More Interaction Design Wisdom

1. More Interaction Design Wisdom CS 5115 Fall 2012 October 8

2. Announcements • What’s coming up on project • Note: “Unless otherwise specified, your group should e-mail any deliverable to your TA no later than midnight the day before your TA meeting.” • Class topics • Discussion of your feedback

3. Interaction Design Issues

4. Interruptions • Avoid interruptions – make decisions for your users if possible • “Go with the most likely option, and offer them a way of changing their decision”

5. Example – putting a USB drive in a computer

8. Example – returning to a movie

9. Air Video

10. Netflix

12. Be unobtrusive

15. People ignore warnings / don’t read confirmations • So instead of interruptions, support Undo • Multi-level undo desirable • How long a history?

18. Modes • A state that an application or a window is in that changes how the application or window reacts to user input • Well-known modes • Caps Lock key • vi: command vs. edit mode • Alarm clock: setting time vs. setting alarm • The real problem is non-obvious modes • Can a mode be too obvious? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmKr1smjBE0 • Alternative: quasimodes

19. Nice design case study • Handling login errors: http://guijournal.com/2011/09/gui-design-password-protected/

21. What did I select? What mode am I in? How is the system interpreting my actions?

22. Have Opinions Instead of Preferences • Every unnecessary checkbox in your Settings window is a design decision that you’re leaving to a person who is less qualified at making that decision than you are. You are in the best position to come up with the correct solution. Don’t let somebody who knows less about your product make that decision for you. Chances are, their decisions will be worse than yours.

23. Why not? • User: more effort, information overload • Users are more likely to be wrong (than you) • Modes / inconsistency across users

30. What do you think? • Experiences positive or negative?

31. Just Say No – Avoiding Features • There will be demand for more features • Costs • Reduces coherence • Makes learning and use harder • Listen to your users? • Paradox of choice • Long tail of user desires

32. Looking at Microsoft Office

34. Most frequently used MS Word commands?Impact on design? • http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/archive/2006/04/07/570798.aspx • http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/02/most-frequently-used-features-in.html

36. Your guesses?

39. Gathering these observations • Long tail of command usage • Design intuitions differ • Guiding design with data • Be explicit: your design should embody a theory of how people will use your software

40. Generalizing • The problem of complexity • What are the sources of complexity?

41. Sources of complexity • Inherent domain complexity • Complex tasks • Lots of features • Dynamic state changes • Bad design

42. Sources of complexity • Inherent domain complexity • Complex tasks • Wizards, selective disclosure, … • Lots of features • Modes, menus, “advanced options”, shortcuts, … • Dynamic state changes • Animations • Bad design • Fix it!

43. Animations • “What just happened?” • “What’s happening?” • (Feedback) • (Conceptual model)

45. vw