Lecture 5

Question 1

Cognition?

Answer 1

Is what goes on in our heads when we carry out out everyday activities.

Question 2

Cognition includes 2:

Answer 2

Experiential cognition
- A state of mind in which we perceive, act, and react to events around us effectively and effortlessly
Reflective cognition
- Involves thinking, comparing, and decision-making

Question 3

Cognitive Psychology

Answer 3

mental processes, including how people thing, perceive, remember, and learn

• Interacting with technology is cognitive
• we need to take into account cognitive processes involved and cognitive limitations of users
• Helps to identify and explain the nature and causes of the problems users encounter
• Provides knowledge about what users can and cannot be expected to do
• Supplies modeling tools and methods to help build interfaces that are easy to use

Question 4

The Model Human Processor (MHP). Subsystems? (3)

Answer 4

Perceptual
Cognitive
Motor

Question 5

Cognitive Characteristics and Interface Design. Which areas need to be included? (6)

Answer 5

• Attention
• Visual perception
• Reading
• Memory
• Learning
• Problem solving

(many cognitive processes are interdependent)

Question 6

Attention?

Answer 6

The process of selecting things to concentrate on, at a point in time, from the range of possibilities available

Question 7

Attention. 2 classifications?

Answer 7

• Focused vs. divided

- Voluntary vs. involuntary

Question 8

Focused Attention?

Answer 8

The everyday experience of focusing on one particular activity while switching between others is known as the cocktail party phenomenon.

Question 9

What effects our ability to focus on one activity among several others?

Answer 9

• Clear goals

- Information salience

Question 10

What does the “cocktail party phenomenon” mean?

Answer 10

The everyday experience of focusing on one particular activity while switching between others

Question 11

Important while Designing Implications? (4)

Answer 11

• Attention is precious and limited resource
• Know you users’ goals and focus their attention on important elements
• Put the most important information in the top third of the screen or in the middle
• D not litter the side of your interface with distractible material

Question 12

Selective Disregard?

Answer 12

ex. banner blindness!
- Users are accustom to ignoring online ads.
ex. extreme form: change blindness

Question 13

What can be done to prevent selective disregard? (3)

Answer 13

• Refrain from anything than resembles a banner
• Remove unnecessary elements on the page
• Make sure key areas have adequate emphasis and are well-defined (but don’t over do it)

Question 14

What gets the most attention?

Answer 14

• Anything that moves (but there might be banner blindness)
• Pictures of human faces(emotional connection: the face looking right at the user. Attention direction: the face looking at a product)

Question 15

Pictures of human faces. Two different: connections:

Answer 15

• Emotional: the face looking right at the user

- Attention direction: the face looking at a product

Question 16

Guiding User Attention (6)

Answer 16

• Altering user to new or important info(color, ordering, spacing etc)
• Properly handle foregrounds task vs. background task
• Reduce search time by structuring layout so so users can perceive meaningful components in information
• Elements on screen should be clearly labeled and follow conventions matching the users’ expectations
• Highlighting through dividers, windows, color to emphasize structure
• Avoid cluttering the interface - crisp, simple design

Question 17

Sustained Attention. How long can we pay attention to any task?

Answer 17

7 to 10 min(if you must hold longer, introduce novel info or a break

Question 18

Perception?

Answer 18

Is our awareness and understanding of the elements and object of our environment through the physical sensation of our very senses, including sight, sound, smell and so.

(Obvious implication is to design representations to make people perceive and locate items more easily and quickly)

Question 19

What pays a major role in what people see in an image?

Answer 19

Context. När vi något, så är det i en kontext och detta mindset påverkar hur vi ser på något. (mindset can have a profound effect on the usability of a web site)

Question 20

Visual Perception?

Answer 20

What we see is not what is there! It is a model of the external world constructed by our visual system! 
- Our model is constructed based on: 
        - The environment 
        - Our previous  
 experience 
        - Our expectations

Question 21

Visual Perception is based on a model which is based on? (3)

Answer 21

The environment, our previous experience, and our expectations

Question 22

Visual Perception Characteristics. We organize thing into meaningful units(5):

Answer 22

• Figure/Ground: elements are perceived as either figures(focus) or ground (background)
• Proximity: things close to one another are perceived more related
• Similarity: similar things are perceived to be more related than dissimilar thing
• Alignment: elements arrange on a line or curve are perceived more related than those not
• Closure: tendency of looking for a single, recognizable pattern

Question 23

1. Figure Ground Relationship?

Answer 23

• Human mind separates the visual field into the figure (the foreground - objects of primary attention) and ground (the background).
• Allows us to determine what we are supposed to look at and what we might safely ignore

Question 24

What is the perception of the figure/ground determined by? (2)

Answer 24

• Scene characteristics

- Viewers’ focus of attention

Question 25

Proximity?

Answer 25

- To make items organized, items related to each other should be grouped - Unrelated should be moved apart - Organized info is more likely to be read and remembered - It also looks more appealing - And creates more white space

Question 26

Proximity: Implication rules/tips?

Answer 26

- Avoid to many separate element on page. Avoid clutter. - Avoid even a split second of confusion over whether a headline, subhead, caption, graphic, etc., belongs with its related material. - Don’t create relationships with elements that don’t belong together.

Question 27

Proximity:(2) Key rule in Layout

Answer 27

- Logical flow (organize user interface elements from top to bottom and from left to right according to task flow - Position(proximity)

Question 28

3. Similarity

Answer 28

People often perceive similar objects as a group or pattern. - Use same font, buttons same size

Question 29

Repetition in Similarity?

Answer 29

A repetition of visual elements throughout the design unifies and strengthens a piece by tying together separate parts. (Avoid repeating the element so much that it becomes annoying or overwhelming)

Question 30

The Opposite: Contrast! | What mean?

Answer 30

“If two items are not exactly the same, then make them different. Really different.”

Question 31

4. Alignment?

Answer 31

• Nothing should be placed on the page arbitrarily • Make sure each item has some visual alignment with another item on the page. - makes the page sophisticated

Question 32

5. Closure: we mentally “fill in the blanks”?

Answer 32

* Often applied in GUIs | * Engage users by letting them complete an image, form an idea

Question 33

Reading. Why is the information design important?

Answer 33

``` Can disrupt reading! – Uncommon or unfamiliar vocabulary – Difficult scripts and typefaces – Text on noisy background – Information buried in repetition – Centered text • Avoid unnecessary reading ```

Question 34

Reading: Fonts?

Answer 34

Not necessary important but unusual fonts can interfere with pattern recognition and slow down reading - The font size needs to be big enough for users to read the text without strain