Conceptual Model Design Informing the user what to do

1. Gabriel Spitz Conceptual Model DesignInforming the user what to do Lecture 10

2. Gabriel Spitz Interface Design Space

3. Gabriel Spitz UI Design Structure • The Structure is concerned with the over all UI • Good structure is one where the UI design is organized • - Purposely (Goal) – Meaningfully (User) - Usefully (Task) • It is based on clear and consistent models that is apparent and recognizable by the users • It informs the designer and helps us • Put related things together and separate unrelated • Make dissimilar things different and similar things similar

4. Gabriel Spitz Organizing Items Organization by Usage Organization by Product type

5. Gabriel Spitz Conceptualization • Is the process of coming up with a high level solutions to a problem how should the functions of a product be organize and represent in the UI • It helps orient a designer to ask specifics questions about how a the product will be understood • It encourages the designer to explore different ideas and only than establish a set of commonly agreed terms

6. Gabriel Spitz Conceptual Model • "A high level description of how a system is organized and operated" Johnson and Henderson 2002 • It enables "designers to straighten out their thinking before they start laying out widgets” Circular Controls Triangle Controls Engine Controls Radio Controls Aesthetic Design Functional Design

7. Gabriel Spitz Conceptual Model Includes • Conceptual Model includes • Metaphors and Analogies • Concepts that people are exposed to through the product • Task domain objects, their attributes and operations • Relationship and mapping between these concepts

8. Gabriel Spitz Why Conceptual Model?

9. Gabriel Spitz Helping the User Figure It Out • Our actions are driven by what we see and how close is what we see to what we expect/know • What we see is the Conceptual Model of the interface • What we expect is our Mental Model of the interface • We as UI designers are responsible for selecting and implementing the conceptual model of our design

10. Gabriel Spitz Mental Model • Is what we expect a product to look like and behave • It is based on our actual experience with and knowledge about similar items or parts of an item • This knowledge is rarely complete or accurate. If we do not have any experience with a similar product, we will have to spend more time learning

11. Gabriel Spitz What would you expect when clicking on the Log In link Draw it on a small piece of paper

12. Gabriel Spitz How many drew something similar to the above?

13. Conceptual Model VS. Mental Model • Mental model is the idea a user has about an artifact e.g., Spreadsheet • Conceptual model is the way a designer represents an artifact, how it works & how the interface controls affect it. This is what a user will see • The closer a conceptual model is to the mental model the easier it is for a user to figure out how to operate a system Mental Model of a Bicycle Conceptual Model of a Design Me

14. Gabriel Spitz Mental Model When user clicks this Icon They expect this Not This

15. Gabriel Spitz A. Cooper’s Conceptual Models Manifest Model = Conceptual Model or Framework

16. Gabriel Spitz Why do we care about mental model? • Everything in usability is about the match between mental model and the conceptual model • The greater the match Easier to learn

17. Gabriel Spitz Mismatch Between Models • Mismatch between the users’ expectation – their mental model; and the conceptual model used by the UI designer will lead to: • Error • Poor performance • Frustration

18. Gabriel Spitz A Conceptual Model • Is the way the system will appear to users and therefore the way the user will understand it • It is the overall “big idea” of the UI • For example this interface is like a desktop, a wending machine, an ATM machine • It is also the context within which UI elements – actions & components – are anticipated and interpreted

19. Gabriel Spitz Conceptual Model Content • To capitalize on users’ mental model (what users already know), the conceptual model needs to match on all the dimensions of the mental model • Objecte • Interaction Style • Labels

20. Gabriel Spitz • Object – Spreadsheet • Interaction style – Instructing • Labels – Spreadsheet related e.g., Sum • Object – Canvas • Interaction style – Direct Manipulation • Labels – Drawing related e.g., Mix

21. Conceptual Models Examples

22. Two Panel Concept Two panels Above and below. One shows the set of items user can select from, the other shows the content of the selected item This is a learned interaction, but very common and quick to learn

23. Tabular Concept

24. List Concept

25. Content Group

26. Form Concept

27. Gabriel Spitz Creating a Conceptual model

28. Gabriel Spitz Creating a Conceptual Model • Conceptual models are created by our choices for the interface • The Interface metaphor – The object we interact with • Interaction styles – The Activity/Method we use for the interaction • Keep in mind that the interface has to communicate how it should be used • Help information can aid, but should not be necessary

29. Gabriel Spitz Interaction Styles • Interaction styles refers to the way we interacts with an application. These include: • Instructing • Conversing • Manipulation • Browsing & Navigating • Metaphor or the objects used in the the interaction such as • Blank sheet of paper • Spreadsheet • Canvas

30. Gabriel Spitz Instructing (activity) • Instructing refers to telling the system to perform specific tasks such as • Print, save, delete, etc. • Used by many applications • It includes keyboard commands, function keys, menu items, etc. • Main benefit is that it supports quick and efficient interaction • Good for repetitive actions performed on multiple objects

31. Gabriel Spitz Instructional Style Interaction Graphical User Interface Command Line Interface

32. Gabriel Spitz Conversation (activity) • The underlying model of conversation – question and answer • Examples include: • Help Facilities - Computer answer/User asks • Search Engines - Computer answer/User asks • Interactive Voice Recognition (Siri) User asks/Computer answer • The benefit - it allows users to interact with the system in a way that is familiar • Makes them feel comfortable, at ease and less scared • The drawback is that misunderstandings can arise when the system does not know how to parse what the user says

33. Gabriel Spitz Conversational Style Interaction

34. Gabriel Spitz Direct Manipulating (activity) • Involves dragging, selecting, opening, closing and zooming actions on virtual objects • Exploit’s users’ knowledge of how they move and manipulate objects in the physical world • what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) • the direct manipulation approach (DM) • Shneiderman (1983) coined the term Direct manipulation

35. Gabriel Spitz Core Principles of DM • Continuous representation of objects and actions of interest • Physical actions and button pressing instead of issuing commands with complex syntax • Rapid reversible actions with immediate feedback on object of interest

36. Gabriel Spitz Benefits of DM Interfaces • Easy to learn basic functionality – we have a good Mental Model • Users can work rapidly to carry out a wide range of tasks • Easy to remember how to carry out tasks over time • Easy to detect errors

37. Gabriel Spitz Disadvantages of DM • Some people take the metaphor of direct manipulation too literally • Not all tasks can be described by objects and not all actions can be done directly • Some tasks are better achieved through delegating • e.g. spell checking • Can waste extensive screen space • Moving a mouse around the screen can be slower than pressing function keys to do same actions

38. Gabriel Spitz Direct Manipulation Interface

39. Gabriel Spitz Exploring and Browsing • Moving through a virtual space – Scanning, Reading, Skipping • The way people browse information with existing media (e.g. newspapers, magazines, libraries, pamphlets) • Information is structured to allow flexibility in the way a user is able to search for information • e.g. multimedia, web

40. Gabriel Spitz Object Based Conceptual Models • Usually based on an analogy with something in the physical world • Examples

41. Gabriel Spitz Selecting a Conceptual Model • Direct manipulation - Spatial types of tasks, e.g. designing, drawing, flying, driving, sizing windows • Issuing instructions - Repetitive tasks, e.g. spell-checking, file management • Conversation - children, computer- phobic, disabled users and specialized applications (e.g. phone services) • Hybrid conceptual models are often employed, where different ways of carrying out the same actions is supported at the interface - but can take longer to learn