Week of 09/07/09

Content:
Wednesday's lecture was on human computer interactions (HCI).  The lecture included information about some of the fields that have HCIs in them.  Another thing that was discussed was the effectiveness and impact of different systems of HCI.  Moreover, examples of tools are that are used in HCIs were taught.  Also instructed were some of the key features that HCIs should successfully include.  In addition, ways to rate HCI usefulness was covered as well.

I thought that the examples of objects with poor design choices was thought provoking and entertaining.  Its interesting to see how products can be functional but not flexible for usage in a lot of different situations with different people.  Also, I liked the point that was made in the lecture about a reason to reduce the number of features that are presented very conspicuously and first to the users of programs.  That reason to have only a few features first displayed is to not overwhelm users with too many options and have the program be more initially intuitive to them through less object confusions.  Advanced options can be still available but stored in more inconspicuous locations.  I have at times been personally frustrated by having a hard time finding commonly used core functions in some programs because they are mixed together with an abundance of other options including advanced ones.  Keyboard shortcuts for functions that are commonly used between programs can rescue me from a situation like that sometimes but I often prefer easy to find core options within programs.

I found a list of ways to create effective user interfaces.  Here is the link:
http://www.usabilitypost.com/2009/04/15/8-characteristics-of-successful-user-interfaces/
The intended use part of the article that used photos on an iPhone is interesting to me.  I wonder how did apple decide on those “key things”?  Mabie they did a requirements analysis like the one discussed in the HCI presentation.

Posted by:

Nate