Notes
1UX does have one advantage in that it is a new, practical, cross-disciplinary subject. No one has yet trained on a bespoke UX only degree programme, and so everyone has their own background and ‘slant’ to the area. There are many UX Industrial Departments/Companies, there are few UX courses. The combination of your technical Computer Science training coupled with this UX training will give you an advantage; a software focused UX professional.↩
2Email me with any jargon I haven’t explained, or that you think I should explain better.↩
Part I: Introducing the User Experience
1see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo.↩
2see Ben Goldacre’s http://www.badscience.net/.↩
3see Steve J. Martin’s http://scienceofyes.com/↩
4Conducted by Wesley Schultz (Behavioural Scientist).↩
5Defining Human science within the context of HCI is a difficult proposition especially for an empirical, small ‘p’ positivist, such as myself. However, I see Human science as the investigation of human life and human activities that acknowledges the validity of data derived by impartial observation within an empirical framework. It includes the subjects such as history, sociology, anthropology, psychology and economics. And while not able to validate the subjective aspect of human life and activity, can contribute to an understanding of the human experience.↩
6The ‘up–side’ is that this level of complexity makes the study of the user experience incredibly interesting and incredibly challenging if done correctly.↩
7Such as the keyboard, mouse, trackpad, or trackball.↩
8Such as the monitor.↩
9Such as windows, panes, panels, and the like.↩
10Often as Universal Modelling Language (UML): Use Case Diagrams, the abstract description of user task composition and flow; Scenarios, Sequence Diagrams, and Narrative Text, the concrete description of user tasks; along with Class Diagrams, the description of user domain concepts; you probably already have experience of this from your second year software engineering course.↩
11Mark Bernstein’s - Creator of ‘TinderBox’ - view.↩
12Indeed, if you’re reading this - you are probably an immigrant from the ‘technical’ Computer Science / Software Engineering domain.↩
13…and so this is how this text is structured.↩
Part II: Designing the User Experience
1The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula is used by the US Government Department of Defence as a standard test.↩
2We’ll talk more about affective computing later.↩
3…and many other tablet computers.↩
4I say subjects here because this is the old name for participants – implicitly indicating a power dynamic with the scientist or experimenter.↩
5The definitive record of the English language.↩
6You should also remember that changes and tweaks to methods or processes may indeed be useful and based on long experience – however you should also be realistic – they may also be based on the desire to sell more, and different, books and training texts.↩
7Now you’ll start to see some ‘bleed’ between terms. Requirements Engineering (Elicitation and Analysis) is pretty formal and is ‘well’ know in the software engineering domain. UCD isn’t as well known in the engineering community and uses less formal methods to convey understanding. I’m agnostic to an extent but I think a combination of both is a better way of building our ‘Hat Rack for Understanding’ than one type alone. In this case, I try to marry terms and use interchangeable language to get the process. In the end, we want to pick tools and techniques – ‘magpie-like’ – which suit us. ↩
8Currently, some organisations get their software engineers to elicit requirements, although I would contend that this is not necessarily in their area of expertise.↩
9We’ll discuss these real world implications more fully later.↩
10Indeed, I even worked on one such tool called MOOSE ‘Model-based Object Oriented System Engineering’; with Derrick Morris, Gareth Evans, and Peter Green.↩
11Within the UCD process the post-it note is very similar to standard index card often used for a process known as ‘Card Sorting’ and, in this case, provides a familiarity to the UX’er, which may not be possible with different kinds of technical software tools.↩
12Anthropologists and sociologists describe data capture variously as fieldwork, ethnography, case study, qualitative research, interpretative procedures, and field research. However, among anthropologists fieldwork is synonymous with the collection of data using observational methods. For the sociologist, the term often describes the collection of data using a social survey.↩
13Persona Example: Mary has a learning disability. She finds looking at images on a webpage very distracting. Mary would like to see all images rendered in the following order. First, for images with long descriptions have the long description rendered in place of the image. If the long description does not exit, she wants the ‘alt text’ to be rendered. If neither is available, Mary wants the file name rendered. Added functionality would allow Mary to right click (context menu) on an image to list and select the rendering of the available alternatives (thumbnail, original size, full screen, low resolution, high resolution, alt text, long description, file name). Juan is hard of hearing. He wants always to see a video on the page. Also, Juan would like the Spanish language track used if available, along with Spanish captions as a default. If these are not available, he wants to see the video with English audio and captions. If no captions are available, Juan wants the video and English audio. Added functionality would allow Juan to right click (context menu) on a video to list and select the rendering of the available alternatives. (W3c WAI UAAG Version 2). ↩
14http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2006/05/18/yahoos-approach-to-keeping-personas-alive/↩
15MUST, SHOULD, COULD, or WON’T.↩
16Anchoring or focalism is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the “anchor”) when making decisions —Wikipedia.↩
Part III: Building the User Experience
1Such as Microsoft’s - now defunct - Pioneer Studios.↩
2We’ll discuss these real world implications more fully later on.↩
3Indeed, code with is open to the scrutiny of peers (such as open-source code) is often found to be more elegant and less error prone than code that is hidden from scrutiny. ↩
4You never really know what you need - you just think you do - so this section should be titled ‘Kinda Know What You Need…’.↩
5http://www.agilealliance.org/.↩
7Concerned with, or having the function of, carrying into effect, executing, or accomplishing; (of a cause) that makes something to be what it is, efficient (cf. effective cause n. at Special uses). / Having the power of acting upon the thing designated. (OED).↩
8That produces its intended effect, or adequately answers its purpose (OED).↩
9The removal of all technical barriers to effective interaction – this is my definition, but there are plenty more in the Appendix.↩
10http://http://www.sonyericsson.com.↩
11http://www.littlefluffytoys.com.↩
12Indeed, we could think of all users on a continuum of personal difference and requirements (which psychology alludes to in that disciplines study of individual difference and Differential Psychology) include cognitive differences (disputed by some but know as cognitive style).↩
13Visual acuity (VA) is acuteness or clearness of vision, more technically, a measure of the spatial resolution of the visual processing system. In the expression, 20/40 vision, the 20 is the distance in feet between the subject and the chart. The 40 means that the subject can read the chart as well as a normal person can read a chart that is 40 feet away. This is calculated by finding the smallest optotype they can identify and calculate the distance at which it has a visual angle of 5 arcminutes. A vision of 20/20 is considered nominal performance for human distance vision. A vision of 20/40 is considered half as good as nominal performance. A vision of 20/10 is considered twice as good as nominal performance — Wikipedia.↩
14We conclude the same in some recent work we have just completed.↩
15After all, a system may still be used even if it fails every so often.↩
16Productive of effects; effective; adequately operative. The cause that makes effects be what they are (esp. of a system or machine) achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense — OED. ↩
17The fact or quality of being usable (That can be used; that can be readily put to practical use) — OED. The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use — ISO.}. ↩
18There are other more aesthetic considerations – which we will look at later – in that the brushed stainless steel dial frames the display while the ring’s curved, neutral silver finish creates a chameleon effect that grounds Nest within its environment by picking up the colour of the wall upon which it’s mounted. This combination of sleek design elements and premium materials makes Nest a thermostat a user can feel proud to display in your home. ↩
19…not least because the requirement to interact with the thermostat is sporadic; therefore reducing the familiarity that would become a learned behaviour to a bespoke interface. ↩
20PARC definitely ‘Eat Their Own Dog Food’! ↩
21Remember, usability principles sell books!↩
22We’ll call them Principles from now on.↩
23B. Shneiderman and C. Plaisant. Designing the user interface: strategies for effective human-computer interaction. Addison-Wesley, Boston, 5th ed edition, 2010.↩
24D. C. Smith, C. Irby, R. Kimball, B. Verplank, and E. Harslem. Designing the star user interface. BYTE, 7(4):242–282, 1982.↩
25D. A. Norman. The design of everyday things. Basic Books, New York, 1st basic paperback edition, 1988.↩
26J. Nielsen. Usability engineering. Academic Press, Boston, 1993. Nielsen also lists Aesthetic and minimalist design.↩
27ISO/TR 9241-110:2006. Ergonomics of human-system interaction – part 110: Dialogue principles. TC/SC: TC 159/SC 4 ICS 13.180, International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), Geneva, Switzerland, 2006.↩
28
- Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd, and R. Beale. Human-computer interaction. Prentice Hall Europe, London, 2nd ed edition, 1998. Dix, Finally, Abowd & Beale describe ‘Learnability’ as: Predictability, Synthesizablity, Familiarity, Generalizabilty, and Consistency. ‘Flexibility’ as: Dialog initiative, Multi-threading, Task migratabilty, Subsitutivity, and Customizability. ‘Robustness’ as: Observability, Recoverability, Responsiveness, and Task conformance.
29J. Raskin. The humane interface: new directions for designing interactive systems. Addison Wesley, Reading, Mass., 2000.↩
30H. Sharp, Y. Rogers, and J. Preece. Interaction design: beyond human-computer interaction. Wiley, Chichester, 2nd ed edition, 2007. Preece, Rogers and Sharp also list Satisfying, Enjoyable, Fun, Entertaining, Helpful, Motivating, Aesthetic, Supports creativity, Rewarding, and Emotionally fulfilling.↩
31F. P. Brooks. The mythical man-month: essays on software engineering. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., Reading, Mass., anniversary ed edition, 1995.↩
32Such as those for the Mac OSX http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/Intro/Intro.html↩
33http://www.guidebookgallery.org/articles/handsacrossthescreen.↩
34Of or relating to the affections or emotions, esp. as contrasted with the intellect or rational faculty; emotional. Psychol. and Psychiatry. Of, relating to, or involving feelings, emotion, or mood. AFFECT - Philos. An emotional, unreflective response. Psychol. (and Psychiatry). A feeling or subjective experience accompanying a thought or action or occurring in response to a stimulus; an emotion, a mood. In later use also (usu. as a mass noun): the outward display of emotion or mood, as manifested by facial expression, posture, gestures, tone of voice, etc. — OED. ↩
35Of or relating to the emotions; based on or appealing to the emotions. any strong mental or instinctive feeling, as pleasure, grief, hope, fear, etc., deriving esp. from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationship with others — OED. ↩
36We’ll call them Principles later on.↩
37H. Sharp, Y. Rogers, and J. Preece. Interaction design: beyond human-computer interaction. Wiley, Chichester, 2nd ed edition, 2007.↩
38J. Nielsen. Usability engineering. Academic Press, Boston, 1993.↩
39D. A. Norman. Emotional design: why we love (or hate) everyday things. Basic Books, New York, 2004.↩
40J. Khaslavsky and N. Shedroff. Understanding the seductive experience. Commun. ACM, 42:45–49, May 1999.↩
41B. Reeves and C. I. Nass. The media equation: how people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places. CSLI Publications, Stanford, Calif., 1996.↩
42B. J. Fogg. Persuasive technology: using computers to change what we think and do. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Amsterdam, 2003. Touch-points include – Physical, physiological, language, social dynamics, and social roles.↩
43P. W. Jordan. Designing pleasurable products: an introduction to the new human factors. Taylor & Francis e–Library, London, 2003. Touch-points include – physio pleasure, socio-pleasure, psycho pleasure, Ideo pleasure.↩
44M. Csikszentmihalyi. Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row, New York, 1st ed edition, 1990.↩
45The concept of flow also impacts on learnability, progressiveness, and situational.↩
46Owned and run by Ling Valentine (aka ‘Crazy Ling’).↩
47A category of taste in food (besides sweet, sour, salty, and bitter), corresponding to the flavour of glutamate, especially monosodium glutamate. ORIGIN Japanese, literally ‘deliciousness.’ ↩
48Audrey Crane, A Gamification Framework for Interaction Designers, ARTICLE NO. 678 May 24, 2011, http://tinyurl.com/bq57vgg↩
49Ian Bogost, My position statement at the Wharton Gamification Symposium, August 8, 2011, http://bogo.st/wm.↩
50To urge, exhort, persuade, or induce —OED.↩
51Such as ‘Waze’ which is gamified crowdsourcing of traffic data. Waze say that *‘Waze is all about contributing to the ‘common good’ out there on the road. By connecting drivers to one another, we help people create local driving communities that work together to improve the quality of everyone’s daily driving (thanks for pointing this ground-up gamified app out Nima Ara). ↩
52Kolibree is a connected electric toothbrush, equipped with sonic technology to make your teeth brushing more efficient. Its sensors interact with mobile apps for adults and children to make brushing an enjoyable experience. Kolibree helps the whole family learn about and improve their oral hygiene [Various, 2014a, 2006].↩
53Again, we’ll work them into Principles later on.↩
54K. Duggan, Badgerville http://www.badgeville.com/.}↩
55S. P. Anderson\index{Anderson, S. P.}. Seductive Interaction design: creating playful, fun, and effective user experiences. New Riders, Berkeley, CA, 2011.}↩
56M. Csikszentmihalyi. Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. Harper \& Row, New York, 1st ed edition, 1990.}↩
57S. Weinschenk. 100 things every designer needs to know about people. Voices that matter. New Riders, Berkeley, CA, 2011.}↩
58R. Paharia, Bunchball http://www.bunchball.com.}↩
59H. Sharp, Y. Rogers, and J. Preece. Interaction design: beyond human-computer interaction. Wiley, Chichester, 2nd ed edition, 2007.}↩
60M. A. Blythe. Funology: from usability to enjoyment, volume v. 3. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2003.}↩
61J. Khaslavsky and N. Shedroff. Understanding the seductive experience. Commun. ACM, 42:45–49, May 1999.}↩
62
- Crane, DesignMap http://www.designmap.com/.
63D. A. Norman. Emotional design: why we love (or hate) everyday things. Basic Books, New York, 2004.}↩
64G. Zichermann and C. Cunningham. Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps. 2011. Particularly his SAPS (status, access, power, and stuff) model.}↩
65…and because I’m not yet wholly convinced.↩
Part IV: Validating the User Experience
1The Net Promoter Score is obtained by asking customers a question such as ‘How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?’ rated on a 10 point scale from ‘not’ to ‘very’.↩
2Such as UsaProxy, which is based upon an HTTP proxy approach. Logging is automatically done on an intermediate computer lying between the web browser and the web servers while multiple users surf the web. The assumption is that all page requests, the browsers make, go through the proxy — http://fnuked.de/usaproxy/index.htm. ↩
3Here touched on for completeness.↩
4Interestingly this expectation was ripe in the 19th and early 20th century with anthropologist’s who conduct their work from the veranda of their bungalows in faraway countries, expecting their ‘subjects’ to come to them as opposed to them embedding with the population that they were studying; this led to the derogatory term ‘veranda anthropology’ that produced many incorrect, badly interpreted, florid, and in some cases sanitised results.↩
5The observation room is connected to the user room normally via one-way mirrors (of the type you’d probably see in popular crime dramas in which an observation room is linked to an interrogation room via a one-way mirror), or in some cases a closed-circuit television is used such that all angles can be covered, and all interaction observed.↩
6Thanks for pointing to this Josh Nolan.↩
7Therefore, the conclusion must be true provided that the premises are true.↩
8Note that you could not say ‘Therefore, all cows eat vegetables’ because fruit also contains only plant matter; as do grass and trees.↩
9In philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know ‘things,’ part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or ‘the Theory of Knowledge’. Empiricism emphasises the role of experience and evidence, especially sensory perception, in the formation of ideas, while discounting the notion of innate ideas.}↩
10In which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive.↩
11Null being from the Latin ‘nullus’, which means not any; hence, not any difference between the two conditions beyond chance variations.↩
12…also, as we’ll see this later↩
13Taken from Kernighan and Ritchie’s ‘c’ programming language, which was called ‘c++’ by Stroustrup, when he extended it.↩
14…which, rather than beginning with a hypothesis, actually starts with data collection, from which understanding emerges, which then help hypotheses/assertions/theories to be formed. This is almost in a reverse fashion from scientific research and therefore, many scientists feel it be in contradiction to the scientific method.↩
15Professor emeritus of higher education and organisational change at the University of California at Los Angeles.↩
16In ‘Academically Adrift,’ Data Don’t Back Up Sweeping Claim↩
17Read on – but be aware that you may need to skip ahead and then jump back here. I want to tell you this caveat now because it is important to discuss it early which you are still forming your opinions.↩
Part V: In Real Life
1For instance, Brooks initially states that code should not be hidden from other developers on the same project. He suggests openness and open scrutiny increases code quality; thereby supporting the work of Harlan Mills and undermining the work of David Parnas. After 20 years he cites Object Oriented Programming and the concept of abstraction for why he thinks he was wrong – 20 years ago – and why Parnas was right. I’d disagree, or, at least, be more specific in that abstraction is good in use, but openness is good in an audit. We can see that open source software suffers fewer bugs and has increased code quality, mainly because of the oversight (our reputation to our peers - maybe) of other coders.↩
2Further this way of thinking of disposable prototypes does not contradict the idea of the incremental build, rapid prototyping, or the build-every-night approach. These items can still occur because the build does not imply a finished product but just the absence of bugs in the program logic (No complier errors). The misconception of user requirements and the need for full system changes – at least at the interface level – are still very present; indeed, the ebb and flow of the user dictates this is so.↩
Appendices
1AllAboutUx provides information about user experience (UX). The information on the site is collected from the UX community and is shared and maintained by volunteers: Virpi Roto; Ming Lee; Kari Pihkala; Brenda Castro; Arnold Vermeeren; Effie Law; Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila; Jettie Hoonhout; and Marianna Obrist. I’d like to thank everyone who contributes to allaboutux.org, it is a great community resource. ↩
2These definitions were compiled for a project involving Yeliz Yesilada, Giorgio Brajnik, Markel Vigo, and myself. Thanks mainly go to Yeliz Yesilada, at the Middle Eastern Technical University (Cyprus Campus), for compiling this list. ↩