FileMaker, Inc.

User-centered designRyan Shelby

Good interaction design is devising interactions that let users achieve their practical goals without sacrificing their personal goals.

Adam Cooper

Design communicates purposeBy using arbitrary affordances

School

✤ UC San Diego, Cognitive psychology/science, B.S.

✤ UC Santa Cruz, Cognitive psychology, Ph.D

Emerging field

✤ Computer science

✤ Cognitive science

✤ Engineering

✤ Ergonomics

✤ Visual design

✤ Linguistics

✤ Philosophy

Dimensions of information

x

Epistemicpriming✤ Piece rotations possible

✤ Maximum novel rotations

✤ Ballistic, rapid actions

✤ Intersection of skill and process

Epistemicpriming

Spatial/semantic mapping

Jobs

✤ Web developer, Monarch Media

✤ Image quality consultant, Qualcomm MEMS

✤ User interface product manager, FileMaker Inc.

Web development

Mirasol™

✤ Low power mobile displays

✤ Image processing trade-offs

User interface designFor a horizontal, versatile application

Design by device✤ Active modalities

✤ Passive modalities

✤ Assumed users

✤ Assumed use cases

✤ Functionality trade-offs

✤ Habit adoption

Reality

✤ Combatting biases against users

✓ Self referential guidance

✓ Users see final product, not necessary compromises

✤ Design before development

✓ Avoid guidance by implementation

✤ Recognize appropriate influence

✓ Synthesize different options, and defer to expertise

If you really want to help someone with your two cents, give them information.

Adam Pash

Becoming informed

✤ Survey

✤ Focus group

✤ Laboratory testing

✤ Usability testing

✤ Data mining

✤ Literature review

✤ Modeling

Statistics help us understandHow weird is weird

The world is uncertain

✤ Statistical tests use assumptions

✓ Height is normally distributed

✓ Your data are independent

✤ The conclusions are qualified

✓ From specificity to generality

✤ The best approach is simplicity

✓ Complication reduces convincingness of conclusion

Analysis

✤ Look at the data

✤ Understand any trends

✤ Consider outside influence

✓ Strength of the effect being observed

✤ Tests indicate likelihood of chance occurrence

✓ If that likelihood is low, your effect is interesting

✤ Statistics don’t prove!

Common tests

✤ Correlation

✤ t-test

✤ Linear regression

✤ ANOVA

✤ ANCOVA

✤ Power analysis

Similar changesFrequent smoking correlates with frequent health problems

Difference between two group meansParticipants wearing a heavy backpack estimate farther walking distance compared to non-backpack participants

Determining a functionEstimating GPA based on family income of grade schoolers

Difference between many group meansMemory performance differs based on level of processing

ANOVA, including covariate factorsEffectiveness of treatment 1, treatment 2, and treatment 3, including information such as age and gender

Understand the magnitude of the effectHow many surveys are required to identify a difference in music preference based on computer expertise

Packages

✤ R

✤ SPSS

✤ JMP

✤ SAS

✤ Excel

✤ By hand

It’s free, and its scripting language isn’t bad

The most visually friendly, but expensive

I hate “Jump”

SAS was the first platform I learned statistics on, but it’s definitely not the easiest

Be careful with Excel because it isn’t robust at all

In many cases, it’s actually the easiest method

Simplicity is key

Parting thoughts

✤ Multidisciplinary is the norm

✓ Consider many domains

✓ UIs and devices are improving

✤ Understand the user before building the tool

✓ People are the most important part of a functioning system

✤ Use statistics when necessary

✓ Understand the point you’re making

More information