Introduction to User Experience Design:
Interface Design
Satishkumar L. Varma
Professor, Department of Information Technology
PCE, New Panvel
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Introduction to UED: Outline
● Introduction to User Experience Design
○ Introduction to interface design
■ What is interaction design?
○ Understanding and conceptualizing interface
○ Understanding user’s conceptual cognition
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Introduction: What is Interaction Design?
● What is UED?
○ usability is of utmost importance to Interaction Design,
○ while user-experience follows
● Why UED?
○ usability goals
■ at center of Interaction Design
○ user-experience goals
■ outer ring of diagram
■ secondary to usability goals
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What is Interaction Design?
● Students will be able to
○ Explain the difference between good and poor interaction design
○ Describe what interaction design is and how it relates to HCI and other
fields
○ Explain what usability is
○ Describe what is involved in the process of interaction design
○ Outline the different forms of guidance used in interaction design
○ Enable you to evaluate an interactive product and
■ explain what is good and bad about it in terms of the goals and
■ principles of interaction design
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XD: Good and Poor Design
● Central concern of interaction design: products that are USABLE
○ Easy to use
○ Effective
○ Enjoyable
● Example
○ Marble interface versus Voicemail
■ an incoming message signaled by a marble dropping through
■ you grab it and drop it to play the message
■ good interface but breaks down if system gets more complex
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XD: What is Design
● What to Design
○ Who will use it?
○ Where are they going to be used?
○ What kinds of activities will it support?
● A key question
○ How do you optimize the users' interactions with a system, environment or
product,
○ so that they match the users activities that are being supported and
extended
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XD: Match goals to users - get them involved
● Match goals to users - get them involved
○ Take into account what people are good and bad at
○ Consider what might help people with the way they currently do things
○ Thinking through what might provide quality user experiences
○ Listening to what people might want and getting them involved in design
○ Using tried and tested user-based techniques during the design process
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XD: Interaction Design
● Definition
○ Designing interactive products to support people in their everyday and
working lives
● Interaction Design
○ comes from a multidisciplinary background
○ extends and enhances the way people work, communicate and interact
● Interaction Design involves four basic activities:
○ Identifying needs and establishing requirements
○ Developing alternative designs that meet those requirements
○ Building interactive versions of the designs so that they can be
communicated and assessed
○ Evaluating what is being built throughout the process
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XD: Interaction Design
● Evaluating what has been built is the heart of Interaction Design
● 3 characteristics of the Interaction Design Process:
○ Users involved throughout the development of the project
○ Specific usability and user experience goals should be identified,
documented and agreed upon at the beginning
○ Iteration through the four activities (above) is inevitable
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XD: Goals of Interaction Design
● Usability Goals: concerned with meeting a usability criteria (e.g. efficiency)
○ Effectiveness - how good system is at doing what it is supposed to
○ Efficiency - the way a system supports users in carrying out their tasks
○ Safety - protecting the users from dangerous conditions / undesirable
situations
○ Utility - extent to which the system provides the right kind of functionality
so that users can do what they need or want to do
○ Learnability - how easy a system is to learn to use
○ Memorability - how easy a system is to remember how to use, once
learned
● User Experience Goals
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XD: Goals of Interaction Design
● User Experience Goals: Norman's Design Principles:
○ Visibility - functions can be seen
○ Feedback - necessary part of interaction
○ Constraints - ways of restricting what kinds of interaction can take place
○ Mapping - relationship between controls and what happens
○ Consistency - similar operations / use similar elements for achieving
similar goals
○ Affordance - attribute of an object that allows people to know how to use it
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XD: Usability Principles / Heuristics
● Usability principles used as a basis for evaluating a system / prototype)
● Nielsen's 10 Usability Principles:
○ Visibility of System Status
○ Match between system and real world
○ User control and freedom
○ Consistency and standards
○ Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors
○ Error prevention
○ Recognition rather than recall
○ Flexibility and efficiency of use
○ Aesthetic and minimalist design
○ Help and documentation
● There are always tradeoffs with usability
○ Can't over constrain things, because it limits how much info is displayed
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References
[1] Preece, J., Rogers, Y., & Sharp, H. Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer
Interaction, 2002.
[2] Rex Hartson and Pardha S. Pyla, The UX Book - Process and Guidelines for
Ensuring a Quality User Experience, 2012.
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Thank You.
Satishkumar Varma, PCE
