/MyUserDesignKB

Knowledge base for User Interaction and User Design

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My User Design KB

Introduction

User Experience (UX) Resources:

  • Form Design: Learn about best practices for designing user-friendly and effective forms.
  • UX Design Inspiration: Explore examples of great UX design to inspire your own work.
  • Behavioral Patterns for UX: Understand essential cognitive behaviors that influence UX design.
  • Note: UI/UX design focuses on creating user-friendly experiences and helping designers make intuitive interfaces.

What is HCI (Human-Computer Interaction)?

  • Also known as Man-Machine Interaction.
  • Interaction flow: Human communicates with Machine to complete a Task. Designers are responsible for creating this interaction interface.
  • Goals:
    • Develop usable products.
    • Involve users throughout the design process.
    • Avoid wasting resources on projects that users don't find useful.
    • Minimize the likelihood of user mistakes.
  • Reference: Leading design principles for HCI are widely accepted in the UX community.

Don Norman's Design Principles:

  • Visibility: Key functions should be visible and easy to find.
  • Feedback: Provide users with information on their actions' effects.
  • Constraints: Prevent users from performing unintended actions.
  • Mapping: Controls should intuitively map to their effects (e.g., light switches naturally correspond to lighting).
  • Consistency: Maintain the same operation across all versions of a product.
  • Affordance: Design objects to indicate how they should be used.

User Perspective:

  • Prioritize the user experience in all design choices.
  • Understand how human memory (both short-term and long-term) impacts usability and interface design.

Affordances and Signifiers

Mappings (Natural Mapping):

  • Natural Mapping: The relationship between controls and their effects should feel natural and intuitive.
  • Good mapping reduces the user's need to remember instructions and allows them to rely on intuitive understanding.

Affordances:

  • Affordance: Refers to the possible actions that can be performed with an object or within an environment.
  • The theory of affordances was adapted by Donald Norman to improve design by focusing on the user’s ability to intuitively interact with objects.

Signifiers:

  • Signifiers are cues or signals that indicate what actions are possible and how to perform them within an interface.

Constraints:

  • Constraints are limits on interaction, guiding users to avoid mistakes. Types of constraints include:
    • Physical constraints: Physical limitations in design (e.g., the size or shape of an object).
    • Cultural constraints: Actions dictated by cultural norms and expectations.
    • Semantic constraints: Meaning-based limits, where certain actions make sense only in a particular context.
    • Logical constraints: Actions restricted by logical relationships, such as switches only toggling when in a certain state.

Cultural Conventions:

  • These are widely accepted behaviors or practices within specific cultural groups, which can influence how users interact with interfaces.

Direct Manipulation and Immersive Environments

Principles of Good User Interfaces:

  • Mastery: Users should be able to master the interface over time.
  • Ease of learning: Systems should be easy to learn and support the learning of advanced features.
  • Confidence: Users should feel confident in their ability to use the system long-term.
  • Enjoyment: The system should be enjoyable to use and demonstrate to others.
  • Desire to explore: Users should feel encouraged to explore more powerful features.

Principles of Direct Manipulation:

  • Continuous representation: Keep objects and actions visible and represented continuously.
  • Meaningful metaphors: Use clear visual metaphors that correspond with real-world experiences.
  • Physical actions over commands: Favor physical actions (like drag and drop) over complex command syntax.
  • Rapid, incremental, and reversible actions: Allow users to see the effects of their actions immediately and be able to undo them if necessary.

Attributes of Direct Manipulation:

  • Quick learning curve: Direct manipulation interfaces are often easy to learn but may require initial demonstrations.
  • Error-tolerant: Experts rarely encounter errors, and knowledgeable users can easily remember tasks.

Users of Direct Manipulation:

  • Immediate feedback: Users receive instant feedback on their actions.
  • Flexibility: The interface allows easy changes in course or direction without creating confusion or anxiety.
  • Sense of control: Users feel in control and can predict how the interface will respond to their actions.

Challenges of Direct Manipulation:

  • Spatial representation: Too much visual information can overwhelm users if poorly organized.
  • Poor mapping: If signifiers (visual cues) and controls are not well aligned, users can become confused.
  • Learning curve: Some users may struggle to learn an interface, especially if it lacks intuitive design elements.
  • Slow for expert users: Direct manipulation may be slower than command-line interfaces for advanced users.

The Design Process:

1. Research:

  • Define goals: Conduct user and stakeholder interviews, create personas, and map workflows.
  • Personas: Develop personas based on user input to better understand target audiences.
  • Learn from mistakes: Pay attention to common user errors to guide design improvements.
  • Competitor analysis: Evaluate UX design from competitors to gather insights.

2. Wireframe:

  • Prototype: Create rough designs, focusing more on functionality than aesthetics.
  • User testing: Conduct early testing to understand user behavior.
  • Interactive prototypes: Create interactive prototypes for testing before committing to final designs.

3. User Testing:

  • Launch products quickly for real-world feedback and iterate based on that testing.

4. Look and Feel Design (UI):

  • Follow general design guidelines and frameworks, but adjust for the specific interface being designed.
  • Ensure consistency in terms of headers, footers, and terminology across the interface.

Usability Heuristics:

  • Visibility of system status: Ensure users are informed about the current state of the system.
  • Match the system to the real world: Use familiar concepts and language that align with users’ expectations.
  • Emergency exit: Provide users with clear ways to exit or cancel actions if necessary.
  • Consistency and standards: Use consistent terminology and design patterns across the interface.
  • Recognition over recall: Make sure the interface is intuitive and doesn’t rely on users’ memory.
  • Aesthetic and minimalist design: Focus on simplicity, removing unnecessary elements.
  • Error recovery: Help users easily diagnose and recover from errors.