Docsity
Docsity
Prepare for your exams
Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity

Earn points to download
Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan

Guidelines and tips
Guidelines and tips
Sell on Docsity
Sell on Docsity
Docsity AI
Docsity AI
Log inSign up

Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity

Find documents

Prepare for your exams with the study notes shared by other students like you on Docsity

Search for your university

Find the specific documents for your university's exams

Docsity AINEW

Summarize your documents, ask them questions, convert them into quizzes and concept maps

Explore questions

Clear up your doubts by reading the answers to questions asked by your fellow students

Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan

Share documents
download point icon20 Points

For each uploaded document

Answer questions
download point icon5 Points

For each given answer (max 1 per day)

All the ways to get free points
Get points immediately

Choose a premium plan with all the points you need

Study Opportunities

Choose your next study program

Get in touch with the best universities in the world. Search through thousands of universities and official partners

Community

Ask the community

Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts

Free resources

Our save-the-student-ebooks!

Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors

Usability and Interaction Design Study Guide, Exams of Social Sciences

United States International UniversitySocial Sciences

This study guide covers key concepts in usability and interaction design, including the six usability goals (effectiveness, efficiency, safety, utility, learnability, memorability) and the five design principles (visibility, feedback, constraints, consistency, affordances). It also explores the four basic activities involved in interaction design: identifying, developing, building, and evaluating. The guide further delves into implementation models, represented models, user mental models, and the differences between mechanical-age and digital-age representations. It also covers software postures, user types, cognitive processes, and the goal-directed design process, providing a comprehensive overview of the field. Useful for students studying human-computer interaction (hci) or related fields, providing a structured review of essential topics and concepts.

Typology: Exams

2025/2026

Available from 12/14/2025

ROCKY-B
ROCKY-B 🇰🇪

4.4

(16)

40K documents

1 / 5

Toggle sidebar

This page cannot be seen from the preview

Don't miss anything!

bg1
CEN 3721 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE
The 6 usability goals - Answer -1. Effectiveness
2. Efficiency
3. Safety
4. Utility
5. Learnability
6. Memorability
Effectiveness - Answer -How good a product is at doing what it is supposed to do
Efficiency - Answer -The way the product supports in carrying out their tasks
Safety - Answer -Protecting users from dangerous conditions and undesirable
situations
Utility - Answer -Provides the right kind of functionality so users can do what they need
or want to do
Learnability - Answer -Easy to learn
Memorability - Answer -Easy to remember how to use
Design Principles: - Answer -Generalizable abstractions intended to orient designers
toward thinking about different aspects of design
The 5 design principles - Answer -1. Visibility
2. Feedback
3. Constraints
4. Consistency
5. Affordances
Visibility - Answer -When functions and features are clearly visible
Feedback - Answer -Confirming what has been done or giving information about the
current state
Consistency - Answer -Ways of restricting the kinds of interactions that can take place
at a given moment
Constraints - Answer -Interfaces that have similar operations and similar elements for
achieving similar tasks
Affordances - Answer -Attributes of an object that allow people to know how to use it
pf3
pf4
pf5

Partial preview of the text

Download Usability and Interaction Design Study Guide and more Exams Social Sciences in PDF only on Docsity!

CEN 3721 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE

The 6 usability goals - Answer - 1. Effectiveness

  1. Efficiency
  2. Safety
  3. Utility
  4. Learnability
  5. Memorability Effectiveness - Answer - How good a product is at doing what it is supposed to do Efficiency - Answer - The way the product supports in carrying out their tasks Safety - Answer - Protecting users from dangerous conditions and undesirable situations Utility - Answer - Provides the right kind of functionality so users can do what they need or want to do Learnability - Answer - Easy to learn Memorability - Answer - Easy to remember how to use Design Principles: - Answer - Generalizable abstractions intended to orient designers toward thinking about different aspects of design The 5 design principles - Answer - 1. Visibility
  6. Feedback
  7. Constraints
  8. Consistency
  9. Affordances Visibility - Answer - When functions and features are clearly visible Feedback - Answer - Confirming what has been done or giving information about the current state Consistency - Answer - Ways of restricting the kinds of interactions that can take place at a given moment Constraints - Answer - Interfaces that have similar operations and similar elements for achieving similar tasks Affordances - Answer - Attributes of an object that allow people to know how to use it

The 4 basic activities involved in interaction design - Answer - 1. Identifying

  1. Developing
  2. Building
  3. Evaluating Identifying... - Answer - ...needs and establishing requirements Developing... - Answer - ...alternative desgins that meet those requirements Building... - Answer - ...interactive versions of the designs to be assessed Evaluating... - Answer - ...what is being built and the user experience it offers throughout the process Implementation models - Answer - (or system model) The representation of how a machine or program actually works Represented models - Answer - (or designer's model) The behavioral face that a software product shows to the world User mental models - Answer - (or conceptual model) A cognitive shorthand for explaining a device or progra Mechanical-Age and Digital-Age representations - Answer - • We normally try to use old representations in new environments
  • Example: Railroad = Iron horse
  • Sometimes, however, mechanical-age representations should not be translated verbatim into the digital world
  • Example: loading a new sheet of paper into a typewriter, vs. scrolling to a new page in a word-processing application
  • Mechanical-age representations may degrade user interaction
  • Example: typing an individual address on an envelope vs. using a computer to produce an individual address on an envelope
  • New technology demands new representations
  • Example: the real advantage of email is not that it is faster than snail mail - it promotes the flattening and democratization of the modern business organization
  • Axiom: Don't replicate Mechanical-Age artifacts in user interfaces without Information-Age enhancements.
  • Example: contact list made to look like a physical address
  • Should remember state (its previous settings)
  • Usually acts in a supporting role to a sovereign application
  • Example: Windows volume control Daemonic posture - Answer - Programs with which the user does not normally interact; background task programs
  • Example: printer driver User types - Answer - 1. Beginners
  1. Intermediates
  2. Experts Cognitive conscious - Answer - Information that you are currently using (are conscious of) Cognitive unconscious - Answer - Information that you know, but are not accessing at the current moment (are not conscious of) Locus of attention - Answer - A feature or object in the physical world or an idea about which you are intently and actively thinking
  • You cannot completely control your locus of attention Focus - Answer - Implies volition (active choice)
  • Also refers to the object currently selected on a screen Absorption - Answer - • You can become absorbed in the task that has your locus of attention
  • The more intensely you are focused, the more difficult to transit to a different locus of attention, and the greater the stimulus that is needed to effect such a change
  • Absorption is essential to productivity, however...
  • An interface must work, whatever the user's state of absorption Automaticity - Answer - Enables you to do more than one activity at a time
  • All but one of the tasks you perform simultaneously are automatic Goal-directed design process - Answer - 1. Research
  1. Modeling
  2. Requirements
  3. Framework
  4. Refinement
  5. Support

Research phase - Answer - Employs ethnographic field study techniques (observation and contextual interviews) to obtain qualitative data about potential and/or actual users of the product Modeling phase - Answer - Uses behavior and workflow patterns to create domain and user models Domain phase - Answer - May include information flow and workflow diagrams User Models (personas) - Answer - Detailed composite user archetypes that represent distinct groupings of behaviors, attitudes, aptitudes, goals, and motivations Requirements definition phase - Answer - Employs scenariobased design methods, focusing on meeting the goals and needs of specific user personas Framework definition phase - Answer - Involves creation of the overall product concept Refinement phase - Answer - Focuses increasing on detail and implementation Design Support phase - Answer - Adjusts the design to accommodate trade-offs, deadlines, or new constraint Be able to apply Visual Studio screen design guidelines to critique screens - Answer - Essay style question # Be able to critique screens for usability goals and design principles - Answer - Essay style question # Be able to apply concepts to a design problem - Answer - Essay style question # Be able to identify potential problems in a design related to usability goals, design principles, excise, software posture, flow, and user expertise level - Answer - Essay style question # Be able to identify and compare mechanical-age and digital-age representations in a product - Answer - Essay style question #