Three types of design evaluation

The three types of design evaluation are the controlled settings involving users, the natural setting involving users in the real world and the final in any setting but not involving users.

The first one is when the designer sets an erected environment to watch the users how they interact with the product and their reactions and feelings. The second one is when the designer observes the user will using the product but in a natural setting/ environment. The final one it is the technique where the designer asks the opinion of an expert about a design and its capabilities.

An example of a natural setting evaluation technique is the application for the skiers (see Figure 1), where the designer goes to the snowy mountains to observe whether the user can use the application while wearing gloves. Therefore, for the designer to observe whether the use is capable of seeing the screen clearly since sometimes the radiation of the sun might be a reason of not seeing clear.




Figure 1: Application for skiers

 

References:

Rogers, Y., Preece, J. & Sharp, H., 2011. Interaction Design: Beyond Human - Computer Interaction. 3rd ed. s.l.:Wiley.



Prototyping

“Prototypes are a useful aid when discussing ideas with stakeholders; they are a communication device among team members, and an effective way for designers to explore design ideas”

Prototype is the third step in the process of implementing a product/service. A prototype might be a small-scale model that shows in smaller dimensions than the original product/service its design. Therefore, the prototype might be in 2D, made by cardboard or even plasticine. Generally they produce the prototype in an expected way in order to provide the desirable functionalities that must be showed (Rogers et. al, 2011). 

Using prototypes a designer gets feedback and evaluation, to be able to make any improvements and meet as much as possible the expectations. In addition multidisciplinary teams can communicate between each other easily. Therefore stakeholders can easily understand the main concept of the design and suggest any changes or improvements. Prototype encourages improvements and it also help designers to answer questions but even to make it easier for the designer to choose among the alternatives (Rogers et. al, 2011).

 

Figure 1: Prototype using plastiscine (Rogers et. al, 2011)

Figure 2: Prototype of a teddy (Rogers et. al, 2011)

References:

Rogers, Y., Preece, J. & Sharp, H., 2011. Interaction Design: Beyond Human - Computer Interaction. 3rd ed. s.l.:Wiley.

 

Interaction Design (ID) Process

ID is a process where the below steps take part in order to achieve a product or service that provides usability.

The four steps (see Figure 1) included for ID are first of all to establish the requirements needed in order to create the required service or product. Secondly, the designers must design some alternatives where designers must produce new creative ideas by researching and synthesising. Thirdly, is the prototyping which is actually about creating the new form of the product/service in order to get feedback for the potential users and for the designers to be able to fix/replace the features/functions. Finally, to evaluate the results of the product/service and start the whole process all over again (Rogers et al., 2011).

Figure 1: Interaction Design Process

References:

Rogers, Y., Preece, J. & Sharp, H., 2011. Interaction Design: Beyond Human - Computer Interaction. 3rd ed. s.l.:Wiley.

Metaphors Advantages and Disadvantages

Metaphors are used in different kind of interactive products in order to easily understand what a product is for and how to use it. 

There are the interface metaphors like the desktop used in computers to metaphor the meaning of having a virtual desktop which consists of other virtual metaphors illustrated in Figure 1 as the traditional desktop. 

Therefore it is used for visualising a process for example the Pinterest application which is actually a virtual board where someone can pin, like in real life, images and posts (Rogers et al 2011).

Figure 1: Metaphors

The advantages of using metaphors are:

• Firstly the opportunity of the individual to learn the systems and products easier. 
• Secondly it helps the users to comprehend the model applied. 
• Finally due to their innovation it expands the number of active users’ range (Rogers et al 2011).

The disadvantages are:

• Metaphors break the cultural protocols. 
• It implements conflict with the design principles and it can oblige designers on how to conceptualise a problem. 
• It averts the user to use computers without the use of metaphors. 
• It limits the imagination and it leads the designers to sometimes use bad existing designs into new products (Rogers et al 2011).

References:

Rogers, Y., Preece, J. & Sharp, H., 2011. Interaction Design: Beyond Human - Computer Interaction. 3rd ed. s.l.:Wiley.