Teaching Usability Principles with Patterns and Guidelines

Abstract

We present a comparative study of the effectiveness of patterns and guidelines as aids to teaching web interaction design. We recruited two groups of novice designers and taught them web design from scratch using a popular authoring tool. We used two balanced sets of guidelines and patterns that in essence present the same advice in two different formats. After the initial training, subjects learned about usability and usability principles with the help of one of these sets. The groups then engaged in two common activities that professional designers must perform, that is designing and evaluating web sites. The final design artefact that was delivered in all tests was a working web site.Here we present the quantitative results for the design phase of this experiment. Evaluation of the designs was conducted by three independent evaluators, using defined metrics.We conclude that both patterns and guidelines help with the design of usable sites, however the advice presented using our patterns format had a greater impact on the novice designers' performance than the same advice in our guidelines format.

How Novice Software Engineers Apply User Interface Design Patterns: An Empirical Study

“…User interface design patterns have been introduced as a medium to capture and re when interacting with a software application [8]. When designing software applications that provide a positive UX, user interface design patterns are tools that can provide an alternative to abstract and reuse the essential details of successful and usable interfaces, providing a positive UX.…”

“…These patterns also contain a discussion of when it is appropriate to apply the proposed solutions and what the consequences may be [6]. However, even though several authors evaluated the use of design patterns [6][7] [8], few evaluate how novice software engineers deal with them while designing an interface. A proper understanding of the applicability of these patterns by software engineers is necessary to evaluate their feasibility in industry.…”

A Systematic Design towards Usability for Novice Designers

“…Previous works in [5,6] explored the use of guidelines and patterns as an aid to teach design. The result from [5] has shown the use of design patterns displayed a greater impact on the novice designer's performance than guidelines.…”

“…The result from [5] has shown the use of design patterns displayed a greater impact on the novice designer's performance than guidelines. We considered all design related knowledge and information such as design decision and design pattern in the proposed method that leading to the development of the tool.…”

“…Subsequently, further research works have been explored on how knowledge and experience were used among experienced and novice designers such as in [2,3] and [4]. Reference [4] suggested that design strategies, knowledge, and information should be included in developing support methods for novice designers as a guide to them.Previous works in [5,6] explored the use of guidelines and patterns as an aid to teach design. The result from [5] has shown the use of design patterns displayed a greater impact on the novice designer's performance than guidelines.…”