A User Interface Software Tool or Interface Design Tool Helps Developers Design and Implement the User Interface.

This blog post is the second in a series of two about accessibility design as a usability method

The aims of accessibility design

Accessibility design is specifically targeted at designing user interfaces that assist people with various disabilities.  The needs relative to disabilities that accessibility design specifically addresses include the following four categories:

•    Auditory: Creating interface designs that are user friendly for those who have hearing impairments.
•    Cognitive/Intellectual: Creating interface designs that are user friendly for those with developmental disabilities such as dyslexia or cognitive disabilities that affect memory, attention, developmental maturity, logic and problem solving skills etc.
•    Motor/Mobility: Creating interface designs that are user friendly for those with difficulty or inability to use their hands (people with Parkinson’s disease etc.)
•    Visual: Creating interface designs for people with various visual impairments.

Why is accessibility design an important usability method?

Aside from the egalitarian implications, accessibility design is crucial to usability because it creates an interface design that can attract an even wider range of users and thus ensure more success for the website.  There are many users who are disabled and if a website is not designed with them in mind, they will not be able to use it.  This can be especially dangerous in the context of e-government where equal access is a must. It can also help to integrate accessibility design into the web development process because in addition to diversifying the number of users, it also makes for a development process that is suffuse with simplicity, as designers must find way to create a site that is universally usable for users of all abilities, thus diminishing their ability to create user interface designs that are too convoluted or contrived.

This blog post is the first in a series of two about accessibility design as a usability method

What is accessibility and why is it important?

In general, accessibility describes the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is easy and straightforward to use by as many people as possible.  In addition, accessibility concerns itself with the benefits of the entity being accessed: How does easy use of a product benefit the user and the creator?

Accessibility results from proper design of products and services. Take public transportation for example.  Public transportation is designed to optimize the routes which users (by bus, tram, or train etc.) must take to get to their given destinations.  Public transportation provides users with maps, internet sites that help them plan their routes, elevators and wheel chair lifts for the disabled, and many other features that make it easy and beneficial for people to use.  When public transportation is easily accessible, the benefit is that the users have efficient, cost-effective means of travelling and the creators are able to earn money and sustain the transport system.

Computer science, accessibility design and user interface design

In computer science, accessibility design means creating websites or software that is easily usable and available to people of all abilities.  This means that each interface design should grant users equal access to the functionality of and the information contained within the site. In computer science, accessibility design concerns itself mainly with the construction of interface designs that are accessible to the disabled. For example, how can a designer code the HTML to provide or enable text-to-speech software for the deaf or text-to-Braille hardware for the blind?  The concept behind accessibility design is clear: Disabilities should not hinder users from accessing and using a given software or website due to shortcomings of its user interface design.

In this blog post, inspired by a German blog by Christian Seifert, I shall look at some of the interface design challenges that interface designers encounter when porting a website over to its Chinese version.

One of the very first things to consider is the text. In Chinese, the text length differs dramatically.  Chinese text takes up far less space than the Western script. This means you may have to rearrange parts of your interface design layout. So expect your translated text to do much more with much less on your interface design.

Furthermore, the calligraphy can be read in any direction but the familiar Western layout of horizontal rows from left to right, read from the top of the page to the bottom, has become more popular.  Nevertheless, it may not suffice to translate the text of your website into one Chinese version. In order for your interface design to succeed in China, a localization and adaptation to the expectations of Chinese users is required.

The images will also have to be different to reflect the Chinese market. Websites in China tend to be more colorful than those in Europe or North America. Bright, cartoony colors abound on Chinese websites. So, be sure not to simply retain the “Western” interface design asthetics, but rather do some research on the perceptions held by Chinese users. Utilizing usability tests may be a powerful avenue.

Interface designers would do well to follow Chinese design conventions. An example of this is with Yahoo. To a European-language speaking eye, the Chinese version of Yahoo looks very noisy and busy. In addition, a European reader may find the contrast of colors within the interface design astonishing. Yet, this style is customary in Chinese websites and will have to be emulated in your interface design to appease a Chinese audience.

In addition to the purely software-related factors, you need to consider the technological environment in which your Chinese website will be used. One important example is that your interface design should be optimized for Internet Explorer which is far and away the most popular browser in China.

Besides interface design concerns, other things to consider include hosting your website on local servers in china to ensure faster access. As far as search engine optimization goes Baidu.cn’s 62% market share dwarfs Google’s so you can’t afford to overlook it. Furthermore, websites ending with a .cn domain name are ranked higher on Chinese websites.

As is true so often in multi-cultural contexts, whenever in doubt, you may consider involving experts, both in questions of porting the website into Chinese and testing its usability with Chinese users.

What is learnability?

According to the UsabilityFirst glossary, learnability is a measure of the degree to which a user interface design can be learned quickly and effectively. Learning time is the typical measure. User interface designs are usually easier to learn when they are familiar and designed to be easy to use based on core psychological properties. The learnability of an interface design can be, in turn, further broken down into five similar but distinct components: the aforementioned Familiarity, Consistency, Generalizability, Predictability, and Simplicity. When developing usability tests, it is important to keep the learnability of your user interface design in mind because a website or app that is easy to use will likely be used more often and more productively.

The five components of learnability

As mentioned above, there are five distinct components that comprise learnability.   It is essential to understand these constituents because they contribute to a user’s overall ability to learn a given interface design:

1.   Familiarity: Familiarity comes into play because users tend to expect certain things to happen.  This can include certain layout conventions, such as navigation schemes, color schemes or responses of an application.
2.    Consistency: Applications with a consistent interface design are easier to learn. This is especially important across various different parts of a software application, where changes of the interface design may confuse users or require them to adapt to yet another pattern.
3.    Generalizability: Generalizability means looking at other software applications that are similar to yours. The expectation of users is that tools which serve similar purposes include similar functions and respond to similar priciples. As users use many applications, generalizability helps them learn to operate an application without having to understand entirely new interface design concepts each time they encounter a new product.
4.    Predictability: Predictability means whatever tool you are developing, users of similar tools should be able to navigate your interface design with only the knowledge of using a similar tool in the past. That is to say that meeting user’s expectations improves learnability.
5.    Simplicity: Learning is fastest when there isn’t much to learn. Simplicity means keeping your interface design as lean and clean as possible for optimum learnability. Minimizing the amount of learning required by limiting the interface design’s complexity, improves learnability.

In part 3 of my blog entry on context of use I shall look at things to consider when conducting a context of use analysis during the interface design process.

How to use the context of use analysis

A context of use analysis takes the form of a brainstorming session among all project participants. The meeting should be conducted by someone with experience using context of use analysis from previous projects. Three general categories can be used as a springboard to uncover probing questions during context of use analysis that will help determine the most important contexts to design the usability test. The interface design’s target user group is one such category. Possible questions include: How many different user types are there? Why are they using this particular interface design? How can the actual design of the website or application reflect a marketing strategy that hones in on this particular group? The interface design’s tasks and goals is another category. Question candidates are: How many and what types of tasks do users need to carry out using the proposed interface design in order to achieve their goal(s)? The third general category is when interface designers define the contexts in which users will use the interface design. This includes answering question, such as: Will users have fast or slow internet connections?  Do all users interact with the computer and interface design in similar or dissimilar environments?

It is also important to set a timeline (be wary of time and ensure participation among group members is equal) and a schedule of topics to discuss. This can be designed in any fashion, but an example could be:
1.    Introduction: introduce the interface design project, talk about goals and objectives of the website or application.
2.    Discuss context of use categories.  Broadly define context of use categories and then discuss them in depth. Divide into groups and work through potential context of use questions.
3.    Small group presentations: Give each small group a chance to introduce their findings to the larger group and then discuss each topic and how it relates to the interface design task.
4.    Work together to create main goals of usability testing.  What contexts of use should be targeted in order to obtain optimal user experience feedback on the interface design?

Conclusion
It is critical for interaction and interface designers to understand the contexts in which users will use a website or application in order to create the right kind of usability test and develop products that work for the targeted users.  Context of use analysis is an effective way for designers to ensure that they will be able to ask users the right questions and ascertain user experience feedback that will guide the interface design process in the right direction towards a successful interface design. Thus, it may be recommended that interface designers use this usability method often, carefully following best practices.

In part 2 of this blog post on context of use I shall look more intricately into the relationship between context of use analysis and user interface design.

Context of use analysis and user interface design

The importance of understanding the context of use when producing successful interface designs has lead to the creation of a usability method called context of use analysis that is commonly used by interaction designers and interface designers. Analysis is arrived at via a brainstorming methodology in order to devise successful usability tests during the development process of a website or application. Successful user interface design requires the analysis of user experience feedback in order to create a user interface characterized by optimal usability. However, collecting meaningful user experience feedback and interpreting it is not always simple, especially when interface designers lack a solid methodology or have not thoroughly thought through their usability tests.

The name of the game here is to be well prepared. Being able to define a site’s target users or knowing what kinds of tasks they will need to perform and what types of goals they want to achieve through the interface design is key. When interface designers are unclear about these salient usability test questions, creating a test that is realistic and relevant and results in meaningful knowledge about the new interface design concept becomes difficult. Without knowing about the context of use, interface designers run the risk of creating interface designs that do not satisfy the requirements dictated by the way the products will be used in a real-life context.  The resulting interface designs are often not sufficiently usable. This is why context of use analysis is a crucial usability method: it allows designers to create tests based on predetermined context-specific user needs and performance paradigms. Thus, designers not only learn what user experience feedback to elicit and how, but also have a framework to interpret the feedback in order to create a solid interface design that works for the user.

Why is context of use analysis a vital usability strategy?

When developing a website or application interface designers need to uncover crucial usability “probe” questions that speak to the usability heart of the matter. These questions seek to ascertain valuable information and insight that may not yet have been thought of by the interface designers. These questions, often derived through collaborative brainstorming sessions, help interface designers to tackle critical usability issues head-on when they design and distribute their usability tests. The deeper understanding of the design of a system relative to the context within which it is used can be a vital contribution in saving time and money during the testing and development process. It can also lead to significantly more successful products.

In this three part blog I shall look at context of use and context of use analysis and what part they play in successful interface design. In the first part of this blog entry I shall define context of use and why it matters for user interface design processes.

What is the “context of use”?

Context of Use is a term used in product, software and website interface design to understand the parameters and conditions by which users employ a product. In this blog I shall focus on context of use vis-à-vis the interface design of software applications and websites. Context of use is measured on many levels by situational factors that a user of a product may be in. Firstly, there are Environmental Factors such as the space, time, noise, cleanliness, and other physical conditions. Secondly, there are Organizational Factors such as work processes, organizational or social networks, and pressures related to organization and management. Thirdly, there are Broad Social Factors. These include everyday factors such as the economy, career aspirations/ interests, ethical standards and family constraints.  Further factors are the Technical/ System Factors such as network connectivity and system stability.

Why does the context of use matter when designing user interfaces?

All of the mentioned factors can contribute to the use of any product within any context (although clearly technical factors are relegated to technical contexts etc.). An example of how context of use is crucial is the One Laptop Per Child XO-1 laptop for poor children in the third world. The laptop was designed to be rugged, use low power, run Linux, be small and such other features. The context of use of this product is defined by the situation of children whose families live below the poverty line and might live in remote underdeveloped areas with sparse access to electricity. The context of use for a $5,000 gaming laptop would be different. Products are designed to be used in specific settings and contexts by users. Thus, it is important to understand what factors comprise each individual context of use because designers are then better able to understand their users, their users’ limitations, and their users’ needs. This ensures that all the factors that relate to the use of the system are accounted for and understood when designing the product and the future usability tests intended to validate the usability of a product. Just as with any other product, the context of use has a great impact on software applications and the user interface design. To give one example of how the context of use influences interface design is when software is used in a mechanical workshop setting where people quickly need to enter measurements, activities and the like. Big buttons, straightforward navigation and the like should dominate the considerations during the interface design process.

Other top stories appear in the top right for easy access followed by the most popular stories on the website. This is really great for people to have access to them without even visiting the main page (particularly if they just opened a direct link to the story). Below each story are related stories as well as more on the story from other news sources. The video player is now bigger and has better quality video. Previously, video was squeezed in the middle with the navigation on the left and other video suggestions on the right. The new video page now has a wide range of video, also classified under the different sections of the website.

All these changes to the interface design show that the BBC is aware of the importance of usability and is keeping a close watch on interface design practices of its competitors. With the new layout it may be on to a winner.

The BBC News website has long been a popular source of news on the web. A revamped interface design, the “biggest rethink of the design of the site since 2003”, has now provided the website with improvements that increase the usability of the website. This redesign is a great example of how an already great interface design can be improved upon by looking at key usability issues. It must be said that users of CNN’s website will no doubt realize that BBC’s new interface design looks a lot like cnn.com. But rather than chastise BBC’s re-designers as clueless copycats devoid of creativity I think they should be praised for sticking to great interface design and usability principles. A mistake a lot of interface designers make is in designing a work of techno-art instead of a functional website or software application. Remember that your interface design should be usable by all and sundry and not just those with degrees in computer science.

The most startling change to the BBC’s interface design is moving of the navigation from the left of the screen to the top. This decision frees up a lot of space for actual news content and makes sideways scrolling (which many users find frustrating) more redundant. Stories that are new now stand out as they are marked with a red “NEW” badge. Below the days’ main stories is a section where users can navigate stories according to geographical location. This area is differentiated from the rest of the page by using a stark color scheme that stands out from the rest of the page. Clicking on a single story, one can easily share stories via Facebook, Twitter and the like. This is possible from both the top and bottom of the story so that users who scroll all the way down to the end of a story do not have to scroll all the way back up just to share. Had that been the case then the number of stories from the BBC website being shared on social networks might be reduced. Good usability practice here as well.

What are the drawbacks of imitating the desktop interface design?
Despite all the advantages, a drawback that I found with the interface design was that I found myself at times trying to use the same keyboard shortcuts etc. that I would use on a Mac to manipulate the various apps on Kohive. But instead of manipulating Kohive functions, I was affecting native apps on my desktop. An example of this was when I had various apps open in Kohive that cluttered the interface. I would inadvertently enable the Exposé feature which allows a user to quickly locate an open window, or to hide all windows and show the desktop without the need to click through many windows to find a specific target. However this applied to my desktop and still left the Kohive interface design as cluttered as before. Despite drawbacks such as these I find that this interface design scheme is very promising.