There are two fundamental principles that we need to be aware of when designing an interface for HCI. The two important fundamental principles are the perception and the information processing.
Perception
Perceptions are considered in different ways depending on between the developer and the user, where it is possible that the developer may not be the same person as the designer therefore the client’s needs is not fully aware even though the client may not be the user. The user may not also be fully aware of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) details for the colour, pattern and objects.
- Colour
Colour is very important when designing GUIs, as with how the colours are used on the GUIs the colours it always represents something. The colours also would have to be considered depending on the users’ needs, as every possible type of user can be affected with the use of colours in different ways, especially for the users who have specific medical conditions.
- Luminance
- Pop up effects
To display with the best designs is to use the luminance contrasts, the colours are paired up in this form, ‘red-green’, ‘yellow-blue’, and ‘black-white’.
In order to stand out the effects, the use of aligning, shaping out the images or shapes, and the use of colours are used in different way. Excessive uses of the colours as the effects can be irritating for the users as some people may have medical conditions. Those who have sight conditions can affect them on the colours they see as the effects used would result in flickering and flashing onto the images. Also, the use of luminance could be in used for the poor lighting situations.
- Pattern
Pattern is the template of the design, where it needs to include familiarity, consistency and evenness of the design in order to enable the user to be able to interact with the interface design in the form of user-friendliness.
There are set of laws for the pattern perception, and these are, proximity, continuity, symmetry, similarity, fate, region and connected.
- Objects
All the objects are designed in hierarchy system in order to display the interface in complete form. The images would have to be ensured that which images will be displayed first and which images will be the subsequent that are to be overlaid of the first image. The objects would have to be in the right positions and have some consistency when reproducing the images.
- Positioning
- Geons and Gross 3D shapes
Positioning the objects is very vital to be considered to include on the interface, as if the objects are not positioned accurately the user may be affected from the objects not being visible as it may be hidden behind the main interface.
Geons and gross 3-Dimenensional shapes enables the reproduced images to have some consistency, where the geons are simple objects that allows the users to be able to view the images from different angles. Also, the geon objects has less complexity in the design stage compared to the 3-Dimensional images. Whereas for the 3-Dimensional images, users can easily interpret the images wrongly, which is why the objects would have to be considered carefully based on how the user will be able to view the objects in the designing stage of GUI.
The Gross 3-Dimensional shapes can now be found in the video games and the shapes can be used to transmit the 3-Dimensional images in the real time situations, such as in the sporting events that can be viewed onto the large screens.
Information Processing
The information is processed in different way and it has its own fast speed pace of completing the process.
- Humans as a Component
It is a vital factor of having a human end-user as the specific user’s needs and expectations are to be identified in order to go further in the HCI design. Also, the risk assessments would need to be taken into an account of ensuing for the consequences of the options that the user selects.
- Human Information Processing (HIP)
The ‘HIP’ method works by extracting, analysing, and using the information in order to process the information. The output after the processing stage is depended on how the user interpret the information and the decisions that are to be made. The HIP can be improved by making changes with the information that has been extracted by re-constructing the models of human decision-making.
- Goals, Operators, Methods and Selections (GOMS)
The GOMS model is how the user behaves while performing series of common tasks. The HCI designer picks up the results of the actions that are to be carried out with the use of operators, selections such as mouse movements and keystrokes. This allows the designer to be able to figure out the timing calculation of executing actions and finding the possible risks from the users’ perspective of carrying out the actions. This way gives opportunity to the designer of how to improve the efficiency of the user’s interface regarding to the user’s requirements.
