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Technology. Introduction zThe right use of the available technology can greatly improve usability:...
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Transcript of Technology. Introduction zThe right use of the available technology can greatly improve usability:...
Technology
Introduction
The right use of the available technology can greatly improve usability: Speed Accessibility Visibility
Platforms
Bear in mind that there are many different sorts of platforms
The types are expandingPhones, handheld, Web TV,
computers, aural browsers, ...
W3C Accessibility Guidelines
Provide equivalents for sound and visualsDon’t rely on colour aloneUse markup and style sheets, properlyClarify natural language useTables should transform gracefullyUse of new technologies should transformAllow control of time-based changes
(guidelines)
Ensure embedded interfaces are accessible
Be device-independentUse interim solutionsUse W3C technologies and guidelinesProvide context and orientationProvide clear navigationDocuments should be clear and simple
Guideline validation
‘Bobby’: www.cast.org/bobby
Correct use of HTML
Much existing software produces bad HTML Character sets Fixed fonts and sizes Inaccessible content
Check the output on as many devices as possible
Use of HTML: presentation
HTML is really a structure languageAvoid display-oriented tags (font, blink,
…)Avoid the use of images for textAvoid using tables for layoutAlways use the ALT attribute on imagesEven better: use <object>Don’t assume anything about pixels!
CSS
Instead of using HTML as presentation language, use a stylesheet language, such as CSS
HTML and SGML
HTML (up to now) has been an SGML application.
SGML is intended to define the structure of documentsFor instance, <H1> </H1> defines a
heading without specifying how it should look. <UL> <LI>… </UL>
specifies a list of items.
Semantics in tags
These classifications often have semantic significance (e.g. <H1>)
<I> and <B> were mistakes, use <EM> and <STRONG> instead
Contamination
Netscape started to add their own tags, based on the idea that with their market penetration they could get a head start.
Unfortunately most tags added are presentation-oriented tags such as <BLINK> and <FONT>
The problem with the new tags
Presentation tags do specify how the item should look, and have no inherent semantics – they do not fit in the structure orientation of standard HTML; Microsoft also followed suit with their tags
Style Sheets
In order to get HTML back to being a structure language, W3C hosts work on Style Sheets, and producing a Style Sheet Language CSS – Cascading Style Sheets.
Aims of CSS
easy to writeeasy to implementhas a development path.CSS is a 90% solutionFor all typesetting possibilities XSL is
being developed
CSS
CSS is a language that allows you to specify how a document, or set of documents, should look.
Advantages
Separates content from presentationMakes HTML a structure language againMakes HTML easier to write (and read)All HTML styles (and more) are possibleYou can define a house style in one fileAccessible for the sight-impairedStill visible on non-CSS browsers
XML is coming
CSS is also an enabling technology for XML (more later)
Levels
CSS has been designed with upwards and downwards compatibility in mind. CSS1: basic formatting, fonts, colours,
layout; quick and easy to implement CSS2: more advanced formatting; aural
style sheets CSS3: printing, multi-column, ...
Compatibility
In general a valid CSS1 style sheet is also a valid CSS2 style sheet.
In general a CSS2 style sheet can be read and used by a CSS1-supporting browser.
Check your log files!
More than 95% of surfers now use a CSS1-compatible browser: Microsoft IE 3, 4, 5 Netscape 4 Opera 3.5
While the quality of the support for CSS on these browsers is varied, you never need to use the <FONT> tag again!
Why is CSS good for usability?
Presentation is not hard-wired in the HTML
Users can make their own choices (font size, colours, etc), and override the documents
Pages load faster
...
Pages become more accessible for the sight-impaired (who can use speech browsers)
Pages are viewable on a wider range of platform types
Why is CSS good for the author?
Documents become easier to write (and read)
Presentation is centralisedEasier to provide a house styleWider range of presentation
possibilitiesSeparation of concerns
Example
<html><head><link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”http://www.cwi.nl/style.css”></head><body> ...</body></html>
Example...
h1, h2, h3 { font-family: helvetica, sans-serif }body { color: white; background-color: black }p { text-align: justify }
CSS Presentation
Apart from standard HTML effects, CSS can generate a wide range of presentational effects
Language
Users can specify a language preference; the server can identify this and serve pages in that language
Accept-Language:en-gb,en;q=0.8,nl;q=0.5,fr;q=0.3
Show language encoding<html lang="en” xml:lang=“en”>Use <abbr> and <acronym>
Character encoding
<head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type”
content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
Or make sure your server sends the right fields
Don’t use platform-specific encodings
Document structuring
Use HTML to structure your documents
Consider switching to XML
XML
XML is going to replace HTML as delivery language.
XHTML is an XML-ised version of HTML
Specification Techniques
Overview
IntroductionWhat specifications can and can’t doHow and when to use specificationsSpecifications in the design processDifferent techniques, exampleConclusions
Introduction
specification means abstractiondifferent specification techniques
stress different featuresspecifications can range from mock-
up and natural language to formal methods
Benefits of specifications
identification of system propertieserror and inconsistency detectionspecifications can establish
communication between designers and programmers
(formal) specifications can be used to create (interactive) prototypes
What specifications can’t do
guarantee a system is perfectavoid miscommunication7 myths and more
When to use specifications
complex systems (e.g. multi-agent systems, multimodal systems)
trustworthy systems (e.g. e-commerce)
not for complete systems
Role of specifications in design process
use formal specification linked to empirical methods for design and evaluation
specification techniques can be used throughout the entire design process
the design process used does not matter
Empirical Design Methods & Formal methods
Empirical methods (like usability engineering or the prototyping approach) have much attention for the user’s needs.
Specification techniques add attention for the system’s behaviour in critical situations (see benefits)
empiricalsummative
analysis
designempiricalformative
analyticalformative
AssessmentSpecification
implemen-tation
flow of spec/assess task/processflow of iteration
Usability Engineering
(Pressman, 1997)
requirements quick design
prototype
evaluation & refinement
implementation
Prototyping approach
Which Specification Technique?
GOMSGTAZCSP...
Different Techniques (I)
Goals, Operators, Methods and Selection (GOMS). Hierarchical description of the user’s goals and tasks
Groupware Task Analysis (GTA).Task modeling in environments where many people interact with a system
Different Techniques (II)
Z. Mathematical description of entities and their relations. Best fitted for the description of static properties of systems
CSP. Algebraic description of interacting, dynamic processes.
Example
game to play slide puzzlesspecified by using natural language
and CSP-alike
Which Specification Technique
the use of the specification in the design process determines the choice of technique
use combinations (e.g. Z or CSP combined with natural language)
Accessibility of Specification Techniques
the more formal/mathematical the specification technique the steeper the learning curve: readability. Especially specification in
for example Z can scare people of. easy to write?
Conclusions
use formal methods complementary to empirical design methods
use formal methods for critical parts,i.e. parts that:
either must function properly, or are likely to give trouble
the right technique at the right spot
49
Exercise
Optimizing Situation Awareness in a Virtual Music Center
Introduction
Situation Awareness
Perception Comprehension Prediction
Virtual Music Center
Copyright CTIT
General Information
Virtual Music Center contains: a music theater booking service a music shop
Users visitors of all sorts of concerts buyers of Jazz and Classical music
Scenario-based design
An older woman from Germany buys a ticket for a Jazz concert and a CD of the performing artist.
Design Task
General Structure
Situation Awareness support
Storyboard
Procedure
Split into groups
Design
Short presentation
Evaluation
SA Structure ScreensDialog
Perception … … ...
Comprehension … … …
Prediction … … ...