1. CS 522: Human-Computer Interaction Usability and HCI Topics
Dr. Debaleena Chattopadhyay
Department of Computer Science
debaleena.com

2. Agenda
Usability
HCI topics
Project discussion

3. Project proposal presentation and write up
Conceptualization and overall vision (figure required)
Literature review
User profile – primary and secondary users
2 user scenarios
Plan for gathering requirements
Interview, observation, survey, contextual inquiry?
Development options

5. Usability? User Experience? Synonyms?
Any interactive product, such as a website, or a software, must have the following two aspects: utility and usability.
It will also be responsible in creating an experience for the users while they use the system: the user experience.
Example: MS PowerPoint Software
Utility: What tasks can you achieve with it?
Make slides to give presentations
Usability: How easy it is for you to achieve the goals of your task?
If you are cropping an image, it grays out the cropped part to help you recognize the parts you are cropping rather than recall them.
User Experience: Is using the software engaging, pleasurable, satisfying, fun?
Users will have individual differences. Some might find it fun, some just satisfying.
Additional readings: The difference between usability and user experience, Jared Spool, 2007 (

6. Usability 101 User Testing
ISO 9241: The effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specified users achieve specified goals in particular environments.
effectiveness: the accuracy and completeness with which specified users can achieve specified goals in particular environments
efficiency: the resources expended in relation to the accuracy and completeness of goals achieved 
satisfaction: the comfort and acceptability of the work system to its users and other people affected by its use
Traditionally, while evaluating usability these are measured as follows:
Effectiveness: Task success, number of errors while completing a task
Efficiency: Time taken to complete a task
Satisfaction: Interviews/ surveys/ mental workload assessment.
User Testing
Objective
Subjective
Reference: Tullis, T., & Albert, W. (2010). Measuring the user experience: collecting, analyzing, and presenting usability metrics. Morgan Kaufmann.

7. Usability Heuristics They are not theoretical frameworks.
They are not specific standards.
They are general guidelines evolving out of practice and domain expertise. Nevertheless, most of them can be grounded in theories pertaining to the psychology of human-computer interaction.
Molich, R., & Nielsen, J. (1990). Improving a human-computer dialogue. Communications of the ACM, 33(3),
Nielsen, J., & Molich, R. (1990, March). Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (pp ). ACM.

8. Visibility of the system status1 3 2 4

9. Match between system and mental model
The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms.
Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
Old Version
New Version

10. User Control and Freedom

11. Consistency and Standards

12. Error Prevention

13. Recognition rather than recall
Making actions visible

14. Flexibility and efficiency of use
The ribbon menu
Keyboard shortcuts

15. Aesthetic and minimalist design

16. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

17. Help and Documentation
Windows 7
Windows XP

18. Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics: Re-visited
1. Visibility of the system status
2. Match between system and mental model
3. User Control and Freedom
4. Consistency and Standards
5. Error Prevention
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
An evaluator (either a usability expert or domain expert) uses usability heuristics to systematically evaluate a user interface and predict problems that real users would face while using it to achieve their goals.
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
10. Help and Documentation

19. Gulf of execution and evaluation
There is often a gap between how a system is built to operate, and how users understand how it operates.
Gulf of execution
Users
System
Gulf of evaluation

20. Seven stages of action (Norman, 1988)
forming a goal
forming the intention
specifying an action
executing the action
perceiving the state of the world
interpreting the state of the world
evaluating the outcome

21. HCI research areas – by conferences & journals
UbiComp
CSCW
CHI
AVI
TEI
PerDis
Group
ISS
HCI
TOCHI
IJHCI
IJHCS
Interacting with Computers
Computers in Human Behavior

22. Genres of HCI research

23. CHI 2016 Technical Program Preview

24. ISS 2017 Program Overview

25. Physikit: Data Engagement Through Physical Ambient Visualizations in the Home

26. HaptiColor: Interpolating Color Information as Haptic Feedback to Assist the Color Blind

27. Do Users' Perceptions of Password Security Match Reality?

28. Exploring the Design Space for Energy-Harvesting Situated Displays

29. RoomAlive: Magical Experiences Enabled by Scalable, Adaptive Projector-Camera Units

30. Lessons from the WILD Room, an Interactive Multi-Surface Environment

31. To do: HW 1– DUE Today Readings: None
Proposal presentations – DUE next week