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Usability Goals and Measures in Human-Computer Interaction Study Guide

This guide covers various methods for evaluating human-computer interaction (HCI), essential for designers to understand user perspectives and identify flaws. It details survey instruments for subjective feedback, acceptance tests with measurable criteria, active use evaluation through interviews and data logging, and rigorous controlled experiments using the scientific method. The content aims to help users understand how to systematically assess and improve the usability of interactive systems

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Foundations of Human Computer Interaction and Design

Introduction to Human Computer Interaction

An interdisciplinary design science combining knowledge and methods from psychologists, computer scientists, and user experience designers to study usability of interactive systems.

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Usability of Interactive Systems
  • Usability Goals and Measures
  • Usability Motivations
  • Interdisciplinary Design Science
  • User Experience
  • Universal Usability
  • Individual User Level
  • Communities

Human Computer Interaction Design Topics

An overview of the design process, organizational support, design frameworks, methods, tools, and social impact analysis for interactive systems.

  • Organizational Support for Design
  • Design Process
  • Requirements Analysis
  • Preliminary and Detailed Design
  • Build and Implementation
  • Evaluation
  • User-centered design
  • Participatory design
  • Agile interaction design
  • Design Methods
  • Ethnographic Observation
  • Storyboarding
  • Prototyping
  • Low-fidelity prototypes
  • Medium-fidelity prototypes
  • High-fidelity prototypes
  • Design Tools
  • Interaction Design Patterns
  • Social Impact Analysis

Introduction to Universal Usability

Addressing the needs of all users through considerations of physical abilities, cognitive and perceptual abilities, personality differences, and cultural diversity.

  • Universal Usability
  • Anthropometry
  • Human dimensions
  • Physical abilities
  • Cognitive processes
  • Perceptual and motor performance
  • Personality differences
  • Cultural and international diversity
  • Human Factors Engineering

Designing for Diverse User Populations

Designers must accommodate cultural and international diversity, users with disabilities, older adult users, and children while managing hardware and software diversity.

  • Cultural and international diversity
  • Users with disabilities
  • Americans With Disabilities Act
  • European Union Mandate 1
  • United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
  • Assistive technology
  • Older adult users
  • Children
  • Hardware and software diversity
  • Responsive design

Automation and Human Control

Successful integration allows users to avoid routine, tedious, and error prone tasks to concentrate on making critical decisions and coping with unexpected situations.

  • Supervisory control
  • Autonomous agents
  • User modeling for adaptive interfaces
  • Tool-like interfaces
  • Control panels
  • Information visualization tools

HCI Theories and Models

Theories and models used to develop principles for human-computer interaction, including explanatory, predictive, and contextual theories.

  • Explanatory theories
  • Predictive theories
  • Taxonomy
  • Conceptual, semantic, syntactic, and lexical models
  • Gulf of execution
  • Gulf of evaluation
  • Micro-HCI Theories
  • Macro-HCI Theories
  • Consistency through grammars

Usability Goals, Principles, and Evaluation Methods

Usability Goals and Measures

Successful designers ascertain the user's needs, ensure reliability, and promote standardization, integration, consistency, and portability to enhance the user experience.

  • Usability goals
  • User experience
  • Reliability
  • Standardization
  • Integration
  • Consistency
  • Portability
  • Time to learn
  • Speed of performance
  • Rate of errors
  • Retention over time
  • Subjective satisfaction
  • Mockups
  • High-fidelity prototypes

Usability Motivations and Professional Goals

Usability motivations across life-critical, industrial, commercial, office, entertainment, exploratory, and social-technical systems define goals for the profession.

  • Life-critical systems
  • Industrial and commercial uses
  • Office, home, and entertainment applications
  • Exploratory, creative, and cooperative systems
  • Social-technical systems
  • Ease of learning
  • Error rates
  • Subjective satisfaction
  • Rapid prototyping
  • User feedback

HCI Guidelines, Principles, and Theories

An introduction to low-level guidelines, mid-level principles, and high-level theories used to analyze, compare, and support design and evaluation in Human Computer Interaction.

  • Guidelines
  • Principles
  • Theories
  • Accessibility guidelines
  • Design constraints
  • Mobile HCI Design
  • User skill levels
  • Task Analysis
  • Interaction styles
  • 8 Golden Rules of Interface Design
  • Error prevention
  • Direct manipulation
  • Menu selection
  • Form fill-in
  • Command language
  • Natural language

Evaluation and the User Experience

This document covers evaluation methods, expert reviews, and usability testing and laboratories within human computer interaction.

  • Expert reviews
  • Heuristic evaluation
  • Guidelines review
  • Consistency inspection
  • Cognitive walkthrough
  • Formal usability inspection
  • Usability testing
  • Usability laboratories
  • Eye-tracking
  • Informed consent
  • A/B testing
  • Paper mockups
  • Remote usability testing

Usability Evaluation and Experimental Methods

Methods for evaluating human-computer interaction include survey instruments, acceptance tests, active use evaluation, and controlled psychologically-oriented experiments.

  • Survey instruments
  • Acceptance test
  • Measurable criteria
  • Evaluation during active use
  • Interviews and focus group discussions
  • User-performance data logging
  • Controlled psychologically-oriented experiments
  • Scientific method
  • Independent variables
  • Dependent variables
  • Statistical methods

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