Understanding users, usability, and user experience

Flashcards about understanding users, usability, and user experience. Terms and definitions are based on lecture notes.

Why is it important to consider users in computing?

Computing is used by many people, not just technical professionals. Products and services may not be effective if user capabilities, limitations, needs, and desires are not considered.

What disciplines are involved in user-centered design?

Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), User Experience (UX) Design, and Requirements Engineering.

What aspects of human abilities should be considered when understanding users?

Physiological aspects (senses, movement), cognitive aspects (attention, memory), and affective aspects (emotional responses).

What are the limitations to understanding users?

Humans are complex, we are all different, users may struggle to articulate needs, and actual use may differ from what users say.

What are scenarios and personas?

Scenarios are stories describing how users interact with a system. Personas are fictional characters representing typical users, based on real data.

Define usability.

Ensuring interactive products are easy to learn, effective to use, and enjoyable from a user’s perspective. It is the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.

What is the difference between utility and usability?

Utility is whether the system does what users need. Usability is whether users can easily use the system’s features.

List Nielsen’s usability characteristics.

Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, low Error rate, and Satisfaction.

What are the two approaches to evaluating usability?

Analytic approaches (expert evaluation using guidelines or heuristics) and Empirical approaches (user evaluation through observations, surveys, etc.).

What is a heuristic?

A practical approach to problem-solving using guidelines, shortcuts, or rules of thumb to find a sufficient solution rather than a perfect one.

List five of Nielsen’s usability heuristics.

Simple and natural dialogue, Speak the users’ language, Minimize memory load, Consistency, and Feedback.

List five more of Nielsen’s usability heuristics.

Clearly marked exits, Shortcuts, Good error messages, Prevent errors, Help and documentation.

What is the System Usability Scale (SUS)?

A survey used after usability evaluations to get quantitative feedback from real users on how they perceive the usability of a system, consisting of 10 statements.

What usability metrics can be used to track performance during usability testing?

Effectiveness (percentage of tasks successfully completed) and Efficiency (the time taken for users to complete a task).

What does UX refer to?

The overall experience and feelings a user has when interacting with a system, device, or product, including the context of its use; emphasizes how users experience technology on a deeper, more emotional level.

How does user experience differ from usability?

User experience (UX) focuses on how a system feels to the user, while usability measures how efficient, effective, and easy it is for users to complete tasks using the system.

What is the meaning of Dark Patterns?

Deceptive UI design features (tricks) that mislead users into making choices not in their best interest. They exploit human weaknesses and behaviors for the benefit of the service provider.

What are honest interfaces?

Honest interfaces are interfaces where users are put first, even at the expense of short-term revenue and conversion rate gains

What is 'The Roach Motel' dark pattern?

A dark pattern where it is very easy for users to enter a situation (like subscribing to a service) but difficult to exit it (such as unsubscribing).

What is Forced continuity?

A dark pattern where users are required to provide their credit card information to sign up for a free trial, and are automatically billed without prior notice once the trial period ends.

What is the dark pattern: bait and switch?

A dark pattern where users intend to complete one action, but an undesirable action occurs instead. Example: A user may see one price for a product, but after clicking, they are presented with a higher price.

What is privacy Zuckering?

Privacy Zuckering refers to the practice of designing confusing jargon and user interfaces that deceive users into sharing more personal information than they intend to.