Thursday, 26 February

Usability Testing, Responsive Design, A-B Testing, Tools for UXD, Steve Krug

Fast Company: "Who Does What? A Designer's Guide to the Tech Industry"

fastcodesign.com/3032719/ui-ux-who-does-what-a-designers-guide-to-the-tech-industry 

Reminders: By noon on Friday, 27th February:

1. If you want to keep (any) of your current team members for Project 3 email your mentor, cc-ing the person/people you want to continue to work with
2. If you do not wish to work with someone, email your mentor not cc-ing the other person/people
3. If you simply wish to be assigned to a group whose performance in the course is similar to yours then email your mentor requesting that.

If you wish to take an essay exam in advance rather than the scheduled exam please contact your mentor before the week of 9th March.

In that case you will arrange a time during the week of the 9th to take the exam in the Graduate Design Lab in the Informatics building on 10th street.

The midterm exam study questions can be found here in Word format (so you can make your own study guide)

Reiterate Project 2 Assignment Elements

Recommendation: make an appointment with your mentor to review your project before submission

Interim Work Presentations?
 
In-Class Work with Teams

• Show your mentor your interim work for a participation grade for the day and feedback

Homework for Tuesday, 3 March at 12:01 am through Assignments on Oncourse.

• Complete Project 2, team member evaluations, and personal reflection on what you learned through this project, and through the term so far, and its relevance to your interests

• Complete Reading Response 7; read  UXD pp. 76 – 79 and answer:

1. What “tools” does Chris Atherton use in her work? 
2. What is the value of each one to her -- what purpose does each serve?

Tuesday, 24 February

Mapping study 2/2

Usability Testing, Responsive Design, A-B Testing, Tools for UXD, Steve Krug

Review Reading Response Questions:

1. What are the four aspects of expectation that the authors identify?
2. Explain the importance of each type of expectation in the UXD context and cite an example from your own experience, explaining it in terms of the rationale presented in the book.
3. The authors state, “It is important that experiences should promote a feeling of security and trust…” Please cite an example from the IT context of an experience that did promote trust in you and of one that did not. Explain why for each.

Review of Study Questions for Mid-term exam

The mid-term exam is at 9:30 am on Thursday, 12 March

You may make arrangements to take a five question essay test in advance if you are not going to be here on the day of the exam

Attendance Policy Reminder

Are You Happy with Your Current Teams?

• If so email your mentor, cc-ing the team members you want to continue to work with
• If not request of your mentor who else you might like to work with, cc-ing them
• Or ask to be assigned to a new team

Discuss Project 2 Progress

Have you completed your analyses?

What have you learned?

Questions?

Review Brief

Next Steps:

1. Document the results of your studies
2. Draw conclusions based on your results, answering the questions posed in the brief
3. Generate design recommendations based on what you learned -- in words and images
4. Do page layout designs to suit this content  

Considerations:

• You may find it useful to discuss the affordances, constraints, metaphors, and, in particular, the forms of feedback given as you go through your mapping time sequence. 

Presentation of Interim Work:

• Steven Fortuna, Jeremy Crawford and Adrianne Dowd 

Show Megan's Affordance and Constraint Video

Meet with your Teams

• Thursday your mentor will come around and speak to each team show him or her your interim work and you will be given a participation grade for the day based on that.

Homework for Thursday, 26 February:

• Make a plan for completing the project with your team, identify the remaining actions you need to complete
• Finalize your presentation of your analysis, generate design recommendations, mock up possible page layouts

Thursday, 19 February

Week 6: Mapping 1/2

Week's themes: Metaphor, Goal, Mapping, Fallibility

Toilet door locking interface, and feedback, on a British train:

How is your project going? Have you:

1. Looked at a few possible pieces of exercise equipment to study?
2. Chosen one to focus on?
3. Done a preliminary interaction study of that one?

Project 2: Mapping Study is about:

1. Understanding the design of the interface of a piece of professional exercise equipment.
2. Recognizing the physical elements of the interface.
3. Identifying the feedback that is given step-by-step.
4. Determining is each step effective.
5. Recommending how the user-interface design could it be improved.

We're essentially reverse-engineering the design of the user-interface.

Review Revised Project 2 Brief

What are the elements of the interface?
Taking my LiveStrong 13.0E elliptical trainer as an example:

A good process to follow:

1. One team member engages in the workout, describing each action s/he takes and the feedback given
2. A second team member videos the process for documentary purposes -- you need not necessarily include the video in your final report
3. A third member photographs the actions taken in the interface and the feedback given
4. A table can then be generated in time sequence setting out the user-interaction process:

How to engage in the process:

How to begin generating a table documenting the process:

Questions on Project 2?

Interim Work Presentation:

• Sarah Sims and James Wells
  

Review Midterm Exam Study Questions


Mentor Karthik Rao to present a HCI/d case study project:
"Das Auto - Volkswagen’s Self Driving Car.”


Work with team members


Homework for Tuesday, 24 February:

Continue work on Mapping Project, complete initial analyses of exercise equipment

Complete Reading Response 6 to be submitted through Oncourse Assignments by 12:01 am: read UXD pp. 60 – 63 and answer the following:

1. What are the four aspects of expectation that the authors identify?
2. Explain the importance of each type of expectation in the UXD context and cite an example from your own experience, explaining it in terms of the rationale presented in the book. 
3. The authors state, “It is important that experiences should promote a feeling of security and trust…” Please cite an example from the IT context of an experience that did promote trust in you and of one that did not. Explain why for each.

Tuesday, 17 February

Week 6: Mapping 1/2

Metaphor, Goal, Mapping, Fallibility


Review key concepts from reading

1. What is “mapping” in the UXD context? What is the key concept behind it? Please give a good and bad example of mapping from your experience.
2. What are metaphors and why are they important in UXD? Cite an IT metaphor from your own experience; explain how it works. 
3. What is fallibility? Why is it an important topic in UXD? Cite an example of each from your own interactions with IT. Be specific about they type of error that occurred and explain its cause using the rationale explained in the book.

Introduce Project 2: Mapping Study

Mapping Overview

Mapping in the design context involves anticipating the mental models, the tacit understandings, that people bring to their interactions with things – physical and virtual.

There is good mapping when the design supports people’s expectations, e.g. if the knobs controlling heat to the burners on a stove:

Bad mapping exists where there is no correct mental model “embedded” in the design, as in the case below. The user doesn’t know the relationship of the knobs to the burners based on this design:

In the context of this project what you are trying to determine is the extent to which the mapping of the interface designs do or do not support the actions of potential users.

To study this you can ask someone to approach the equipment and walk through all the actions needed to get it operational. The easiest way to track this is to videotape the process. Prompt the “subject” to vocalize each step they engage in and the extent to which it does, or does not help them. Afterwards you can do a diagram like the ones in Krug’s “Breadcrumbs” chapter on the stage of use (though yours may well be simpler):

Remember: there are two types of users: naïve and experienced; their points of view are different. Ideally you would study each but in this case you can choose one or the other.

Within the interface design itself there will be a variety of signifiers/affordances (e.g. buttons, perhaps a display) and perhaps some constraints (e.g. the “safety cord” on treadmills). Articulate the relationships of these to the overall mental model.

Ultimately you’re trying to “tell the story of use” of each of the two machines, from an interface point of view, and draw conclusions based on what you’ve learned of mapping, signifiers/affordances, and constraints as to how well each one does, or does not, support the activities of the user.

http://designerliness.blogspot.com/2014/02/affordances-constraints-and-natural.html


Applying Mapping to the HCI/d Context: "Navigation," or "Wayfinding":

Metaphor: Street Signs and Breadcrumbs

Meet with your new team members

In-class exercise:

• Introduce yourself to your new teammates, exchange contact information
• Show them your Mini-Project 2
• As a team diagram each stage of the process of starting up a digital device, engaging in a action, and putting it back in sleep mode.
• Outline your team's plan to begin early on your Mapping study -- what are you going to do before Thursday's class and when and where are you going to do it?
• Turn in a single write up with each of the in-class exercise answers included in it.
• Indicate whether you're willing to present your work for extra credit in Thursday's class

Homework for Thursday, 19 February:

• Meet with team and identify possible pieces of exercise equipment to use for your Mapping study
• Decide upon one piece of equipment to focus on
• Do a preliminary study of the mapping on the equipment using the Quick Start mode

Thursday, 12 February

Behavioral, Flow, Ambient Music and Video, Soft Design, Brian Eno 


From current issue of UITS Monitor: What could go wrong there?

Review of "Flow" Concept:

• What are the characteristics of a Flow state? 
• When are you in a Flow State? 
• How is the Flow concept relevant to Human-Computer Interaction Design? Be specific.  

"Reflection" definition in glossary is incorrect. According to Don Norman:

In my book Emotional Design, I proposed a framework for analyzing products in a holistic way to include their attractiveness, their behavior, and the image they present to the user -- and of the owner. In this work on design, these different aspects of a product were identified with different levels of processing by people: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. These three levels translate into three different kinds of design. Visceral design refers primarily to that initial impact, to its appearance. Behavioral design is about look and feel -- the total experience of using a product. And reflection is about ones thoughts afterwards, how it makes one feel, the image it portrays, the message it tells others about the owner's taste." (From http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/emotional_design_pe.html)

 Are there any overall questions about Mini-Project 2?

Review Mini-Project 2: Emotional Design Analysis

Student Presentation of Interim Work

• Jeremy Crawford

Paul Rodgers and Alex Milton reordered the principles, when summarizing them in their excellent book Product Design, as follows:

1. Physio-pleasure, related to the senses, e.g. the smell of chocolates, the smooth, precise feel of a scroll wheel
2. Psycho-pleasure, related to cognitive demands and emotional reactions, e.g. vinyl vs. MP3s
3. Socio-pleasure, relationship and status associated with a product, e.g. BMW or a Rolex
4. Ideo-pleasure, the most abstract or intellectual level, e.g. art, books, or music

(More on the origin of these terms can be found at: http://designerliness.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-four-effects-of-design-as-there.html)


Clino Trini Castelli: Soft Diagram

Brian Eno: Ambient Music, Video, and Installations

Video: http://vimeo.com/67252143

The main point of all of this -- it's not the "stuff" that matters, it's the experience that arises from interacting with the stuff. Start with the experience, the desired "feel," emotion -- and work backwards to the means to give rise to those feelings.

Homework for Tuesday, 17 February at 12:01 am through Assignments on Oncourse:

• Complete Mini-Project 2: Emotional Design analysis
• Complete Reading Response 5: Read from Universal Principles of Design “Mapping” (PDFs linked to blog) and UXD pp. 56 – 59:

1. What is “mapping” in the UXD context? What is the key concept behind it? 
2. Please give a good and bad example of mapping from your experience.
3. What are metaphors and why are they important in UXD? Cite an IT metaphor from your own experience; explain how it works.
4. What is fallibility? Why is it an important topic in UXD? Cite an example of each
   from your own interactions with IT. Be specific about they type of error that
   occurred and explain its cause using the rationale explained in the book.

Tuesday, 10 February

Week 5: Emotional Design

Behavioral, Flow, Ambient Music and Video, Soft Design, Brian Eno

If you wish to work on Project 2 with any (or all) of your teammates from Project 1,  please email your mentor by midnight tonight.

This week we'll go beyond mere function to look at emotion and experience in design

Introduce Mini-Project 2: Emotional Design Analysis

Review: What is the meaning of the three levels, or aspects, of Emotional Design?

1. Visceral
2. Behavioral
3. Reflective

http://www.breitling.com/en/models/colt/colt-automatic/

In-class exercise:

• With your neighbor, discuss your possible choices of object to analyze from the Emotional Design perspective
• Review, with your neighbor, the visceral, behavioral, and reflective aspects of your final choice
• Submit a short write-up indicating the choice of object for your Emotional Design analysis, include your full name, mentor name, and the date and turn it in to your mentor at the end of class.
• Indicate, on your write up, if you would be willing to present your interim work, for extra credit, on Thursday.

Getting "Hooked" on Digital Technology

Full article at: http://www.economist.com/news/business/21637398-how-digital-firms-create-products-get-inside-peoples-heads-getting-hooked

Malcolm Gladwell "The Stickiness Factor"
http://malcolmgladwelltippingpoint.wikispaces.com/The+Stickiness+Factor

"The specific quality that a message needs to be successful is the quality of 'stickiness.' Is the message-or the food, or the movie, or the product-memorable? Is it so memorable, in fact, that it can create change, that it can spur someone to action?"

The Stickiness factor involves how effective an idea or product stays in the mind of the potential viewer or consumer. We take for granted many of things that we see or experience throughout the day, but subconsciously they have a large effect on us. Someone somewhere engineered external stimuli in order to to impact us.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow Concept

In-class writing 2:

• What are the characteristics of a Flow state? 
• When are you in a Flow State? 
• How is the Flow concept relevant to Human-Computer Interaction Design? Be specific. 

Homework for Thursday, 12 February:

• Finalize your choice for your Emotional Design analysis
• Preliminarily write up, and visually document, the presence of the three Emotional Design aspects in it, from your point of view.

Thursday, 5 February

Visceral, The Three “Levels” of Emotional Design

Due date clarification:

• Project 1: Affordance and Constraint analysis: Tuesday, 10 February
• Mini-Project 2: Emotional Design study: Tuesday, 17 February

Project 1 Completion Hints

• Read the brief very carefully, it is the checklist that sets out the criteria by which your project will be assessed.
• Answer remaining questions on the assignment

Look at student example of interim work -- case study analyses and layout options

• Kimberlee Bussey, Joe Compion, Morgan Baker
• Grant Muterspaugh, Sheunopa Mugobogobo, Bryant Mehay 

Don Normanhttp://www.jnd.org/

Nielsen Norman Group
http://www.nngroup.com/

Meet with team members

In-class writing: Write up your specific plan, as a team, to complete the project

Homework for Tuesday, 10 February at 12:01 am through Oncourse Assignments:

• Complete Project 1: Affordances + Constraints analysis, evaluation of each team member, and reflection on what you learned from the project and its applicability
• Choose an object of importance to you to use as the subject of Mini-Project 2: Emotional Design
• Complete Reading Response 4, Read UXD pp. 54 – 55 and answer:

1. What are the three “levels” of Emotional Design outlines by Donald A. Norman? 
2. What is the importance of each?

Tuesday, 3 February

Week 4: Affordances and Constraints 2/2

Visceral, The Three “Levels” of Emotional Design

Please sit with your group and team again!

Informatics Connect

Double-click on image above to download PDF of complete project

Review Project 1 Brief

Reiterate formatting requirements

Review student interim work:

• Lucas Lim, Alec Mandla, Donald Lewis
• Alex Nottingham, Christopher Podlaski, Daniel Olsson

Meet in teams

Homework for Thursday, 5 February:

• Continue drafting project text and refining presentation of examples 
• Mock-up three potential page layouts