UI Design Literature Study
Last Edited by Matthew Wong
Usability Basics for Software Developers Read this paper for a concise but good introduction to usability engineering, including how to perform usability engineering and why it's necessary. This paper breaks down the usability process into three phases: usability analysis, usability design, prototyping, and usability evaluation. Usability analysis includes user analysis (user visits, focus groups, surveys, user feedback studies), task analysis (creating use cases), and usability benchmarks (e.g. quantifying how long it takes a user to perform a task). Prototyping can include paper mock-ups, "Wizard of Oz" studies, scenarios, storyboards, and snapshots. Usability evaluation is user testing, including think-aloud studies, heuristic evaluation, and collaborative usability inspection.
Interaction Techniques for Navigation through and Manipulation of 2D and 3D Data This paper provides an overview of different techniques for manipulating 2D and 3D data. Note that most 3D techniques currently being researched involve non-standard desktop environments, such as props or alternate hardware input or output devices. Sandia analysts tend to prefer working on standard desktops with standard input and output devices (i.e. monitor, keyboard, and mouse). This paper introduced five design guidelines for interaction devices: preference of two-handed interactions, visual feedback, coinciding of action and perception space, minimal use of intrusive devices, and preference of wireless props. The most relevant guideline is the minimal use of intrusive devices (e.g. head-mounted displays). For ParaQ interface design research, we should largely concentrate on standard input and output devices. Another guideline from this paper is that "users can perform precision manipulation tasks better in 2D than in 3D space". It suggests to "consider performing 3D manipulations through a series of 2D manipulations".
Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces Heuristic evaluation is a usability inspection technique that can be used check if applications adhere to the ten general principles of user interface design. The ten general principles
Cognitive walkthroughs: a method for theory-based evaluation of user interfaces Cognitive walkthrough is another usability inspection technique that maps out use cases, and asks the following four questions at each step: (1) will the user be trying to achieve the right effect, (2) will the user know that the correct action is available, (3) will the user know that the correct action will achieve the desired effect, and (4) if the correct action is taken, will the user see that things are going OK. If all four questions can be answered in the affirmative, then the design is successful. Otherwise, the corresponding design should be reconsidered. With the cognitive walkthrough approach, developers can more accurately model the typical users' cognition.
Workshop on the Challenges of 3D Interaction This paper is a summary of a workshop that took place at SIGCHI, in 1994. Although the conference was 11 years ago, many of the findings are still relevant today, for ParaQ. Even in 1994, top interaction researches knew the importance of scalability, and ParaView and ParaQ offers such scalability through client-server support with clusters. In a 3D view, differing level of details on the same model is often desired, due to differing fidelity requirements. This panel identified the need of "providing ways for the user to change the size of their view so that these data at varying scales can be observed." Multi-view support in ParaQ can be used to allow for differing zoom levels of visualization. The workshop pointed out that architects have been designing 3D buildings for centuries using 2D drafting tools and techniques. For such applications even today, it may be the case that working with 2D models is more effective for such tasks. The paper did suggest, however, that communicating ideas to clients may require 3D environments. Furthermore, analyzing weapon design at Sandia may be one modern task which can take advantage of 3D environments, but it is also important for us to keep in mind the value and potential effectiveness of simple 2D environments. Like many other papers, this document also warned about the use of props, such as head-mounted displays and gloves, due to muscle fatigue. For more discussion on these topics, please refer to the document itself.
