Introduction to Usability Engineering CS 352 Elevator photo: I took it Fall 2014 at Phoenix Renaissance Hotel (I was at the Grace Hopper Conference).

Logistics: CS352 Syllabus: http://classes.engr.oregonstate.edu/eecs/winter2019/cs352-001/ Go thru the syllabus with the students.

To the meat of the matter…

What is Usability Engineering? Usability Engineering is the process of Methodically designing systems which are Useful Usable Which includes Determining what is useful Determining what is usable Evaluating these two factors empirically

Usability by Other Names in Other Fields Usability Engineering Human-computer interaction Ergonomics Interaction Design User-interface design User-centered design Informatics/information systems/library science Psychology/cognitive science Ergonomics Industrial engineering/design Architecture Art Social sciences

Why bother with usability engineering? Most software is supposed to help people be productive. Build better software. Help people like it enough to buy it (keep your job!). Avoid fatal flaws in software, like Norman’s 2 gulfs: Gulf of execution Gulf of evaluation Film projector, circa 1940s-1960s – to discuss the Gulfs.

Goals of Usability Engineering (See Rogers handout, ch. 1): effectiveness at task eg, the nurses safety eg, privacy, losing work, mistakes that endanger T&T#19, T&T #20 utility learnability memorability efficiency differences among last 3 effectiveness: tell the story of the nurses. differences: learnability is for first-time user, memorability is for occasional user, efficiency is for all users (but esp those who use it everyday). could compare these attributes on both versions of the dial. UIs and Gulfs -- Don’t tell them the following – make them guess! Top one: The numbers are clickable, it’s not really a rotary.. Bottom one: its a click wheel. The buttons are (probably) back to beg, skip to end, and play. compare potential gulfs w these 2 interfaces.

Design Principles: (Some tools for achieving goals) Visibility of user’s options/actions. WHAT options/actions available. Feedback Constrain (making some errors impossible) eg: menus vs typing to prevent syntax errors. (Internal) consistency Affordance makes clear HOW I can operate an object widgets are for talking about most of these points. Make a Big Deal about Internal consistency vs. External consistency.

HW #1: Design Principles Pairs for this assignment.

How to do interaction design/usability engineering Process (generally) Identify needs/requirements of the user experience. Develop many alternative design ideas that meet the requirements. Mock-up and later build versions of the designs to communicate/evaluate. Evaluate throughout the process. PRICPE will guide us thru these.

When to do interaction design At beginning of software project: to help establish needs/requirements correctly in the first place During design/implementation: to continuously evaluate/monitor During testing. to evaluate.

Where do we go next? ? User Productivity Time Touch/voice WIMP (Windows) User Productivity Command Line Batch 1940s – 1950s 1960s – 1970s 1980s - Present 2000s-present Time

Examples of new paradigms Mobile computing Wearable computing Tangible computing Ubiquitous computing and many more…. Tangible: Computing where you have to manipulate physical object you have in front of you. Interface captures the movement.