Bryan Paul Baluyot

BSCS 4A

1) It has been suggested in this chapter that consistency could be considered a major category of
interactive principles, on the same level as learnability, flexibility, and robustness. If this was the case,
which principles discussed in this chapter would appear in support of consistency?

The discussion of consistency suggested that it can take many forms, because it is usually
referred to in relation to some other feature of the interaction between user and system. Mentioned
already in the text we have consistency related to the following principles:

Familiarity - consistency with respect to prior real-world experience

Generalizability - consistency with respect to experience with the same system or set of applications on
the same platform

In addition, we could interpret some other principles as contributors to consistency:

Affordance - consistency with understood intrinsic properties of an object, so a soft button on the screen
should allow us to always 'push' on it to select some action

Predictability - consistency of system response with user's expectation, given the user has some
information about past interaction history

Substitutivity - consistent permission from system to allow use of equivalent values for input and output

Commensurate effort - consistency of effort with respect to doing and undoing tasks

Response time stability - consistency of system response for similar actions

Some other principles for consistency from the text and elsewhere:

Consistency can be relative to the form of input/output expressions relative to the user's conceptual
model of the system. An example in the text involves using keys whose relative positions are similar to
commands for the systems (any set of four typewriter keys that form a diagonal to indicate up, down,
left and right information for an input command).

As discussed in the exercise on colour, consistency can be with respect to social or cultural conventions
(e.g., using red to indicate stop or hot, green for go, blue for cool).

2) Find as much information as you can on ISO standards that relate to usability. (Hint: Many standards
are discussed in terms of ergonomics.) How many different standards and draft standards can you find?
In the dusty institutions where usability standards gather to party with each other, ISO 9241 is a bit of a
celebrity. It is widely cited by people who would be hard pushed to name any other standard, and parts
of it are virtually enshrined in law in some European countries (such as the UK). But as is the fate of
many celebrities, all most usability professionals know about the standard is its name: “Ergonomic
requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs)”. Ah, VDTs: as evocative of the eighties
as yuppies and punk rock music. This makes the standard seem out of date, but don’t be fooled. ISO
have renamed it: as the parts are re-issued they will adopt the much sexier title, “Ergonomics of Human
System Interaction”

It is a shame that ISO 9241 is more widely cited than read because it includes a wealth of information
that covers every aspect of usability, including hardware, software and usability processes. You could
use the standard to design a workstation, evaluate a display, set usability metrics, evaluate a graphical
user interface, test out a new keyboard, assess a novel interaction device such as a joystick, check that
the working environment is up to scratch, and measure reflections and colour on a display screen. It
contains checklists to help structure a usability evaluation, examples of how to operationalise and
measure usability, and extensive bibliographies. It even has the courage to define usability.

3) Distinguish between principles, guidelines, and standards, using examples of each to illustrate. Why is
context important in selecting and applying guidelines and principles for interface design? Illustrate your
answer with examples.

A principle can be defined as a universally accepted truth or proposition that defines the basic
structure of a particular system. For instance, the principles of management define the propositions
which are universally accepted to ensure the smooth functioning of a business firm.

Guidelines can be defined as specific rules or advice that should be referred to and followed in order to
ensure that everything goes according to the set rules and practices. For instance, guidelines for using a
particular machine includes all the safety measure and dos and don'ts.

Standards can be defined as a comparative measure to the quality or quantity. For instance, a company
producing eatables have a set standard for the quality of the product which the workers have to adhere
to.