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 proces - index van cursus en boek:• design activiteiten• bronnen• producten en modellen:

– analyse– specificatie– evaluatie

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

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

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

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

4.4. Literature:

• 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

• Journals, Conferences, Sites, Projects

4.5. UID - practical assignment

• Design team– subteams specialists of different

design aspects and methods

• The team collaborates in an iteractive manner

• Design process– Start: an initial statement from a

real client– End: presentation of a complete

design

UID - team structure

• Management• task modeling

• task model 1• task model 2

• detail design• functionality and formalism• dialogue and formalism• screen design

• scenario and prototyping: representations build for evaluation• evaluation

Management group

Applying many different techniques, used by specialists from different disciplines, brings the need for a management structure (van der Veer & Mariani, 1997).

Tasks:• coordination and planning• resource management (group structure)• contact with client & contract• documentation and reporting• collaboration with teachers in planning classes

task modeling group

• 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• work with scenario group and

evaluation group• revise task model 2 upon request of

these

TM1

UVM

TM2

detail design group

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 analysis group

UVM

scenario and prototyping group

• develop needed representations, simulations, mock-ups, and prototypes for evaluation

• receive input from task analysis (TM2) and detail design

UVM

Evaluation group

• evaluate specifications of task model 2 and detail design

• based on representations developed by scenario and prototype group

• for users as specified by task analysis group and for client

• feed back to task model group and detail design group

UVM