Transcript design - UTRGV Faculty Web

Web Site Design
Web Site Design
• HCI and the Web –
– Knowledge of interface design, applied to web
– Won’t consider tools, programming – other classes, e.g., internet programming
• Web is a different sort of system … than “stand alone” systems
– Not just an “interface”, though principles (and techniques) apply
• Site Design
– Structure and information architecture
• Page design
– Page scanning and canonical form
– Visual logic and hierarchy
Web is Different, but …
1. Software system design principles are same
– Much of web design literature “comes in at the bottom”
• I.e., for novice (untrained) designers
• Though may apply principles, do not provide broader disciplinary context
– Student of computer science understands ideas about software engineering and
principles of design
• E.g., Lynch and Horton “team roles” and SE project members
2. Interface design principles, are same for “web-based” (or
browser-based) systems and “stand-alone” systems
– E.g., Shneiderman’s 8 “Golden Rules”, Nielsen and Toggazinni’s principles
3. Web is not “hypertext” (yet), yet many lessons of even pre-web
hypertext are relevant
– E.g., “lost in hyperspace”, pre-WWW study, cf. SIGWEB
– … and do consider the “semantic web … 3.0, 4.0, n.0 …”
About Web Design – In Practice
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Goal of hypertext:
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And, yes, WWW is hypertext, at least in limited sense
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But, technology (of network access) is really young, and slow:
bandwidth limitations drive much of “practical/applied” web site design
And, yes, television held great promise, too, …, but that’s another story
Note that much of what users see in Web sites (and even
“good” web sites) is driven by economic factors, rather than
“user-centered” design
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“an electronic medium in which information presentation and access mirrors
human cognition and thus can be more efficient and effective as a medium for
communication (than printing)”
Also, admittedly early on in development of use and evolution of techniques
i.e., design in which user’s (vs. the business’) best interests are design goal
Often/typically real goal of site is to sell advertising
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Business models for Internets are evolving –
Nonetheless, our focus is on user-centered design
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Design in which user can access information efficiently and effectively, etc.
1. Software Design Principles are Same
• Project stages of L&H reflect, different emphases, but same stages
1. Software Design Principles are Same
… note terminology differences … apologies for font size
• Project roles of L&H reflect, different emphases, but same roles as SE
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Project stakeholder or sponsor
Web project manager
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Site copywriter
Content domain expert (content coord., res.)
Web application programmer
Web page engineer (xhtml, css)
Database administrator
Web systems expert or webmaster
(under “Lead Prog”) Site production lead
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Web graphic designer
Interactive designer (Flash, …)
Media specialist (photography, illustration)
Lead Programmer/Architect
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html page coder
Site editor
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Account executive
Quality assurance tester
Usability lead
(e.g., database under “Lead Prog”/”arch”)
(e.g., Art director under “Lead…
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Web application programmer
Web page engineer (xhtml, css)
Database administrator
Web systems expert or webmaster
Site production lead
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Web graphic designer
Interactive designer (Flash, JavaScript, Ajax)
Media specialist (photography, illustration)
Web technology lead
“Client” - Boss
Project manager
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Account executive
Quality assurance tester
Usability lead
Information architect –site content and structure
Art director
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html page coder
(with database, under “Lead …) Site ed.
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Site copywriter
Content domain expert (content , res.)
1. Software Design Principles are Same
• … or similar
1. Software Design
Principles are Same
• … or similar
• Here, provide detail
specific to web sites
2. Interface Design Principles are Same
• Have had a close look at:
– Guidelines, principles, and theories
Guidelines, Principles, and Theories
• Guidelines (most specific)
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Specific and practical
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Cure for design problems, caution dangers,
shared language and terminology
Accumulates (and encapsulates) past
experience and best practices
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“blinking is bad, never use it”
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“Rules that distill out the principles of
effective user interfaces”
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More general and flexible than guideline
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E.g., Determine users’ skill level
• High level theories and models
Goal is to describe objects and actions with
consistent terminology
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Principles
May be: too specific, incomplete, hard to
apply, and sometimes wrong
Lowest level
• Principles (“rules of thumb”)
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Theories
Allowing comprehensible explanations to
support communication and teaching
Other theories are predictive
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E.g., reading, pointing, and typing times
Guidelines
… and recall, Principles: Shneiderman’s
“8 Golden Rules of Interface Design”
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Schneiderman’s 8 rules (principles):
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Strive for consistency
Cater to universal usability
Offer informative feedback
Design dialogs to yield closure
Prevent errors
Permit easy reversal of actions
Support internal locus of control
Reduce short term memory
… as well as Nielsen’s
Principles for Usable Design
• Meet expectations
– 1. Match the real world
– 2. Consistency & standards
– 3. Help & documentation
• User is the boss
– 4. User control & freedom
– 5. Visibility of system status
– 6. Flexibility & efficiency
• Handle errors
– 7. Error prevention
– 8. Recognition, not recall
– 9. Error reporting, diagnosis, and recovery
• Keep it simple
– 10. Aesthetic & minimalist design
… even Toggazinni’s 16 Principles
• Anticipation
• Human interface objects
• Autonomy
• Latency reduction
• Color blindness
• Learnability
• Consistency
• Metaphors
• Defaults
• Protect users’ work
• Efficiency
• Readability
• Explorable interfaces
• Track state
• Fitts’s Law
• Visible navigation
Web Site Design
Differs from User Interface Design
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WWW not same kind of interactive system, as “computer interface”
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(at least as discussed in traditional HCI literature)
Loooooooong latency
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1/10 – 1/30 second required for perceptual continuity
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1 sec continuity of interaction
– i.e., “immediate response”
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~ 10 (or 5-30) seconds for task continuity
So, response time from web is at limit of task continuity
WWW different, and not interactive system with “immediate” response
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not to be studied in same way many elements of interfaces are
and maybe principle focus and principles of design yet to evolve
Thus WWW, acts as information repository, … and other things
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Whether for “knowledge”, shopping, chatting, ..., but not traditional system
Hence, focus on information architecture
Difference Between Web Design and
GUI Design – Nielsen
• Designing for Web different from designing traditional user interfaces
– Designer has to give up full control
• Share responsibility for the UI with users and their client hardware/software.
• Device Diversity
– In traditional GUI design, control every pixel on the screen
• Designing to abstract UI specification is hard
– Those these days with javascript, etc. much more freedom
• The User Controls Navigation
– E.g., can jump straight into the middle of a site from a search engine!
• On Web, users move between sites at a very rapid pace and the
borders between different designs (i.e., sites) are very fluid
The Difference Between Web Design
and GUI Design – Nielsen, 1
• Designing for Web different from for traditional user interfaces
– Designer has to give up full control
• Share responsibility for the UI with users and their client hardware/software
• Device Diversity
– In traditional GUI design, control every pixel on the screen
– In traditional design, the difference in screen area between a laptop and a highend workstation is a factor of six
• Need to accommodate a factor of 100 in screen area – handhelds to screens
• A factor of 1,000 in bandwidth between slow and fast connections.
• Designing to abstract UI specification is hard
– E.g., HTML
– Separate meaning and presentation, e.g., style sheets to specify presentation
• but doing so works better for informational content than for interactions
– … though things are getting better as tools evolve
The Difference Between Web Design
and GUI Design – Nielsen, 2
• The User Controls Navigation
– In traditional GUI design, the designer can control where the user can go when
• E.g., can gray out menu options not applicable in the current state, etc.
– On Web, user controls his or her navigation through pages
– Users can take paths that were never intended by designer:
• Jump straight into the middle of a site from a search engine without ever
going through the home page
• Users also control own bookmark menu and can use it to create a
customized interface to a site
• Web designers need to accommodate and support usercontrolled navigation
– Design for freedom of movement and,
• E.g., logo (linked to home page) on every page for context and navigation
for users who have gone straight to that page
The Difference Between Web Design
and GUI Design – Nielsen, 3
• “Part of a Whole”
– A traditional application is an enclosed user interface experience:
• User is fundamentally "in" a single application at any given time and only
that application's commands and interaction conventions are active.
• Users spend relatively long periods of time in each application and become
familiar with its features and design.
• On Web, users move between sites at a very rapid pace and
borders between different designs (i.e., sites) are very fluid
– Often users spend less than a few minutes at a time at any given site,
• Users' navigation frequently takes them from site to site to site as they follow
hyperlinks.
– Because of this rapid movement, users feel using the Web as a whole
• … rather than any specific site:
– Users demand ability to use site on basis of Web conventions they
have picked up as an aggregate of their experience using other sites.
– In usability studies, users complain whenever they are exposed to sites with too
diverging ways of doing things
• Web as a whole has become a genre and each site is interpreted relative
to the rules of the genre.
3. Web is Different from (Visionary) Hypertext
with respect to types of links/associations
• Bottom line, hypertext and Web can both be modeled as G (V,E)
– For hypertext, edges are undirected and labeled (with anything!)
– For web, edges are directed and unlabeled
• Though, who would know edges undirected (browser makes transparent)
• Web 2.0 and higher aim to provide (semantic) labels
– Promise of the future …?
• But, current realization of “world wide repository of knowledge” is
really quite primitive
– But, it is still revolutionary in sheer quantity of information stored,
indexed (sort of), and retrievable
– And, we are early on in implementation
• 2016 – 1991 = 25
– And, all appreciate what next steps need to
• Moore’s law is on our side (though that’s just for computers)
About Web Design
As Presented by L&H and Nielsen
• Recall, hypertext
– Goal of hypertext:
• “an electronic medium in which information presentation and access mirrors human
cognition and thus can be more efficient and effective as a medium for communication (than
printing)”
• also, admittedly early on in development of use and evolution of techniques
– And, yes, WWW is hypertext, at least in limited sense
• But, technology (of network access) is really young, and slow:
– bandwidth limitations drive much of “practical/applied” web site design
• And, yes, television held great promise, too, …, but that’s another story
• Note, that much of what users see in Web sites (and even “good” web
sites) is driven by economic factors - advertising, rather than “usercentered” design
– i.e., design in which user’s (vs. the business’) best interests are design goal
– often, real goal of site is to sell advertising
• Nonetheless, our focus is on user-centered design
– Design in which user can access information efficiently and effectively, etc.
– Perhaps, not a bad place to start in general
• entirely appropriate for many sites
About Nielsen and Style Guide
• Yale Style Manual sometimes (ok, often) seem “quaint”
– “quaint” because of their focus on technology in a domain in
which two years sees significant change in technology
• Again, we’re just (historically) getting started
– HTML 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, …. Javascript, …, ASP, …, XML,
XHTML, …,
– and Java programs to run in the browser window
• Which really opens things up!
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