Category — Rapid Paper Prototyping

What is Computing Transparency?

Computing Transparency is a vital aspect of HCI (human computer interaction) and is connected to issues of clarity and usability in user interface design (UI design). The Merriam Webster Dictionary lists a number of characteristics that show how the term transparency literally refers to the quality or state of being transparent: Fine or sheer enough to see through, free from pretense or deceit, easily detected or seen through, readily understood, characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices. Transparent hence implies that actions or information are clear, truthful, and easy to understand.  So transparent is a good term to apply to usability or UX design.

In applying the term transparency to Computer Science we encounter the idea of Computing Transparency.  Computing Transparency refers to a system that incorporates user friendliness and alleviates the user of the need to worry about technical details (installation, downloading, updating or device drivers).  For example, this may mean detecting monitor resolution automatically rather than requiring the users to do so themselves and adjust the program manually, thereby easing the system usage for end users.  The term is thus straightforward: systems and programs that are transparent for the user mean that they can operate with ease and with little need for attention to detail.

Why is Computing Transparency important?

Computing Transparency is an important aspect of UI design since systems that are lucid and understandable will ultimately facilitate optimal usability.  The idea of a system or graphical user interface design being transparent means hiding or avoiding its complexities; the less users have to think about what their system is doing or how to make if function more optimally, the more likely they are to use it.  Since usability is the omnipotent force in interface design, Computing Transparency is a powerful principle with regards to usability.

Computing Transparency and Privacy

Another aspect of Computing Transparency is linked to privacy.  Programs and applications that guard or use personal data should be transparent in their method of doing so.  If user interfaces are in unclear about the way they deal with their customer’s private information, the results can be disastrous—as can be seen from the recent Facebook scandals.  When it comes to user privacy the term transparent is crucial.  Just as citizens beg their governments to practice transparent politics, so too do the clients of user interfaces.

Companies today realize the value of providing outlets for communication with their customers.  Blogging is an effective method to do so and has thus given rise to the corporate blog. However, corporate blogging is much different than the traditional personal blog, particularly in its purpose.  Let’s take a look at the main purposes for creating a corporate blog, in addition to pointing out how their purpose often differs from the traditional blogs.

This blog post is the first in a series of two about Affinity Diagrams as a usability and interface design method

What is an Affinity Diagram?

The Affinity Diagram is a tool used within project management and other fields such as interface design (for example before creating wireframe prototypes) to sort large amounts of ideas into groups for review and analysis. The affinity diagram methodology was created in the 1960s by Jiro Kawakita and is thus also dubbed the KJ Method. Originally, Affinity Diagrams were intended to help in diagnosing complicated problems through the organization of qualitative data to reveal themes associated with the problems. Affinity Diagramming is related to other user interface design methods like card sorting which also use ideas that are written on cards (or post-it-notes etc.).

What benefits do Affinity Diagrams offer during interface design and wireframing?

Affinity Diagrams can greatly aid interface designers during the conception stages of a project when wireframing and prototype creation are typically used to generate interface design solutions. Affinity Diagrams can help identify what to include into a wireframe prototype by consolidating lots of customer data into meaningful design criteria. The methodology, in effect, can uncover the range of, give boundaries to and uncover similarity among user’s problems and needs. But Affinity Diagrams can also help identify potential areas for future study. Affinity diagramming is advantageous because it facilitates teamwork and collaboration and consequently improves the cohesion of a team. Because the method is straightforward and simple it is also cost-effective. Affinity diagrams can also help identify customer work practices and can therefore be considered a precursor to Contextual Design, another interface design method.

What are drawbacks of Affinity Diagrams and how can this affect wireframing and interface design?

Affinity Diagrams are considered cost-effective but the method can be time-consuming, especially when there are copious amounts of data to be analyzed which can prove to be exhausting for your team as they evaluate all of the data. These drawbacks are due to the time and effort it takes to extract data (which could, and often does, come from a number of sources) and consolidate them into meaningful ‘units of information’. Time is consumed both in completing the affinity diagram project and the subsequent interpretation of the resulting groups and sub-groups. Another problematic situation can arise when there is simply not enough data. As a rule of thumb, if 15 or less items of information have been identified then you may forego the Affinity diagramming process and resort to other user interface design methods.

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

What is Contextual Design?

Contextual Design is a User-Centered Design process that was developed by Hugh Beyer and Karen Holzblatt. It gathers information for the purposes of understanding how users work in order to create user interface designs (or other products) that adequately support users and assist them with accomplishing their goals. According to Beyer and Holzblatt, Contextual Design “uses extensive field data as the foundation for understanding user’s and business’ needs”. It incorporates ethnographic methods for gathering data relevant to the product, field studies, rationalizing workflows, system and human-computer interface designs. The ultimate goal behind Contextual Design could be described as producing user interface designs that are usable for a specific group of target users, a critical factor in achieving product success.

Contextual Design is important to interface design

Just like with many other products and services, contextual design is vitally important to user interface design. Successful UI (user interface) designs are the ones that help users accomplish tasks as easily and quickly as possible, and that requires some work on the UI designer’s part. Contextual design is all about knowing which functions and features and design characteristics are needed to accomplish that. It gives designers the ability to comprehend the context in which users employ a specific user interface.   Taking the time out to conduct research and identify with user contexts is intended to give user interface designers the knowledge required which they can then fashion into wireframes on the road to creating great user interface designs.

Welcome to my two-part blog on Ethnography and the role it plays in usability engineering and user interface design.

What is Ethnography?

Ethnography is an approach to research that involves in-depth study of population groups through participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, and artifact analysis in an attempt to gain a thorough understanding from a number of perspectives. This research methodology is usually associated with the social sciences, in particular anthropology and sociology. Ethnography also takes place in the natural context of the subject being observed and, as such, the term is often interchangeable with phrases such as “field study” and “case report”. Traditional ethnography focuses on long-term studies spanning weeks, months, or even years. This is in order to understand, first-hand, fundamental answers in regard to the subject(s). Where do they live? How do they make a living? What do they eat? What are their linguistic, housing and marriage customs etc?

What does ethnography mean in the context of user interface design?

In the context of user interface design, ethnography is a valuable source of data for personas, scenarios of use, task analysis, requirements elicitation, and storyboards. Sometimes in life the laboratory setting can obfuscate data due to the very act of observation affecting the subject. Ethnography seeks to paint observations in their proper naturally occurring context, i.e. the point at which they would be using a software application and navigating its interface design in the course of their everyday life.

Ethnography as a usability method

Ethnography lends itself well to usability testing of user interface designs due to the principle of holistic human data collection. This works well in tandem with the fundamentals of user experience in user interface design. Ethnography brings with it a number of merits to usability testing. In comparison to observations conducted in the lab the authenticity of ethnographic reports is higher. Behavior observations are best understood within their natural environment and ethnography allows for this. As a usability method ethnography provides a much more comprehensive perspective of the users and their environment than other forms of research. Another advantage is that it employs a theoretical framework for contextualizing data.

When to use ethnography as a usability technique

According to usability expert James Horn, the use of ethnography as a usability method is “best used in the early stages of development, when you need to know more about the issues surrounding the use of a product rather than actual metrics.” In the very early stages of user interface design, using the ethnographic method will help you collect user requirements based on how users operate within their “native” environments, which is how they operate in the real world.  Obtaining these user requirements will then allow you to incorporate your findings into preliminary designs of a user interface. Of course, it is important to watch out for observer bias, as Information and results are highly dependent on the researcher’s observations and interpretations.

This blog post is the second in a series of two about Human Computer Interaction (HCI)

Principles of User Interface Design for HCI systems

Since I am looking at HCI relative to interface design, it is important to underline how to improve the quality of user interface designs.  Thus, as interface designer one should be mindful of the principles of user interface design. According to Larry Constantine and Lucy Lockwood, these are:

1.    The structure principle – This is concerned with the overall user interface architecture and layout. An interface design should be organized in a way that is clear, apparent and intuitive to users. In other words similar things should somewhat resemble each other. For example, toolbar buttons should all look like toolbar buttons.

2.    The simplicity principle – The interface design should make simple, common tasks easy, communicating clearly and simply in the user’s own language. For example a search bar with the word ‘Search’ is usually better than the convoluted ‘Quick Keyword Search’.

3.    The visibility principle – All the options and tools needed to accomplish given tasks should be visible and easily accessible on the interface design without distracting the user with redundant information.

4.    The feedback principle – A good interface design should keep users informed of actions or interpretations, changes of condition or errors that are relevant through clear and concise language. This helps users feel in control of the process by being aware of their actions.

5.    The tolerance principle – The interface design should be able to accommodate a certain amount of failure from users (users, just like interface designers, are not infallible). A wrong click or some such other should be rectifiable. Undo and redo features that allow users to effectively time-travel through their steps are a good example of this principle.

6.    The reuse principle – An interface design should reuse internal and external components and behaviors, maintaining consistency with purpose rather than merely arbitrary consistency, thus reducing the need for users to rethink and remember. This is also referred to as the memorability of an interface design.

How to ensure that User Interface Design principles lead to optimal HCI systems

To ensure that these principles guide the interface design process and lead to optimal HCI systems, the use of wireframe tools can be useful. Often, the large number of stakeholders with various levels of technical expertise in the design process requires the use of such tools for visualizing requirements and concepts. Tools suitable for wireframing, such as Pidoco, a cloud-based rapid prototyping tool that works through a browser, allows interface designers to create wireframe prototypes of graphical user interfaces with simple drag and drop handling without the need for any programming. Interface designers can use this system to collaborate within a team through the cloud and get feedback from sharing prototypes, even going as far as conducting remote usability testing. This type of approach makes optimizing human computer interaction much simpler and safer and leads to more reliable results.

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.

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.

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.

Conducting usability tests is one of the central aspects of the user interface design development process, but they aren’t meant to be an esoteric ritual performed only by the interaction or web designers.    In his bi-weekly column entitled “Current Issues in Web Usability”, Jakob Nielsen points out that it is vital to have all stakeholders from all levels of management involved in the usability testing process.

Synergy in the work place

So why, exactly, should all stakeholders be involved in the usability testing process?  Wouldn’t it be easier and less stressful for the entire team if each member stuck to what they did best?  Let the usability testers test and the business managers manage, right?  Not if you view the workplace environment through the lens of synergy.  The aggregate of each constituent in a company works better when they work together towards mutually shared and understood goals.  This is only possible when a representative of each constituency is involved in each project within the company at some level, even if it is only cursorily.  Scientists have long called this best practice the multi-functional teams.