UserCentric

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User-Centric The Human Factor in Design
Susanne M. Furman, PhD Usability Engineer Web
Communication and New Media Division U.S.
Department of Health Human Services
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What is Human Factors?

• Science of understanding the properties of human
  
• capability
• The application of this understanding to the
  design
• and development of systems
• The art of ensuring successful application of
  Human
• Factors Engineering

The study of all aspects of the way humans relate
to the world around them.
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History of Human Factors

• Origin in the Industrial Revolution
• Full-fledged discipline during WWII
• Aircraft cockpit design needed to consider human
  
• interface for controls and displays

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What Does Human Factors Involve?

• Cognition mental processes, memory,
  recognition
• Perception how we perceive color, layout,
  appeal
• Motor Skills how we interact with systems
• Experimental psychology applying experimental
• methodology outside a controlled environment

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Objectives of Human Factors

• Enhance effectiveness and efficiency of human-
• machine systems
• Enhance certain desirable human characteristics
• Recognize and utilize individual differences
• Influence human behavior and well-being through
  the
• intelligent design of machines, devices, and
  work
• environments
• Utilize empirical data for design and evaluation
  
• Utilize the scientific method in the collection
  of this
• data

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What is Usability

• General term that encompasses ease of use
• How easily can people use any products controls
  
• or displays
• Study of methods, measurement, and principles of
  
• a products efficiency, elegance, and
  usefulness.
• Putting the user FIRST
• Provide the best match between the
  characteristics
• of people with the operation of the systems
  and
• products they use

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Usability Results

• Greater efficiency
• Shorter learning time
• Increased satisfaction
• Reduce human error and the likelihood of
  negative
• outcomes
• Usability is NOT just user testing!!!

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International Standard
System satisfies specified requirements

• Specify the context of use identify people who
  will use it, what they use it for and under what
  conditions.
• Specify requirements Identify business
  requirements or user goals for product to be
  successful.
• Create design solutions Build from rough concept
  to a completed design.
• Evaluate designs evaluation - usability testing
  with actual users.

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Operator Error in Complex Systems

• Three Mile Island
• Bhopal
• Chernobyl
• Why large-scale systems pose additional demands
  and new requirements on human operators.

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• Three Mile Island
• Attributed to wrong decisions
• Operators overwhelmed with info much of it
• irrelevant, misleading or incorrect.
• Poorly designed instrumentation
• Important gauges were out of view
• No critical line on gauges
• No consistent action results for knobs and dials
• Exceptions what happens if..

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But Really This is Not Life or Death
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Impacts Our Daily Lives

• Surrounded by manufactured items intend to
• make life easier, more pleasant, and to help
  us
• save time.
• We are victimized by inanimate objects
• VCR?
• Lost trying to find information on a web site
• Tried to put our mug in the cup holder
• Why do we try so hard and put up with all these
  
• frustrations? Or do we???

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Mental Models
What is it?
Example Walk in a store cannot tell what
services goods were available.

• Users
• Come to your site with an idea of how things
  work
• Have been to many sites
• Have generic mental model way supposed to work

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Two Conclusions Follow

• Users have mental model of way things
• should work
• Average user is not a novice

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Users Mental Model

• Users experience majority of sites have
  horrible
• usability
• Users discover this and they are GONE
• Average users expectation of 1st time visit
• DISAPPOINTMENT
• If not apparent how site applies to immediate
  concerns
• GONE

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Users Are Not Novices

• Users acquainted with way most pages work
• Users dont have time to learn something new
• Homepages need to communicate immediate value
• Need to enable users to find relevant stuff in
  seconds
• If your homepage works similarly then users will
  
• understand because they are familiar with
  design
• conventions

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Design Conventions Stifle Creativity

• Boring if all homepages look the same
• Design is problem-solving with constraints
• Goal make something that works in the real
  world
• Doesnt mean they all look alike
• Magazine example
• Numbers located in corners
• Display headlines in type larger than body text
• Table of contents is at beginning
• But Vogue doesnt look like SI

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What Your Site Is

• Face to the world
• You get one chance to make a first impression
• If first impression is not good there is no
  second
• chance
• It is NOT artwork
• It is an interaction
• It is a stepping stone to the users destination
  - inside

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Users Have Multiple Goals

• Find out what you do
• Researching a specific purpose
• Interested in some service or support
• Users may have different goals at different
  times
• segmenting does not work
• If number of options are overwhelming GONE

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What Your Homepage Must Do
At First Glance

• Where users are in your site
• What your company does
• What users can do at your site

Whats Important?

• Branding
• High-priority tasks

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So Why?

• Usability plays a role in publics perception
• Affects your brand value
• Affects public perception
• Makes it easier for users to accomplish their
  goals
• Bad design costs billions/year
• Internet easy to use can pay off by a factor
  of 10
• Fewer last minute design changes
• Usable, appealing, and effective designs