color, layout, appeal

• Motor Skills – how we interact with systems

• Experimental psychology – applying experimental methodology outside a controlled environment

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Objectives of Human Factors• Enhance effectiveness and efficiency of human- machine systems

• Enhance certain desirable human characteristics

• Recognize and utilize individual differences

• Influence human behavior and well-being through the intelligent design of machines, devices, and work environments

• Utilize empirical data for design and evaluation

• Utilize the scientific method in the collection of this data

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What is Usability

• General term that encompasses ‘ease of use’

• How easily can people use any product’s controls or displays

• Study of methods, measurement, and principles of a product’s efficiency, elegance, and usefulness.

• Putting the user FIRST

• Provide the best match between the characteristics of people with the operation of the systems and products they use

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Usability Results

• Greater efficiency

• Shorter learning time

• Increased satisfaction

• Reduce human error and the likelihood of negative outcomes

Usability is NOT just user testing!!!

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International StandardIdentify need for human centered

designSpecify context of use

Specify requirements

Evaluate designs

Produce design solutions

System satisfies specified requirements

1. Specify the context of use: identify people who will use it, what they use it for and under what conditions.

2. Specify requirements: Identify business requirements or user goals for product to be successful.

3. Create design solutions: Build from rough concept to a completed design.

4. Evaluate designs: evaluation - usability testing with actual users.

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Operator Error in Complex Systems

• Three Mile Island

• Bhopal

• Chernobyl

Why large-scale systems pose additional demands and new requirements on human operators.

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Three Mile Island• Attributed to wrong decisions

• Operators overwhelmed with info – much of it irrelevant, misleading or incorrect.

• Poorly designed instrumentation

• Important gauges were out of view

• No critical line on gauges

• No consistent action results for knobs and dials

• Exceptions – what happens if…..

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But Really This is Not Life or Death

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Impacts Our Daily Lives

• Surrounded by manufactured items intend to make life easier, more pleasant, and to help us save time.

• We are victimized by inanimate objects VCR? Lost trying to find information on a web site Tried to put our mug in the cup holder

• Why do we try so hard and put up with all these frustrations? Or do we???

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Mental Models

Example: Walk in a store – cannot tell what services & goods were available.

Users:• Come to your site with an idea of how things work• Have been to many sites • Have generic mental model way supposed to work

What is it?

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Two Conclusions Follow

• Users have mental model of way things should work

• Average user is not a novice

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User’s Mental Model

• User’s experience: majority of sites have horrible usability

• Users discover this and they are GONE

• Average user’s expectation of 1st time visit – DISAPPOINTMENT

• If not apparent how site applies to immediate concerns GONE

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Users Are Not Novices• Users acquainted with way most pages work

• Users don’t have time to learn something new

• Homepages need to communicate immediate value

• Need to enable users to find relevant stuff in seconds

• If your homepage works similarly then users will understand because they are familiar with design conventions

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Design Conventions Stifle Creativity

• Boring if all homepages look the same Design is problem-solving with constraints Goal – make something that works in the real world Doesn’t mean they all look alike

• Magazine example Numbers located in corners Display headlines in type larger than body text Table of contents is at beginning

But Vogue doesn’t look like SI

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What Your Site Is

• Face to the world

• You get one chance to make a first impression

• If first impression is not good – there is no second chance

• It is NOT artwork

• It is an interaction

• It is a stepping stone to the user’s destination - inside

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Users Have Multiple Goals

• Find out what you do

• Researching a specific purpose

• Interested in some service or support

• Users may have different goals at different times – segmenting does not work

• If number of options are overwhelming – GONE

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What Your Homepage Must Do

• Where users are in your site

• What your company does

• What users can do at your site

At First Glance:

What’s Important?

• Branding

• High-priority tasks

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So Why?

• Usability plays a role in public’s perception

• Affects your brand value

• Affects public perception

• Makes it easier for users to accomplish their goals

• Bad design costs $$billions/year

• Internet easy to use – can pay off by a factor of 10+

• Fewer last minute design changes

• Usable, appealing, and effective designs