The Comptoons

HCI Vistas presents cartoons that illustrate the interesting relationship between the human and computer.

Katre, Dinesh S. HCeye (2006). Humor>Computing>Human Computer Interaction

Journal of HCI Vistas

This website is meant to provide insights into various multi-disciplinary aspects of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). It looks at this subject particularly from Indian perspective. HCI Vistas publishes at least two original articles every month. It offers latest research papers as downloads. It also presents Comptoons and survey reports. The website is meant to provoke new thinking in the HCI domain.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2005). Resources>Human Computer Interaction>Usability>User Experience

A Position Paper on Cross-Cultural Usability Issues of Bilingual Mobile Phones

Variety of information services like Short Message Service (SMS), e-mail, news, market reports, educational applications and other reading materials are now available on mobile phones. The size of mobile phone and its display is shrinking day-by-day, whereas the volume of information content and services are growing. More importantly, mobile phones introduced in the Indian market have now become bilingual; they support various services in English and Hindi languages. Mobile manufacturers have consciously or unconsciously resorted to English oriented approaches, and as a result of this, they have diluted the culture specific rules and the original form of Hindi language. We have studied the usability of Hindi in four bilingual (Hindi and English) mobile phones manufactured by different companies like Nokia / Reliance 3105 CDMA, LG RD5130, Motorola C118 and Samsung / Reliance C200.

Katre, Dinesh S. HCeye (2006). Articles>Usability>Localization

UniFace: Internet-Based Software for Remote Usability Testing of Icons

The Graphical User Interface (GUI) of software usually consists of huge number of icons. Though the intention is to improve the usability of software, not all interface designers are able to test and evaluate the comprehensibility of icons. Increasing exposure to unevaluated icons causes cognitive fatigue to users and slows down the intuitive learning. Users from diverse geographic locations, cultures and religions are very likely to interpret and understand these icons differently. As software products are designed to address universal needs, testing and evaluation of GUI across the globe or at least, wherever the product is likely to be used becomes important. Creation of dedicated usability labs in various locations for usability testing is not a viable proposition. A software tool named 'UniFace' for remote usability testing of icons is designed capitalizing on far-reaching capability of Internet. UniFace extends the usability lab onto the desktop of every user.

Katre, Dinesh S. HCeye (2004). Articles>Usability>Testing>Online

User Persona: Its Application and the Art of Stereotyping

I feel that creation of user persona is nothing but realistic stereotyping or a simplified outline of the user. The word 'realistic' is more important as realism can be achieved only through user study. (I am not referring to the fictional personas applicable in futuristic technologies). Humorists, cartoonists and filmmakers are gifted with the art of stereotyping. But they tend to exaggerate a lot. Therefore the personalities they render appear like caricatures. We must avoid caricatured user personas. While stereotyping, you generalize and oversimplify. And when you do that you pick or eliminate some details. That makes all the difference.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas

Lessons from a Street-Side UX Designer!

This example offers some insights into how ‘the arousal of the feeling of trust’ is dependent on the design of features and overall user experience, for the business transaction to kick off. The learning can be particularly applied in the context of online business portals and websites.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2007). Articles>User Experience>Case Studies

The Prism of User Experience

Practitioners of User Centred Design method tend to focus only on immediate user goals and short focused usability. What is meant by long term usability and long term user experience? It needs due attention because only then the impact of products on our environment and health gains prominence! If we take a long term perspective then what we consider usable based on our immediate experience might turn out to be a disastrous product.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>User Experience

Technical Communicators as Potential Usability Reviewers

There are many articles on the web, which have deliberated upon technical communication (TC) and usability together. Apparently, there are two distinct regions of usability where technical communicators can contribute.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2007). Articles>TC>Usability

Beware of Style in Icon Design!

The icons or baby faces used as part of user interface have now turned into a major aspect of product branding. With powerful computers, enhanced graphics capabilities, advanced tools for illustration, and professionals to advocate rich user experience, icon design has become more important and complex than ever before! Windows Vista has raised the standard of quality icons even higher. An interface design project forced me to think about ’style’ in icon design. It raised some basic questions in my mind.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2007). Design>User Interface>Graphic Design

Spatial Descriptions by Children

Drawing a map is cognitively challenging. It requires you to do some abstract visualization.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2007). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Children

Cultural Ethnography: A Brief Report

There is a lot of curiosity about ethnography in design among designers, especially the academicians. Context study or field study are the other similar activities discussed in the domain of usability. I happened to have carried out an ethnographic assignment almost a decade ago. I thought, sharing that experience (good or bad) will be useful to many.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2007). Articles>Usability>Ethnographies>Case Studies

User Persona: Its Application and The Art of Stereotyping

There is so much discussion about user personas, but very few examples are reported on Internet with some evidence of its actual usage. So here is a persona that I explored long back. It was useful!

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>Personas>Case Studies

Usability Testing: A Reality Show?

In a typical on-camera usability test, in the lab environment, we ask the subjects to perform certain tasks using the product. Such tests are time-bound and follow strict procedures in terms of user profiling, briefing, task descriptions, actual performance and think aloud exercise, screen capturing (in case of software), etc. You do the video recording of usability test to observe the user performance, their response and behavior. All this is perfectly fine. Coming back to certain observations from the Big Boss reality show. I found that the participants of Big Boss have evolved through distinct psychological stages, which are sequentially progressive.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2007). Articles>Usability>Testing

Model Based Heuristics for Constructivist e-Learning  

Many e-learning applications and games have been studied to identify the common interaction models of constructivist learning.

Katre, Dinesh S. I-Manager's International Journal of Education Technology (2007). Articles>Education>Online

Opportunity India: Interaction Design Market Potential

The Indian community of Interaction Designers and Usability Professionals is growing by rate of 20% annually which is far too less. Around 6 to 8 new design institutes have suddenly opened up in past couple of years (to name a few- Symbiosis Institute of Design, MAEER MIT’s Institute of Design and Creative-I College, Pune, Raffles Design International, Mumbai, IILM School of Design, Gurgaon, Wigan & Leigh College, New Delhi) But all these are indirect contributors to interaction design, as they do not offer education in that area.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2006). Articles>User Experience>Interaction Design

Use of Cognitive Tricks in Web Advertising

Web advertisers resort to many unethical approaches (in my personal opinion) under the pretext of creativity. Let us learn about it.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2006). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Cognitive Psychology