This document discusses user-centered design and interaction. It explains that interaction design tries to bridge the world of software professionals and end users. A user-centered approach involves two-way discussions and allows software professionals to learn something new. User involvement can lead to a more appropriate product that meets user needs and expectations. There are different degrees of user involvement, from full-time participation on the design team to not involving users at all. The goals of a user-centered approach are to make the most of human skills and directly support the user. Understanding user needs requires examining existing tasks and envisioning future scenarios.

1. HUMAN COMPUTER
SEMESTER GANJIL 2023/2024
INTERACTION
Week 5 – 5 November 2023
MKP121407

2. • User-centered Design (UCD)
OUTLINE WEEK 5

3. User-Centered Approach
Interaction design tries to bridge between 2 worlds:
1. World of the software professionals (developer)
2. World of the end users
• Each world has its own knowledge and practices
• Each world has well defined boundaries
• Movement from one world to the other is known
to be difficult

4. Most of the traditional methods of communication
between the two worlds are relatively one directional :
• We analyze the requirements from the users
• We deliver a system to the users
• We collect usability data from the users
User-Centered Approach (cont.)
“Relatively few [method] involve two way discussions, and fewer still afford
opportunities for the software professionals to be surprised – i.e., to learn
something that we didn’t know we needed to know”
Michael J. Muller, Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI

5. It is a process:
• a goal directed problem solving activity informed by intended
use, target domain, materials, cost, and feasibility
• a creative activity
• a decision making activity to balance trade offs
What is “Design” in HCI?
It is a representation:
• a plan for development
• a set of alternatives & successive elaborations

6. Better understanding of user needs leads to a more appropriate and usable product.
Expectation management :
“Better to exceed users’
expectations than to fall
below them.”
Why Involve Users?
Ownership :
Users who are involved are
more likely to feel a sense of
ownership towards the product
and be receptive towards it
when it emerges

7. Who are The Users?
Not as obvious as you think :
• those who interact directly with the product
• those who manage direct users
• those who receive output from the product
• those who make the purchasing decision
• those who use competitor’s products ???
3 categories of user:
• Primary : frequent hands on
• Secondary : occasional or via someone else;
• Tertiary : affected by its introduction, or will influence its purchase.
Wider term: stakeholders

8. Who are The Users? (cont.)
What are their capabilities?
Humans vary in many dimensions!
Some examples are:
• size of hands may affect the size and positioning of
input buttons;
• motor abilities may affect the suitability of certain
input and output devices;
• height if designing a physical kiosk;
• strength - a child’s toy requires little strength to
operate, but greater strength to change batteries

9. Degrees of
Involvement
3
1
2
Full time
involvement
Keeping users
informed
Not
involving
users

10. 1 Full time involvement
How :
Hire as part of the design team
Pro :
Very familiar with the system
Con :
Could lose touch with the user group

11. 2 Keeping users informed
How :
Regular newsletters and communication channels,
workshops and evaluation sessions
Pro :
Achieving some level of involvement even with
several users
Con :
Changes are possible only from an already decided
starting point

12. 3 Not involving users
Pro :
Allows for more development time that would
otherwise be spent managing, organizing and
controlling such involvement
Con :
Users will reject the product if it doesn’t fit their
needs

13. What is a User Centered Approach?
Development driven by real users and their goals,
not just technology.
• Makes the most of human skill
• Directly relevant to the work in hand
• Supports the user, doesn’t constrain
Gould and Lewis principles for a “useful and
easy to use computer system”
• Early focus on users and tasks
• Empirical measurement
• Iterative design

14. What are ‘Needs’?
• Users rarely know what is possible
• Users can’t tell you what they ‘need’ to help them
achieve their goals
• Instead, look at existing tasks:
o their context
o what information do they require?
o who collaborates to achieve the task?
o why is the task achieved the way it is?
• Envisioned tasks :
o can be rooted in existing behaviour
o can be described as future scenarios

15. One approach to
user-centered
design has been
the introduction
of explicit
usability
engineering
goals into the
design process