How browsers render information

How browsers render information

A small display means that the user can see a lot less information at once. This affects how the browsers render information, and thus when building your website, you need to specify how it will be rendered on mobile displays, especially images and video files.

1. Flash support

Flash is ubiquitous on a desktop with over 90% of browsers having flash player installed. No iOS devices run flash. Android devices version 2.2 or later can run flush though many users turn it off since it can cause performance and stability problems.

In this case, a website relying on flash is not going to be popular on mobile devices.

2. Mobile comfort

People use mobile devices differently. For desktop computers, you will be sitting at a desk, in office, surfing with a specific goal, with focus, and often creating content or working.

With mobile, due to its portability, you will use it anywhere at any time: on the bed, walking, working, queuing, waiting, etc. In this case, the use of mobile devices becomes addictive and sometimes waste a lot of time in social media and other less necessary sites.

3. Websites are not always viewed on browsers

When on desktop nearly always surf web in a browser, 86% of online smartphone time is spent in apps. This can have subtle consequence on the design of your mobile site;

• Often there’s no URL bar; thus, users can’t glean any information or context by looking at your page URL, copy and paste, or type in a new URL.
• Reduced screen real estate – mobile browser viewports are small at the best of times, but websites viewed in apps are often crammed into smaller spaces.
• Limited functionality – features such as bookmarking, opening links n new tabs or windows, or printing isn’t available when viewing web pages within apps.

Less bandwidth Cellular network speeds are improving with 4G mobile devices hitting the market with a download rate of 5-12 Mbps, compared to 50Mbps of average broadband internet users. Most mobile plans aggressively limit the amount of data that can be downloaded each month; thus, users won’t like a website that sucks up a large chunk of their download allowance.

5. Portrait screens

Most desktop displays have a landscape orientation; however, the opposite is true of mobile devices- most users hold their device in portrait orientation.

Question 3

Requirements Elicitation Techniques

1. Brainstorming

It is a conventional method to think of different notions, as by and large, partners will endeavor to give their information and points of view. With this, I’ll call for a team meeting to think of how to achieve the intended system, for example, how customers from the Local Sacco will ring up to change the details of their accounts.

Strength: is the best technique to get instant data

Weakness: is one-sided and rarely customer is involved

2. Interviews

It is an organized talk with stakeholders who might give essential knowledge to the requirements. With this, I’ll interview relevant stakeholders such as the Central Bank staff and some customers from the Local Sacco and analyze the information I’ll get.

Strength: is proficient at gathering a lot of information rapidly and is swift to conclude.

Weakness: The consequences of interviews can highly fluctuate, making it difficult to connect information from different people.

3. Surveys and Questionnaires:

Preparing survey questions and giving different stakeholders to answer. For the Central Bank call back system, I’ll prepare the survey questions and administer questionnaires to the staff and customers. I’ll also prepare Google forms to ease the survey process.

Strength: allows stakeholders to give the most accurate information because of the freedom they have when answering the questions.

Weakness: it is time-consuming to collect data from many people and analyze it.

4. Prototyping

With this technique, you gather initial requirements for making a basic sort of clarification. I’ll create a prototype call back system and build up the system to more complicated by taking requirement by requirement.

Strength: stakeholders has opportunity to provide suggestions or changes on the prototypes before the plan is implemented.

Weakness: can mislead developers from understanding the actual desired system and also confuse users believing the prototype to be the complete system.

1. Document Analysis

Involves the investigation of all the current documentation identified with a process. Ill collect all relevant documents available from the Central Bank to understand how the current system work and see how the new system will fit with existing systems.

Strength: It allows a clean connection between the existing and the new system.

Weakness: Not suitable to evaluate user opinions, needs, or satisfaction with services.

Question 4. (a)

Nielsen’s Heuristics for UI Design

Jakob Nielsen, in April 1994, summarized these 10 general principles for UI design. They are known as “heuristics” because they are broad rules of thumb and not specific usability guidelines.

1. Visibility of system status:

The system should always keep users informed about what is going on through appropriate feedback within a reasonable time.

2. Match between system and real world

The UI should use the user’s language, with words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Always design as if you are doing it for the user and not for he you.

3. User control and freedom

The UI should support undo and redo. It should allow the user to ZXleaveunwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue.

4. Consistency and standards

Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Through consistency and use of standards, users will be I a position to easily predict where to find specific information.

5. Error prevention

Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action. Provide messages for reporting to the user whenever an error occurs and how to get out of that problem.

6. Recognition rather than recall

The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Minimize user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. Instructions for the use of the system to be visible and/or easily retrievable whenever appropriaZZZXte.

7. Flexibility and efficiency of use

Ensure the system caters for both experienced and inexperienced users. Use accelerators to speed up the interaction for the expert user. Allow use to tailor frequent actions.

8. Aesthetic and minimalist design

Every extra unit of I information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility. Therefore, dialogues should not contain information that is irrelevant and rarely needed.

9. Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors

Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no code), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest the solution.

10. Help and documentation

Though it is best if the system can be used without reference to documentation, it is necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

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Question 4. (b)

The 14 Steps for the UI Design Process

Thexxzxtions. Do extensive compilation of general screen design guidelines for the UI.

4. Develop System Menus and Navigation Schemes

Menus and navigation schemes allow a user to access different information quickly on a website. The UI designer in this stage should consider structures, functions, contents, formatting, and writings of menus. Types of menus and navigation links to be specially selected.

5. Select the Proper Kinds of Windows

A window is an area of the screen, usually rectangular in shape, defined by a border that contains a particular view of some area of the computer or some portion of a person’s dialog with the computer. Consider the characteristics, components, presentation styles, types of windows available, operations and web system frames and pop-up windows.

6. Select the Proper Interaction Devices

These are the input mechanisms or devices through which people communicate their needs and desires to the computer, and the output mechanisms or devices through which the computer responds to people. Designers should consider all possible interaction devices for desktop and for mobile devices.

7. QW Q WQ Choose the Proper Screen-Based Controls

Also known as widgets, these are graphic objects that represent the properties or operations of other objects. The UI designer should consider the characteristics and capabilities of various screen controls such as buttons, text entry boxes, forms, selection controls, custom controls, specialized operable controls, presentation controls, and web controls.

8. Write Clear Text and Messages

Clear and meaningfully crafted words, messages, and text lead to greatly enhanced system usability and minimize user confusion that leads to errors and possibly even system rejection. UI design here should address the concept of readability, presentation, proper wording, titles, conventions, and sequence controls.

9. Provide Effective Feedback and Guidance and Assistance

The UI designer needs to consider various and most effective ways for users to provide feedback on their experience. The guidance and help properties should be provided to help the user look for information whenever the use of the UI becomes challenging.

10. Provide Effective Internationalization and Accessibility

To be accepted, and used, a screen or page’s text and images must reflect the needs and sensibility of each partner in the worldwide community where it is used. UI designer needs to understand the international considerations (localization, cultural, writing text, images, and symbol usage) and accessibility considerations (types of disabilities that hinder different groups of people from clearly understanding your work and design in the utmost accessibility).

11. Create Meaningful Graphics, Icons, and Images

Here the designer needs to understand the kinds of icons available, their characteristics, and their usability influences. Also, follow the design guidelines for the various graphical media, including images, photographs, pictures, diagrams, drawings, audition, and animations.

12. Choose the Proper Colors

Color adds dimension to screen usability. The UI designer must understand the characteristics of a given color and the perception users have before using it. He must understand how to use given color schemes, choose proper colors for texts, statistical graphs, images, and window sections.

13. Organize and Layout Windows and Pages

Proper screen presentation and structure will encourage quick and correct information comprehension, the fastest possible execution of tasks and functions, and enhanced user acceptance.

14. Test, Test, and Retest

What follows is an overview of the usability testing process. Its purpose is to provide an awareness of the testing procedures and methods and to summarize some basic testing guidelines. Some aspects to be considered in testing include purpose and scope, prototypes; kind of test plan; proper testing facilities, etc.

Sources:

Quiz 2: https://www.paradoxlabs.com/blog/mobile-vs-desktop-10-key-differences/

Quiz 3: https://www.testbytes.net/blog/requirements-elicitation/

Quiz 4(a): https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

Quiz 4(b): (Group assignments and lecture’s notes)