HCI MODELS
Satyawan Hembade
INTRODUCTION
Why are so many human-made devices so difficult
to learn, understand and use?
Poor or inappropriate design.
HCI
Graphic Design
Information Design
Cognitive Psychology
Poor or inappropriate design.
Information Architecture
Industrial Design
Architecture, Art, Business Studies...
INTRODUCTION
Objects that "work" offer a psychology of use that
is intuitive and "natural".
The steering wheel of a car
An analog clock
An orienteering compass
What are some other common objects that "work"?
Pocket Compass
Gimbled Ship's Compass (antique) Silva orienteering compass
INTRODUCTION
Good design defuses the tension between
functional and aesthetic goals.
A Ferrari automobile
A Pinarello road-racing bicycle
A Waterman fountain pen
An Alessi kettle
Some companies (such as Ferrari, Pinarello, Waterman
& Alessi) are famous for their designs
What are some other objects that are both aesthetically
pleasing and functional?
In any real-life situation there are always
competing pressures of cost, quality and production
time.
HCI MODELS
It is model of Interaction
Conceptual
semantic
Syntactic and Lexical Model
GMOS Model
Object-Action Interaction model,
Action-Object Interaction model
HCI MODELS
The Conceptual, Semantic, Syntactic, and Lexical model as
developed by Foley and Van Dam is an example of a high-
level theory
It is a four-level approach, which is an easy to understand
model.
The four levels are Conceptual, Semantic, Syntactical, and
Lexical.
When a user is working on an interactive system, a mental
model is often developed; this describes the Conceptual level
of the approach.
When the user enters in input to the system, and the
computer generates output based on that input. The
Semantic level describes the meanings between the input
and output.
The Syntactic level is a set of rules to create a sentence,
which will give the computer a set of instructions to complete
a particular task.
The Lexical level deals with input device dependencies, in
which the user will specify the exact syntax
HCI MODELS
Conceptual
The conceptual level identifies the set of familiar task-
oriented objects and actions the user needs to know about in
order to use the system. Describe the conceptual model in
terms of objects, relations between objects, actions on objects,
and attributes of objects .
Semantic
Documents the semantic specification for each action you
have identified in the conceptual design, plus any other
actions which are needed. The semantic specification
includes a description of the function, including its
parameters, feedback, and potential error conditions.
Syntactic
The syntactic level identifies the sequence of inputs and
output. The input may be a sequence that is represented by a
particular grammar. For example: a regular grammar as
defined in Perl (a programming language, often used for
scripting). The input defines the set of rules for combining
tokens into a legal sentence/instruction for the computer to
understand.
CONCEPTUAL MODELS
Identify real world models
Identify key concepts in application:
Types of objects
Relations between objects
Attributes of objects
Actions on objects, relations, attributes
CONCEPTUAL MODELS
Conceptual models are mental models of the way an object operates.
Many good designs provide appropriate feedback to confirm the
user's mental model of operation.
Effective use of affordances, constraints and mappings arise largely
from careful consideration of visual structure to help the user build a
good conceptual model.
A user's conceptual model may not always match that of the designers.
With a good conceptual model, the user is able to anticipate and
understand the consequences of their actions.
If something goes wrong and the user does not understand why, this
probably indicates that they have an erroneous conceptual model.
The user's conceptual model is formed through interaction with the
device and the system image - an object's physical structure, including
documentation, instructions and labels.
FUNCTIONAL/SEMANTIC DESIGN
Completely design units of meaning between user and
computer, but not form
List what information is used for each operation on each object
Results, errors, boundary conditions
From user to computer
Detailed definition of commands for operating on objects, and
attributes of objects
From computer to user
Selection of what information needs to be presented to the user
Identify problems that can occur and engineer them out
when possible
Analyze and try to predict possible user actions
Structure semantics to ease learning
Remember 90/10 rule, 10% of the features will be used by the
user 90% of the time
Follow “law of least astonishment:” consistency is of the utmost
importance
Functional/Semantic Design
SYNTACTIC DESIGN
Design of how lexemes are arranged
Placement (this is a graphical UI!)
Sequencing
From user to computer
Sequence of commands and parameter specification
Where commands and parameters are specified
From computer to user
When computer tells user something
Positioning and appearance of information
Prefix, infix, postfix
Order of commands and arguments can lead to use of
modes
LEXICAL DESIGN
Bindings
Bind hardware capabilities to primitives (lexemes) of
input and output languages
usually done by window system
Define how primitives (lexemes) combine to form
tokens
tokens combined by syntax
From user to computer
Input devices and interaction techniques
From computer to user
Output primitives and attributes
May include sound and haptic “display
GMOS MODEL
GOMS is a modeling technique (more specifically, a family of
modeling techniques) that analyzes the user complexity of
interactive systems.
It is used by software designers to model user behavior.
The user's behavior is modeled in terms
of Goals, Operators, Methods and Selection rules.
A GOMS model consists of Methods that are used to
achieve Goals.
A Method is a sequential list of Operators that the user
performs and Goals that must be achieved. If there is more
than one Method which may be employed to achieve a Goal,
a Selection rule is invoked to determine what Method to
choose, depending on the context
GMOS
GMOS
Goals
Goals are what the user is trying to accomplish. These can be
defined at various levels of abstraction, from very high-level
goals.
Operators
Operators are the elementary perceptual, motor or cognitive
actions that are used to accomplish the goals (e.g. DOUBLE-
CLICK-MOUSE, PRESS-INSERT-KEY).
Operators are not decomposable: they are atomic elements in
the GOMS model.
Furthermore, it is generally assumed that each operator
requires a fixed amount of time for the user to execute, and
that this time interval is independent of context .
GMOS
Methods
Methods are the procedures that describe how to accomplish
goals.
A method is essentially an algorithm that the user has
internalized that determines the sequence of sub goals and
operators necessary to achieve the desired goal.
Selection rules
Selection rules specify which method should be used to
satisfy a given goal, based on the context. Since there may be
several different ways of achieving the same goal, selection
rules represent the user's knowledge of which method must
be applied to achieve the desired goal. Selection rules
generally take the form of a conditional statement, such as "if
the word to be deleted is less than 3 lines away from the
current cursor location, then use the use-arrows-delete-word-
method, else use the use-mouse-delete-word method".
GMOS
These models can be used for a variety of purposes, as follows,
Functionality Coverage
If the designer has a list of likely user goals, GOMS models can
be used to verify that a method exists to achieve each of these
goals.
Execution time
GOMS models can predict the time it will take for the user to
carry out a goal (assuming an expert user with no mistakes).
This allows a designer to profile an application to locate
bottlenecks, as well as compare different UI designs to
determine which one allows users to execute tasks quicker.
Help systems
Since GOMS models are an explicit representation of expert user
activity, they can assist in designing help systems and tutorials
to assist users in achieving goals
GMOS
There exists two basic interaction models for any
given system :
Object-Action model : The user first selects an
object and then selects the action to be performed
on the selected object
Action-Object model : The user first selects an
action to be performed and then selects the objects
on which this action will be performed.
