CHI14C09 / CHI15C23: Conceptual Models: Core to Good Design

A crucial step in designing a user interface for a software application is to design a coherent, task-focused conceptual model (CM). With a CM, designers design better, developers develop better, and users learn and use better. Unfortunately, this step is often skipped, resulting in incoherent, arbitrary, inconsistent, overly-complex applications that impede design, development, learning, understanding, and use. This course covers what CMs are, how they help, how to develop them, and provides hands-on experience.

• Our attention is limited and our memory is imperfect
  • Short-term memory (STM, WM)
  • Long-term memory (LTM)
• We have two minds
  • Old brain + midbrain
    • can run many processes in parallel
    • fast but approximate, “satisfying”
    • des not use working memory
    • unconscious, governs most of our behavior
  • Cerebral Cortex
    • slow but precise
    • uses working memory
    • one serial processor
    • cannot multi-task
    • conscious, self-aware, believes it governs our behavior
  • Example: A ball and a bat cost $110, the bat costs $100 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost? 1 wrong, 2 reject
• Conceptual Model
  • Functionality
  • Scenarios
  • UI (Interaction)
  • Implementation
  • Documentation
  • Support