1. Why is user-centered design important? Provide an example from your own experience where a design failed (or requires significant improvements) to consider user requirements. What recommendations would you make?
User centered design attempts to understand and involve user needs, desires, and intentions within the design process.
The design exists to serve the activity. If the activity is driven by users to accomplish a user-defined objective, they need to be aware of the meaningful choices available to them. They must be able to understand the outcomes of their actions and form plans that allow them to use the tool to accomplish their objective. Ideally, accomplishing the objective is enjoyable and feels natural. The interface should feel like it supports their intentions, provides an understanding of how to proceed or retrace steps. Mastery of the skills to achieve the task should feel within their reach and they should be able to form reliable expectations of the outcomes.
My chosen example of non-user-centric design is a graphical user interface, one that I face every day. Our office copier/printer has the human readable descriptor “Lighten/Darken” running counter to the operation of the copy darkness selector. The first several times an individual uses this function they inevitably select the opposite outcome of that which they desired. The darkness indicator is quite intuitive, indicating a relative darkness from “normal”. However, the title tends to be read first while navigating the GUI to find the function. This first interaction with the tool tends to order thoughts on its operation. Most often users get a failed outcome the first time they use this function and must stop and re-evaluate the tool’s operation to notice the reversed orientation of the tool from its descriptor.
My recommendation to fix this design is to reverse the orientation of either the title or the tool. That the firmware has not been flashed with a fix already cynically leads me to believe the design “flaw” was intentionally to consume more toner.
2. What are the interactive elements of a cellular phone? Why would you consider these elements interactive?
The interactive elements of a hypothetical cellular phone:
§ Form factor – size and shape that enable it to be used as a mobile device, access the keys with the thumb of one (either) hand; hear and speak into the device at the same time, read text only at an intimate distance
§ Microphone – voice commands, voice data
§ Buttons – key presses for data entry, volume, power
§ Incoming signals/data (call/message) that enable other users to influence the machine state
§ Speaker – enables the user to interact with the device (tones and other aural cues) as well as providing system access to aural menus and meaing-carrying tones (ringing, busy signal, etc.)
§ Screen – provides visual feedback and confirmation of many changes in device or accessed system states; incoming/outgoing messages, etc.
§ Firewire/SD cards/other jacks or sockets – uploading or viewing content – enables the user to interact with data-storage devices
§ Vibration – low-profile alerts
§ Orientation – some devices are adding accelerometers so the device may perceive changes in its orientation
§ Camera (video or still) – recognition software (i.e. bar-code activated content, face-recognition software) can enable the user to interface the device with certain types of visual information in the environment
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