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Understanding and
conceptualizing interaction
Recap
• HCI has moved beyond designing
interfaces for desktop machines
• About extending and supporting all
manner of human activities in all
manner of places
• Facilitating user experiences through
designing interactions
• Make work effective, efficient and safer
• Improve and enhance learning and training
• Provide enjoyable and exciting entertainment
• Enhance communication and understanding
• Support new forms of creativity and expression
Understanding the problem
space
– What do you want to create?

– What are your assumptions?
– Will it achieve what you hope it will?
A framework for analysing
the problem space
• Are there problems with an existing
product?
• Why do you think there are problems?
• Why do you think your proposed ideas
might be useful?
• How would you see people using it with
their current way of doing things?
• How will it support people in their
activities?
• Will it really help them?
An example
• What were the assumptions made

by cell phone companies when
developing WAP services?
• Was it a solution looking

for a problem?
Assumptions: realistic or
wish-list?
• People want to be kept informed of up-to-date
news wherever they are - reasonable
• People want to interact with information on
the move - reasonable
• People are happy using a very small display
and using an extremely restricted interface -
not reasonable
• People will be happy doing things on a cell
phone that they normally do on their PCs (e.g.
surf the web, read email, shop, bet, play video
games) - reasonable only for a very select
bunch of users
From problem space to
design space
• Having a good understanding of
the problem space can help inform
the design space
– e.g. what kind of interface, behavior,
functionality to provide
• But before deciding upon these it
is important to develop a
conceptual model
Conceptual model
• Need to first think about how the
system will appear to users (i.e. how
they will understand it)
• A conceptual model is a high level

description of:
– “the proposed system in terms of a set of
integrated ideas and concepts about what it
should do, behave and look like, that will be
understandable by the users in the manner
intended”
First steps in formulating a
conceptual model
• What will the users be doing when
carrying out their tasks?
• How will the system support these?
• What kind of interface metaphor, if any,
will be appropriate?
• What kinds of interaction modes and
styles to use?
Always keep in mind when making design
decisions how the user will understand the
underlying conceptual model
Conceptual models
• Many kinds and ways of classifying

them
• Here we describe them in terms of
core activities and objects
• Also in terms of interface
metaphors
Conceptual models based on
activities
• Giving instructions
– issuing commands using keyboard and
function keys and selecting options via menus
• Conversing
– interacting with the system as if having a
conversation
• Manipulating and navigating
– acting on objects and interacting with virtual
objects
• Exploring and browsing
– finding out and learning things
1. Giving instructions
• Where users instruct the system and
tell it what to do
– e.g. tell the time, print a file, save a file
• Very common conceptual model,
underlying a diversity of devices and
systems
– e.g. CAD, word processors, VCRs, vending
machines
• Main benefit is that instructing supports
quick and efficient interaction
– good for repetitive kinds of actions
performed on multiple objects
2. Conversing
• Underlying model of having a conversation
with another human
• Range from simple voice recognition menu-
driven systems to more complex ‘natural
language’ dialogues
• Examples include timetables, search engines,
advice-giving systems, help systems
• Recently, much interest in having virtual
agents at the interface, who converse with
you, e.g. Microsoft’s Bob and Clippy
Pros and cons of conversational
model
• Allows users, especially novices and
technophobes, to interact with the system in a
way that is familiar
– makes them feel comfortable, at ease and less
scared
• Misunderstandings can arise when the system

does not know how to parse what the user
says
– e.g. child types into a search engine, that uses
natural language the question:
“How many legs does a centipede have?” and the
system responds:
3. Manipulating and navigating
• Involves dragging, selecting, opening, closing
and zooming actions on virtual objects
• Exploit’s users’ knowledge of how they move
and manipulate in the physical world
• Exemplified by (i) what you see is what you
get (WYSIWYG) and (ii) the direct
manipulation approach (DM)
• Shneiderman (1983) coined the term DM,
came from his fascination with computer
games at the time
Core principles of DM
• Continuous representation of objects
and actions of interest
• Physical actions and button pressing

instead of issuing commands with
complex syntax
• Rapid reversible actions with immediate

feedback on object of interest
Why are DM interfaces so
enjoyable?
• Novices can learn the basic functionality quickly
• Experienced users can work extremely rapidly to
carry out a wide range of tasks, even defining
new functions
• Intermittent users can retain operational concepts
over time
• Error messages rarely needed
• Users can immediately see if their actions are
furthering their goals and if not do something else
• Users experience less anxiety
• Users gain confidence and mastery and feel in
control
What are the disadvantages
with DM?
• Some people take the metaphor of direct
manipulation too literally
• Not all tasks can be described by objects and
not all actions can be done directly
• Some tasks are better achieved through
delegating
– e.g. spell checking
• Can become screen space ‘gobblers’
• Moving a mouse around the screen can be
slower than pressing function keys to do same
actions
4. Exploring and browsing
• Similar to how people browse
information with existing media
(e.g. newspapers, magazines,
libraries, pamphlets)
• Information is structured to allow
flexibility in way user is able to
search for information
– e.g. multimedia, web
Conceptual models based on
objects
• Usually based on an analogy with
something in the physical world
• Examples include books, tools,
vehicles
• Classic: Star Interface
based on office
objects
Johnson et al (1989)
Another classic: the
spreadsheet (Bricklin)
• Analogous to ledger
sheet
• Interactive and
computational
• Easy to understand
• Greatly extending
what accountants
and others could do
www.bricklin.com/history/refcards.htm
Which conceptual model is
best?
• Direct manipulation is good for ‘doing’ types of
tasks, e.g. designing, drawing, flying, driving,
sizing windows
• Issuing instructions is good for repetitive
tasks, e.g. spell-checking, file management
• Having a conversation is good for children,
computer-phobic, disabled users and
specialised applications (e.g. phone services)
• Hybrid conceptual models are often employed,
where different ways of carrying out the same
actions is supported at the interface - but can
take longer to learn
Interface metaphors
• Interface designed to be similar to a physical
entity but also has own properties
– e.g. desktop metaphor, web portals
• Can be based on activity, object or a
combination of both
• Exploit user’s familiar knowledge, helping
them to understand ‘the unfamiliar’
• Conjures up the essence of the unfamiliar
activity, enabling users to leverage of this to
understand more aspects of the unfamiliar
functionality
Benefits of interface
metaphors
• Makes learning new systems easier
• Helps users understand the
underlying conceptual model
• Can be very innovative and enable
the realm of computers and their
applications to be made more
accessible to a greater diversity of
users
Problems with interface
metaphors
• Break conventional and cultural rules
– e.g. recycle bin placed on desktop
• Can constrain designers in the way they
conceptualize a problem space
• Conflict with design principles
• Forces users to only understand the system in
terms of the metaphor
• Designers can inadvertently use bad existing
designs and transfer the bad parts over
• Limits designers’ imagination in coming up
with new conceptual models
Conceptual models: from
interaction mode to style
• Interaction mode:
– what the user is doing when interacting
with a system, e.g. instructing, talking,
browsing or other
• Interaction style:
– the kind of interface used to support the
mode, e.g. speech, menu-based, gesture
Many kinds of interaction
styles available…
• Command
• Speech
• Data-entry
• Form fill-in
• Query
• Graphical
• Web
• Pen
• Augmented reality
• Gesture and even...
Interacting via GPRS enabled
cell phone…
• Drawing an elephant by walking round the streets of a
city (or other mode of transport) and entering data
points along the way via the cell phone
• Example: Brighton and Hove(UK) by J. Wood by foot,
track length 11.2km (see www.gpsdrawing.com for
more examples)
Making art by recording
where walking in a city
Which interaction style to
choose?
• Need to determine requirements and
user needs
• Take the budget and other constraints
into account
• Also will depend on suitability of
technology for activity being supported
• This topic will be covered more later
when discuss how to actually design
conceptual models
Interaction paradigms
• Another form of inspiration for

conceptual models
• From the desktop to ubiquitous
computing
(embedded in the
environment)
Examples of new paradigms
• Ubiquitous computing (mother of them
all)
• Pervasive computing
• Wearable computing
• Tangible bits, augmented reality
• Attentive environments
• Transparent computing
– and many more….
Two examples: BlueEyes
(IBM) and Cooltown (HP)
• Visionary approaches for
developing novel conceptual
paradigms
Almalden.ibm.com/cs/blueeyes/
cooltown.hp.com/mpulse/backissues/0601/0601-cooltown.asp
Summary points
• Important to have a good understanding of
the problem space
• Fundamental aspect of interaction design is to
develop a conceptual model
• Interaction modes and interface metaphors
provide a structure for thinking about which
kind of conceptual model to develop
• Interaction styles are specific kinds of
interfaces that are instantiated as part of the
conceptual model
• Interaction paradigms can also be used to
inform the design of the conceptual model

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Understanding and

– What do you want to create?

• What were the assumptions made

• Was it a solution looking

• A conceptual model is a high level

• Many kinds and ways of classifying

• Misunderstandings can arise when the system

• Physical actions and button pressing

• Rapid reversible actions with immediate

• Another form of inspiration for

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