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UID Ia1

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Arathi M
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USER INTERFACE DESIGN

QUESTION BANK
1. Discuss the various usability motivations for User Interface Design.
Ans- The enormous interest in interface usability arises from the growing recognition of the
benefits well-designed interfaces bring to users.
Many interfaces are poorly designed, and this is true across domains:

Life-critical systems:
Air traffic control, nuclear reactors, power utilities, police & fire dispatch systems.
High costs, reliability and effectiveness are expected.
Length training periods are acceptable despite the financial cost to provide error-free
performance and avoid the low frequency but high-cost errors.
Subject satisfaction is less an issue due to well-motivated users.

Industrial and commercial uses:


Banking, insurance, order entry, inventory management, reservation, billing, and point-
of-sales systems.
Ease of learning is important to reduce training costs.
Speed and error rates are relative to cost.
Speed of performance is important because of the number of transactions.
Subjective satisfaction is fairly important to limit operator burnout.

Office, home, and entertainment applications:


Word processing, electronic mail, computer conferencing, and video game systems,
educational packages, search engines, mobile device, etc.
Ease of learning, low error rates, and subjective satisfaction are paramount due to use is
often discretionary and competition fierce.
Infrequent use of some applications means interfaces must be intuitive and easy to use
online help is important.
Choosing functionality is difficult because the population has a wide range of both novice and
expert users.
Competition cause the need for low cost.

Exploratory, creative, and cooperative systems:


Web browsing, search engines, artist toolkits, architectural design, software
development, music composition, and scientific modelling systems.
Collaborative work.
Benchmarks are hard to describe for exploratory tasks and device users.
With these applications, the computer should "vanish" so that the user can be absorbed
in their task domain.

Social-technical systems:
Complex systems that involve many people over long time periods.
Voting, health support, identity verification, crime reporting.
Trust, privacy, responsibility, and security are issues.
Verifiable sources and status feedback are important.
Ease of learning for novices and feedback to build trust.
Administrators need tools to detect unusual patterns of usage

2.Explain the goals of User Interface Design profession.


Ans –
Reduced anxiety and fear of computer usage: Computers are widely used, some people resist
using e-mail and engaging in e-commerce because they are anxious about or even fearful of
breaking the computer, making an embarrassing mistake, or having their privacy violated.
Fear of scams and frustrations with e-mail spam could also be reduced by improved designs
that promote and privacy while increasing the user’s control over their experiences
Reduced anxiety and fear of computer usage: Computers are widely used, some people resist
using e-mail and engaging in e-commerce because they are anxious about or even fearful of
breaking the computer, making an embarrassing mistake, or having their privacy violated.
Fear of scams and frustrations with e-mail spam could also be reduced by improved
designs that promote and privacy while increasing the user’s control over their experiences
Input Devices: There are discussions about the relative merits of multi-touch screens; voice,
eye-gaze, and gestural input; Such conflicts could be resolved through experimentation with
multiple tasks and users. Underlying issues include speed, accuracy, fatigue, error correction,
and subjective satisfaction.
Online help: Many interfaces offer help text and video tutorials online, we have only limited
understanding of what constitutes effective instruction for in-experienced, knowledgeable
users and experts. The role of these aids and of online user communities could be studied to
access user success and satisfaction, even on the the small screens found on mobile devices
Information exploration: As navigation ,browsing and searching in multimedia digital
libraries and the world wide web become more common, the pressure for more effective
strategies and tools will increase. Users will want to filter, select, and restructure their
information rapidly with minimum effort and without fear of getting lost or finding
misleading information.
3.Write in-detail about Universal Usability.
Ans – 1. Physical abilities and physical workplaces:
Basic data about human dimensions comes from research in anthropometry
There is no average user, either compromises must be made or multiple versions of a
system must be created
Physical measurement of human dimensions are not enough, take into account dynamic
measures such as reach, strength or speed
Screen-brightness preferences vary substantially, designers customarily provide a knob to
enable user control
Account for variances of the user population's sense perception
Vision: depth, contrast, color blindness, and motion sensitivity
Touch: keyboard and touch screen sensitivity
Hearing: audio clues must be distinct
Workplace design can both help and hinder work performance

The draft standard Human Factors Engineering of Computer Workstations (2002) lists
these concerns: Work-surface and display-support height
Clearance under work surface for legs
Work-surface width and depth
Adjustability of heights and angles for chairs and work surfaces
Posture—seating depth and angle; back-rest height and lumbar support
Availability of armrests, footrests, and palm rests

2.Cognitive and perceptual abilities:


The human ability to interpret sensory input rapidly and to initiate complex actions
makes modern computer systems possible
The journal Ergonomics Abstracts offers this classification of human cognitive processes:
→ Long-term and semantic memory
→ Short-term and working memory
→ Problem solving and reasoning
→ Decision making and risk assessment
→ Language communication and comprehension
→ Search, imagery, and sensory memory
→ Learning, skill development, knowledge acquisition and concept attainment

3.Personality differences:
There is no simple taxonomy for identifying user personality types. Designers must be aware that
populations are subdivided and that these subdivisions have various responses to different
stimuli.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI):


Extroversion versus Introversion: Extroverts focus on external stimuli and like variety and
action, whereas introverts prefer familiar patterns, rely on their inner ideas, and work alone
contentedly.
Sensing versus Intuition: Sensing types are attracted to established routines, are good at precise
work, and enjoy applying known skills, whereas intuitive types like solving new problems and
discovering new relations but dislike taking time for precision.
Perceptive versus Judging: Perceptive types like to learn about new situations but may have
trouble making decisions, whereas judging types like to make a careful plan and will seek to carry
through the plan even if new facts change the goal.
Feeling versus Thinking: Feeling types are aware of other people’s feelings, seek to please
others, and relate well to most people, whereas thinking types are unemotional, may treat people
impersonally, and like to put things in logical order.

4.Cultural and international diversity:


– Characters, numerals, special characters, and diacriticals
– Left-to-right versus right-to-left versus vertical input and reading
– Date and time formats
– Numeric and currency formats
– Weights and measures
– Telephone numbers and addresses
– Names and titles (Mr., Ms., Mme.)
– Social-security, national identification, and passport numbers
– Capitalization and punctuation
– Sorting sequences
– Icons, buttons, colors
– Pluralization, grammar, spelling
– Etiquette, policies, tone, formality, metaphors

5.Users with disabilities:


Designers must plan early to accommodate users with disabilities
Early planning is more cost efficient than adding on later
Businesses must comply with the "Americans with Disabilities" Act for some
applications.

6.Older adult Users:


Including the elderly is fairly ease, designers should allow for variability within their
applications via settings for sound, color, brightness, font sizes, etc. with less distraction
animation.

4.Discuss all the guidelines for User Interface Design.


Ans – Navigating the interface:
Navigation can be difficult for many users, providing clear rules is helpful. Five rules (examples) of
how to enhance the ease of interface navigation:
Standardize Task Sequences - Allow users to perform tasks in the same sequence and manner across
similar conditions.
Ensure that embedded links are descriptive-When using embedded links, the link text should
accurately describe the link's destination.
Use unique and descriptive headings-Use headings that are unique from one another and
conceptually related to the content they describe.
Use radio buttons for choices - Provide a check box control for users to make a choice between
two clearly distinguishable states, such as "on" or "off.
Develop pages that will print properly - If users are likely to print one or more pages, develop
pages with widths that print properly
Use thumbnails to preview larger images - images. When viewing full-size images is not
critical, first provide a thumbnail of the image.

Display Organization :
5 high-level goals of display organization:

Ensure consistency of data display- the terminology, abbreviations, formats, colors, capitalization, and
so on should all be standardized and controlled by use of a written (or computer-managed) dictionary of
these items.
Promote efficient information assimilation by the user - The format should be familiar to the operator
and should be related to the tasks required to be performed with the data.
Put minimal memory load on the user - Users should not be required to remember information from
one screen for use on another screen.
Ensure compatibility of data display with data entry- The format of displayed information should be
linked clearly to the format of the data entry.
Allow for flexibility in data display (user controlled) - Users should be able to get the information
from the display in the form most convenient for the task on which they are working

Draw User’s Attention


Intensity: Use two levels only ,with limited use of intensity to draw attention.
Marking: Underline the item, enclose it in a box, point to it with an arrow.
Size: Use up to four sizes, with larger sizes attracting more attention.
Choice of fonts: Use up to three fonts.
Inverse Video: Use inverse coloring.
Blinking: Use Blinking displays or blinking color changes with great care and in limited areas.
Color : Use up to four standard colors, with additional colors reserved for occasional use.
Audio: Use soft tones for regular positive feedback and harsh sounds for rare emergency
conditions.

Facilitate Data Entry:


1. Consistency of data-entry transactions: Similar sequences of actions should be used under all
conditions; similar delimiters, abbreviations, and so on should be used.
2. Minimal input actions by user : Fewer input actions mean greater operator productivity.
Minimal memory load on users: When doing data entry, users should not be required to
remember lengthy list of codes and complex syntactic command strings.
4. Compatibility of data entry with data display: The format of data-entry information should be
linked closely to the format of displayed information.
5. Flexibility for user control of data entry

2. Explain four pillars of User Interface Design.


Ans - User Interface requirements
Soliciting and clearly specifying user requirements is a major key to success in any development
activity.
Laying out the user-interface requirements is part of the overall requirements development and
management process.
User interface requirements describe system behaviour.

Performance requirements:
“The website shall give users the ability to update their user profiles, e.g., name, mail
address, e-mail, phone”
“The system shall permit the ATM customer 15 seconds to make a selection. The customer
shall be warned that the session will be ended if no selection is made”
“The mobile devices shall be able to save draft text messages when out of the service area.”
Functional requirements
“The system shall ensure that PIN entered matches the one on file”
“The web site shall provide other, related purchase options based on past visits to the web
site”
“The credit card transaction must be approved prior to displaying a confirmation number”

Interface Requirements
“The web site shall permit ordering stamps online.”
“The mobile device shall permit downloading of ring tones.”

Guidelines documents and processes


Words, icons, and graphics:
Terminology (objects and actions), abbreviations, and capitalization
Character set, fonts, font sizes, and styles (bold, italic, underline)
Icons, graphics, line thickness, and
Use of color, backgrounds, highlighting, and blinking

Screen-layout issues:
Menu selection, form fill-in, and dialog-box formats
Wording of prompts, feedback, and error messages
Justification, white space, and margins
Data entry and display formats for items and lists
Use and contents of headers and footers

Input and output devices:


Keyboard, display, cursor control, and pointing devices
Audible sounds, voice feedback, touch input, and other special devices Response time for
a variety of tasks

Action sequences:
Direct-manipulation clicking, dragging, dropping, and gestures
Command syntax, semantics, and sequences
Programmed function keys
Error handling and recovery procedures
Training Online help and tutorials
Training and reference materials Command syntax, semantics, and sequences

User Interface Software Tools


One difficulty in designing interactive systems is that customers and users may not have
any idea of what the system will look like when it is done.
The serious design decisions may not be able to change due to cost, time and complexity.
These problems have no solution; some of the serious difficulties can be avoided at early
stage.
The customers and users can be given a realistic impression of what the final system
look like.
The prototype of a menu system may have one or two paths active, instead of the
thousands of paths of the final system.
Prototypes have been developed with simple drawing or word-processing tools or even
power point presentations of screen drawings

Expert reviews and usability testing


Necessary in order to ensure usability and high-quality UIs.
Examples: Early pilot testing (possibly several components individually), expert review
methods, tests with the intended users, surveys, or automated analysis tools
Again, what procedures to choose and how they should be shaped individually greatly depends
on the nature of the project (e.g, number of expected users)
3. Explain the different stages of software development methodologies.
Ans -
Contextual Enquiry
Plan for, prepare and then conduct field interviews to observe and understand the work tasks
being performed. Review business practices.

Interpretation Sessions and work modelling


Hold team discussion to draw conclusions based on the conceptual inquiry, including gaining an
understanding of the workflow processes in the organization as well as cultural and policy
impacts.

Model Consolidation and affinity diagram building


Present the data gathered to date from users and the interpretation and work modeling to a
larger, targeted population to gain insight and concurrence.

Persona development
Develop personas to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that
might use a site or product

Visioning
Review and “walk” the consolidated data, sharing the personas created. The visioning
session helps define how the system will streamline and transform the work of the users.

Storyboarding
The vision guides the detailed redesign of user tasks using pictures and graphs to describe the
initial user-interface concepts, business rules, and automation and assumptions. Storyboarding
defines and illustrates the “to be built” assumptions.

User environment design


The single, coherent representation of the users and the work to be performed is expressed in
the user environment design.

Interview and evaluations with paper prototypes and mock-ups


Conduct interview and tests with actual users, beginning with paper prototypes and then moving
onto higher-fidelity prototypes. Capturing the results of the interview aids in ensuring that the
system will meet end-user requirements.

4. Define the User Interface Design, list the importance and benefits of good design.
5. Describe the different theories related to User Interface Design.
Ans –
Design-by-levels
The conceptual level is the user’s mental model of the interactive systems. Two
mental models for image creation are paint programs that manipulate pixels and
drawing programs that operate on objects.
The semantic level describes the meanings conveyed by the user’s input and by the
computer’s output display. For example, deleting an object in a drawing could be
accomplished by undoing a recent action or by invoking a delete-object action.
The syntactic level defines how the user actions that convey semantics are assembled
into complete sentences that instruct to computer to perform certain tasks.

Stages of- action models


Forming the goal
Forming the intention
Specifying the action
Executing the action
Perceiving the system state
Interpreting the system state.
Evaluating the out come

Consistency:
An important goal for designers is a consistent user interface. The argument for
consistency is that if terminology for objects and describable by a few rules, users will
be able to learn and retain them easily.
Consistent Inconsistent A Inconsistent B
delete/ insert table delete/ insert table delete/ insert table
delete/ insert column remove/add column remove/insert column
delete/ insert row destroy/ create row delete/insert row
Delete/insert border erase/draw border delete/insert border

Contextual theories:
Contextual theories are especially relevant to mobile devices.
Monitor blood pressure, stock prices, or air quality and give alerts when normal
ranges are exceeded.
Gather information from meeting attendee's or rescue team members and spread the
action list or current status to all.
Participate in a large group activity by voting and relate to specific individuals by
sending private messages.
Locate the nearest restaurant or waterfall model and identify the current location.
Capture information or photos left by others and share yours with future visitors.

6. List and explain golden rules of User Interface Design.


Ans –
Strive for consistency
Cater to universal usability
Offer informative feedback
Informative feedback
Design dialog yield closure
Prevent errors
Permit easy reversal of actions
Support internal locus of control
Reduce short term memory load.

Strive for consistency.


Consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations; identical terminology
should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens; and consistent color, layout, capitalization,
fonts, and so on should be employed through-out. Exceptions, such as required confirmation of
the delete command or no echoing of passwords, should be comprehensible and limited in
number.
Cater to Universal Usability.
Recognize the needs of diverse users and design for plasticity, facilitating transformation of
content. Novice-expert differences, age ranges, disabilities, and technology diversity each enrich
the spectrum requirements that guides design. Adding features for novices, such as
explanations, and features for experts, such as shortcuts and faster pacing, can enrich the
interface design and improve perceived system quality.
Offer informative feedback
For every user action, there should be system feedback. For frequent and minor actions, the
response can be modest, whereas for infrequent and major actions, the response should be
more substantial. Visual presentation of the objects of interest provides a convenient
environment for showing changes explicitly.
Design dialogs to yield closure.
Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. Informative
feedback at the completion of a group of actions gives operators the satisfaction of accomplishment,
a sense of relief, the signal to drop contingency plans from their minds, and a signal to prepare for
the next group of actions. For example, e-commerce web sites move users from selecting products to
the checkout, ending with a clear confirmation page that completes the transaction.

Prevent errors.

As much as possible, design the system such that users cannot make serious errors; for example, gray
out menu items that are not appropriate and do not allow alphabetic characters in numeric entry
fields. If a user makes an error, the interface should detect the error and offer simple, constructive,
and specific instructions for recovery. For example, users should not have to retype an entire name-
address form if they enter an invalid zip code, but rather should be guided to repair only the faulty
part. Erroneous actions should leave the system state unchanged, or the interface should give
instructions about restoring the state.

Permit easy reversal of actions.

As much as possible, actions should be reversible. This feature relieves anxiety, since the user knows
that errors can be undone, thus encouraging exploration of unfamiliar options. The units of
reversibility may be a single action, a data-entry task, or a complete group of actions, such as entry of
a name and address block.

Support internal locus of control.


Experienced operators strongly desire the sense that they are in charge of the interface and that
the interface responds to their actions. Surprising interface actions, tedious sequences of data
entries, inability to obtain or difficulty in obtaining necessary information, and inability to
produce the action desired all build anxiety and dissatisfaction

Reduce short-term memory load.


The limitation of human information processing in short-term memory (the rule of thumb is that
humans can remember "seven plus or minus two chunks" of information) requires that displays be
kept simple, multiple-page displays be consolidated, window-motion frequency be reduced, and
sufficient training time be allotted for codes, mnemonics, and sequences of actions. Where
appropriate, online access to command-syntax forms, abbreviations, codes, and other information
should be provided.

10.Explain the goals of User Interface Design profession(repeat).


11.Elaborate on the social impact statement during the early design review phase.
Ans - A social impact statement should be produced early enough in the development
process to influence the project schedule, system requirements, and budget.
It can be developed by the system design team, which might include end users, managers,
internal or external software developers, and possibly clients.
After the social impact statement is written, it should be evaluated by the appropriate review
panel as well as managers, other designers, end users, and anyone else who will be affected
by the proposed system.
Once the social impact statement is adopted, it must be enforced. A social impact statement
documents and intentions for the new system, and the stake holders need to see that those
intentions are backed up by actions. Typically, the review panel is the proper authority for
enforcement.

Social impact statement might include these sections.


Describe the new system and its benefits:
Convey the high-level goals for the new system
Identify the stakeholders
identify the specific tasks
Address concerns and potential barriers:
Address security and privacy issues.
Discuss accountability and responsibility for system misuse and failure
Outline the development process:
Present an estimated project schedule
Propose a process of making decisions
Recognize needs for more staff, training, and hardware
Propose a plan for backups of data
Outline a plan for migrating to the new system

12.Illustrate the fundamental principles of User Interface Design.


Ans –
Determine user’s skill levels

Novice or first-time users: First-time users often professionals who know the little of the task
or interface concepts. Both group of users may arrive with learning-inhibiting anxiety about
using computers. Overcoming these limitations, via instructions, dialogue boxes, and online
help, is a serious challenge to the designer to the interface.
Knowledgeable intermittent users: Many people are knowledgeable but intermittent users of a
variety of systems. They have stable task concepts and broad knowledge of interface
concepts, but they may have difficulty retaining the structure of menus or the location of
features.
Expert frequent users: Expert users are thoroughly familiar with the task and interface
concepts and seek their work done quickly. They demand rapid response times, and shortcuts
to carry out actions with just a few keystrokes or selections.
Identify the tasks
Task Analysis usually involve long hours observing and interviewing users
High-level task actions can be decomposed into multiple middle-level task actions, which can
be further refined into atomic actions that users execute with a single command, menu
selection, or other action.
The relative task frequencies are important in shaping, for example, a set of commands or a
menu tree. Frequent tasks should be simple and quick to carry out.
Choose an interactive style
Direct manipulation: When clever designer can create a visual representation of the world of
action, the users tasks can be greatly simplified because direct manipulation of familiar
objects is possible. Examples of such systems include the drawing tools and games. By
pointing at visual representations of objects and actions, users can carry out tasks rapidly and
can observe the results immediately.
Menu selection: In men-selection systems, users read a list of items, select the one most
appropriate to their task, and observe the effect. Users can accomplish their tasks with little
learning or memorization and just a few actions.
Form fill-in : When data entry is required, users see a display of related fields, move a cursor
among the fields, and enter data where desired. With the form fill-in interaction style, users
must understand the field labels and know the permissible values.
Command Language: For frequent users, command languages provide a strong feeling of
being in control. Users learn the syntax and can often express complex possibilities rapidly.
Training is necessary, and retention may be poor.
13.What is ethnographic observation? Write guidelines for preparing evaluation field study
analyzing and reporting.
Ans - Ethnographic Observation
The early stages of most methodologies include observation of users. Since interface users form
a unique culture, ethnographic methods for observing them in the workplace are becoming
increasingly important.
Ethnographers work or home environments to listen and observe carefully, sometimes stepping
forward to ask questions and participate in activities.
Ethnographers, user-interface designers gain insight into individual behavior and the
organizational context.
The goal of this observation is to obtain the necessary data to influence interface redesign.
Unfortunately, it is easy to observations, to disrupt normal practice and to overlook important
information.
Following a validated ethnographic process reduces the likelihood of these problems
Guidelines for preparing for the evaluation, performing field study, analyzing the data, and
reporting the findings might include the following:

Preparation:
Understand organization policies and work culture.
Familiarize yourself with the system and its history.
Set initial goals and prepare questions.
Gain access and permission to observe or interview.

Field Study:
Establish rapport with managers and users.
Observe or interview users in their workplace, and collect subjective objective quantitative and
qualitative data.
Follow any leads that emerge from the visits.
Record your visits.

Analysis:
Compile the collected data in numerical, textual, and multimedia databases.
Quantify data and compile statistics.
Reduce and interpret the data.
Refine the goals and the process used.

Reporting:
Consider multiple audiences and goals.
Prepare a report and present the findings

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