9780130411617

This is an innovative and timely book that introduces the reader to the human component of Web site design. Readers will be able to do a much better job of writing front ends or other interactive software, as the book describes the creation of user-friendly Web sites.In the context of Human-Computer Interaction and Web design, this book covers such topics as user and task analysis, content organization, visual organization, navigation design, prototyping, and evaluation, as well as color, typography, multimedia, accessibility, globalization.For individuals interested in entering the field of Web page and site design, as well as industrial team workers in HCI and Web site development.

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Don McCracken is Professor of Computer Science at City College, CUNY, and the author of more than 20 textbooks in computer science. He is a past president of ACM and the 1992 recipient of the ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education.

Rosalee Wolf is Professor of Computer Science at the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems of DePaul University, where she was the first Director of the HCI program and was instrumental in creating the first bachelor's program and the second master's program in HCI in the United States. A -former NASA fellow, she leads the groundbreaking American Sign Language project at DePaul.

Foreword

xi

Preface

xv

Human-Computer Interaction: An Overview

1

(15)

Introduction

1

(1)

Benefits of Usable Websites

1

(2)

Gaining a Competitive Edge

1

(1)

Reduced Development and Maintenance Costs

2

(1)

Improved Productivity

2

(1)

Lower Support Costs

2

(1)

What Is HCI?

3

(1)

Goals of HCI

4

(1)

User-Centered Development Methodology

5

(4)

Needs Analysis

5

(1)

User and Task Analysis

6

(1)

Functional Analysis

7

(1)

Requirements Analysis

7

(1)

Setting Usability Specifications

7

(1)

Design

7

(1)

Prototyping

8

(1)

Evaluation

8

(1)

Characteristics of User-Centered Development

9

(1)

Implementation Techniques, Accessibility, and Trust

10

(1)

Summary

10

(1)

Other Resources

11

(5)

Association for Computing Machinery, Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI)

11

(1)

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES)

12

(1)

Usability Professionals Association (UPA)

12

(1)

Review Questions and Exercises

12

(2)

Project Activities

14

(1)

References

15

(1)

Capabilities of Human Beings

16

(21)

Introduction

16

(1)

Senses

16

(1)

Perception

17

(7)

Memory

24

(4)

The Hierarchical Model of Memory

26

(1)

Chunking

27

(1)

Recognition vs. Recall

27

(1)

Interruptions

28

(1)

Mental Models

29

(1)

Metaphors

29

(1)

Perceived Affordance

30

(1)

Some Design Implications

31

(6)

Review Questions and Exercises

32

(3)

References

35

(2)

Know Thy User

37

(22)

Introduction

37

(1)

User Analysis

37

(4)

Why User Analysis?

38

(1)

Generic User Characterizations

38

(3)

Specific User Characterization

41

(2)

Gathering Information About Users

43

Task Analysis

41

(10)

Goals, Tasks, and Actions

44

(1)

Methodologies for Identifying Types and Granularity of Tasks

45

(3)

Techniques for Observing and Listening to Users

48

(2)

Other Techniques

50

(1)

Environment Analysis

51

(1)

Recruiting Users

52

(1)

How Much Data Is Enough?

52

(1)

Usability Specifications

53

(6)

Review Questions and Exercises

54

(2)

Project Activities

56

(1)

References

57

(2)

Content Organization

59

(23)

Purpose

59

(1)

Organizational Systems

59

(3)

Organizational Schemes

60

(1)

Exact Organizational Schemes

60

(1)

Ambiguous Organizational Schemes

60

(2)

Organizational Structures

62

(7)

Controlled Vocabularies and Thesauri

68

(1)

Research and Interview Techniques

69

(13)

Analyze Documents for Objects and Actions

69

(1)

Card Sorting

69

(2)

Review Questions and Exercises

71

(9)

Project Activities

80

(1)

References

81

(1)

Visual Organization

82

(23)

Introduction

82

(1)

The Four Principles

83

(1)

Proximity

83

(3)

Alignment

86

(4)

Consistency

90

(3)

Contrast

93

(1)

Summary

94

(11)

Review Questions and Exercises

96

(7)

Project Activities

103

(1)

References

104

(1)

Navigation

105

(19)

Introduction

105

(1)

Strategies for Effective Site Navigation

105

(13)

Navigation Systems

106

(4)

Building Context

110

(8)

Built-In Browser Services

118

(1)

Effective Navigation at the Page Level

118

(1)

Summary

119

(5)

Review Questions and Exercises

121

(1)

Project Activities

122

(1)

References

122

(2)

Prototyping

124

(10)

Introduction

124

(1)

Why Prototype?

124

(1)

Basic Terminology

125

(2)

Benefits of Prototyping

127

(1)

Disadvantages

127

(1)

Low-fidelity and Other Prototyping

128

(1)

Paper-Prototype Advantages

128

(1)

Problems with High-Fidelity Prototypes

128

(1)

Disadvantages of Low-Fidelity Prototypes

129

(1)

Building a Paper Prototype

129

(2)

What's Next?

131

(3)

Review Questions and Exercises

132

(1)

Project Activities

132

(1)

References

132

(2)

Evaluation

134

(16)

Introduction

134

(1)

Why Test?

134

(2)

When to Test?

136

(1)

Expert-based Evaluation

136

(1)

User Testing with a Paper Prototype

137

(1)

Preparing Test Scenarios

137

(1)

Creating a Prototype

138

(1)

Practicing

138

(1)

Recruiting Users

138

(1)

Conducting a Test

138

(7)

Format

138

(3)

Roles

141

(3)

Team Demeanor during Test

144

(1)

Debriefing the User

144

(1)

Evaluating Results

145

(1)

Sort the Note Cards

145

(1)

Associate Cards with Prototype and Prioritize

145

(1)

Review Usability Specifications

145

(1)

Refining the Design

146

(1)

Writing the Report

146

(1)

Summary

147

(3)

Review Questions and Exercises

148

(1)

Project Activities

148

(1)

References

149

(1)

Color

150

(21)

Introduction

150

(1)

The Physics of Color

150

(2)

Color Models

152

(5)

A Time-Tested Model: RYB

153

(1)

Additive Color: RGB

153

(1)

Subtractive Color: CMYK

154

(1)

The HSB System

155

(2)

Comparing the Four Models

157

(1)

Color-Harmony Schemes

157

(8)

Monochromatic

158

(1)

Complementary

158

(3)

Analogous

161

(1)

Triadic

161

(4)

Color in Text and Background

165

(1)

Color as Organizer and Attention Getter

166

(1)

Summary

166

(5)

Review Questions

166

(1)

Exercises

167

(2)

References

169

(2)

Typography

171

(18)

Introduction

171

(1)

Concepts and Terminology

171

(3)

A Dozen Font Families

174

(8)

Serif Typefaces

174

(3)

Sans-Serif Typefaces

177

(2)

Monospaced Typefaces

179

(1)

Script Typefaces

180

(1)

Miscellaneous and Decorative Typefaces

181

(1)

A Web Page Is Not a Printed Page

182

(1)

Text in Graphics

182

(1)

Guidelines: Body Type on the Web

183

(1)

Guidelines: Display Type on the Web

184

(5)

Review Questions

185

(2)

Exercises

187

(1)

References

188

(1)

Multimedia

189

(21)

Introduction

189

(1)

Audio

189

(2)

Video

191

(3)

Animation

194

(8)

Future Developments: 3D Animation

202

(4)

Conclusions

206

(4)

Review Questions

206

(1)

Exercises

206

(1)

References

207

(3)

Accessibility

210

(25)

Introduction

210

(1)

The Scope of the Challenge

210

(1)

Issues Involving Vision

211

(9)

Blindness

211

(6)

Low Vision

217

(1)

Color Blindness

218

(1)

Photosensitive Epilepsy

219

(1)

Issues Involving Mobility Impairments

220

(2)

Issues Involving Hearing Impairments

222

(2)

The Web Accessibility Initiative

224

(3)

Guidelines

224

(1)

Checkpoints

225

(1)

Evaluating for Accessibility

225

(2)

The Human Side

227

(8)

Review Questions

227

(1)

Exercises

228

(3)

References

231

(4)

Globalization

235

(16)

Benefits

235

(1)

Internationalization and Localization

235

(1)

Text Considerations

236

(2)

Color, Icons, and Images

238

(3)

Formatting and Page-Layout Considerations

241

(1)

User Testing

242

(2)

Conclusions

244

(7)

Review Questions

244

(1)

Exercises

245

(3)

References

248

(3)

Personalization and Trust

251

(13)

Introduction

251

(1)

Benefits of Personalization

251

(2)

Privacy Concerns

253

(4)

Factors Affecting Trust

257

(1)

Fostering Trust in Websites

258

(2)

New Developments in Controlling Privacy

260

(1)

Conclusion

261

(3)

Review Questions

261

(1)

Exercises

261

(1)

References

262

(2)

Appendix: Introduction to XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets

264

(32)

Index

296

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

This text combines an introduction to human-computer interaction (HCI) with an exposition of website development. No one today needs convincing that the World Wide Web is a major phenomenon. Students are surely convinced, and they desire instruction in developing websites, but they usually see the subject in terms of writing HTML and of associated implementation tools. They often undervalue what the established field of HCI has to contribute to a good website. This book is intended for such a student and for anyone else who wants to build effective interfaces between people and computers. Goal The goal of any course based on the book is to enable students to develop interfaces that are usable:they permit the user to find what he or she wants, find it quickly, and carry out any interaction effectively and efficiently. This goal has much broader applicability than the World Wide Web, of course. But with the Web being pervasive and of much interest to students, we chose to build our presentation around the Web. Most of today''s software is interactive, and most of our graduates will be called upon to write front ends or other interactive software as part of their jobs. People who have mastered the material in this book will be able to do a much better job of interaction design than they could without that knowledge. They will also be better prepared to work with HCI and website development experts in an industrial team setting. Topics Covered The order of presentation of the topics was given a great deal of thought, with revisions based on teaching experience. Details may be seen in the Table of Contents. Here is an overview: The first eight chapters build a solid foundation of HCI concepts and practice as outlined in the ACM SIGCHI''s Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction. Topics include human perception, user and task analysis, content organization, visual organization, navigation, prototyping, and evaluation. The next six chapters are devoted to issues specific to website development: color, typography, multimedia, accessibility, globalization, and trust. A generous appendix presents an expository introduction to XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets. All formatting, after a first few examples, is done with Cascading Style Sheets, which has numerous advantages that are explained in the text. Support for Instructors The many review questions and exercises are a major feature of the book. The review questions help a student master the principles. But, as with sports, playing a musical instrument, or software engineering, a student learns to apply HCI principles to website development by doing it.You can''t learn to swim simply by listening to lectures, and you can''t learn user-centered development that way either. The way to learn is to take an assigned design task, carry it through, then compare one''s work with that of other students under the guidance of the instructor. A model solution can be most helpful if presented afterthe students have tried to do it on their own. This raises the always challenging issue of how an instructor should grade this type of project, especially if the instructor has limited experience in teaching the subject. Our response is an extensive Instructor''s Manual. It contains suggestions for applications, ranging from short assignments to term-long projects, plus model solutions in the form of some of the best student work we have encountered in our teaching. The Instructor''s Manual also contains tips for teaching and grading, sample syllabi, and sample exams. The book has a companion website at http://www.prenhall.com/mccracken_wolfe. It contains links to illustrations in the text, URLs for simplicity in following links in the text, and other materials. A password-protected site contains the Instructors Manual and a set of PowerPoint slides for each chapter. The bibliography for each chapter lists all literature cited in the text. These sources are both industrial and academic. Citations of relevant sources accompany design rules and guidelines as they appear in the text. Classroom Tested To practice what we preach, the book and supporting materials have been thoroughly use tested. Over a period of 18 months, several drafts of this book have been test-taught to approximately 1000 students at eight colleges and universities. Feedback from students and instructors has been instrumental in shaping the topic coverage and pedagogical strategy. How to Use This Book This organization permits great flexibility in how a course based on the text is structured. A prerequisite knowledge of Web-page authoring can be assumed or not. A prepublication version of this book has been taught successfully, using Web examples, both to students having no background in website development and to students who have extensive Web development experience.

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User-Centered Web Site Development A Human-Computer Interaction Approach

User-Centered Web Site Development A Human-Computer Interaction Approach

0130411612

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