Computational Support for Functionality Selection in Interaction Design

Abstract

Designing interactive technology entails several objectives, one of which is identifying and selecting appropriate functionality. Given candidate functionalities such as "print," "bookmark," and "share," a designer has to choose which functionalities to include and which to leave out. Such choices critically affect the acceptability, productivity, usability, and experience of the design. However, designers may overlook reasonable designs because there is an exponential number of functionality sets and multiple factors to consider. This article is the first to formally define this problem and propose an algorithmic method to support designers to explore alternative functionality sets in early stage design. Based on interviews of professional designers, we mathematically define the task of identifying functionality sets that strike the best balance among four objectives: usefulness, satisfaction, ease of use, and profitability. We develop an integer linear programming solution that can efficiently solve very large instances (set size over 1,300) on a regular computer. Further, we build on techniques of robust optimization to search for diverse and surprising functionality designs. Empirical results from a controlled study and field deployment are encouraging. Most designers rated computationally created sets to be of the comparable or superior quality than their own. Designers reported gaining better understanding of available functionalities and the design space.

Usability of a classroom response system in an online course: Testing of a smartphone-downloadable technology enhanced learning tool for distance education

“…All these features speak to a user-centered design, meaning it meets the needs of the end-users. [19] Thus, it seems that this CRS has many features that are helpful to the students' overall learning. The satisfaction level with the use of the CRS could have been greater if there were fewer flaws.…”

“…Having features that are relevant, useful, and appropriate, and which will enhance the work of the users, will facilitate adoption, user satisfaction, and improved user productivity and efficiency. [19] The functionality measure included in this usability study assessed ease of application download, navigation, learnability, intuitiveness, as well as the degree to which the CRS offers sufficient structures that users need to enhance their learning.…”

Combinatorial Optimization of Graphical User Interface Designs

“…On the other hand, although OR and management science have examined related topics in product design, these turn out to have few touchpoints with graphical interfaces. The design of product offerings [34], products [35], product lines, and product positionings [36]; supply-chain design [37]; and assortment design [38] focus more on the selection of features for products and much less on their concrete design or end-user use [39]. For example, the Kano model is a product-design model that covers consumer preferences in the features of products [40].…”

“…These can be presented in sequence or parallel. For example, the 3-D modeling software Maya, which offers 1346 functions in a menu, arranges them in a hierarchical fashion [39].…”

“…In generative design, the goals are twofold: 1) to solve problems that are rendered hard by a large problem size or number of objectives and 2) construct designs algorithmically with high quality of the design for end users, encompassing goals such as usability, good ergonomics and user experience, and reliability and recovery from errors [62]. Demonstrated applications for GUIs include generation of graphical layouts [13], [30], [42], [46], [48], [60], [63], [64], creation of document layouts [65], multiplatform design [66]- [69], generation from program code [70], generation of forms from data descriptions [71], [72], retargeting of input spaces for ergonomics [73], retargeting of web pages [74], dialogue box layouts [75], distributed user interfaces [76], pervasive information displays [77], multiappliance services [78], and functionality design [39], as well as design for web pages [79], [80], menus [81], scatterplot visualizations [82], and widget layouts [83].…”