Lecture 9: Navigation

Question 1

What are the FOUR navigation design considerations?

Answer 1

1. Predictability
2. Synthesisability
3. Familiarity
4. Visibility

Question 2

What are the FOUR golden rules of navigation?

Answer 2

1. Knowing where you are
2. Knowing what you can do
3. Knowing where you are going or what will happen
4. Knowing where you have been or what you have done

Question 3

What does the navigation consideration predictability mean?

Answer 3

Can user determine what will happen next based on past interaction history?
What are the limits of knowledge requirements placed on the user?
Can the user easily determine what operations are currently visible?

Question 4

What does the navigation consideration synthesisability mean?

Answer 4

Can the user see the results of his / her actions?
The honest of the interface is the ability of the interface to provide an observable and informative account of its state.
Some interfaces promise immediate honesty - the new state is immediately obvious
Other interfaces promise eventual honesty - in the case of asynchronous tasks

Question 5

What does the navigation consideration familiarity mean?

Answer 5

• Removing the use of metaphors and ambiguous language which enhances guessability
• Use natural or domain - specific language
• Address affordance by making components feel familiar

Question 6

What is affordance?

Answer 6

Affordance is the intrinsic properties of visual objects that suggest how they can be manipulated.

Question 7

What does the navigation consideration visibility mean?

Answer 7

How visible is the state of the system?
The systems should always keep users informed through appropriate feedback within reasonable time. This can be done through:
- Visible Actions: buttons, links, drop-down arrows, highlight on mouse over
- Visible State: breadcrumbs, pagination, word count
- Visible Feedback: selection highlight, selection handles

Question 8

What is the human information foraging theory?

Answer 8

The information foraging theory is the comparison that humans gathering information can be modeled like animals gathering food - constantly evaluating and making decisions to maximise information collected against cost of obtaining it.

Question 9

What is information scent?

Answer 9

Information scent refers to the visible cues that help users figure out how to achieve their goals within the least effort.