Syllabus:-

Part 2 The User Interface Design Process

Obstacles and Pitfalls in the Development Path
Designing for People: The Five Commandments
Usability
Usability Assessment in the Design Process
Common Usability Problems
Some Practical Measures of Usability
Some Objective Measures of Usability
Step 1 Know Your User or Client
Important Human Characteristics in Design
Perception
Memory
Sensory Storage
Visual Activity
Foveal and Peripheral Vision
Information Processing
Mental Models
Movement Control
Learning
Skill
Individual Differences
Human Interaction Speeds
Step 2 Understand the Business Function
Business Definition and Requirements Analysis
Direct Methods
Indirect Methods
Requirements Collection Guidelines.
Determining Basic Business Functions
Understanding the User’s Mental Model
Developing Conceptual Models
The User’s New Mental Model
Design Standards or Style Guides
Value of Standards and Guidelines.
Document Design
Design Support and Implementation.

Part 2: The User Interface Design Process

Obstacles and Pitfalls in the Development path

Developing a computer system is never easy, having many obstacles and traps with human role.
Gould (1988) has made below observations.
● Nobody ever gets it right the first time.

● Development is full of surprises.

● Good design requires more changes.

● Making contacts to changes will never eliminate need for change.

● Best systems are prone to error.

● Designer need good tools.

● Goal must be good performance design.

5 Out of the 7 mentioned above are in control of humans and these errors can be reduced to larger
extent.

Pitfalls in the design process are due to flawed design process with failure to address critical design
issues, improper focus of attention and development team organization failures. Common pitfalls are
● No prior understanding and analysis of user’s needs and expectations.

● Focus is on design features that are neat.

● Little design element prototypes.

● No usability testing.

● Different designs of UID goals.

● Poor communication between development team members.

Designing for People: The Five Commandments

These things are required to eliminate pitfalls occurring in the design, which are
● Gain a complete understanding of users and their tasks.
Developer must be able to understand the user needs and expectations. The gap between users
and developers must be avoided for proper working of product. Product must be developed to
meet user needs not to satisfy developer. Gap identified in design will lead to production of
wrong/defective products.
● Solicit early and ongoing user involvement.
Involving users in the development help the designers to better understand the users and their
requirements. Users will not be ready for changes due to factor of unknown and system use.
By involving users in the development users will get accustomed to changes and they can
work with product in better way. Here users selected must be on job or task knowledge.
● Perform rapid prototyping and testing.
This will identify the problems associated with the design process so that it can be solved at
early stages. This process has to be repeated at all the stages of the design process. If not
performed thoroughly before releasing to the market then product review done at the client
side will affect the company. It is very costly and harder to fix a product once it has been
released to market.
● Modify and iterate the design as much as necessary.
 This is a common process in the design, once we design we test for its working in all the
conditions and if ever changes are required they has to be made with better quality. This is
repeated until the design goal is met
● Integrate the design of all the system components.
Software, documentation, help function and training needs are essentials for development and
must be developed concurrently, allowing developers to identify problem at the earliest stage
and can be diagnosed early.

Usability
This term was used by Bennet (1979) to describe the effectiveness of human performance. In 1981
Shackel proposed new definition, which was modified by bennet in 1984. Finally in 1991 Shackel
defined usability as the capability to be used by humans easily and effectively, where easily is linked
to subjective assessment and effectively is linked to human performance.

Usability Assessment in the Design Process

This should begin a.t the early stages of product development cycle and should be continuously
applied throughout the process, with users experience and all the product important components.

Common Usability Problems

Mandel (1994) identified 10 most common usability problems in graphical systems, with support of
IBM. These are
● Ambiguous menus and icons.

● Language with single navigation.

● Input and direct manipulation limits.

● Highlighting and selection limitations.

● Unclear step sequences.

● More steps to manage interface then to complete tasks.

● Complex linkage within applications.

● Inadequate feedback and confirmation.

● Lack of system anticipation and intelligence.

● Inadequate error messages, help, tutorials and documentation.

Unwanted web characteristics are

● Visual clutter.
Unwanted graphics in design and whitespaces make web page less attractive. Required
content will not reach the user and real purpose is not served. Users will be wasting their time
to search relevant information from the web page.
● Impaired information readability.
Page readability is let down by poor developer choices in typefaces, colors and graphics. User
will be focused on seeing the differences between web pages instead of focusing on web page
contents. Legibility of text is diminished by use of colors for text.
● Incomprehensible components.
 In web page designer will be using components that gives no clues about their functions.
Icons without text will serve no purpose. Command buttons without visual interaction will be
just like using button.
● Annoying distractions.
Common distractions in the web page are scrolling marquees, elements in motion, blinking
text, continuously running animation, music and pop-up menus. These factors add to the time
wastage and here the user will not be focusing on the design aspect of the web page.
● Confusing navigation.
Navigating contents to the user may be tedious if there are many link to be traversed. Users
must be presented with simple interfaces in order to get the information they want. Too much
of data in the website is also a problem where the user will be spending time on browsing
unwanted things and main focus will be lost by the user.
● Inefficient navigation.
User must transverse content free pages to find what is meaningful. Link to other screen is
provided through one whole page and too much of space is wasted. Short pages usage reduces
time to navigate and increases search speed. Unwanted data must be removed from the
website.
● Inefficient operations.
Time wasting factors in web pages are downloading huge amount of information which is
rich with graphics contents, searching data which is very deep in the website and too much of
extra contents which website has.
● Excessive/inefficient page scrolling.
If the person is scrolling too much in order to get the information which he wants then it is
waste of time and person will lose patience. While scrolling there is a chance that we may
ignore the contents relevant to the search and it will be frustrating to go completely top or
down to see what the person wants.
● Information overload.
Too much of information adds burden to the user. These data will add to the memory. Person
will find difficult to search contents of the web pages. Designer will be confused to determine
which data is important and which is not.
● Design inconsistency.
Users will be browsing more web pages and they will observe the differences between web
sites designed with same purpose. It is due to thinking variation of designers who will be
having their own ideas to develop product. Consistency is required in the fields of navigation
with some methods to know the checked sites and unchecked sites. GUI design comes with
guidelines which are ignored by designers or unaware of it.
● Outdated information.
Current information should be available in the website.
● Stale design caused by emulation of period documents and past systems.
Web is the new medium with more user interaction and information display. Previous
information can be easily ported on the web and whatever we know must not be included in
website. Websites should be rethought and redesigned using more appropriate and robust
design technique available.

Some Practical Measures of Usability.

Some of the problems faced in usability are
● Are people asking a lot of questions or often reaching for a manual?
 Frequent questioning and checking of manual identifies limitations of the product usage.
There will be doubt created in the user mind.
● Are frequent exasperation responses heard?
Whatever drawback is present in the product will be identified by the users. Some users
convey that in smoother way, others show the frustration on the product. By not identifying
the drawback developer will be in great trouble once it is made available in the market.
● Are there many irrelevant actions being performed?
Some of the actions performed on the product during development may require intimate steps
to reach the goal and this will lead to more clicks of mouse and keyboard strokes resulting in
misuse of devices.
● Are there many things to ignore?
If there are elements on the screen that are not essential to the application, those elements
must be removed in order to avoid distraction of the users from the relevant data.
● Do a number of people want to use the product?
As more number of people involve in design it will be more confusing. We actually look at
easy solutions. If more people are using the product then usability scorer will be high
depending upon the attitude factors.

Some Objective Measures of Usability

According to Shackel (1991) below mentioned are the objective criteria for measuring usability
● How effective is the interface?
Here the performance must be at required level of speed and errors. Users must be satisfied
too larger extent and usage environments must be used effectively in the product
development.
● How learnable is the interface?
What amount of training time is required for the user with its cost and time required for
intermittent learners?
● How flexible is the interface?
Some amount of variations in task and environment should be expected when compared to
specification provided at the beginning.
● What are the attitudes of the users?
It is measure of up to what level user can remain calm and does not exhibit tiredness,
discomfort and frustration on the product. This is the measure of product success and its
continuous usage.
● How to measure performance?
These performance metrics must be quantitative, through which we can measure success of
product. Goals must be clear and concrete and we must avoid faulty designs.

Important Human Characteristics in Design

Importance are perception, memory, visual activity, foveal and peripheral vision, sensory storage,
information processing, learning, skill, and individual differences.
● Perception.
It is user awareness and understanding of the elements and objects of present environment
through the physical sensation of senses like sight, sound, smell, etc. it is influenced by
 experience. Stimuli is classified on the models in our memories. We tend to match objects
priory known to us. We cannot compare knowledge of child and adult. Perceptual
characteristics are
Proximity
Both eyes and mind see objects belonging together if they are near to each other in
space.
Similarity
Both eyes and mind see objects belonging together if they share common visuals like
color, size, shape, and brightness/orientation.
Matching Patterns
User response will be same for the objects with different shapes. Example is English
alphabets.
Succinctness
We see an object as having some perfect/simple shape which is easy to remember.
Closure
User perfection is synthetic seeing object as full. Even though some are not close
itself like circle or word, user see it as closed anyway.
Unity
Objects that form closed shapes are perceived as a group.
Continuity
Extension of shortened lines.
Balance
User desire stabilization/equilibrium in viewing environment. Vertical, horizontal,
and right angles are the most visually satisfying and easy to look at.
Expectancies
Sometimes we perceive what is there but what we expect to be there. Missing a
spelling mistake in proofreading something we write is often example of a perceptual
expectancy error.
Context
Context influence individual perception. 2 drawn lines of the same length may look
that same length or different lengths, depending on angle of adjacent lines.
Signals versus noise
Important stimuli are called signals and unwanted are called noise. Signals must be
distinguished from noise for better perception. Signals appear similar to noise and
sometimes noise may mask critical signals also. For example in hidden word puzzle
where meaningful words are inside large block matrix of alphabetic characters acts as
a noise. Elements of the screen may be signal or noise depending on action
performed. When presented title is the signal and others are noise. When used data is
signal and title becomes noise. Design goal is to identify noise immediately and
eliminate them.
● Memory.
Memory is unstable human attribute. Presently memory is of 2 type’s long term and
short (working) memory. In 1950’s long term memory was used. 1n 1956 Miller
study indicated that memory limit is 7 plus or minus 2 chunks of information, leading
to importance of short term memory and in 1970 called also as working memory.
Short term memory receives information from one of the senses/long term memory.
Here we process limited information lasting from 10 to 30 seconds. Now the estimate
of memory is in size of 3-4 items. Knowledge, experience and familiarity control the
information size and complexity which can be remembered. Particular Language
speaking and using people will be comfort compared to usage of other language. Here
short term memory will be overloaded with constant reciting, thinking, listening and
overwriting.
 Worker memory increases reading comprehension, in terms of complex tasks
working memory is used extensively with vision and audition, performance decreases
when person must integrate data’s from different sources.
Long term memory is the knowledge what we know. We encode short term memory
into it and call it as learning. Learning will be useful if short term memory has proper
structure with meaning. Learning can be improved with repetition. Long term
capacity is unlimited, with ability to recognize/recall words. Human active
vocabulary ranges from 2000 and 3000 words. Passive vocabulary numbers about
100000.
We minimize the need for a higher memory by reducing user memory loads, need for
mental integration and expanding working memory. Enhancing system usability
include presenting information in structured and meaningful way, maintaining
required information in close proximity and controlling pace of information
presentation.
● Sensory Storage.
It is the buffer where the automatic processing of information collected from our
senses takes place. It is an unconscious process with quick adaption to changes and
constantly replaced by newly gathered stimuli. It is less affected by noise. Continuous
stimulation of sensory mechanisms makes it fatigue, less attentive and unable to
determine which is important.
● Visual Activity.
It is the capacity of eye to resolve details. It is phenomenon of gaining focus when we
see at object and losing focus when we stay away from object. Relative visual activity
is approximately halved at a distance of 2.5 degrees from the point of eye fixation
(Bouma, 1970). Hence 5 degree diameter circle centered around an eye fixation
character on a display has been used as the area near the character (Tullis 1983)/
maximum length for a displayed word (Danchak, 1976). If average viewing distance
of a display screen is 19 inches, the size of the area on the screen of optimum visual
activity is 1.67 inches. Eyes sensitivity increases for characters closest to the fixation
point and decreases for extreme edge characters. Trembling eyes identifies far
objects.
● Foveal and Peripheral Vision.
Foveal vision is used to focus directly on something. Peripheral vision senses
anything in the area surrounding the location we are looking at but limited in visual
activity. Both maintain, at the same time, a cooperative and a competitive
relationship. Peripheral vision can be distracting. Peripheral vision provide clues
about where the eye should go next in the visual search of a screen. Patterns, shapes,
and alignments peripherally visible can guide the eye systematically through screen.
What is sensed peripherally, is passed on to information processing system with what
is actively being viewed foveally. According to experiment conducted by Mori on
windows effect in both foveal and peripheral relationship, performance on a foveal
window deteriorates when there are peripheral windows and further degrades greater
when peripheral information is dynamic.
● Information processing.
Information collected through senses has to be processed in meaningful way. There
are 2 levels of information processing are highest level and lower level. Highest level
is identified working and consciousness memory, which is limited, slow, sequential
and used for reading and understanding. Lower level processes familiar information
rapidly with higher levels. We look and perceive. Repetition and learning results in a
shift of control form higher to lower level. Both levels function simultaneously,
higher level performing reasoning and problem solving, lower level perceiving the
physical form of information sensed. If user is new to system, user relies on concrete
 elements like its title, controls and information. Screen must be adequate to fit the
contents what user wants.
● Mental models.
Mental models are developed of things and people depending upon our experience. It
is an internal representation of a person’s current understanding of something. These
are developed to understand something, explain things, make decisions, do something
or interact with other person. These enable person to predict actions necessary. While
designing new system people will be having their own ideas about the system based
on mental model they have designed. They will be satisfied if their system is as per
their requirements. New system can be easily developed by person if they have
developed system using mental model. Design consistency and design standards play
major role in developing mental models.
● Movement Control.
Response is a movement once data is perceived with some actions. In computer
movements are pressing keyboard keys and moving screen pointer with mouse. Fitt’s
law is important in screen design which states that
● The time to acquire target is a function of the distance to and size of the
target.
● Provide large objects for important functions.

● Take advantages of the pinning actions of the sides, top, bottom and corners
of the screen.
Big buttons provide a larger target to the user to access with the screen pointer.
Create toolbar icons which covers edges of a display. Screen edge will stop/pin the
pointer’s movement at a position over a toolbar for faster movement.
● Learning.
It is the process of encoding in long term memory information contained in short term
memory. User learnability is needed differentiating people from machines. With
sufficient time people can perform task in better way, but this still acts as drawback
with respect to designers. Design development which minimizes human learning
accelerate performance and people prefer with their existing knowledge avoiding
unproductive learning. People are active and like to explore new things by trial and
error methods. People are sensitive to minor changes in the UI leading to transfer
from one system to another. Perception to learn huge amounts of data is driving
persons to use system. Learning can be enhanced if same skills can be applied on
1/more cases, provides complete feedback and staged wise learning.
● Skill.
Humans have to perform skillfully by linking inputs and responses into a sequence of
action. Essence is in performing actions in the correct time sequence with precision
by consistency and economy of effort. Economy of effort is obtained by suitable
work pace accomplished using progressive learning of shortcuts, increasing speed and
easier access to information/data. Skills are hierarchical in nature and many basic
skills lead to form complex ones. System and screen design challenge skills of
developer.
● Individual Differences.
Every individual will be having different capabilities, abilities, thinking and learning
speed. When we compare typists with different speeds the typist with better speed
will be making less errors. We have to choose people for development who are good
in the features which we want for the product development and differences within
 employees must be minimal. Employees must able to complete the task in given
duration. Design must provide the needs for all potential users.

Human Interaction Speeds

According to Bailey interaction speeds of human various tasks are
● Reading: - average adult reading speed is the order of 250-300 words/minute. Proofreading
text on paper is 200 words/minute and on computer 180 words/minute. RSVP (Rapid Serial
Visual presentation) has increased reading speeds where single words are presented one at a
time in the center of a screen, replacing old words by new words at reader specified rate.
According to test conducted by bailey in 1999a paper document reading speed was 342
words/minute (speed range was in between 143 to 540 words/minute. Single words were
presented at the rate of 600 to 1600 words/minute. Measured scores were greater than 75%
and average speed was 1212 words/minute, which is 3.5 times more than traditional way.
● Listening: - listening can be done comfortably at rate of 150 to 160 words/minute,
recommended for audio books and video narration. Speeded normal speech can be heard at
210 words/minute without comprehension.
● Speaking: - dictating speed to a computer is 105 words/minute. Speech recognizer
misrecognitions often occur. In case of word correction dictating speed is 25 words/minute.
Speaking rate of new users was 14 words/minute during transcription and 8 during
composition.
● Keying: - fast type writer key speed is >150 words/minute and average typing speed is 60-70
words/minute. Computer keying is 33 words/minute during transcription and 19 during
composition. 2-finger typists can key memorized text at 37 words/minute and copied text at
27 words/minute. In computer speed is degraded by its software and the keyboard.
● Hand printing: - people hand print memorized text is 31 words/minute and text is copied at 22
words/minute.

Step 2 Understand the Business Function

Requirements must be determined and user activities being performed must be described through task
analysis, leading to conceptual model. Design standards must also be created, usability goals
established and documents needs determined. General steps to be performed are
● Perform a business definition and requirements analysis.

● Determine basic business functions.

● Describe current activities through task analysis.

● Develops a conceptual model of the system.

● Establish design standards or style guides.

● Establish system usability design goals.

● Define training and documentation needs.

Business Definition and Requirements Analysis

Here the objective is to establish the need for a system. Requirement is an objective that must be met.
Product description is developed and refined, based on users input. Techniques have been described
by Keil and carmel, Popowicz and fucella, which are direct methods and indirect methods.

Direct Methods
Here opportunity is provided to hear user’s comments in person and firsthand. Person to person
allows multiple channel of communication and provide way to complete data. Some direct methods
for getting input from users.

Individual Face-to-Face Interview

Here one-to-one visit is held with user which may be structured or more open ended. It should be
focused and topic of discussion should be chosen so that all important aspects of framework are
covered. Useful topics are task oriented activities, methods used to complete task and interaction with
other people/systems. We need to uncover any potential measures of system usability, unmentioned
standard to standard policies and relevant knowledge user must possess for the activity. Appropriate
interview questions for designing web sites are what are the contents required for the sample proposal,
situations where website will be useful, what are the likes and dislikes of web pages in competitive
world and how to complete tasks related to web sites. Time must bae provided for free conservation
and recording must be allowed for better user feedback from the team members.
Advantages are
● Full attention to users.

● Follow up questions to get more data.

● More time to discuss topics in detail.

● Deeper understanding of users with their characteristics.

Disadvantages are
● Costly and time consuming.

● Requires skilled person.

● Must establish a positive relationship with the users.

● Ask questions in neutral manner, be a good listener and should know how to get information.

Telephonic Interview/ Survey

Interview conducted using telephone must have proper structure with proper planning. Arranging the
interview with prior notice will help the user to prepare for interview.
Advantages are
● Less expensive and invasive then face to face interview.

● Can be used more effectively and frequently to get more information.

Disadvantages are
● Impossible to get complete details of the user and their environment.

● Difficult to contact the right person for the telephone interview.

Traditional Focus Group

Small group of users with 8 to 12 members and a moderator together discuss requirements. With
loosely structure, range of topics must be predefined with sessions lasting up to 2 hours. Here purpose
is to probe user’s experiences, attitude’s, beliefs, desires and their reaction to prototypes. Steps in
setting up focus group are
● Establish the objectives of the session.

● Select participants representing typical users/potential users.

● Write a script for the moderator to follow.

 ● Find a skilled moderator to facilitate discussion.

● Allow the moderator flexibility in using the script.

● Take good notes and recording for backup and clarification.

Advantages
● Recording of sessions allow detailed analysis of the user comments.
Disadvantages
● Not useful for establishing user’s working and their usability problems.

● Can be influenced by group dynamics, which may be good/bad.

Facilitated Team Workshop

It is similar to traditional focus group but less formal. It is similar to system requirements definition.
Advantages
● Provide more useful information.
Disadvantages
● Require great deal of time to organize and run.

Observational Field Study

User actions are watched in their own environment over the period of time. Observation provides
good insight into tasks being performed, working environment and conditions, social environment and
working practices.
Advantages
● It is more objective, natural and realistic.

● Video recording provides detailed task analysis with insights to the user tasks by the design
team.
Disadvantages
● It can be time consuming and expensive.

Requirements Prototyping
Demonstration model/very early prototype is presented to the users for their comments concerning
functionality.

User-Interface Prototyping
Demonstration model/very early prototype is presented to the users to uncover UI issues and
problems.

Usability Laboratory Testing

Users are provided special laboratory to perform newly designed tasks. They are observed and results
measured, and evaluated to establish the usability of the product at given time. Usability tests uncover
what people actually do. Same scenarios can be presented to many users with data.
Advantages
● Problems uncovered may result in modification of the requirements.
Disadvantages
● Useful information generated by labs are obtained at high cost.
Card Sorting for Web Sites
This method is used to establish hierarchical groupings of information for web sites, used when we
have gathered substantial data about web site. Potential content topics are placed on individual index
cards and users are asked to sort the cards into groupings meaningful to them. It helps in building the
site’s structure, map, and page content. Process is
● Use 50 of content topics of previous analysis in index cards, which is limited to less than or
equal to 100.
● Provide blank index cards for names of additional topics the participant may want to add and
colored blank cards for groupings that the participant will be asked to create.
● Number the cards on the back.

● Arrange for a facility with large enough table for spreading out cards.

● Select participant representing a range of users, using one/two people at a time and 5 to12 in
total.
● Explain the process of participants with useful categories of information and groupings name
and grouping sense.
● Ask the participants to sort the cards with voice hearable to all. Advise the participants that
additional content cards may be named and added as they think necessary during the sorting
process.
● Observe and take notes as the participants talk about what they are doing. Pay particular
attention to the sorting rationale.
● Upon finishing the sorting, if a participant has too many groupings ask them to arrange
hierarchically.
● Ask participants to provide a name for each grouping on the back on the colored blank cards,
using words that the user would expect to see that would lead them to that particular
groupings.
● Make a record of the groupings using the numbers on the back of each card.

● Reshuffle the cards for the next session.

● When finished, analyze the results looking for commonalities among the different sorting
sessions.
Sorting can also be accomplished on the web. NIST has developed a card sorting tool, where
designers setup the cards and names the categories. User sorts by dragging and dropping.

Indirect Methods
An indirect method of requirements determination places intermediary between the developer and
user, which maybe electronic/another person. It provides useful information.
Disadvantages are
● Eliminates the multichannel communication advantages of face to face user-developer
contact.
● Filtering/distortion of message intentionally/unintentionally.

● Intermediary may not possess a complete/current understanding of user needs.

● Intermediary mechanism discourages direct user-developer contact for political reasons.

Indirect methods are
● MIS Intermediary
It is fulfilled by company representative who defines user’s goals and need to designers and
developers, who may be from IT department or from the department using IT. Here the
representative will be having limited knowledge, hence not satisfying all the design
requirements.

● Paper Survey/Questionnaire
It is used to a sample of users to get their needs. Questionnaire covers huge target of people
and cheaper than customer visit. Questionnaire have a low return rate with extreme answers
and it takes more time to get the final result. It is better to have closed questions which
require less analysis compared to open questions. It should be short and designed by
experience person.
Advantages
To determine user’s attitudes, experiences and desires
Disadvantages
Cannot determine actual tasks and behaviors.

● Electronic Survey/Questionnaire
It is administered to a sample of users via e-mail or web. Characteristics, benefits and
drawbacks are similar to surveys and questionnaires. It is less expensive then mailed surveys.
Speed of return is much faster than paper survey. Steps in creating Electronic survey are
1. Determine the survey objectives.
2. Determine where you will find the people to complete the survey.
3. Create a mix of multiple choice and open-ended questions requiring short answers
addressing the survey objectives.
4. Keep it short, about 10 items or less is preferable.
5. Keep it simple, requiring no more than 5-10 minutes to complete.
Consider iterative surveys, by active participation of the people which s must encourages
them to do long surveys. Fallow up survey must be able to rank the task according to their
priorities and gather additional information about important information and task.

● Electronic Focus Group Similar

It is similar to a traditional focus group where discussion is accomplished using specialized
software on a workstation, e-mail or a website. For comments, ideas and suggestions are
available in hard copy for easier analysis.
Advantages
Specialized software is used to provide order of presented in lists
Discussion is less influenced by a group dynamics.
Disadvantages
Depth and richness of verbal discussions does not exist
Communication aspects of seeing participant’s body language is missing.

● Marketing and Sales

Company representatives interact with customers to obtain suggestions/needs, current and
potential. This is inexpensive method since representative is visiting company. Business
representatives will be knowing user with their needs. Sometimes the information will be
misleading and company tries to hide important data from the users. Developers should know
the interests and bias of the representatives collecting the information.
 ● Support Line
Information collected by the unit helps customer with day to day problems. This method is
inexpensive and target user audience is correct. Here the focus is on the problems.

● E-Mail, Bulletin Boards/Guest Book

User problems, questions and suggestions are posted to a bulletin board, a guest book or
through email. Here focus is on the problems, where user generate the recommendations with
most unhappy users. This method is fairly inexpensive.

● User Group
Periodically suggested improvements about system and software usage by customer are
evaluated. They provide lot of good information with proper organization and planning.

● Competitor Analysis
These are used to gather ideas, uncover design requirements and identify tasks. Designer can
perform this evaluation/even better. Users can be asked to perform the evaluation.

● Trade Show
Customers here can be exposed to a mock-up/prototype and asked for comments, depending
on knowledge level of the customers providing superficial view of important features.

● Other Media Analysis

Analyze how other media like print/broadcast present the process, information/subject matter
of interest. Findings gather ideas, uncover design requirements and identify better ways to
accomplish/show something.

● System Testing
New requirements and feedback stemming from current system testing can be accumulated,
evaluated, and implemented as required.

Requirements Collection Guidelines

According to Kiel and Carmel requirements gathering methods evaluated for sustainability and
effectiveness on 28 projects 14 were successful and 14 were relatively unsuccessful. Each method was
defined as a developer-User Links, whose findings and conclusions are
● Establish 4 to 6 Different Developer-User Links.
More successful projects had utilized a greater number of developer-user links compared to
less successful projects, with mean number of 5.4 and 3.2 respectively. There was a huge
difference, so Karl and Carmel based on their data recommended minimum 4 developer-user
links must be established in requirements gathering process and law of diminishing returns
after 6 links. Effectiveness ratings of the most commonly used links were also available, with
values from 1 to 5 with 1 being ineffective and 5 being very effective. Custom projects with
requirements gathering methods were rated from 3.5 to 5.0 and Package products with
requirements gathering methods were rated from 3.3 to 4.3.
● Provide the Most Reliance on Direct Links.
Less successful projects have too much reliance on indirect links or intermediaries. 10 of the
14 had used none/only one direct link. Usage of links is the partial measure of user
participation, practicing link is also important.
Determining Basic Business Functions
Here we will be deciding what product will do, major system functions with critical system inputs and
outputs, flow chart of major functions. Developer process is
● Gain a complete understanding of the user’s mental model based upon
1. User’s need and their profile.
2. A user task analysis
● Develop a conceptual model of the system based upon the user’s mental model, which
includes defining objectives and metaphors
Steps are
Understanding the User’s Mental Model
Here we need to thoroughly describe the expected system user/users with their current tasks. Here
goal of task analysis and user understanding is to gain picture of user’s mental model. Mental
model is an internal representation of a person’s current conceptualization and understanding of
something. It is developed gradually to understand and to do something, with predictions of
necessary actions.
Performing a Task Analysis
Task analysis breaks down the user activities to the individual task level. Goal is to understand
why and how people do things when automated. Knowing why establishes the major goal works
and how provides details of actions performed to complete goals. Task analysis provides
information about workflows, interrelationships between people, objects, and actions, and user
conceptual frameworks. Output is complete description of all user tasks and interactions.
Work activities are studied and described by users using the techniques of getting requirements.
Measurements may be frequency with which tasks are performed/number of errors that are made.
User’s current task should be well documented and maintained. Changes in task requirements can
be easily incorporated.
List of objects what the users see as important to what they do. Objects are sorted as
● Concrete objects—touchable things.

● People who are object of sentences—organization employees, customers.

● Forms/Journals—things that keep track of information.

● People who are the subject of sentences—system users

● Abstract objects—anything not included above.

Developing Conceptual Models
It is the output of task analysis. Created by the designer. A conceptual model is the general
conceptual framework through which the system functions are presented. Such model describes
how interface will present objects, relationships between objects, objects properties and actions
that will be performed. It is based on user’s mental model, with different users having different
ideas. Here the designer goal is to facilitate users to develop useful mental model of the system,
accomplished by presenting the user a meaningful conceptual model of the system. Systems
mental model derived is based on system’s behavior with factors like system inputs, actions and
outputs, feedback, guidance characteristics and all components of conceptual model. Documents
and training will play formidable role. Mental models initially developed will be modified with
experience.
Guidelines for Designing Conceptual Models
● Reflect the user’s mental model, not the designer’s.
User will be having different expectations and levels of knowledge compared to
designers, so there mental models will be different. User is concerned with task to be
 performed and business objectives to be fulfilled. Designers will be focused on interface
design, kinds of objects, interaction methods and visual representation of the screen.
● Draw physical analogies/present metaphors.
Use what is familiar and well known. Repeat well known actions. Success of graphical
systems can be used to employ the desktop metaphor. Metaphor to be effective, must be
widely applicable within an interface. In the event that a metaphor cannot be explicitly
employed in a new interface, structure the new interface in terms of known the known
world.
● Comply with expectancies, habits, routines, and stereotypes.
Create a system that builds on knowledge, habits, routines and expectancies that elicit
them. Use familiar associations for example with color accepted meanings for red, yellow
and green are well established. Use words and symbols in their customary ways.
● Provide action-response compatibility.
All system responses should be compatible with the action that elicit them. Names of the
commands should reflect the actions that will occur. Organization of keys in
documentation should reflect the ordering which actually exists in the keyboard.
● Make invisible parts of the system visible.
Many parts and processes of system are invisible to the user. In creating mental model,
person must make a hypothesis about what is invisible and how it relates to what is
visible. New users of the system make erroneous assumptions about the invisible parts
and develop fault mental model, which reduces by experience. Making invisible parts of
the system visible will speed up the process of developing correct mental models.
Example of process being made visible is moving a document between files. In CLI,
documents must be moved through series of typed commands, done invisibly.
● Provide Proper and Correct Feedback.
Provide feedback generously. Keep person informed about events happening with
1. Continuous indication of status.
2. Visible results of actions.
3. Actions in progress—show a window which is being changed.
4. Maximum context information—to promote contextual understanding, present
maximum background/historical information. For example a menu screen/in
navigation, maintaining a listing of the choices selected to get to the current
point.
5. Clear, constructive and correct error messages—incomplete/misleading error
messages will lead to false assumptions that weaken user’s mental model. Error
messages should reinforce the mental model like specifying missing action.
● Avoid the unnecessary or irrelevant.
These should never be displayed on screen, which may lead to false mental model.
Irrelevant information may be unneeded data fields, screen controls, system status codes
or error message numbers. Potentially misleading information must be informed to the
user. Do not overuse display methods/use them in meaningless ways. Too much color is a
distracting factor.
● Provide design consistency.
Design consistency reduces the numbers of concepts to be learned. Inconsistency needs
multiple models mastery. Occasional inconsistency must be explained to user. Example is
if an error is caused by a user action that is inconsistent with other similar actions, explain
that in the error message.
● Provide documentation and a help system that will reinforce the conceptual model.
 Consistencies and metaphors explicitly described in user model, will assist a person in
system learning. Peoples must not uncover consistencies and metaphors themselves. Help
system should improve mental models.
● Provide the development of both novice and expert mental models.
Novices and experts are used to bear different models when using a system. It will be
easier for novices to form an initial system mental model if protected from the full
complexity of system. Use levels of functionality which can be revealed through
progressive disclosure.

Defining Objects
All objects which have to be manipulated to get work done must be clearly described. Their
behavioral characteristics must be established along with attributes differentiating kinds of
objects. We also determine interrelationships between objects and people using them along with
actions taken on objects. State information that each object in the task must preserve, display or
allow to be edited must be defined. Most important object must be made obvious and easy to
manipulate. Weinschenk (1995) suggests that if the most important objects. Are not obvious in the
workflow document, go through the workflow document highlighting all nouns and verb
associated with nouns.
Defining Metaphors
Metaphor is a concept where one’s body of knowledge about one thing is used to understand
something else. Metaphors act as building blocks of the system, aiding understanding, of how a
system works and is organized. Select a metaphor/analogy for the defined objects. Choose the
analogy that works best for the objects and their actions. Real world metaphors are best choice.
Replicate what is familiar and well known. Duplicate actions well known. Use faster ways to do
something. Use powerful simple metaphors. Use common metaphors, uniqueness adds
complexity. Multiple metaphors may coexist. Exactly mimicking the real world cases lead to
person to expect behavioral limitations that do not actually exist. Test the selected metaphors for
matching one’s expectations and experiences, understandability and learnability.
A common metaphor in a graphical system is the desktop and its components, items like folders
and trash bin. Web utilizes library metaphor for the activities like browsing and searching.
Browsing occurs when we want something interesting to read. Searching requires plan to find
specific information. We should not constrain our self from developing a more powerful interface
since a current metaphor just happens to exist. In developing a new tractor, metaphor was the
horse and the plow. Reins controlling horses were installed on the tractor.
The User’s New Mental Model
When the system is implemented and a person interacts with the new system and its interface, an
attempt will be made by the person to understand the system based upon the existing mental
model used for interaction. Correct reflection of user’s mental model by designer, user’s mental
model will
be reinforced and interface will be developed. By continuous interaction with the system, mental
model will be modified, aided by well-defined distinctions between objects and being consistent
across all aspects of the interface.
If new system does not reflect the user’s existing mental model then there will be breakdowns in
understanding, confusion, errors, loss of trust and frustration and inability to perform task. Here
designers have tried to bridge the gap between conceptual model and mental model through
documentation and training, but suffers from unproductivity and out of context materials.

Design Standards or Style Guides

Design standards/style guide documents and agreed upon the way of doing something. It
describes appearance and behavior of the interface and better use of system components. It also
defines the interface standards, rules, guidelines and conventions in design. It will be based on
system’s h/w and s/w characteristics, principles of good interface and screen design, need of
system users and other company requirements.
Value of Standards and Guidelines
 Developing and applying design standards/guidelines achieves design consistency. For user these
provide faster performance, reduce errors and training time, foster better system utilization and
improve satisfaction and system experience. These are valuable to system developers since they
increase visibility of HCI, simplify design, reduce programming time with more design aids,
reduce redundant effort and training time and provide benchmark for quality control testing.
Business System Interface Standards and Guidelines
Businesses and organizations developed and implemented HCI design standards were not useful
until late 1980s (Galitz and DiMatteo, 1974). Then flurry of guideline documents appeared, with
some for internal company/organization use only, others were published for companies like IBM
(1987), Sun Microsystems (1990), Apple Computer (1992b) and Microsoft (1992). These
guidelines have been modified over the last decade and published on the web. Concurrently
government and trade organizations have been working on developing interface guidelines and
standards. Organization’s addressing these issues have been included in ISO, ANSI and Human
Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Guideline utilization in business standards were less successful because Standards conformance
problems identified include difficulties in
● Finding information being sought.

● Difficulties in interpreting information

● Numerous rules violations.

Thovtrup and Neilson (1991) reported that designers were only able to achieve 71% compliance
with
a 2 page standard in a laboratory setting. In evaluation of 3 real systems, mandatory rules of the
company screen design standard were violated 32 to 55% of the time, due to positive designer
attitude towards the standard both in terms of its value and content. Rules were not adhered to
Web Guidelines and Style Guides
Web interface design issues have unleashed a list of Web-specific design guidelines and style
guides, seen on the sites of the various computer companies and interface consulting firms, in
newsletters and on personal Web sites. With traditional interface guidelines in web environment,
Web impose a host of additional considerations. Publishing of Web design guidelines have been
affected by explosive web growth and explosive growth in number of developers creating sites for
public access. In short duration of web, limited chances have been provided for its usage
capabilities with conventions and style guides. Many Web developers have also have limited
knowledge of interface issues and interface design guidelines. Web guidelines documents have
tried to fill this void. Web user can freely move among a seemingly endless supply of sites, with
no isolation of sites. Commonality is required when moving across small number of applications.
Presently unique web standards and guidelines are evolving by trial and error. De facto standards
are being when majority of big sites focus on one way to do something. Example is menu bar that
appears on left side of the screen. Worldwide standards are being looked at by organizations like
WWW Consortium.

Document Design
● Checklists and rationale
Provide checklists for presenting key principles and guidelines. Checklists permits easy
scanning, referring to key points and breaking up of long sequence words. Also provide
guideline usage, in order to check for deviation from previous usage, also to check which
alternative to use when there is confusion.
● Concrete examples
For effectiveness guideline must include many concrete examples of correct design. Learning
by imitation is used.
● Document design
 Design the document by fallowing recognized principles for good document design which
enhances readability. Good access mechanisms is provided through index, table of contents,
glossaries and checklists. In other cases it will be unattractive.

Design Support and Implementation

● Available Reference Sources:- use fully available reference design sources in guidelines
creation, which include text, books, project specific guidelines and style guides for ID and
web design created by Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Sun with others meeting user source.
● Tools: - used tools must support established guidelines for implementation. Development
tools usage make process easier.
● Applying the Guidelines: - 2 normally asked questions are, “Is it too late to developer and
implement standards?” and “What will be the impact on systems and screens now being
used?” To answer these questions researchers reformatted several alphanumeric inquiry
screens to improve their comprehensibility and readability. When these were presented to
expert system users, decision making time remained same but errors were reduced. For novice
system users there was large improvement in learning speed and accuracy. Changes that
enhance screens will benefit both expert and novice users already familiar with the current
screens.