CT026-3-2

Human Computer Interaction

Human Computer Interaction

User Interaction
Level 2

Prepared by: RHR First Prepared on: December, 2007 Last Modified on:
Quality checked by: MOH
Copyright 2004 Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology
 Next Session

Topic and Structure of next session

User Interaction

CT026-3-2 Human Computer Interactions 2

 Topic & Structure of the lesson

• Norman’s Gulfs of Execution and Evaluation

• Interaction style
– Command Line
– Menus
– Questions and answers
– Form – fills
– WIMP

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 Learning Outcomes

• At the end of this lecture, you should

be able to:
– Select the appropriate interaction
technique for the interface design

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 Key Terms you must be able to use

If you have mastered this topic, you should be able to

use the following terms correctly in your assignments
and exams:

•Norman’s gulf of execution and evaluation

•Interaction style
•Command line
•Menus
•Question and answer
•Form – fills
•WIMP

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 Interaction Model
• The most influential model of interaction is
Donald Norman’s (http://www.jnd.org/) :

Execution-Evaluation cycle
• Norman divides interaction into :
– Execution
• User activities aimed at making the system
do something
– Evaluation
• Evaluating whether the system did actually
do what they wanted
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 Understanding Interaction

Execution
– If User cannot make system do what they
want
• e.g. cannot understand how to do it,
unclear icons, unclear indication etc.
– Will result in the Gulf of Execution
• i.e. difference between the user’s
formulation of the action and the actions
allowed by the system
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 Understanding interaction

Evaluation
– If user cannot see what happened to system
• e.g. if system has done what they want but no
feedback is given to the users etc.
– Will result in the Gulf of Evaluation
• i.e. difference between the representation of
the system state/result and the expectations
of the user
Good Design aims to reduce these gulfs
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 Models of interaction

• Norman’s Gulfs of Execution and

Evaluation
– The user formulates a plan of action, which is
then executed at the computer interface. When
the plan, or part of the plan, has been
executed, the user observes the computer
interface to evaluate the result of the executed
plan, and to determine further actions

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 Models of interaction - Execution

The seven stages of action

1. Forming the goal
– Something to be achieved
– E.g. “make a nice meal”
2. Forming the intention
– Specific statements of what has to be done to
achieve the goal
– E.g. “make a chicken casserole using a can of
prepared sauce”

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 Models of interaction - Execution

The seven stages of action

3. Specifying an action sequence
– The precise sequence of operators that must be
performed to effect the intention
– E.g. “defrost frozen chicken, open can”
4. Executing an action
– Actually doing something
– E.g. “opening the can”

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 Models of interaction - Evaluation

The seven stages of action

5. Perceiving the state of the world
– Perceiving what actually happened
– E.g. the experience of smell, taste and look of
the prepared meal
6. Interpreting the state of the world
– Trying to make sense of the perceptions
available
– E.g. putting those perceptions together to
present the sensory experience of a chicken
casserole – thick sauce and smelled delicious
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 Models of interaction - Evaluation

The seven stages of action

7. Evaluating the outcome
– Comparing what happened with what was
wanted
– E.g. did the chicken casserole match up to the
requirement of “a nice meal”?

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 Quick Review Question

• What are the 7 stages of Norman’s gulf

of evaluation and execution?

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 Interaction Style

• Dialog between the computer and user.

• Identification of interaction styles:
– Command Line Interface
– Menu
– Natural Language
– Question/ answer and query dialogue
– form -fills and spreadsheets
– WIMP

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 Interaction Style – Command Line

• First interactive dialog style to be used

• A mean of expressing instruction to the computer directly
using function keys, single characters, abbreviations or whole
word command
• user responds to a prompt on the screen by entering an
appropriate command

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 Interaction Style – Command Line

• Benefits of command line:

– It offers direct access to system functionality
– Quick to use.
• The command can be applied to many objects at once
– Easily extensible
– Suitable for experience user

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 Interaction Style – Command Line

• Disadvantages of command line:

– Difficult to use
– Difficult to learn
– Difficult for error correction
– Difficult for novice user
– Text only data representation

Hint: using consistent and meaningful commands

and abbreviations

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 Review question

• Can you suggest some guidelines of

using the command line interface
based on the above advantages and
disadvantages?

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 Interaction Style – Command Line

Design guidelines:
• Offer maximum flexibility
– Conduct task analysis to determine the necessary
commands
• Facilitate command remembering
– Use meaningful, descriptive names
– Use consistent format of the command line
– Provide on-line help

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 Interaction Style – Command Line

Design guidelines:
• Facilitate error correction
• Give feedback on both successful and
unsuccessful commands

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 Interaction Style – Menus

• A set of options displayed on screen

• Relies on recognition rather than recall

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 Interaction Style – Menus

• Benefits of Menus:
– Easy to use, reduces memorisation
– Structure the user’s decisions
– Easy to program

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 Interaction Style – Menus

• Disadvantages of Menus:
– Limited choices per menu
– Slow to use in large systems
– Multi-user systems
• slow response times
– Can take up a lot of space

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 Interaction Style – Menus

• Can you suggest some guidelines of

using the menu and navigation
interface, based on the above
advantages and disadvantages?

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 Interaction Style – Menus

• Design guidelines:
– Group logically related options
– Various categories of grouping:
• Alphabetical
• Categorical
• Conventional
• Frequency
– Limit options to 7 per menu approximately, or break
into sections
– Avoid excessively deep hierarchies
– Options that are not available at a given time should
be faded (grayed).
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 Interaction Style – Question and answer

• Consists of computer prompt, i.e. question,

set of choices, and a response from the user.
• Next question may depend on previous
answer given.

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 Interaction Style – Question and answer

• Benefits of Q&A:
– Easy to use for naïve and novice users
– Conversational systems
– Computer initiated and controlled dialogue

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 Interaction Style – Question and answer

• Disadvantages of Q&A:
– Slow to use
– Time to read
– there is limited support for going back to correct
errors that might have been made in earlier
questions.
– Generally they are quite slow to use - every
question must be answered in order to get
through the sequence

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 Interaction Style – Question and answer

• Can you suggest some improvements

of the question and answer interface,
based on the above advantages and
disadvantages?

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 Interaction Style – Question and answer

• Design guidelines:
– Only one question at a time
– Re-display previous answer (s) if replies are
linked
– Keep sequences compatible with source
document or user task model
– Display format of acceptable responses

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 Interaction Style: Form – Fills

• Designed for clerical workers

– Requires little experience with computers
– To enable them to carry out repetitive clerical
data collection tasks.
– Mimicked paper forms in order to retain the
characteristics of the manual task
– Designed for a specific type or task.

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 Interaction Style: Form – Fills

• Advantages
– Forms offer a neat, structured way of
gathering information.
• Disadvantages
– A form has to be designed specifically for
each task.
– Users will require a certain level of typing skill

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 Interaction Style: Form – Fills

• Can you suggest some improvements

of the form - fills interface, based on
the above advantages and
disadvantages?

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 Interaction Style: Form – Fills

• Design guidelines:
– Text box :
• Maximum size of text-box can be determined
beforehand.
– In many fields it is possible to provide a default value
for a data field
– In some forms, certain values might be required,
other optional.
• For required items, program might not proceed to
other fields until value is entered.

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 Interaction Style: Form – Fills

• Design guidelines:
– Interdependencies can be incorporated in the
program.
• For example, if one element asks if user is
pregnant, then 'female' is automatically entered in
the 'sex' field.

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 Interaction Style: WIMP

• Windows, icons, menus and pointers

• The user carries out some physical action
(e.g. clicking, dragging) rather than typing
commands with complex syntax
• The results of the action are seen
immediately and, usually, actions are
reversible

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 Interaction Style: WIMP

• Advantages
– Novices can learn the basic functions quickly,
usually through demonstration and practice
rather than from formal instruction or a
manual.
– Intermittent users can retain the main
operational concepts of the interface because
it involves visual recognition.
– Error messages are rarely needed because
most actions are reversible.
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 Interaction Style: WIMP

• Advantages
– There is immediate feedback as to whether or
not the user's goals have been achieved.
– Users are less anxious, again because they
know actions can be reversed.

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 Summary of Main Teaching Points

• Interaction is the heart of all modern

interfaces and is important at many
levels from the ordering of screens to
the clicking of a button.

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 Question and Answer Session

Q&A

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 Next Session

Topic and Structure of next session

Usability & Usability Engineering

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