User-Interface Design

Lecture 3
 Today’s Lecture
• Analysing different aspects of interface
design
– Different perspectives on design
– The range of skills needed for interface design
– Why is interface design so difficult?
• How do we achieve good design?
– Describing User-Centred Design as a design
method to aim for a usable interface
– Looking at the role of prototyping
 Different perspectives on
user-interface design

• Function of the interface

– how it works
• Aesthetic aspect
– how it looks
• Structural aspect
– how it is built
– static hierarchies
– dynamic hierarchies
 Function, Aesthetics, Structure
Using a web site as an example to
illustrate the differences between the concepts:
 Adding a search facility alters the function of the
interface without changing the aesthetic or structural
aspects (much)
 Redesigning the appearance (e.g. different graphics,
layout) will change the aesthetics without changing the
function or structure
 Reorganising the information on the website will change
the structure of it without altering the aesthetics or the
functionality of the site
 The Functional Perspective (1)
• Is the design usable for its intended purpose?
• How well does it support user tasks?
• There is a tension between designing for
specific tasks and designing for general use

(Example: colour palette selectors)

 The Functional Perspective (2)
Common issues:
– not easy to predict all the tasks software gets used
for
– updating the system can have unpredictable effects
on the tasks that people can perform
– designing systems for known tasks allows people to
do new tasks, which results in people asking for
improvements for their new tasks, which .... (cyclical
effect)
– a system should be clearly seen to support those
tasks for which it was intended, and at the same time
allow for new tasks to be performed.
 The Aesthetic Perspective
• Is the design pleasing in its appearance?
• Design of font styles, colour, and general
grid-layout of the screen can ease
confusion
• The look of the interface makes statements
about the software product
• Aesthetic aspects of design extend beyond
the screen
– e.g. Graphic design and film directing skills are
often needed in multimedia applications
 The Structural Perspective
How to best structure the interface to support the user's
tasks? (shoe shop examples)

Also (from the behind-the-scenes perspective), how to build

in a manner that will make the

system reliable and efficient to use and can be easily

maintained and extended?

Answers vary with applications, but some general tips include:

– Object-oriented programming is useful
– Well ordered static and dynamic hierarchies
 Interface hierarchies
• Static hierarchy
– primitive interaction objects (widgets)
– composite interaction objects composed of a
collection of primitive interaction objects

• Dynamic hierarchy
– this describes how the user can move dynamically
from one interaction object to another
'Simple'
widgets
(simple)
(composite)

'Dynamic'
refers to
changes in
interaction
objects as
buttons are
pressed
 Usability
• Good design makes things easier to use.
– if something is easy to use, it has good usability
• Good usability
– prevents errors
– allows tasks to be accomplished faster, more
effectively, more enjoyably, and safer
– requires less training, and less memory load
– is comfortable to use, and lets the user feel more in
control
– is commercially more profitable
 Usability factors
• Speed of performance
• Incidence of errors
• Ability to recover from errors
• Difficulty in learning the system
• Ease of retention of learned skills
• Ability to customise
• Ease with which users can reorganise their activities
• Users’ satisfaction
 Skills for interface design

• Designing an interface involves designing

– communication
– dialogue
– graphical and textual material
– information and tasks
• A number of different skills are required
• A good interface designer is like a master
craftsperson with a wide range of abilities
 The difficulty of interface design

• Involves design decisions where the

consequences are unknown
• Excellence of design is dependent on many
factors outside the software designers realm
and range of comprehension

e.g.
Four Principles of User Centred Design

1. Early and continual focus on users

2. Integrated Design
3. Early and continual user testing
4. Iterative Design
 1. Early and continual focus on users
• Define a major group of potential users (if you can)
• Talk to them about good and bad points of their present
job and/or system.
• Watch them doing their present job.
• Ask them to think aloud as they work.
• Try their jobs (if possible)
• Do a formal task analysis
• Develop testable behavioural goals for proposed
systems.
 2. Integrated Design
• Usability should be a project goal.
– ie usability should be integrated into the
development process
– there should be some one in the project team
specifically in charge of managing usability.
• Design includes:
– user interface – functionality
– user and other manuals – system reliability

– installation, maintenance
 3. Early and Continual User Testing (1)
• Preliminary informal sketches of user scenarios
• Start user manual early
• Simulations of functions
• Mock-ups of the interface
• Early demonstrations
• Invite early comments from lots of people on
all aspects
 3. Early and Continual User Testing (2)
• Formal prototype user testing
• Compare results to established behavioural
targets
• Let motivated people try to find bugs in the
system
• Do follow-up studies
• Include data logging programs in the system
(More on usability testing in Week 5)
 4. Iterative Design

Key requirements:
• Identification of required changes
– see 1. to 3.

• An ability to make the changes

– importance of good software tools

• A willingness to make changes

– importance of managing for change
 Reasons for using User Centred Design

• It takes the ‘unknown’ out of the design,

you can see exactly how users will use it
– e.g. when designing communication and
discourse you can see exactly how the user
interacts with it.

• It improves the usability of the system

 Reasons Excuses for not using
User-Centred Design
• Belief that talking to just a few users can be
misleading
• Belief that the experts (i.e. designers) "Know
best"
• Using a methodology which is believed to get it
right first time
• Makes the development process too long.
– "Talking to users is a time consuming luxury"
– "Iteration is just fine tuning"
 The Communications Problem
• Users and analysts often do not use the same
language.
• Person agreeing the design may not be in touch with
the end users.
• Users may find it difficult to deal with abstractions
• It is difficult to communicate the dynamic nature of a
system with static diagrams.
• An interactive model might help clarify user
requirements and help iron out misunderstandings at
an early stage, so...
 Useful tool: Prototyping

• Enables a designer to create an examinable

model. Prototypes can be used at
– Requirements definition phase
– Design phase

• Runnable prototypes can be simulations of all

or part of the overall design
• Non-runnable prototypes can be paper based
or computer based
 Further Reading
Ben Shneiderman: Designing the User Interface
Addison Wesley, 1999. ISBN 0-201-69497-2

Donald Norman: The Design of Everyday Things

MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-64037-6

See also the supplementary notes and the links

section of the course website.
End of Lecture 3