Human Computer Interaction

MID-1
UNIT-1
Long Answers:
**1. Write about input output channels of HCI and write about text entry devices with
suitable examples.
TEXT ENTRY:
**2. explain in detail about ergonomics.
**3. explain different types of reasoning and problem-solving techniques.
*4. Explain various display devices.
*5. a) explain about physical controls, sensors and special devices with examples.
b) What are common interface styles.
a)
b)
Short Answers:
1. Explain sensory memory.

2. define reasoning and give its types.

3. State Fitts’ law.

4. Define Model Human Processor.

5. describe two types of photoreceptors?

6. Explain distribution of practice effect.

7. What is visual angle?

 UNIT-2
Long Answers:
**1. Briefly describe about the elements of the WIMP interface.
***2. Explain in detail about waterfall software life cycle and discuss various
activities in each phase.

Waterfall Model - Design

Waterfall approach was first SDLC Model to be used widely in
Software Engineering to ensure success of the project. In "The
Waterfall" approach, the whole process of software development
is divided into separate phases. In this Waterfall model, typically,
the outcome of one phase acts as the input for the next phase
sequentially.

The following illustration is a representation of the different

phases of the Waterfall Model.
The sequential phases in Waterfall model are −

• Requirement Gathering and analysis − All possible

requirements of the system to be developed are captured in
this phase and documented in a requirement specification
document.
• System Design − The requirement specifications from first
phase are studied in this phase and the system design is
prepared. This system design helps in specifying hardware
and system requirements and helps in defining the overall
system architecture.
• Implementation − With inputs from the system design, the
system is first developed in small programs called units,
which are integrated in the next phase. Each unit is
developed and tested for its functionality, which is referred
to as Unit Testing.
• Integration and Testing − All the units developed in the
implementation phase are integrated into a system after
testing of each unit. Post integration the entire system is
tested for any faults and failures.
• Deployment of system − Once the functional and non-
functional testing is done; the product is deployed in the
customer environment or released into the market.
 • Maintenance − There are some issues which come up in the
client environment. To fix those issues, patches are
released. Also to enhance the product some better versions
are released. Maintenance is done to deliver these changes
in the customer environment.

**3. Explain Interaction design process and elaborate the life cycle of interactive
systems.

What is Interaction Design Process?

The interaction design (IxD) process is what designers use to create solutions
centered on users’ needs, aims and behavior when interacting with products.
The IxD process involves 5 stages: discovering what users need/want,
analyzing that, designing a potential solution, prototyping it and
implementing and deploying it.

The 5 Stages of the Interaction Design Process

With the IxD process, you can build highly intuitive, recognizable
interfaces that provide seamless experiences for users and prove
your brand thoroughly understands them, their contexts and the
goals they seek to achieve.

Here are the five stages that the IxD process typically involves:
 1. Find the users’ needs/wants—It’s easy to assume you know what
users want/need and their relevant contexts. Discover
their real requirements:

a. Observe people.
b. Interview people.
c. Examine existing solutions—while remembering it’s hard to envisage
future needs, technologies, etc.
2. Do analysis to sort and order your findings so they make sense.
This may be through a:

a. Narrative/story of how someone uses a system.

b. Task analysis, breaking down a user’s steps/sub-steps.
3. Design a potential solution according to design guidelines and
fundamental design principles (e.g., giving appropriate feedback for
users’ actions). Use the best techniques to match how users will interact
with it in terms of, for example, navigation.
4. Start prototyping—Give users an idea of what the product will look
like and let them test it, and/or give it to experts to evaluate its
effectiveness using heuristics.
5. Implement and deploy what you have built.
The IxD process is iterative—nobody designs anything right the
first time, especially regarding more innovative solutions. It may
indeed take many iterations before you pinpoint the ideal version of
a solution. So, you (and your design team) should continue testing
and adapting appropriate changes around an ever-clearer
understanding of your users’ needs. For example, you could gather
user feedback and monitor support chats to find areas for
improvement.

It's important to understand the interaction design process is

a general idea of how you can start from your users’ needs and
progress towards a fitting solution. Similar design processes
exist. Design thinking is one of the more notable of these, where
you work to gain and leverage vital insights to fine-tune optimal
features. Only when you know your users and empathize with them
can you appreciate their real-world needs, desires and pain points.
*4. a) What is design rationale? Explain types of design rationale.
b) Explain in detail about usability engineering and principles to support usability.
a)

What is a design rationale in HCI?

In the software and interface design process, designers must make critical
decisions about the system. Whether the choice of the architectural style or
picking a color palette for the interface, these decisions determine crucial
components for the development phase. Therefore, it is vital to document
these choices. A design rationale helps the designer do so.

A design rationale documents all the decisions made by the designer and the
reasons behind making those choices. Additionally, it records various
alternatives which were considered by the designer and the reason for
rejecting them. In short, a design rationale explains why a system has been
designed the way it is.

Design rationale in HCI

In interface design, the designer has to come across many HCI-related design decisions.
Therefore, a design rationale is fundamental in HCI, owing mainly to the following reasons:

• Assessing alternatives: In the interface design process, the designer is sure to

encounter situations where they are presented with alternatives they can choose from.
For example, the menu options on an interface can either be shown in the navigation
bar or hidden behind a hamburger menu. In such a situation, the designer considers
trade-offs between the available options and decides which one to go for. All this
must be documented in the design rationale.
• Avoiding missing the optimal solution: Realistically, the designer considers only a
few of the alternatives at a time. Therefore, there is a possibility that some options are
left undiscovered, which may prove to be better than the currently chosen one. In such
a situation, the designer can have a look at the design rationale and determine if the
ideal solution has been investigated already or not.
• Reusing design rationales: Most often, the context of the interface under design
relates to another interface previously designed. If the design rationale of the older
interface has been recorded, it can be reused, so the designer does not have to go
through the decision-making process again.
Types of design rationales
There are two techniques of organizing the design rationale, which determine its type. The
types of design rationales are as follows:

• Process-oriented
• Design space analysis
• Structure-oriented

Process-oriented design rationale

Process-oriented design rationales accurately capture the history of all the design decisions
as they occur. These are process-oriented because they can efficiently integrate into the
interface design process.

One way to represent process-oriented design rationales is through the issue-based

information system (IBIS) notation. It displays the design decisions as a hierarchical
structure, having the following components:

• Issue: The main problem under question.

• Positions: The possible solutions for the issue.
• Arguments: To support or reject the positions.
• Sub-issues: Secondary issues which modify the root issue.

The following illustration showcases how IBIS structured a process-oriented design rationale
graphically.
Structure-oriented design rationale
Structure-oriented design rationales involve structuring the decisions after all of them have
been considered. Such a structure-oriented approach to organizing the design rationale is also
known as design space analysis.

Design space analysis is represented using the Questions, Options, and Criteria (QOC)
notation, which has the following components:

• Question: The major issue considered.

• Options: The alternate solutions for the question. Favorable options are linked with
solid lines and negative ones with a dashed line. The best option is outlined with a
rectangle.
• Criterion: Used to evaluate the options to select the optimal one.
The following illustration showcases how a design space analysis is structured graphically
using QOC notation:

b)

What is Usability Engineering?

Usability engineering is a professional discipline that focuses on improving
the usability of interactive systems. It draws on theories from computer
science and psychology to define problems that occur during the use of such a
system. Usability engineering involves the testing of designs at various stages
of the development process, with users or with usability experts.

The history of usability engineering in this context dates back to the 1980s. In
1988, authors John Whiteside and John Bennett—of Digital Equipment
Corporation and IBM, respectively—published material on the subject,
isolating the early setting of goals, iterative evaluation, and prototyping as key
activities. The usability expert Jakob Nielsen is a leader in the field of usability
engineering. In his 1993 book Usability Engineering, Nielsen describes
methods to use throughout a product development process—so designers can
ensure they take into account the most important barriers to learnability,
efficiency, memorability, error-free use, and subjective
satisfaction before implementing the product. Nielsen’s work describes how to
perform usability tests and how to use usability heuristics in the usability
engineering lifecycle. Ensuring good usability via this process prevents
problems in product adoption after release.
Rather than focusing on finding solutions for usability problems—which is the
focus of a UX or interaction designer—a usability engineer mainly
concentrates on the research phase. In this sense, it is not strictly a design role,
and many usability engineers have a background in computer science because
of this. Despite this point, its connection to the design trade is absolutely
crucial, not least as it delivers the framework by which designers can work so
as to be sure that their products will connect properly with their target
usership.

Principles of Usability:
• Learnability: The ease with which new users can begin effective
interaction and achieve maximal performance
• Flexibility: The multiplicity of ways the user and system exchange
information
• Robustness: The level of support provided to the user in
determining achievement and assessment of goal-directed
behavior

Principles to Support USABILITY

1. Principles of Learnability:
• Predictability: It determines the effects of future action based on
past interaction history.
• Synthesizability: It determines the effects of past operations on
current states. eg.- move file
• Familiarity: New users can get familiar with the functionality and
interaction style of the application.
 • Consistency: It means through the resultant behavior of the
system. Every time system gives the same result on the same set
of inputs.
• Generalizability: It requires specific knowledge of the same
domain knowledge. eg.- Cut, Copy, etc.
2. Principles of Flexibility:
• Dialog initiative: All the dialogs are done by a simple request and
response system.
• Multithreading: Single set of code on input can be used by several
processes at different stages of execution.
• Task Migratability: Transfer the execution of the task from the
system to the user and decide who is better. eg.- Spell Checker
• Substitutivity: It allows equivalent values of input and output to
be substituted with each other. eg.- Percentages and Grades
• Customizability: It supports the modifiability of the user interface
by a user (adaptability) or system (adaptivity).
3. Principles of Robustness:
• Observability: The user should be able to evaluate the internal
features of a system and give proper feedback.
• Responsiveness: Real system feedbacks on the user’s action.
• Recoverability: To fix and solve errors and get the correct actions.
• Task Conformance: The system supports all the requirements of
the user and how the user interacts with them.

*5. Explain in short about classification of evaluation techniques.

Short Answers:
1. Analyse design rationale.

2. List advantages and disadvantages of prototyping model.

3. What are the types of human memory structure?

4. State the golden rules of design.

5. What is the importance of navigation in interfaces?

6. What is the role of HCI in software process.

7. Who are stakeholders?

8. Define storyboards.

9. What are the various levels of interaction.

 UNIT-3 (Trash answers)
Long Answers:
***1. Discuss about organizational issues present in Socio-Organizations.
**2. Explain about various cognitive models.
**3. Explain about
a) face to face communication b) text based communication c) turn taking d) speech
act theory
Short Answers:
1. Express CSCW.

2. analyse the acronym CATWOE.

3. Define usability and effectiveness.

4. What is task action grammar.