Week 4

User interface design

 Designing effective interfaces

for software systems
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 1
Software GUI Construction
To suggest some general design principles for user
interface design
 To explain different interaction styles
 To introduce styles of information presentation
 To describe the user support which should be
built-in to user interfaces
 To introduce usability attributes and system
approaches to system evaluation
The user interface
 System users often judge a system by its
interface rather than its functionality
 A poorly designed interface can cause a user to
make catastrophic errors
 Poor user interface design is the reason why so
many software systems are never used

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 3

Graphical user interfaces
 Most users of business systems interact with these
systems through graphical interfaces although, in
some cases, legacy text-based interfaces are still
used

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 4

GUI characteristics
Characteristic Description
Windows Multiple windows allow different information to be
displayed simultaneously on the user’s screen.
Icons Icons different types of information. On some systems,
icons represent files; on others, icons represent
processes.
Menus Commands are selected from a menu rather than typed
in a command language.
Pointing A pointing device such as a mouse is used for selecting
choices from a menu or indicating items of interest in a
window.
Graphics Graphical elements can be mixed with text on the same
display.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 5

GUI advantages
 They are easy to learn and use.
• Users without experience can learn to use the system
quickly.
 The user may switch quickly from one task to
another and can interact with several different
applications.
• Information remains visible in its own window when
attention is switched.
 Fast, full-screen interaction is possible with
immediate access to anywhere on the screen

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 6

User interface design process

Analyse and Produce paper- Evaluate design

understand user based design with end-users
activities prototype

Produce
Design dynamic design Evaluate design
prototype prototype with end-users

Executable Implement
prototype final user
interface

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 7

UI design principles
 UI design must take account of the needs,
experience and capabilities of the system users
 Designers should be aware of people’s physical
and mental limitations (e.g. limited short-term
memory) and should recognise that people make
mistakes
 UI design principles underlie interface designs

although not all principles are applicable to all

designs

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 8

User interface design principles
Principle Description
User familiarity The interface should use terms and concepts which are
drawn from the experience of the people who will
make most use of the system.
Consistency The interface should be consistent in that, wherever
possible, comparable operations should be activated in
the same way.
Minimal surprise Users should never be surprised by the behaviour of a
system.
Recoverability The interface should include mechanisms to allow
users to recover from errors.
User guidance The interface should provide meaningful feedback
when errors occur and provide context-sensitive user
help facilities.
User diversity The interface should provide appropriate interaction
facilities for different types of system user.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 9

Design principles
 User familiarity
• The interface should be based on user-oriented
terms and concepts rather than computer concepts. For example,
an office system should use concepts such as letters, documents,
folders etc. rather than directories, file identifiers, etc.
 Consistency
• The system should display an appropriate level
of consistency. Commands and menus should have the same
format, command punctuation should be similar, etc.
 Minimal surprise
• If a command operates in a known way, the user should be
able to predict the operation of comparable commands

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 10

Design principles
 Recoverability
• The system should provide some resilience to
user errors and allow the user to recover from errors. This might
include an undo facility, confirmation of destructive actions,
'soft' deletes, etc.
 User guidance
• Some user guidance such as help systems, on-line manuals, etc.
should be supplied
 User diversity
• Interaction facilities for different types of user should be
supported. For example, some users have seeing difficulties and
so larger text should be available

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 11

User-system interaction
 Two problems must be addressed in interactive
systems design
• How should information from the user be provided to the
computer system?
• How should information from the computer system be presented
to the user?
 User interaction and information presentation
may be integrated through a coherent framework
such as a user interface metaphor

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 12

Interaction styles
 Direct manipulation
 Menu selection
 Form fill-in
 Command language
 Natural language

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 13

Interaction Main Main Application
style advantages disadvantages examples
Direct Fast and intuitive May be hard to Video games
manipulatio interaction implement CAD systems
n Easy to learn Only suitable where
there is a visual
metaphor for tasks
and objects
Menu Avoids user Slow for Most general-
selection error experienced users purpose systems
Little typing Can become
required complex if many
menu options
Form fill-in Simple data Takes up a lot of Stock control,
entry screen space Personal loan
Easy to learn processing
Command Powerful and Hard to learn Operating systems,
language flexible Poor error Library
management information
retrieval systems
Natural Accessible to Requires more Timetable systems
language casual users typing WWW
Easily extended Natural language information Advantages and
understanding retrieval systems
systems are disadvantages
unreliable
Direct manipulation advantages
 Users feel in control of the computer and are less
likely to be intimidated by it
 User learning time is relatively short
 Users get immediate feedback on their actions
so mistakes can be quickly detected and
corrected

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 15

Direct manipulation problems
 The derivation of an appropriate information
space model can be very difficult
 Given that users have a large information
space, what facilities for navigating around that
space should be provided?
 Direct manipulation interfaces can be complex to
program and make heavy demands on the
computer system

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 16

Control panel interface

Title JSD. example Grid Busy

Method JSD
OUIT
Type Network Units cm

Selection Process Reduce Full

PRINT

NODE LINKS FONT LABEL EDIT

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 17

Menu systems
 Users make a selection from a list of
possibilities presented to them by the system
 The selection may be made by pointing and
clicking with a mouse, using cursor keys or by
typing the name of the selection
 May make use of simple-to-use terminals such as
touchscreens

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 18

Advantages of menu systems
 Users need not remember command names as
they are always presented with a list of valid
commands
 Typing effort is minimal
 User errors are trapped by the interface
 Context-dependent help can be provided. The
user’s context is indicated by the current menu
selection

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 19

Problems with menu systems
 Actions which involve logical conjunction (and)
or disjunction (or) are awkward to represent
 Menu systems are best suited to presenting a
small number of choices. If there are many
choices, some menu structuring facility must be
used
 Experienced users find menus slower than
command language

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 20

Form-based interface
NEW BOOK

Title ISBN

Author Price

Publication
Publisher
date

Number of
Edition copies

Classification Loan
status
Date of Order
purchase status

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 21

Command interfaces
 User types commands to give instructions to the
system e.g. UNIX
 May be implemented using cheap terminals.
 Easy to process using compiler techniques
 Commands of arbitrary complexity can be
created by command combination
 Concise interfaces requiring minimal typing can
be created

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 22

Problems with command interfaces
 Users have to learn and remember a command
language. Command interfaces are therefore
unsuitable for occasional users
 Users make errors in command. An error
detection and recovery system is required
 System interaction is through a keyboard so
typing ability is required

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 23

Command languages
 Often preferred by experienced users because
they allow for faster interaction with the system
 Not suitable for casual or inexperienced users
 May be provided as an alternative to menu
commands (keyboard shortcuts). In some cases, a
command language interface and a menu-based
interface are supported at the same time

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 24

Natural language interfaces
 The user types a command in a natural language.
Generally, the vocabulary is limited and these
systems are confined to specific application
domains (e.g. timetable enquiries)
 NL processing technology is now good enough to
make these interfaces effective for casual users
but experienced users find that they require too
much typing

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 25

Multiple user interfaces
Command
Graphical user
language
interface
interface

GUI Command
language
manager
interpreter

Operating system

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 26

Software Construction & Development

Week-3
Agile Methodologies

Design
Document &
Prototype

Agile
Development
Methodology

Fig. Agile Model

Phases of Agile Model:

1. Requirements gathering:
2. Design the requirements:
3. Construction/ iteration:
4. Testing:
5. Deployment:
6. Feedback:
Agile Methods:

• Scrum
• Crystal
• Dynamic Software Development Method(DSDM)
• Feature Driven Development(FDD)
• Lean Software Development
• eXtreme Programming(XP)
When to use the Agile Model?

• When frequent changes are required.

• When a highly qualified and experienced team is
available.
• When a customer is ready to have a meeting with a
software team all the time.
• When project size is small.
Advantage(Pros) of Agile Method:

• Frequent Delivery
• Face-to-Face Communication with clients.
• Efficient design and fulfils the business requirement.
• Anytime changes are acceptable.
• It reduces total development time.
Extreme Programming (XP) characterisitcs:

• Iterative and Incremental development,

• Customer collaboration,
• Frequent Delivery,
• Light and fast development,
• Light documentation
Extreme Programming Working:

Architectural User stories

• spike

Release Iteration Acceptance

Planning test

Spike Small release

XP Practices:

12 Practices
• The Planning Game:
• Small Releases:
• Metaphor:
• Simple Design:
• Tests:
• Refactoring:
XP Practices:

• Pair Programming:
• Collective Ownership:
• Continuous Integration:
• 40-hour Week:
• On-site customer:
• Coding Standard:
XP Strengths:

• More customer-centric approach

• Welcome change in requirements
• More satisfactory relationship with the client
• Dramatic progress in productivity, simplicity and reliability
• Best engineering practices
• Tendency to be with in budget and as per schedule
• Built highest priority first .
• Lower software bugs rates
XP Weeknesses:

• Not suitable for medium, complex and large scale projects.

• XP is not suitable in case of stable requirements.
• XP mainly focuses on people rather than processes
• XP doesn’t focus to model a well defined mechanism for
business modeling.
• Not a well-known approach to handle non-functional
requirements.
• XP doesn’t produce good quality results with new technology.
XP doesn’t offer to capture user requirements through different
elicitation techniques.
Scrum Development Methodology:

• Short development cycle

• Higher customer satisfaction
• Low bug rates
• Quick adaptation to rapidly changing requirements
• Highest Priority Work
• Constant Feedback
• Control over Cost and Schedule
Scrum basic Concepts:

• Scrum is another popular agile technique

• Sprint:
• The development cycle in Scrum is called Sprint which lasts for
approximately 30 days. In Scrum there are two backlogs;
Product Backlog: “All work to be performed in the foreseeable
future, both well defined and requiring further definition”
• Sprint Backlog: “That work that is well-enough defined that it
can be worked on with relatively little change over a period of
30 days or less and will result in a tangible, incremental
deliverable”.
Scrum Roles and Responsibilites:
Product Owner
• Responsibility is to define business value, requirements of
project and Prioritization.
• Scrum Master
• Scrum Master is the Project Manager of the project. Scrum
Master has to lead the project and make sure the software
should meet the requirements set by the product owner
• Scrum Development Team:
• The responsibility of the Team is to meet the goal as well as the
deadline. The team is dedicated to one project only.
lifecycle of a Sprint (iteration):

• Pre-Sprint Planning
• The Sprint Planning Meeting
• The Sprint Review Meeting
• The Sprint Retrospective
• A quality assurance practice
• The Daily Scrum Meeting
Scrum Working:

David Cohen. et Al. (2003)

Scrum Roles
Evolutionary Prototyping

• The idea behind this is that an initial prototype is presented to

the user.
• They provide feedback and suggestions for improvements.
• These are actioned by the developer who then presents a more
refined prototype.
• The user once more provides feedback. The process is repeated.
• So at each stage the prototype 'evolves' towards the final
system.
• Hence the term 'evolutionary prototyping'.
Evolutionary Prototyping

Build
Design
prototype

Feedback Us,er tests

provided prototype

,. ( .- : --1:1 ',

'Refin•e
prototype :Product
Risk-with Plan Driven Models

• Disadvantages of Plan Driven Development:

• Can not lodge changes any time.

• Longer distance in each repetition or increase.
• The shoulder that, future variations will not occur.
• Lack of user participation through the life cycle of the
creation.
• Expensive for the dynamic expansion environment.
Conventional Vs Agile

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329357135_ScrumFall_A_Hybrid_Software_P
rocess_Model/figures?lo=1
Referrences

• https://www.ibm.com/topics/software-development
• https://blog.bydrec.com/key-benefits-of-the-software-
development-life-cycle
• https://www.javatpoint.com/software-engineering-iterative-
model
• https://www.teach-
ict.com/as_a2_ict_new/ocr/A2_G063/331_systems_cycle/protot
yping_RAD/miniweb/pg3.htm
• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/overview-of-plan-driven-
development-pdd/
Referrences

• https://slidemodel.com/requirements-gathering-project-
management/
• https://www.educba.com/software-system-architecture/
• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/introduction-of-software-
design-process-set-2/
• https://www.javatpoint.com/software-engineering-coding
• https://www.leewayhertz.com/software-testing-process/
• https://www.mcgilly.com/services/deployment-and-
maintenance/
Software Construction & Development

Week-2
Software development Process

• In software engineering, a software development process is a

process of dividing software development work into smaller,
parallel, or sequential steps or sub-processes to improve design
and/or product management.
• Provides a roadmap to software development
• Types of Software development Processes
– Conventional
– Agile
Steps in the software development process

https://www.spaceotechnologies.com/blog/software-development-process/
Software Development Process Phase 1

1. Requirement Gathering & Analysis Phase

Goal: Document functional and non-functional requirements(NFRs).

Who: Business Analyst, Functional/Business Users, Architect(s), Lead

Developer, Project Manager or Scrum Master.

Process: Stakeholder discussions, brainstorming sessions, interviews,

Prototyping, Role playing, Review existing system/process.

Deliverables: identified Actors, UseCases, Screen Prototypes, UX designs..

Reviewed and Approved requirements.

-by SFSupport247 .com

Software Design and Prototyping

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/introduction-of-software-design-
process-set-2/
Coding

• The coding is the process of transforming the design

of a system into a computer language format.
Testing
Approaches to Software Testing

r
ft, '
White Box Grey Box
Black Box
Testing Testing
Testing

Functional Non-Functional
Testing Testing
Deployment
Maintenance

• Systems evolve after deployment.

• Continued improvements and changes to your
systems as needed.
Need of well-defined Software Development

Following a well-defined methodology allows development teams

to:
• Produce stable systems,
• Ensure customers are informed,
• Have a clear understanding of the task at hand,
• Offer better estimates,
• Identify potential pitfalls early on in the project.
Software Development Life Cycle Models

• A software development life cycle (SDLC) refers to the

various stages involved in system development.
• It may be focused on software, hardware, or a combination of
both.
Most commonly used software development models are:
• Waterfall model
• Iterative Process models
• Agile Methodologies
• Evolutionary Prototyping
Waterfall Model

• Waterfall approach was first SDLC Model to be used widely in

Software Engineering to ensure success of the project.
• In "The Waterfall" approach, the whole process of software
development is divided into separate phases.
• In this Waterfall model, typically, the outcome of one phase acts
as the input for the next phase sequentially.
Waterfall Model

rt
Requirement
Anallysis
sv tern
Des•gn
7
I1m1plementafon,

1estiing

Deployment

Ma1ntenanCie
Waterfall Model advantages and disadvantages

•
Iterative Process models

• In this Model, you can start with some of the software

specifications and develop the first version of the software.
• After the first version if there is a need to change the software,
then a new version of the software is created with a new
iteration.
• Every release of the Iterative Model finishes in an exact and
fixed period that is called iteration.
• The Iterative Model allows the accessing earlier phases, in
which the variations made respectively.
• The final output of the project renewed at the end of the
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process.
Iterative Process models

https://www.slideteam.net/iterative-process-model.html
Iterative Process models advantages and disadvantages
Iterative Process model - RUP

• Rational Unified Process-

– Document Driven approach
– An iterative and incremental approach
– Extensive planning,
– Codified Process,
– Heavy Documentation ,
– Big Design up Front

RUP Phases:
Inception, Elaboration, Construction and Transition

RUP Disciplines:
Main disciplines and Support disciplines
Iterative Process model - RUP

https://www.mindcrafts.ch/2014/03/12/rup-rational-unified-process/
RUP Strenghts and Weeknesses

Strengths:
• Straightforward, methodical and structured nature,
Predictability, stability and high assurance
Weaknesses
• Slow adaptation to rapidly changing business requirements
• A tendency to be over budget
• A tendency to behind schedule
• Failed to provide dramatic progress in productivity,
simplicity and reliability
Agile Methodologies

• The meaning of Agile is swift or versatile."Agile process

model" refers to a software development approach based on
iterative development.
• Agile methods break tasks into smaller iterations, or parts do
not directly involve long term planning.
• Each iteration is considered as a short time "frame" in the Agile
process model, which typically lasts from one to four weeks.
Agile Manifesto

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

• Working software over comprehensive documentation.
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
• Responding to change over following a plan.
Agile Software Development Characteristics

• Modularity:
• Iterative:
• Adaptive:
• Incremental and Risk Proactive:
• People Oriented:
• Collaborative:
Referrences

• https://www.ibm.com/topics/software-development
• https://blog.bydrec.com/key-benefits-of-the-software-
development-life-cycle
• https://www.javatpoint.com/software-engineering-iterative-
model
• https://www.teach-
ict.com/as_a2_ict_new/ocr/A2_G063/331_systems_cycle/protot
yping_RAD/miniweb/pg3.htm
• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/overview-of-plan-driven-
development-pdd/
Referrences

• https://slidemodel.com/requirements-gathering-project-
management/
• https://www.educba.com/software-system-architecture/
• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/introduction-of-software-
design-process-set-2/
• https://www.javatpoint.com/software-engineering-coding
• https://www.leewayhertz.com/software-testing-process/
• https://www.mcgilly.com/services/deployment-and-
maintenance/
Software Construction and
Development
Week-7
Usability design Process
Usability evaluation of Interfaces
• Definition
• consists of methodologies for measuring the usability aspects of a system’s user
interface (UI) and identifying specific problems
• Usability Evaluation Methods
• testing, inspection, and inquiry
• Approaches to evaluate usability
• Summative
• Real users perform the real tasks on some defined applications and empirically measure
the usability in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction.
• Formative
• Formative approach employs the experts for UE using heuristics or guidelines
Heuristics for Interface Usability Evaluation
• An inspection based usability evaluation method
• Consists a systematic evaluation in which several experts—usually 3 to 5—analyze the
interface of an interactive system and make observations based on a set of principles known
as usability heuristics.
• The goal of heuristic evaluation is to discover problems related to the usability in the
interface design

• Protocol of a typical heuristic evaluation involves that each evaluator spends time inspecting
the system interface in an independent manner, making note of every usability problem
found. Once all evaluators have complete the evaluation, their individual findings are joined
in a unique common list of usability problems associated to those heuristics that were
violated. The evaluators must rate the severity of each problem, according to a scale of 0
(lowest severity) to 4 (highest severity)
• Nielsen proposed 10 general usability heuristics for the design and evaluation of interfaces,
Known as “Nielsen’s heuristics”.
Design and Evaluation Heuristics for
Smartphone : Case Study
• Smartphone Features with
associated Usability Limitations:
Smartphone Features with associated
Usability Limitations:
Small screen size Small screen size may cause congestion of information on display area and the user can
mistakenly click the incorrect option due to substantial information. On the other hand, if the
mobile UI contain small amount of information, then, there are chances that the end user could
not find some of the core information.
Limited input/output capabilities Adapted gestures for interaction may change the value of mobile usability. Similarly, simulated
keyboard also causes usability issues. Users concurrently spend the cognitive workload between
the content and the keypad region.
Limited computational resources User demands that smartphone should complete the task without any mistake and behave more
likely a desktop.

Limited power, More interface brightness, internet connectivity and working of multiple sensors requires more
consumption of battery power. End user suffers and compromises in such cases.

Types of tasks Mobile devices provide limited capability in it

Display resolution, Comparatively, lower resolution of mobile resulting in lesser quality images.

Mobile Physical buttons Small mobile buttons and labels can reduce the task effectiveness and efficiency.
Smartphone Features with associated
Usability Limitations
Costly bandwidth and limited connectivity The problem of slow and poor internet connection can reduce the tasks efficiency.

Wide heterogeneity Users of mobile systems continuously adapt to new forms. They need to learn different actions,
letters, gestures and others.

Mobility User while moving around may distract due to different context of use including bad light, noise
and others. These constraints effects the application usability.

kind of interaction Multitouch gesture is also not defined in a well-organised way.

Interruption Notifications and requests may reduce the task efficiency and user’s comfort level.

Intimacy and availability User demands to available all the time.

No hover state No hover state may arise the problem of the wrong click.

Multi-device access User’s familiarity with multi-device access demands mental effort to understand layout.

Poor color contrast It decreases the visibility of the screen.

Context-awareness CAMA do not properly sense the environment and behave differently. This may cause user’s
disturbance and misunderstanding about the displayed information.

Wearable devices limited support All the given wearable, smart glass devices and other accessories are facing the usability issues.
Usability Heuristics for Smartphone
• Visibility of the system status
• Definition
• The smartphone should keep the user informed about all processes and state
changes through feedback and in a reasonable time. Feedback should
facilitate user in under- standing the device’s behavior.
• Explanation
• All such changes should be visible and communicated to the user. There are
some situations in which the user doesn’t initiate the task, but system
provides feedback in case of audio messages, low battery status and others.
System provides feedback in different forms including sound, light color
changes and others.
Visibility of the system status
• Example: Battery is showing the status that it
is left 72%.
• Benefits:
• Users feel comfort and react accordingly upon
precise feedback. Users well aware about any
application or system state changes within time
limit.
• Problems:
• There are many different types of feedback in
which the user’s familiarity with all these does
matter. Message sound generates against text
messages, notifications, Whatsapp
messages/audio, and others. So, different sounds
recognition and familiarity among other types of
feedback become difficult to understand and
differentiate.
Match between system and the real world
• Definition
• The smartphone should express users’ language instead of system oriented designs
and technicalities. The smartphone should present the information in a natural and
balanced way. Smartphone should follow the real world pacts.

• Explaination
• Displayed Information is of images, text, icons, titles, font, style, and color
scheme follow conventions and should present according to the situation. It is
observed that due to non- effective color scheme, looks difficult for users to
select any specific option/ icon. So, system should design keeping in view
environment variance. Use of color scheme and combination should conform
to community belief, values, culture and environment as well as to enhance
UX.
Match between system and the real world
• Example:
Battery status and weather condition shows symbol of
battery (bin) and clouds resembles respectively and
according to the real world.
• Benefits:
Logical and natural arrangement of information supports
every user to let it understand easily and perform the task
efficiently.
• Problems:
Real world conventions vary due to different of beliefs,
culture, conventions and others. So, possibly, due to
subjective nature, this heuristic identifies a flaw but, that
wouldn’t be a flaw by some other community
Realistic error management
• Definition
• Users may not always be precise in performing the task on mobile devices due to many
reasons, such as small screen size, kind of interaction etc. Application should provide
mechanism to prevent from error as well as display error message with proper diagnosis
and suggest suitable solution.
• a: Explanation
• System should provide proper security mechanism in case of sudden exit from the
application domain, removing SIM/battery/sudden shutdown due to battery end up. In
all such situations, system should provide a proper error message which highlights the
consequences of the action and also provide a way to target situation in a good manner.
When battery level goes down at a certain level, smartphone inform the user to take
appropriate action such as enabling the power saving mode to save data and for long
time usage.
• b: Example
• Smartphone displays error prevention mechanism, when the user wants to install or
update application in case of low space. System also suggests appropriate solution to get
free space in a good way as shown
Realistic error management

• c: Benefits
• Error prevention leads to enhance user
comfort and less time to complete the task.
Clear and recognizable error messages
support the user to handle the situation just
like a technician and recover from the error
• d: Problems
• This heuristic instructs the user to understand
the nature and type of error and how to use
the system to come out of the danger
situation. All this demands to know the
workflow of the system. This may be less
helpful for the naïve users.
Help and Documentation
• The smartphone application should provide documentation and help focused on the user’s current
task.

• a: Explanation
• Due to small screen size, designers put fewer information on screen. It may lead huge possibility to lose
its meanings for the user. That’s why, system should support the user to understand and execute the
current task effectively and efficiently. One possible support is to provide proper help and
documentation in an effective way. System should provide help and documentation with less cognitive
work- load and context switching. Help and documentation may not necessarily organize in different
menu setup or tab in mobile paradigm. System should support the user and provide help in the form of
clues about next steps of task accomplishment.

• b: Example
• Smartphone provides proper help, when the user wants to display next image. Clear steps are
mentioned to perform the current task. Another example is while using amazon mobile app, an option
to add an item in the cart gives a tip to press and drag the item at specific place.
Help and Documentation
• c: Benefits
• Proper help supports the user to
accomplish the task effectively and
efficiently. This heuristic also provides
support to the user to get complete
understanding of the system and can
execute task with less error.

• d: Problems
• This heuristic supports the user about
how to execute the current task for
proper accomplishment. So, for naïve
user, it is relatively difficult to
understand and recognize.
Refferences
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability
• https://nimitmangal.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/what-is-usability/
• https://learn.org/articles/What_is_Usability_Engineering.html
• https://ois2.ttu.ee › uusois/USABILITYandUSER INTERFACE DESIGN
Week5
Information presentation
 Information presentation is concerned with
presenting system information to system users
 The information may be presented directly (e.g.
text in a word processor) or may be transformed
in some way for presentation (e.g. in some
graphical form)
 The Model-View-Controller approach is a way of
supporting multiple presentations of data
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 1
Information presentation

Information to Presentation
be displayed software

Display

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 2

Model-view-controller

View state view modification Controller state

messages User inputs
View methods Controller methods

Model queries
and updates Model edits
Model state

Model methods

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 3

Information presentation
 Static information
• Initialised at the beginning of a session. It does not change
during the session
• May be either numeric or textual
 Dynamic information
• Changes during a session and the changes must be
communicated to the system user
• May be either numeric or textual

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 4

Information display factors
 Is the user interested in precise information or
data relationships?
 How quickly do information values change?
Must the change be indicated immediately?
 Must the user take some action in response to
a change?
 Is there a direct manipulation interface?
 Is the information textual or numeric? Are
relative values important?

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 5

Alternative information presentations
Jan Feb Mar April May June
2842 2851 3164 2789 1273 2835

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
Jan Feb Mar April May June
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 6
Analogue vs. digital presentation
 Digital presentation
• Compact - takes up little screen space
• Precise values can be communicated
 Analogue presentation
• Easier to get an 'at a glance' impression of a value
• Possible to show relative values
• Easier to see exceptional data values

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 7

Dynamic information display

1
0 10 20
4 2

Dial with needle Pie chart Thermometer Horizontal bar

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 8

Displaying relative values

Pressure Temperature
0 100 200 300 400 0 25 50 75 100

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 9

Textual highlighting

The filename you have chosen has been

! used. Please choose another name

Ch. 16 User interface design

OK Cancel

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 10

Data visualisation
 Concerned with techniques for displaying large
amounts of information
 Visualisation can reveal relationships between
entities and trends in the data
 Possible data visualisations are:
• Weather information collected from a number of sources
• The state of a telephone network as a linked set of nodes
• Chemical plant visualised by showing pressures and
temperatures in a linked set of tanks and pipes
• A model of a molecule displayed in 3 dimensions
• Web pages displayed as a hyperbolic tree

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 11

Colour displays
 Colour adds an extra dimension to an interface
and can help the user understand complex
information structures
 Can be used to highlight exceptional events
 Common mistakes in the use of colour in
interface design include:
• The use of colour to communicate meaning
• Over-use of colour in the display

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 12

Colour use guidelines
 Don't use too many colours
 Use colour coding to support use tasks
 Allow users to control colour coding
 Design for monochrome then add colour
 Use colour coding consistently
 Avoid colour pairings which clash
 Use colour change to show status change
 Be aware that colour displays are usually lower
resolution
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 13
User support
 User guidance covers all system facilities to
support users including on-line help, error
messages, manuals etc.
 The user guidance system should be integrated
with the user interface to help users when they
need information about the system or when they
make some kind of error
 The help and message system should, if possible,
be integrated

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 15 Slide 14

What is usability
Usability
Definition :
ISO 9241-210, defines usability as “extent to which a system, product or service can be
used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and
satisfaction in a specified context of use”.
Usability Perspectives
(i) emphasizes that usability can be measured with regard
to the ergonomic characteristics of a product.
(ii) , usability is represented by means of the user's mental
effort in product usage and his/her attitude towards the product.
(iii) , usability is described in terms of the interaction
of the user with the product,
(iv) emphasizes that usability is dependent on the user
group that is studied, the tasks those users are performing, and the environment in which
the tasks are completed.
Usability Engineering
Usability is all about how users interact with
technology
Usability engineering requires a firm knowledge of
computer science and psychology and approaches
product development based on customer feedback.
A usability engineer works hand-in-hand with
customers, working to develop a better understanding
of the functionality
Why isn’t UE done Regulalrly?

Developers believe
•it takes too long
•is too expensive
•is not critical to development
•they can afford to learn about user problems during
“live” use
Also developers may not know how to do it
Benefits of UE to an Organization
Reduce training costs
Reduce development costs
Identify and fix problems early
Reduce support costs; minimize need for
support personnel/help desks
fixes, maintenance, upgrades
Enhance organization’s reputation - positive “word-of-mouth”
trade
Larger numbers of “hit” and “return visit” rates
Benefits of UE to the User

Less time to complete work

Greater success with tasks
Increased user satisfaction
Typical Web-site Usability Problems

Navigation
Knowing where you are
Finding what you want
Structure of web site
Layout
Needs sufficient white space
Use of large graphics
“The Google problem”
User Centered Design

UCD is a dialog between the customer and the

designer
Rules of thumb:
Get to know and understand the users.
Build an application, applying usability principles.
Test designs by observing users in a real work setting
(environment and work load).
Usability design Process
Use scenario Development

You already know about use cases

Use scenarios are just a single thread through a
use case – much simpler!
UI Structure (architecture diagram of
interface)
Interface Standard Design (one video to
another..what standard must follow)
UI design principles: key rules and guidelines
1. Make it easy to explore and use
2. Give users control of the interface
3. Create a layout that works efficiently
4. Offer a consistent interface
5. Use real-world metaphors in your UI
6. Know your way around design materials
7. Start with black-and-white UI design, then build on it
8. Feedback and context is important
9. Fine-tune your wireframing game
10. Get familiar with user testing and the world of usability
Interface Design Prototyping (develop
storyboard on paper)
Storyboard
HTML Prototype
Language Prototype
Interface Evaluation
Heuristic
Walkthrough
Interactive
Formal Usability Testing
Usability Principles
GUI Design is Multi Disciplinary
A team includes
Analyst
Designer
Technology expert
Graphic artist
Social and behavioral scientist
Programmer