Summary User-Centered Design
By: Thijmen Lammers
Book: Interaction Design – beyond human-computer interaction
Department of Industrial Design
Technical University of Eindhoven
Average reading time: 60 minutes
Disclaimer: This is not a summary of the full book, only the subject matter discussed in the course; “User-centered Design” on
TU/e.
Copyright Ⓒ 2023 – All rights reserved.
,Contents
Chapter 1................................................................................................................................ 7
1.3 What is interaction design:............................................................................................8
1.3.2 Who is involved in interaction design?:...................................................................8
1.4 The user experience:....................................................................................................8
1.5 Understanding users:....................................................................................................9
1.6 Accessibility and inclusiveness:....................................................................................9
1.7 Usability and User Experience Goals:.........................................................................10
1.7.1 Usability Goals:.....................................................................................................10
1.7.2 User Experience Goals.........................................................................................10
1.7.3 Design Principles..................................................................................................10
Summary.......................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 2.............................................................................................................................. 13
2.1 Introduction................................................................................................................. 13
2.2 What Is Involved in Interaction Design?......................................................................13
2.2.1 Understanding the Problem Space.......................................................................13
2.2.2 The Importance of Involving Users.......................................................................13
2.2.3 Degrees of User Involvement...............................................................................13
2.2.4 What Is a User-Centered Approach?....................................................................13
2.2.5 Four Basic Activities of Interaction Design............................................................14
2.2.6 A Simple Lifecycle Model for Interaction Design...................................................14
Chapter 3.............................................................................................................................. 15
3.1 Introduction................................................................................................................. 15
3.2 Conceptualizing Interaction.........................................................................................15
3.3 Conceptual Models.....................................................................................................15
3.4 Interface Metaphors....................................................................................................15
3.5 Interaction Types........................................................................................................ 16
3.6 Paradigms, Visions, Theories, Models,.......................................................................16
and Frameworks............................................................................................................... 16
3.6.1 Paradigms............................................................................................................ 16
3.6.2 Visions.................................................................................................................. 17
3.6.3 Theories............................................................................................................... 17
3.6.4 Models.................................................................................................................. 17
3.6.5 Frameworks.......................................................................................................... 17
Summary.......................................................................................................................... 17
Chapter 4.............................................................................................................................. 19
, 4.1 Introduction................................................................................................................. 19
4.2 What Is Cognition?......................................................................................................19
4.2.1 Attention............................................................................................................... 19
4.2.2 Perception............................................................................................................ 19
4.2.3 Memory............................................................................................................... 20
4.2.4 Learning............................................................................................................... 20
4.2.5 Reading, Speaking, and Listening........................................................................20
4.2.6 Problem-Solving, Planning, Reasoning, and Decision-Making.............................20
Chapter 8.............................................................................................................................. 22
8.1 Introduction................................................................................................................. 22
8.2 Five Key Issues.......................................................................................................... 22
8.2.1 Setting Goals........................................................................................................22
8.2.2 Identifying Participants.........................................................................................22
8.2.3 Relationship with Participants...............................................................................22
8.2.4 Triangulation.........................................................................................................22
8.2.5 Pilot Studies......................................................................................................... 22
8.3 Data Recording........................................................................................................... 23
8.3.1 Notes Plus Photographs.......................................................................................23
8.3.2 Audio Plus Photographs.......................................................................................23
8.3.3 Video.................................................................................................................... 23
8.4 Interviews.................................................................................................................... 23
8.4.1 Unstructured Interviews........................................................................................23
8.4.2 Structured Interviews............................................................................................23
8.4.3 Semi-structured Interviews...................................................................................23
8.4.4 Focus Groups.......................................................................................................24
8.4.5 Planning and Conducting an Interview.................................................................24
8.4.6 Other Forms of Interview......................................................................................24
8.4.7 Enriching the Interview Experience.......................................................................24
8.5 Questionnaires............................................................................................................ 24
8.5.1 Questionnaire Structure........................................................................................24
8.5.2 Question and Response Format...........................................................................24
8.5.3 Administering Questionnaires...............................................................................24
8.6 Observation................................................................................................................. 25
8.6.1 Direct Observation in the Field.............................................................................25
8.6.2 Direct Observation in Controlled Environments....................................................25
8.6.3 Indirect Observation: Tracking Users’ Activities....................................................26
8.7 Choosing and Combining Techniques........................................................................26
, Summary.......................................................................................................................... 26
Chapter 9.............................................................................................................................. 28
9.1 Introduction................................................................................................................. 28
9.2 Quantitative and Qualitative........................................................................................28
9.2.1 First Steps in Analyzing Data................................................................................28
9.3 Basic Quantitative Analysis.........................................................................................28
9.4 Basic Qualitative Analysis...........................................................................................28
9.4.1 Identifying Themes...............................................................................................28
9.4.2 Categorizing Data.................................................................................................29
9.4.3 Critical Incident Analysis.......................................................................................29
9.5 Which Kind of Analytic Framework to Use?................................................................29
9.5.1 Conversation Analysis..........................................................................................29
9.5.2 Discourse Analysis...............................................................................................29
9.5.3 Content Analysis...................................................................................................29
9.5.4 Interaction Analysis..............................................................................................29
9.5.5 Grounded Theory.................................................................................................30
9.6 Tools to Support Data Analysis...................................................................................30
9.7 Interpreting and Presenting the Findings.....................................................................30
9.7.1 Structured Notations.............................................................................................30
9.7.2 Using Stories........................................................................................................30
9.7.3 Summarizing the Findings....................................................................................30
Summary.......................................................................................................................... 30
Chapter 11............................................................................................................................ 32
11.1 Introduction............................................................................................................... 32
11.2 What, How, and Why?..............................................................................................32
11.2.1 What Is the Purpose of the Requirements Activity?............................................32
11.2.2 How to Capture Requirements Once They Are Discovered?..............................32
11.2.3 Why Bother? Avoiding Miscommunication..........................................................32
11.3 What Are Requirements?..........................................................................................32
11.3.1 Different Kinds of Requirements.........................................................................32
11.4 Data Gathering for Requirements.............................................................................32
11.4.1 Using Probes to Engage with Users...................................................................33
11.4.2 Contextual Inquiry...............................................................................................33
11.5 Bringing Requirements to Life: Personas..................................................................33
and Scenarios................................................................................................................... 33
11.5.1 Personas............................................................................................................ 33
11.5.2 Scenarios........................................................................................................... 33
, Summary.......................................................................................................................... 34
Chapter 12............................................................................................................................ 35
12.1 Introduction............................................................................................................... 35
12.2 Prototyping................................................................................................................ 35
12.2.1 What Is a Prototype?..........................................................................................35
12.2.2 Why Prototype?..................................................................................................35
12.2.3 Low-Fidelity Prototyping.....................................................................................35
12.2.4 High-Fidelity Prototyping.....................................................................................35
12.2.5 Compromises in Prototyping...............................................................................36
12.3 Conceptual Design....................................................................................................36
12.3.1 Developing an Initial Conceptual Model..............................................................36
12.3.2 Expanding the Initial Conceptual Model..............................................................37
12.4 Concrete Design.......................................................................................................37
12.5 Generating Prototypes..............................................................................................37
12.5.1 Generating Storyboards......................................................................................37
12.5.2 Generating Card-Based Prototypes....................................................................37
12.6 Construction.............................................................................................................. 38
12.6.1 Physical Computing............................................................................................38
12.6.2 SDKs: Software Development Kits.....................................................................38
Summary.......................................................................................................................... 38
Chapter 14............................................................................................................................ 40
14.2.1 Why evaluation?.................................................................................................40
14.2.2 What to evaluate?...............................................................................................40
14.2.3 Where to evaluate?............................................................................................40
14.2.4 When to evaluate?..............................................................................................40
14.3 Types of evaluation...................................................................................................40
14.3.1 Controlled Settings Involving Users....................................................................41
14.3.2 Natural Settings Involving Users.........................................................................41
14.3.3 Any Settings Not Involving Users........................................................................41
14.3.4 Selecting and Combining Methods.....................................................................41
14.3.5 Opportunistic Evaluations...................................................................................42
14.6 Issues to consider when doing evaluation:................................................................42
14.6.1 Informing Participants About Their Rights and Getting.......................................42
Their Consent................................................................................................................ 42
14.6.2 Issues That Influence the Choice of Method and How the Data.........................42
Is Interpreted................................................................................................................. 42
Summary.......................................................................................................................... 42
,Chapter 15............................................................................................................................ 44
15.2 Usability Testing........................................................................................................44
15.2.1 Methods, Tasks, and Users....................................................................................44
15.2.2 Labs and Equipment..............................................................................................44
15.3 Conducting Experiments...........................................................................................44
15.3.1 Hypotheses Testing...............................................................................................45
15.3.2 Experimental Design..............................................................................................45
15.3.3 Statistics: t-tests.....................................................................................................45
15.4 Field Studies............................................................................................................. 45
15.4.1 In-the-Wild Studies.................................................................................................45
15.4.2 Other Perspectives.................................................................................................45
Summary.......................................................................................................................... 46
,Chapter 1
1.1: Interactive products such as smartphones and fitness trackers are often designed
with the user in mind, making them easy and enjoyable to use. However, other products
like ticket machines and stove controls may not have been designed with the user in
mind and can be frustrating to use. Alan Cooper, a user experience guru, notes that
many new products still suffer from the same interaction errors that existed 20 years ago
and that many apps do not follow basic UX principles. To improve the user experience,
designers should focus on making interactive products easy, effective, and pleasurable to
use.
1.2: Interaction design aims to develop products that are easy to learn, effective to use,
and enjoyable to use. By comparing well-designed and poorly-designed products,
designers can understand what makes a product usable. Examples of poorly designed
products include hotel voice-mail systems and remote controls while well-designed
examples of the same products are used as contrast.
The text describes a scenario in which a person is staying at a hotel and encounters a
confusing and inefficient voice-mail system. The system requires multiple steps to access
messages and does not provide clear visual cues for the number of messages received.
The person ultimately gives up and seeks help from the front desk. The text then
compares this voice-mail system to a marble answering machine designed by Durrell
Bishop while he was a student at the Royal College of Art in London. The marble
answering machine is described as aesthetically pleasing, simple, and elegant in design
and requires only one-step actions to perform core tasks. However, it is not practical for
a hotel setting because it is not robust enough for public use and lacks the ability to
identify the caller or the message recipient.
In summary, the key points made are:
- The voice-mail system in the scenario is confusing, inefficient, difficult to use, and
lacks clear visual cues for the number of messages received.
- The marble answering machine is aesthetically pleasing, simple, and elegant in
design and requires only one-step actions to perform core tasks.
- The marble answering machine is not practical for a hotel setting because it is not
robust enough for public use and lacks the ability to identify the caller or the
message recipient.
1.2.1: The text explains that designing interactive products requires considering who
will be using them, how they will be used, and where they will be used. It is important to
understand the activities that people will be doing when interacting with these products
and to design the interfaces and input/output devices accordingly. The text also
mentions the increasing diversity of activities that can be done using digital technology
and the wide range of interfaces and interactive devices available. It also notes the
increasing prevalence of IoT-enabled products in households, and how digital interfaces
are becoming more common in everyday consumer items. The text highlights the
importance of optimizing users' interactions with a system, environment, or product in
order to support their activities in effective, useful, usable, and pleasurable ways. The
text concludes by noting that the goal of this book is to cover the aspects of interaction
design and to show how to identify users' needs and design interfaces accordingly, using
user-centered techniques during the design process.
In summary, the key points made are:
- Designing interactive products requires considering who will be using them, how
they will be used, and where they will be used.
, - It is important to understand the activities that people will be doing when
interacting with these products and to design the interfaces and input/output
devices accordingly.
- There is a wide range of activities that can be done using digital technology and a
wide range of interfaces and interactive devices available.
- IoT-enabled products are becoming more prevalent in households and digital
interfaces are becoming more common in everyday consumer items.
- Interaction design aims to optimize users' interactions with a system,
environment, or product in order to support their activities in effective, useful,
usable, and pleasurable ways.
- The goal of this book is to cover the aspects of interaction design and to show
how to identify users' needs and design interfaces accordingly, using user-
centered techniques during the design process.
1.3 What is interaction design:
Interaction design is the process of designing interactive products that support the way
people communicate and interact in their everyday and working lives. It aims to create
user experiences that enhance and augment the way people work, communicate, and
interact. The field of interaction design includes various terms such as user interface
design (UI), software design, user-centered design, product design, web design, user
experience design, and interactive system design. Interaction design is considered as a
fundamental field that encompasses many disciplines and approaches concerned with
researching and designing computer-based systems for people. The main differences
between interaction design and other approaches come down to the methods,
philosophies, and lenses they use to study, analyze, and design products.
The main points made:
- Interaction design is the process of designing interactive products to support
human communication and interaction.
- It encompasses various terms such as UI design, software design, user-centered
design, product design, web design, user experience design, and interactive
system design.
- Interaction design is fundamental to various fields and approaches that research
and design computer-based systems for people.
- It differs from other approaches in terms of methods, philosophies, and lenses
used to study, analyze, and design products.
- The scope and problems addressed by interaction design can vary, for example, it
may focus on specific domains such as business or focus on the design and
deployment of pervasive computing technologies.
1.3.2 Who is involved in interaction design?:
Interaction design requires a multidisciplinary team, including engineers, designers,
programmers, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, marketing people, artists, toy
makers, and product managers. However, communication and understanding can be
difficult among team members with different backgrounds and perspectives, leading to
confusion and breakdowns in communication.
1.4 The user experience:
The user experience (UX) refers to how a product behaves and is used by
people in the real world, and encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s
interaction with the company, its services, and its products. It is about how
people feel about a product and their pleasure and satisfaction when using it, looking at
it, holding it, and opening or closing it. It includes their overall impression of how good it
is to use, right down to the sensual effect small details have on them. It is important to
note that one cannot design a user experience, only design for a user
,experience. Designers refer to UX as UXD, the addition of the D is meant to encourage
design thinking that focuses on the quality of the user experience rather than on the set
of design methods to use. There are many aspects of the user experience that can be
considered and many ways of taking them into account when designing interactive
products such as usability, functionality, aesthetics, content, look and feel, and
emotional appeal. Furthermore, other wide-reaching aspects including fun, health,
social capital, and cultural identity should also be considered. Researchers have
attempted to describe the experiential aspect of a user experience in terms of the way
that users perceive a product, such as whether a smartwatch is seen as sleek or chunky,
and their emotional reaction to it, such as whether people have a positive experience
when using it.
The key points made:
- User experience (UX) refers to how a product behaves and is used by people in
the real world and encompasses all aspects of the end user's interaction with a
company, its services and products.
- It includes people's overall impression of how good a product is to use and the
sensual effect small details such as the feel and sound of buttons have on them.
- One cannot design a user experience, only design for a user experience.
- An important aspect is the quality of the experience, be it quick, leisurely or
integrated.
- Usability, functionality, aesthetics, content, look and feel, and emotional appeal
are important aspects of the user experience.
- Other wide-reaching aspects include fun, health, social capital, and cultural
identity.
- Researchers have attempted to describe the experiential aspect of user
experience in terms of users' perceptions and emotional reactions to a product, as
well as their expectations and the way they make sense of their experiences
when using technology.
1.5 Understanding users:
Having a better understanding of people and their contexts can help designers create
interactive products that match users' needs and provide good user experiences.
Knowing about individual differences and cultural differences is important for designing
products that can be used and accepted by a diverse range of user groups.
Understanding users can also reveal incorrect assumptions that designers may
have about particular user groups and what they need, such as assuming older
people want larger text and interfaces. Knowing about people's sensitivities and
capabilities is important for designing products that are inclusive and accessible for
all.
1.6 Accessibility and inclusiveness:
Accessibility and inclusiveness are two important concepts when it comes to designing
interactive products. Accessibility refers to making sure that the product is
accessible to as many people as possible, including those with disabilities.
Inclusiveness means being fair, open, and equal to everyone. Disability can be
caused by poor interaction design between a user and the technology, not just the
impairment itself. Assistive technology can be used to help those with permanent
disabilities, while inclusive design can help those with temporary or situational
impairments. Aimee Mullens is an example of how prosthetics can be designed to be
fashionable and desirable, rather than purely functional.
, 1.7 Usability and User Experience Goals:
Usability and user experience goals should be considered together when designing for a
user experience, as usability is fundamental to the quality of the user experience.
1.7.1 Usability Goals:
Usability is the process of ensuring that interactive products are easy to learn,
effective to use, and enjoyable from the user’s perspective. It involves
optimizing the interactions people have with interactive products to enable them to
carry out their activities at work, at school, and in their everyday lives. Usability goals
are typically operationalized as questions in order to provide the interaction designer
with a concrete means of assessing various aspects of an interactive product and
the user experience.
Effectiveness is a general goal that refers to how good a product is at doing what
it is supposed to do.
Efficiency refers to the way a product supports users in carrying out their tasks.
An example of where this kind of efficiency mechanism has been employed effectively is
in online shopping, such as Amazon's one-click option which requires users to click only a
single button when they want to make another purchase.
Safety refers to how well a product protects users from harm or injury while
using it.
Utility refers to how useful a product is for its intended purpose.
Learnability refers to how quickly and easily users can learn how to use a
product.
Memorability refers to how well users can remember how to use a product after
not having used it for some time.
Usability goals are turned into criteria to assess the usability of a product. Examples
include time to complete a task, time to learn a task, and number of errors made. These
provide quantitative indicators of productivity and user experience.
1.7.2 User Experience Goals
Interaction design covers a range of emotions and felt experiences, both desirable and
undesirable. These are subjective qualities that focus on how a system feels to a user,
rather than its objective usability goals. Many terms are used to describe the
multifaceted nature of the user experience, which can vary over time, technology, and
place. Elements that contribute to making a user experience pleasurable
include attention, pace, play, interactivity, conscious and unconscious control,
style of narrative, and flow. Flow is popular in interaction design for informing the
design of user experiences for websites and video games. Micro-interactions are single
actions performed at an interface that can have a big impact on the user experience
despite being small. Designing these moments of interaction at the interface can help
create an enjoyable and engaging user experience.
1.7.3 Design Principles
Design principles are abstractions used to orient designers when creating user
experiences. Examples include feedback, findability, and navigability. They are derived
from theory, experience, and common sense and help explain and improve designs.
Common principles include visibility, feedback, constraints, consistency, and affordance.
Visibility: Visibility is important for users to know what to do next. Controls should be
clearly visible and intuitive to use, like indicators, headlights, horn, and hazard warning
