INF3720 Tutorial letter 202-assignemnt+2-memo PDF

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INF3720/202 /Tutorial letter 202 /1/Assignment 2 MemoHuman Computer InteractionINFSemester 1School of ComputingInstructions to markers Comments in red provide information on how to allocate marks The total marks for this assessment is 80 marks. Do not mark question 1 to save time The due date for su...

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INF3720/202/2016

Tutorial letter 202/1/2016 Assignment 2

Memo

Human Computer Interaction INF3720 Semester 1 School of Computing Instructions to markers • Comments in red provide information on how to allocate marks • The total marks for this assessment is 80 marks. • Do not mark question 1 to save time • The due date for submitting this assignment is 06 April 2016.

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Question 1

[Not marked for students]

For this question, you need access to a web browser connected to the Internet. Visit the myUnisa web page (or any other) that provides some sort of interactive facility. (Alternatively you can consider a software system or a handheld device such as a mobile phone or a camera.) Briefly familiarize yourself with the material on the page and the way a user can interact with it and then evaluate it for answers to the following questions. 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

1.5 1.6 1.7

Provide the URL of the web page that you visited. From your first impressions, write down what first comes to mind as to what is good and bad about the way the web page works. Give a description of the user experience resulting from interacting with it. Based on the material in the prescribed book and any other related material, compile a set of usability and user experience goals that you think are most relevant in evaluating the site. Decide which are the most important ones and explain why. Translate each of your set of usability and user experience goals into two or three specific questions. Then use them to assess how well the page fares. Repeat 1.4 and 1.5 using the design principles from the prescribed book. Finally, discuss possible improvements to the interface based on the answers obtained for 1.4 and 1.5.

Answer The answer to this question lies in being able to evaluate an interactive product by explaining what is good or bad about it in terms of the goals and core principles of interaction design. On this question students are expected to give a variety of answers depending on the website that they have chosen to evaluate. Therefore, marks should be allocated based on how the student managed to apply the goals and principles of interaction design. The above question could have been answered as follows: 1.1 Provide the URL of the web page that you visited. https://my.unisa.ac.za/portal 1.2

From your first impressions, write down what first comes to mind as to what is good and bad about the way the web page works. The students’ comments should be based on the following design characteristics of website design: • Content, organization and readability • Navigation and links • User interface • Performance and effectiveness • Help information What is good about the website should provide positive user experience to the above points and the bad should provide negative user experience. Examples of what is good about the myUnisa website according to some students’ experiences: • The website is visually appealing. Matches with the university colors. • The layout of the website is consistent, simple, and easy to use. • The website does not contain distracting elements such as animations.

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• • • • • • • • •

One click takes you to correct page with the appropriate content, for example learning resources. The site menu or links to the functions of the website are visible on the page and easy to navigate. The active link on the website is highlighted in bold font. Access to personal information is protected by a password. Students can register and obtain login details online. Login field is visible to the website users. Top right corner. Provide a calendar with important upcoming events, e.g. due dates The website has links to other university pages such as social media, Facebook, Twitter etc. Contact details of lecturers are visible. Web site is accessible on most browsers including mobile phone.

Examples of what is bad about myUnisa website according to some students’ experiences: • At the beginning of this semester the website was slow to download and sometimes not available. When it is not available to technical difficulties, the error message will suggest try again later but later could mean after 30 minutes or even the next day – no definitive timeframe or reasoning for it being down. • The assignment submission tool sometimes does not work, especially towards the due dates of assignments. • Links that have been visited do not change color. • There is unnecessary wasted white space between the footer and the bottom of “Notices” box. • No help function on the menu. Students could need help on how to navigate the website. • The claim UNISA login icon may confuse the users, the envelope icon is associated with email so it could mean check for email. • For a new UNISA student who is not aware that they have to claim their UNISA login, they would be lost on the site not being able to utilize any of the functions. When we mouse over ‘Claim UNISA Login’ – the help message also displays ‘Claim Unisa login’ but that is duplication and is not an actual further explanation on how to login. If the help message is ‘Claim UNISA Login if New student’, that would be more directive as an instruction so that new users would know what is required of them. 1.3

Give a description of the user experience resulting from interacting with it. Users experience is concerned with a user’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product (myUnisa). It includes the practical, experimental, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human computer interaction. The answer to the above question should be based on the following desirable and undesirable aspects of user experience, see Table 1. Table 1. Desirable aspects Satisfying, enjoyable, engaging, pleasurable, exciting, entertaining, helpful, motivating, challenging, enhancing, supportive, simulating , fun, provocative, surprising, rewarding, emotionally fulfilling

Undesirable aspects Boring, frustrating, making one feel guilty, annoying, childish, unpleasant, patronizing, make one feel foolish

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1.4

INF3720 Based on the material in the prescribed book and any other related material, compile a set of usability and user experience goals that you think are most relevant in evaluating the site. Decide which are the most important ones and explain why.

Answer Students are expected to compile a list of usability goals that are applicable to their situation. Some students may find some goals to be applicable. Usability goals: • Effective to use (effectiveness) • Efficient to use (efficiency) • Safe to use (safety) • Having good utility (utility) • Easy to learn (learnability) • Easy to remember how to use (memorability) User experience goals • See the desirable aspects of user experience listed in Table 1. 1.5

Translate each of your set of usability and user experience goals into two or three specific questions. Then use them to assess how well the page fares. Answer Usability goals are operationalized as questions, which provide a means of assessing aspects of usability of a product and the user experience. By answering the questions, the designers would be alerted early in the process of the bottlenecks that might not have been considered. Usability goals • Effective to use (effectiveness) Does the myUnisa website allow students to learn by accessing resources, interacting and communicating with other students and lecturers? •

Efficient to use (efficiency) Does the myUnisa website facilitate students to efficiently access resources, interact and communicate with other students and lecturers?

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Safe to use (safety) Which errors would students encounter when accessing resources, interacting or communicating? What measures are there for the students to recover from errors?

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Having good utility (utility) Does myUnisa provide appropriate functions that enable students to access, interact and communicate in distance learning? What other additionalities are necessary?

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Easy to learn (learnability) How easy is it to learn how to use the functionality of myUnisa website?

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Easy to remember how to use (memorability) What kind of interface support has been provided to help students remember how to carry out tasks for example, accessing resources, interacting and communicating?

User experience goals 4

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Similar to usability goals, user experience goals can be turned into specific questions. Based on Table 1, formulate specific questions based on the user experience goals. 1.6

Repeat 1.4 and 1.5 using the design principles from the prescribed book. Answer Design principles: • Visibility • Feedback • Constraints • Consistency • Affordance Specific questions based on design principles Formulate some specific question for the above principles in similar way to question 1.5. for example: Visibility Are the functions for accessing learning resources, interacting and communication easy to find on the myUnisa websites? Feedback When the myUnisa website is processing a student request, does it provide a user with feedback on what is happening? Etc…

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Finally, discuss possible improvements to the interface based on the answers obtained for 1.4 and 1.5. Answer Different improvements as specified by students.

Question 2

[20 marks]

In HCI we consider how interactive systems can be designed to provoke or avoid emotional responses within users. Choose the following three aspects of emotional interaction or affective computing as subheadings and explain how interfaces and interaction experiences can engender emotions in the user. In each subsection, use your mobile phone to give examples of specific techniques or objects that elicit various kinds of emotional responses. The subheadings are: expressive interfaces (6 marks), frustrating interfaces (8 marks), and persuasive technologies (6 marks). Answer (Students are expected to contextualize the answers to their mobile phone experiences. Without contextualizing they lose marks).

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INF3720 i. Expressive interface forms like: emoticons, sounds, icons, visual agents, animations, vibration feedback, spoken messages have been used to: • convey emotional states; and / or (both the user and the interface) • Elicit certain kinds of emotional responses in users, such as feeling at ease, comfort, and happiness. Icons and animations have been used to indicate the current state of a mobile phone, notably when it is booting up or being rebooted. The icon conveys a sense of friendliness, inviting the user to feel at home. The appearance of the icon on the screen is also very reassuring to users, indicating that their mobile phone is working correctly. (only explaining and providing examples of expressive interfaces, 3 marks) Examples of mobile phone expressive interfaces: (providing examples of expressive interfaces based on mobile phone experience, 3 marks) • Dynamic icons (e.g.: recycle bin expanding when a file is placed in it); • Animations (e.g.: battery icon showing how far the battery is charging, icons for the various apps making it easy to see what you choosing without thinking); • Spoken messages, using various kinds of voices, telling the user what needs to be done (e.g.: GPS); • Various sonifications indicating actions and events (eg: pop up messages that remind you to change your mobile phone password or to upgrade apps) • Vibrotactile feedback (eg: Cell phone buzzes for certain types of calls). • Users can also express their emotions e.g. - by using emoticons in Whatsapp messages. • Personalization of graphical user interfaces of mobile phones, e.g a picture in the background. • Good looking interfaces are often more satisfying and pleasurable to use. A key concern is therefore to strike a balance between designing aesthetic and usable interfaces. (E.g. with most mobile phone what the user would like to see and shortcut icons can all be changed to suit the user preference) ii. Frustrating: application not working or crashing, user expectations not met, application does not do what the users wants, vague error messages, gimmicky, patronizing, interface, too many steps to do a task, insufficient info. (Listing frustrations only without giving examples 3 marks) Typical reasons for frustration when using a mobile phone: (giving examples of frustrations based on their mobile phone experiences, 5 marks). 1. Application does not work properly e.g. when you want to use certain apps the mobile phone freezes and you have to reboot the phone. 2. Doesn't do what users want it to, e.g. the auto correct when typing messages, if you do not double check before sending messages, you would send meaningless messages. 3. Not sufficient information, e.g. help documentation on mobile phone apps does not usually provide sufficient instructions for a user to successfully configure an application. 4. Vague/obtuse error messages, e.g. error messages such as “system not available, try later” are meaningless because they do not specify a time period after when a user can try again. It would be more helpful to provide information about how to resolve / overcome the problem. Threatening error messages can also cause users to become anxious. The use of bold red letters and exclamation marks can be counter-productive. Ideally, error messages should be treated as "how to fix it" messages. They should state the cause of the problem, and what the user needs to do to fix it. 5. Frustration can happen with voice commands. Sometimes voice commands fail to recognise some people’s accents. 6. Websites or software apps that take a long time to download can be frustrating. Links that hang and eventually do not load can also be very annoying. 7. Another common frustration is upgrading software. More often than not it is time-consuming, and requires a range of things such as resetting preferences, checking configurations, and learning new 6

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ways of doing things. 8. Mobile websites that are overloaded by text and graphics, making it difficult to find and access information, too much scrolling; 9. Typing on a phone's default on-screen keyboard can be frustrating due to errors. iii. Persuasive technologies currently being used to change people’s behavior includes pop-ups, warning messages, reminders, prompts, personalized messages, etc. Persuasive strategies include: Just in time persuasion, Simulating experience, Personalizing, Recommendation, Monitoring and tracking, Competition and recognition. (only explaining and giving examples of persuasive technologies, 3 marks) Mobile phone persuasive technology experience (Students are expected to give a variety of technologies that are based on their experiences, 3 marks).

Question 3

[20 marks]

Assume that you are involved in developing a new mobile phone e-learning site for a high school mathematics course. Suggest ways of applying the user-centered principles in this task.

Answer Early focus on users and tasks (8 marks) Students are expected to contextualize the answers to their mobile phone experiences) Understand the high school students by directly studying their cognitive, behavioural, anthropomorphic, and attitudinal characteristics. In this case we know that our users are going to be high school students. • The syllabus and outcomes have to be studied, and subject matter experts consulted, and it should be determined how technology can be used to improve the learning experience. This requires observing higher school students doing their normal tasks, studying the nature of those tasks, and then involving the students in the design process. (explaining the main principle, 3 marks) Students are expected to expand on the above to discuss the design of mobile phone e-learning site under the following sub principles (5 marks). • User tasks and goals are the driving force behind the development - Technology should not be the driving force • User’s behavior and context of use are studied and the system is designed to support them. • User’s characteristics are captured and designed for. • Users are consulted throughout the development from the earliest phases to the latest and their input is seriously taken into account. • All design decisions are taken within the context of the users, their work, and their environment. Empirical measurement (6 marks) (Students are expected to contextualize this to the design of a mobile phone e-learning site. Without contextualizing students lose marks) At the beginning of the project, identify and document the targeted usability and user experience goals. This enables the mobile phone e-learning site to be empirically evaluated at regular stages as it is developed. The insights gathered from these measurements can guide the designers to choose between alternative designs. Iterative design (6 marks) (Students are expected to contextualize this to the design of a mobile phone elearning site. Without contextualizing students lose marks) Feedback is essential to the iterative design process. Iteration is required because designers never get the solution right the first time.

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INF3720 When problems are found in user testing, they are fixed and then more tests and observations are carried out to see the effects of the fixes. This means that design and development is iterative, with cycles of designtest-measure-redesign being repeated as often as necessary. Question 4 [20 marks] Compare usability testing (UT) and field studies (FS) under the following headings: 4.1 The environment in which the evaluation is conducted (4 marks). 4.2 The participants (2 marks) 4.3 Data collection (6 marks). 4.4 Advantages and disadvantages (8 marks) ( (2 marks for disadvantages and 2 marks for advantages per category) x 2 = 8 marks). Answer 4.1 The environment in which the evaluation is conducted • Field Studies are conducted in the natural environment where the system or product is used. For example, at a company where the product would be used. • Usability testing is conducted in a laboratory where the conditions are controlled during the experiment. For example, a usability laboratory. 4.2 The participants. • For Usability Testing, 5 to12 users are an acceptable number. • For Field Studies may include thousands or even just one participant. 4.3 Data collection. Usability testing • The focus is mainly on the product being tested and its usability problems. • Data collection includes user test, interviews and user satisfaction questionnaire, which are lab based. • Variables are controlled during data collection. • Data is captured through video recording of body gestures, think aloud, observations, completing questionnaire survey and structured or semi structured interviews. Field testing • The focus is on the user, the environment and the product. • Data collection is mostly by qualitative, involving observations, focus groups and interviews. • Variables not controlled during data collection. • Data is captured through audio and video recording, taking field notes, filling diaries 4.4 Advantages and disadvantages. Advantages • Feedback is direct from Usability testing target audience • Variables are controllable • Security of sensitive data be enforced • Ability to capture user reactions through body gestures, language and facial expression of participants. 8

Disadvantages • Laboratory based usability studies capture a snapshot of the use in a simulated use environment. • Simulating the use setting is very hard, time consuming, expensive and sometimes impossible to attain • users are isolated from contextual factors • new electronic devices are used in a

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Field testing

• Eliminates both the need for a lab environment and the effect of a lab environment on participants • Accommodates diverse groups of participants • Generally is less expensive than a traditional in-person lab testin...