Measuring the Effectiveness of Designing End-User Interfaces Using Design Theories

Introduction

Software development has faced challenges so that developers are not able to deliver on time and on budget the final product (O’Connor et al., 2017). Many software systems developers have never taken a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) course because most developers are trained in Computer Science and Engineering degree programs, most of which do not offer such courses. Information systems can be characterized as computerized artifacts that refer to an automated information system that are used by end-users (Bollou & Alter, 2016). Common mistakes by developers have been previously reported in the literature. UIs development is an iterative process that involves end-users and developers as well until a satisfactory product is achieved (Ruiz et al., 2018). It is important that developers search for a framework/model/guideline related to the current project that provides metrics to perform system’s UIs evaluation such as the identified by Ruiz et al. (2018). For example, in Mexico, information systems development is normally taught in Engineering programs and up until recently these programs did not typically offer HCI courses. Therefore, such frameworks/models/guidelines are not taught to future developers. Computer Science programs at some of the most well-known institutions in the United States (e.g. Yale University, Cal Tech, and Harvey Mudd College) did not offer an HCI class in 2016-2017. Yet, as research demonstrates and experience shows, interface design is a necessary component of effective systems development. Although curriculum changes may address this problem for the next generation of systems developers educated in Mexico and elsewhere, the lack of knowledge of interface design for current developers remains a problem. For example, we talked with managers of three Mexican software development organizations who asked for advice on interface design. They stated that their software developers create application interfaces based mainly on their own preferences rather than those of their end-users. In today’s world, IS and mobile applications demand UIs that matches end-users’ capabilities and abilities. In addition, modern applications demand that end-users divide their attention when interacting with multiple computing systems and often struggle to maintain their focus and concentration when faced with competing distractions (Bulling, 2016). Nevertheless, the worldwide rollout of 4G LTE mobile communication networks has accelerated the proliferation of the mobile Internet and spurred a new wave of mobile applications on smartphones (Cheng et al., 2017, p. 72). Further, each end-users group have particular physical, and cognitive skills that lead to a different approach in order to fulfil their requirements and needs for particular IS and mobile applications. Thus, developers must be aware and take into account these issues when developing end-users’ interfaces.

As a first step, the intention is to verify if providing a brief training course on interface design could improve the effectiveness of the developers. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study that compared the effectiveness of two developer teams, based on user evaluation, in creating an interface for a face recognition application. One team was given training on interface design, the other was not. We describe how we combined the Laws of Perception with a set of end-user interface guidelines and how we did the training. Next, the evaluation questionnaire is presented as well as the process implemented for users to test the software and evaluate the interface. The paper concludes with an assessment of which features were most different between the two teams’ implementations and a discussion of limitations and future research ideas.

The present research intends to combine Gestalt Theory (Chang et al., 2002; Chang & Nesbitt, 2005) and guidelines reported in existing literature (Blair-Early & Zender, 2008) for creating end-user interfaces that would lead to enhance acceptance and usage.

The remainder of the paper continues as follows: in the following section, a literature review of the foundations of interfaces, Gestalt Theory, and design guidelines are presented. Then, the formulation of the present research is disclosed. After that, results are shown. Then, a discussion section is provided. Finally, this paper provides conclusions, limitations, and recommendations for future research.