Published: 2001
Publisher: Idea Group Publishing - Hershey, PA
ISBN: 1-878289-91-8
This is a collection of chapters that are essentially research papers by various authors. The subject matter is generally along the lines of HCI, however some of the topics are very narrow. Among the topics are utilizing AI for the interface, creating better e-commerce web sites and incorporating HCI concepts into the software development life cycle. If you are interested in researching any of these topics, each chapter is well research and each has its own bibliography. What follows is not so much a book review as a scattered collection of my thoughts so that I can refer back to them when needed.
Design Process
Design should be embedded in the development process.
You should design the interface in the context of the environment in which it will be used. Keep in mind where the work station or computer is likely to be located when deciding on such things as color scheme and font sizes as well as navigational models.
Essential Modeling: capturing the essence of a problem when designing the solution.
Design WYSIWYN (What You See Is What You Need)
5 Features of Usability
- Access - Usable by 1st time users
- Efficacy - Does not get in the way of expert users
- Progression - Continuous enhancements
- Support - For the real work being done by the user
- Context - Usable in a real work environment
Amblers Tips For Developers
- Consistency, Consistency, Consistency (create a consistent mental model)
- Set standards and stick to them
- Explain the rules to users
- Support for both novices and experts
- Navigation between major user interface items is important
- Navigation within a screen is important
- Work messages and labels appropriately
- Understand the widgets and where they are appropriate
- Look at other applications with a grain of salt
- User color appropriately
- Follow the contrast rule (not just color contrast!)
- Align fields effectively
- Expect users to make mistakes
- Justify data appropriately (decimals, strings etc)
- Design should be intuitive for the users
- Don't create busy user interfaces (screen density - 40% group density - 60%)
- Group things effectively
Thoughts
- Seductive design: does your software entice people to use it?
- Social action engineering: consider how the product will change the users life
- Dynamic Gestalt: Does the user need to feel his / her actions are bold strong movements? Or do they feel they are gently nudging things in the right direction? Match the UI to their view of what they are doing.
- The right requirements are in principle unknowable at the start
Dangers:
- Fixating on one idea
- Investing personal status in the design
Intelligent Agents
- Autonomy - make own decisions
- Adaptation - perceive the environment
- Cooperation - collaborate with other agents
BDI (Belief Desire Intention Model)
Evolution of Agents:
- Mimic the real world: you can map agents activities back to real world activities
- Build on automation: you can no longer map the agents activities back to real world activities... only possible in the virtual world
Knowledge Engineering
User Modeling Dimensions
- Long / Short term (Long = characteristics of user / Short = specific topics)
- Canonical / Individual (Canonical = typical user / Individual = salient to specific user task)
- Explicit / Implicit (Explicity = User tells you / Implicit = You observe)
Errors in E-commerce
Error pages should reassure the user that it is not their fault. Especially server issues. They should be aware that the site is temporarily having problems.