P2: Explain two fundamental principles of HCI design.

Understand the fundamental principles of interface design

By Ross Heppinstall
P2
Unit 13


Explain two fundamental principles of HCI design. (P2)

• Perception
• Colour
• Luminance
• ‘Pop out’ effect
• Pattern
• Objects
• Geons and gross 3D shapes



Perception:

• When you are creating and producing a software interface, you must take note that there are a lot of human factors that are known to be quite difficult to describe. If you have ever created and design a software interface then there is a high chance you have come across spongy requirements such as easy to use or pretty to look at. Although there's a whole different class you have to be careful of the way human perception works. The positive thing is that there are some tangible results from the fields of biology and psychology to draw from. One good feature of this class is that you cannot “re-learn” or “un-learn” the natural ways your perceptive system works. An example is you cannot unlearn to see colour. Colour perception is already hard wired into your brain and there is nothing you can do to stop it.


Colour:

• Colour is a very important thing when it comes to creating and designing a human interface. If I was creating an interface I would definitely have colour because I wouldn’t like it without colour and I don’t think anyone else would either. Another reason why if you use colour you need to think about peoples needs. An example is that Microsoft word use grey as their predominant colour, blue for the title bar and for enhancing drop down lists and highlighting your text. If bright red or black was used it would be uncomfortable on for the eye. The trichromatic system is a system that uses a three colour combination and they are blue, red and green.