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Principles of User Interface Design: Cognition, Attention, and Error Prevention

This comprehensive guide explores essential principles of user interface design, focusing on cognition and attention. Marti Hearst discusses the importance of understanding human cognitive abilities, the locus of attention in interfacing, and the impact of design on user experience. Key concepts include cognitive engineering, ergonomics, error handling, and the challenges of modes in interface design. The presentation emphasizes the need for designs that accommodate human variability and streamline user interaction, highlighting tools like Toolglass and Magic Lenses for better usability.

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Principles of User Interface Design: Cognition, Attention, and Error Prevention

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Presentation Transcript

  1. SIMS 213: User Interface Design & Development Marti Hearst Tues, Feb 17. 2004

  2. Today • Locus of Attention • Errors • Modes

  3. Raskin on Cognition • Cognitive Engineering • Ergonomics: • Takes into account the statistical variation of human variability • Design a car seat that fits 95% of the population • Says that designing products that interact with us physically is reasonable straightforward • Cognetics: Ergonomics of the mind • The study of the “engineering scope of our mental abilities” • This is the applied side of cognitive science

  4. Raskin on Cognition • Cognitive Conscious / Unconscious • Examples? • What is the last letter in your first name? • You know it but weren’t consciously accessing this information a moment ago, but now you are. • How do your shoes feel right now? • How did “The Shining” make you feel? • Having a name on the “tip of your tongue” • Differences? • New situations/routines • Decisions / one standard choice • Sequential / simultaneous Image from Newsweek, Jan 2001

  5. Raskin on Cognition • Locus of Attention • What is it? • An idea/object/event about which you are intently and actively thinking. • The one entity on which you are currently concentrating • You see and hear much more • E.g., white noise • Turn the lights off, you have a full-fidelity recording of their sound in your mind, which fades quickly • Why locus? • Focus implies volition; locus not always under conscious control • Attention can be either active or “going with the flow” • Why is it important for HCI? Image from Newsweek, Jan 2001

  6. Raskin on Cognition • Locus of Attention • Why is it important for HCI? • Cannot be conscious of more than one task at a time • Make the task the locus of attention • Don’t count on people to read labels or directions • Beware of the power of mental habits • Repetitive confirmations don’t work • Take advantage of it • Do pre-loading while user thinking about next step • Streamline resumption of interrupted tasks

  7. Error Messages

  8. Cooper on error dialog boxes • Why are they problematic? • How related to locus of attention? • What are the alternatives? • Cooper is talking to programmers • “Silicon Sanctimony” • You should feel as guilty as for using a goto – an admission of failure in design

  9. Umm, thanks for the warning, but what should I do? What happens when you cancel a cancelled operation? Do I have any choice in this? Uhhh… I give up on this one

  10. Inane Dialog Boxes

  11. “HIT ANY KEY TO CONTINUE” Slide adapted from Saul Greenberg

  12. Modes • What are they? • The same user actions have different effects in different situations. • Examples: • Adobe reader example: vs. • Powerpoint drawing example • Keycaps lock

  13. Modes • When are they useful? • Why can they be problematic? • How can these problems be fixed?

  14. Modes • When are they useful? • Temporarily restrict users actions • When logical and clearly visible and easily switchable • Drawing with paintbrush vs. pencil • Autocorrect (if easy to switch the mode) • Why can they be problematic? • Big memory burden • Source of many serious errors • How can these problems be fixed? • Don’t use modes – redesign the system to be modeless • Redundantly visible • Raskin -- quasimodes

  15. Modal Blooper

  16. Modal Blooper(and other problems too)

  17. A Summary Statement • Raskin, p. 69 • “We must make sure that every detail of an interface matches both our cognitive capabilities and the demands of the task…”

  18. Toolglass + Magic Lenses • An innovative way to deal with modes: • Make selection of operations visible as you are doing the operations • Work by Fishkin, Stone, and Bier at Xerox PARC

  19. Toolglass & Magic Lenses Applying the fill-color tool A palette of tools Composing two tools – Fill-color and magnify

  20. Toolglass + Magic Lenses • Magic Lenses are windows which know about what’s below them, and/or what’s above them. • Using them makes the mode explicit • They can alter input, output, or both. • They can be combined • See video

  21. Next Time • Design Guidelines • Heuristic Evaluations

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