Designing to fit human capabilities

Designing for error1. What are the human capabilities?. Human factors2. Human errors vs. design errors3. Three different design approaches

TOPIC

DxE

HCI notes: Designing for error

HCI notes

HUMAN CAPABILITIES

What are the human capabilities?

1. What are the human capabilities?

■ Question too broad.

It involves at least two sets: One with human average capabilities (in a particular context)

and other one with human disabilities (also in a certain context)[topic Design for special needs].

It can be bounded in a context: HCI.

What are the human capabilities in relation to the use of computers? (Digital Tools)

...and we are back to the topic of human models (HCP)

LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES

Physical Cognitive

perception memorybehaviorlimited attentional resources

motricityagilityresistance...

Social behavior

1.

HUMAN FACTORS

understand the properties of human capability

apply this understanding to the design, development and deployment of systems and services.

[human factor science]

[human factor engineering]

multidisciplinary field (psychology, engineering, industrial design,statistics, operations research and anthropometry)

focuses on how people interact with tasks, machines (or computers),and the environment with the consideration that humans have limitations and capabilities.

Evaluate "Human to Human," "Human to Group," "Human to Organizational," and "Human to Machine (Computers)"

methods Focus groups | Iterative design | Meta-analysis | Task analaysis | Think aloud protocol | User analysis | wizard of Oz

1.1.

Human error?

2. Human error vs. design error

Phobos 1 (1988) | In 1988, the Soviet Union's Phobos 1 satellite was lost on its way to Mars. Why? According to Science magazine, "not long after the launch, a ground controller omitted a single letter in a series of digital commands sent to the spacecraft.

“People err. That is a fact of life.

People are not precision machinery designed for accuracy”.

Donald Norman

Cognitive Errors (“Mistakes”)Mistakes are errors in choosing an objective or specifying a method of achieving it

"The division occurs at the level of the intention: (A person establishes an intention to act)

If the intention is not appropriate, this is a mistake. If the action is not what was intended, this is a slip."

Non cognitive Errors (“slips & lapses”)slips are errors in carrying out an intended method for reaching an objective

2.

2. Error password message2.

email1 Bank account

email 2 Bank online pass

work email Upf user

computer 1(home) Upf library user

computer 2 (work) website user

server work snapfish

Spotify hosting

Facebook Skype

Linkedin ...

How many passwords you drive in your daily life? How many of them are repeated?

How many are small variations of the same?

2.

Me?. About 17

This is very far fromthe “magic number 7”!(out from human capabilities)

George A. Miller

How do we solve it?...

2.

with unsafe passwords!

why?.. Designing for error: outside human capabilities.

2.

Use common and predictable passwords.

Repeat the same passwordfor everything

Human error?...NO!

2.

Approaches to prevent design errors...

3. Three different design approaches

occurs because the designer ignores (some) human capabilities.

Designing for error...

TECHNOLOGY-oriented approach

HUMAN-centered approach

(consider the human factor)

TECHNOLOGY-oriented approach

HUMAN-centered approach

■ Prioritizes computer based information processing and technology-mediated communications over human and their communicative collaboration.

■ needs, wants and limitations of end users are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.

UCD tries to optimize the design around user.

Cooperativedesign

Participatorydesign

Contextualdesign

human

machine

3.3.

human

machine

Imprecise DisorganizedDistractibleEmotionalIllogical

CreativeObedientAlerts to changeInventive

ExactSortedImpossible to distractNot emotionalLogics

Not creativeStructuredInsensitive to changesLacking imagination

TECHNOLOGY-oriented approach

HUMAN-centered approach

+

-

-

+

Humans lost: All attributes of people are negative while the attributes of the machines are positive.

Humans win.

Norman (1998) The invisible computer

3.3.

TECHNOLOGY-oriented approach

HUMAN-centered approach

Both views are complementary:

human

machine

■ People stand out for their qualitative skills. Those decisions are made flexible, because they perform both qualitative and quantitative assessments.

■ The machines are noted for their quantitative skills. Take logical decisions based on the quantitative evaluation of numerically specified variables and independent of context.

3.3.

ACTIVITY-centered approach

Why are such non-Human-Centered Designs so successful?

Musical instruments, the clock, writing systems...

All them have: arbitrary divisions, decisions and complexity. Artificial and unnatural.It takes people time to learned and become skilled.

The reason for Norman is in the Activity-centered Design

Develop with a deep understanding of the activities that were to be performed.Activities ≠ Task: an activity is a coordinated, integrated set of tasks.

Example: Mobil phone Activity= communication | Task= looking up numbers. dialing. SMS...

3.3.

4.

REFERENCES

Norman, D. A. (1990). Commentary: Human error and the design of computer systems. Communications of the ACM, 33, 4-7.

Norman, Donald (1998) The Invisible Computer. Boston, MIT Press.

Bogdan Calin (2006) Statistics from 10,000 leaked hotmail passwords.http://www.acunetix.com/blog/websecuritynews/statistics-from-10000-leaked-hotmail-passwords/

infosecurity.com (2009)http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/3779/many-people-use-same-password-on-all-websites-says-cpp/

Hotmail leak: Most popular password? 12345http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/hotmail-leak-most-popular-password-12345-641321

Humans factors. Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_factors