Human Abilities

1. Human Abilities Sensory, motor, and cognitive capabilities

2. Outline • Last week’s example: my thoughts • Scenario discussion • Human capabilities • Senses • Motor systems • Information processing • Memory • Cognitive Processes • Selective attention, learning, problem solving, language

3. Movie Ticket Kiosk: my thoughts • Data gathering methods: • Observation of theater with and without kiosk • Observe several people up close using existing kiosks • Interview several movie owners and workers • A couple of focus groups of end users • Stakeholders: • Primary: ticket buyer • Secondary: those with the ticket buyer, theater owners/managers • Tertiary: theater employees, movie makers • Facilitating: us • User characteristics: • Wide range of ages and abilities • Wide range of education and comfort levels • Although will target basic English reading levels and computer comfort • Want entertainment, no hassle and pressure

4. Movie Ticket Kiosk • Physical environment: • Indoor or outdoor • Busy, crowded and noisy area • Will be lines of people forming • Technical environment: • Need to integrate with movie/showings database and credit card system • Social environment: • Multiple people going to same movie, maybe buying tickets together or on own • Some movies have age restrictions • Some people qualify for discounted tickets, but most don’t • Lines of people waiting to buy tickets – annoyance and social pressure

5. Movie ticket kiosk, cont. • Typical scenario of use: • Know what movie and time, see line is long at person so use kiosk, select the movie and show time, use credit card, get tickets • Atypical scenario of use: • Movie was sold out, now have to decide what to see. Call group of people back to kiosk to look through movies and show times to make decision. Finally decide on different one and purchase tickets. • HTA: goal of going to a movie, subtasks such as look at movies out, decide on movie and showtime, purchase tickets, enter theater. • ER diagram: objects such as movies, theaters, times, ticket, customer, etc. HTA would probably be more useful • Flowchart: may be even better than HTA at representing task flow: look at movies, desired movie? Then look at times. Desired time? If no, look at movies again. If yes, decide on ticket type and how many (student, regular, etc.). Purchase ticket.

6. Scenario • Its Thursday afternoon and Pat has a blackboard quiz due on Friday. This is her first class using blackboard. She sits down at her laptop to take the quiz. She access the UNCC website then 49er express. After logging on to 49er she sees the link to blackboard so she clicks on it. It prompts her to log in again, she does not understand why she would need to log in after already logging on to 49er, but she logs in even though it’s a pain because she has to get this quiz done. Then she gets an error message from blackboard that it must use pops up to work properly, Pat did not install the blocker and does not know how to disable it. Now she is realizing its crunch time and she must get this quiz done. She heads off for the library where she must access 49er express again. She then tries to access blackboard again to find out she must log in again, she again is confused as why she must log in twice but does so without questioning it because she must get this quiz taken. Finally she is able to get on blackboard and take her quiz, she feels very upset about logging on multiple times and blackboard not working on her computer.

7. Typical Person • Do we really have limited memory capacity?

8. Basic Human Capabilities • Do not change very rapidly • Not like Moore’s law! • Have limits, which are important to understand • Our abilities do not change, but our understanding of them does • Why do we care? • Better design! • Want to improve user performance • Universal design – design for everyone, including those with disabilities • We’ll come back to this later in the semester…

9. Usable Senses The 5 senses (sight, sound, touch, taste and smell) are used by us every day • each is important on its own • together, they provide a fuller interaction with the natural world Computers rarely offer such a rich interaction Can we use all the available senses? • ideally, yes • practically – no We can use • sight • sound • touch (sometimes) We cannot (yet) use • taste • smell

10. Vision Fundamentals • Retina has • 6.5 M cones (color vision), mostly at fovea (1/3)˚ • About 150,000 cones per square millimeter • Fewer blue sensing cones than red and green at fovea • 100 M rods (night vision), spread over retina, none at fovea • Adaptation • Switching between dark and light causes fatigue

11. Vision implications (more to come in visual design) • Color • Distinguishable hues, optical illusions • About 9 % of males are red-green colorblind! • See http://colorlab.wickline.org/colorblind/colorlab/ • Acuity • Determines smallest size we can see • Less for blue and yellow than for red and green

12. Color/Intensity Discrimination • The 9 hues most people can identify are: ColorWavelength Red 629 Red-Orange 596 Yellow-Orange 582 Green-Yellow 571 Yellow-Green 538 Green 510 Blue-Green 491 Blue 481 Violet-Blue 460

13. Color Surround Effect • Our perception of a color is affected by the surrounding color

14. Effect of Colored Text on Colored Background Black text on white Gray text on white Yellow text on white Light yellow text on white Green text on white Light green text on white Blue text on white Pale blue text on white Dark red text on white Red text on white Rose text on white

15. Audition (Hearing) • Capabilities (best-case scenario) • pitch - frequency (20 - 20,000 Hz) • loudness - amplitude (30 - 100dB) • location (5° source & stream separation) • timbre - type of sound (lots of instruments) • Often take for granted how good it is(disk whirring) • Implications ?

16. Design implications • Representations of information need to be designed to be perceptible and recognizable • Icons and other graphical representations should enable users to readily distinguish their meaning • Bordering and spacing are effective visual ways of grouping information • Sounds should be audible and distinguishable • Speech output should enable users to distinguish between the set of spoken words • Text should be legible and distinguishable from the background

17. Touch • Three main sensations handled by different types of receptors: • Pressure (normal) • Intense pressure (heat/pain) • Temperature (hot/cold) • Where important? • Mouse, Other I/O, VR, surgery

18. Motor System (Our Output System) • Capabilities • Range of movement, reach, speed,strength, dexterity, accuracy • Workstation design, device design • Often cause of errors • Wrong button • Double-click vs. single click • Principles • Feedback is important • Minimize eye movement • See Handbooks for data

19. Work Station Ergonomics – to Facilitate I/O

20. The Mind • And now on to memory and cognition…

21. The “Model Human Processor” • A true classic - see Card, Moran and Newell, The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction, Erlbaum, 1983 • Microprocessor-human analogue using results from experimental psychology • Provides a view of the human that fits much experimental data • But is a partial model • Focus is on a single user interacting with some entity (computer, environment, tool) • Neglects effect of other people

22. Memory • Perceptual “buffers” • Brief impressions • Short-term (working) memory • Conscious thought, calculations • Long-term memory • Permanent, remember everything that ever happened to us

23. LONG-TERM MEMORY R = Semantic D = Infinite S = Infinite SHORT-TERM (WORKING) MEMORY VISUAL IMAGE STORE AUDITORY IMAGE STORE R= Acoustic or Visual D (one chunk) = 73 [73-226] s D (3 chunks) = 7 [5-34] s S = 7 [5-9] chunks R = Visual D = 200 [70-1000] ms S = 17 [7-17] letters R = Acoustic D = 1.5 [0.9-3.5] s S = 5 [4.4-6.2] letters PERCEPTUAL PROCESSOR C = 100 [5-200] ms COGNITIVE PROCESSOR C = 70 [27-170] ms MOTOR PROCESSOR C = 70 [30-100] MS R = Representation D = Decay Time S = Size C = Cycle Time Eye movement (Saccade) = 230 [70-700] ms

24. Sensory Stores • Very brief, but accurate representation • Physically encoded • Limited capacity • Iconic: 7-17 letters • Echoic: 4-6 • Haptic: ?? • Rapid Decay • Iconic: 70-1000 ms • Echoic: 0.9 – 3.5 sec • Attention filters information into short term memory and beyond for more processing • Perceptual Processor – interpret signal into semantically meaningful • Pattern recognition, language, etc.

25. Short Term Memory • Symbolic, nonphysical acoustic or visual coding • Somewhat limited capacity • 7 +- 2 “chunks” of information • Slower decay • 5-226 sec • rehearsal prevents decay • Another task prevents rehearsal - interference

26. About Chunks • A chunk is a meaningful grouping of information – allows assistance from LTM • 4793619049 vs. 704 687 8376 • NSAFBICIANASA vs. NSA FBI CIA NASA • My chunk may not be your chunk • User and task dependent

27. Implications? • Which is an implication of 7 +- 2? • Use 5-9 items on a menu • Display 5-9 icons on a task bar • No more than 7 tabs on a window • 5-9 items in a list

28. Long-Term Memory • Semantic storage • Seemingly permanent & unlimited • Access is harder, slower • -> Activity helps (we have a cache) • Retrieval depends on network of associations • How information is perceived, understood and encoded determines likelihood of retrieval File system full

29. LT Memory Structure • Episodic memory • Events & experiences in serial form • Helps us recall what occurred • Semantic memory • Structured record of facts, concepts & skills • One theory says it’s like a network • Another uses frames & scripts (like record structs)

30. Memory Characteristics • Things move from STM to LTM by rehearsal & practice and by use in context • Do we ever lose memory? Or just lose the link? • What are effects of lack of use? • We forget things due to decay and interference • Similar gets in the way

31. Recognition over Recall • We recognize information easier than we can recall information • Examples? • Implications?

32. Processes • Four main processes of cognitive system: • Selective Attention • Learning • Problem Solving • Language

33. Selective Attention • We can focus on one particular thing • Cocktail party chit-chat • Salient visual cues can facilitate selective attention • Examples?

34. Learning • Two types: • Procedural – How to do something • Declarative – Facts about something • Involves • Understanding concepts & rules • Memorization • Acquiring motor skills • Automotization • Tennis • Driving to work • Even when don’t want to • Swimming, Bike riding, Typing, Writing

35. Learning • Facilitated • By structure & organization • By similar knowledge, as in consistency in UI design • By analogy • If presented in incremental units • Repetition • Hindered • By previous knowledge • Try moving from Mac to Windows => Consider user’s previous knowledge in your interface design

36. Observations • Users focus on getting job done, not learning to effectively use system • Users apply analogy even when it doesn’t apply • Or extend it too far - which is a design problem • Dragging floppy disk icon to Mac’s trash can does NOT erase the disk, it ejects disk!

37. Problem Solving • Storage in LTM, then application • Reasoning • Deductive – If A then B • Inductive - Generalizing from previouscases to learn about new ones • Abductive - Reasons from a fact to theaction or state that caused it • Goal in UI design - facilitate problem solving! • How??

38. Observations • We are more heuristic than algorithmic • We try a few quick shots rather than plan • Resources simply not available • We often choose suboptimal strategies for low priority problems • We learn better strategies with practice

39. Implications • Allow flexible shortcuts • Forcing plans will bore user • Have active rather than passive help • Recognize waste

40. Language • Rule-based • How do you make plurals? • Productive • We make up sentences • Key-word and positional • Patterns • Should systems have natural language interfaces? • Stay tuned

41. Recap I. Senses A. Sight B. Sound C. Touch D. Smell II. Information processing A. Perceptual B. Cognitive 1. Memory a. Short term b. Long term 2. Processes a. Selective attention b. Learning c. Problem solving d. Language

42. Good xxx yyy zzz People • Bad • aaa • bbb • ccc Fill in the columns - what are people good at and what are people bad at?

43. Good Infinite capacity LTM LTM duration & complexity High-learning capability Powerful attention mechanism Powerful pattern recognition People • Bad • Limited capacity STM • Limited duration STM • Unreliable access to LTM • Error-prone processing • Slow processing

44. Next Assignment: HTA • Current activity that relates to your project topic • Either create diagram and upload the file to the Swiki • Or use the numbered outline approach • Don’t forget those plans!