Relationship between Gestalt and usability heuristics in mobile device interfaces

While usability heuristics are universal concepts, visual references for using them in an application are limited, contradictory, and sometimes confusing, especially for novice developers. The present work has linked Nielsen's heuristics with Gestalt principles, which are the foundation of human perception, developed from psychology, and which have been used in art, design, and architecture, to understand how different visual stimulus can be interpreted by the human being. The heuristics, Match between system and the real world, Recognition rather than recall and Aesthetic and minimalistic design, have been linked with the Gestalt principles of Similarity, Proximity, Common direction, and Simplicity. This link is possible because Gestalt principles have certain conceptual similarities with usability heuristics, in addition to the fact that these fundamentals were identified in some mobile interfaces and are related to specific interactions. This work provides theoretical guidelines, visual references and practical examples on the use of some graphic components that are regularly used in mobile interfaces, such as buttons, menus, and sections; Besides, information is provided regarding how these visual components affect certain usability interactions such as learnability, efficiency, memorability, and usefulness

Understanding concurrent earcons: applying auditory scene analysis principles to concurrent earcon recognition

Two investigations into the identification of concurrently presented, structured sounds, called earcons were carried out. One of the experiments investigated how varying the number of concurrently presented earcons affected their identification. It was found that varying the number had a significant effect on the proportion of earcons identified. Reducing the number of concurrently presented earcons lead to a general increase in the proportion of presented earcons successfully identified. The second experiment investigated how modifying the earcons and their presentation, using techniques influenced by auditory scene analysis, affected earcon identification. It was found that both modifying the earcons such that each was presented with a unique timbre, and altering their presentation such that there was a 300 ms onset-to-onset time delay between each earcon were found to significantly increase identification. Guidelines were drawn from this work to assist future interface designers when incorporating concurrently presented earcons

User Experience in the Visual Notifications on Smart Devices

Notifications on smart devices have a crucial role for the end-users to help decide their action to the information. Despite the flexible customization of notifications for the intuitive user experience, users feel overwhelmed by the number of notifications they receive daily. The nature of notifications is short-lived, but they are extremely intrusive and disengaging. While user experience and user interface are advanced, notifications have remained broken despite their complexity. In fact, the notifications have the poorest usability that users may struggle to customize notifications in their smart devices and choose to ignore them. Irrelevant notifications not only get ignored, but it causes frustration and a false sense of urgency. Notifications must become conversational rather than a default system to feel as a helpful personal assistant. Previous research has identified the positive emotional influence from conversational and relevant signages in the physical space (Kim, 2017). The primary focus of this dissertation is to enrich the current notifications on smart devices, to establish the new concept – the smart notifications with the optimized visual signals that provide intuitive (e.g., helpful, personal, and relevant) user experience, and to propose applicable smart visual notification signals. The System Usability Scale (SUS) (Brooke, 1986) and Nielsen’s Heuristic (Nielsen, 1994) were used to measure the usability and user interface design of notifications on smart devices from participants. The results of this dissertation can be applied in future research as researchers can continue developing smart notifications that are intuitive and designers can use it as a guideline to build better user interfaces

Gestalt Prototyping Framework applied to design a Mobile-Commerce interface

This article presents the different concepts that were considered to design the interface of an e-commerce platform and its consequent adaptation to a mobile environment. The parameters considered during the development of the high and low fidelity prototypes are the result of an association between usability heuristics, Gestalt principles, and specific user experience (UX) interactions. This project shows the results of the projections of the usability tests carried out on the functional application, in which it was possible to understand the close relationship between the use of usability concepts that intervene in the functional actions of the application with the perception of aesthetics

Gestalt Prototyping Framework - Evaluation Tool

The Gestalt Prototyping Framework linked the Nielsen Usability Heuristics to the principles of human perception and presents some parameters that can be used in developing high and low-fidelity prototypes for mobile application interfaces. The link between the fundamentals of usability and Gestalt principles focuses on the graphical components of the interfaces and the functions that they fulfill in the development of different functional actions. Previous articles have presented promising experimental results in reducing trial-error regressions in the interface design process and improving interface redesign processes; There have been positive results in parameters such as learnability, ease of use, perception of simplicity, and user preference. Within this same line of research, the present work describes the development process of an application that summarizes the fundamental aspects of the Gestalt prototyping framework in an evaluative model, which helps application designers, software engineers, and usability experts, to assess the prototypes of the interfaces and the incidence of the different graphic components in usability interactions. The tool is based on the most widely used usability parameters and is structured based on the responses that the development team fills in an automated LIKERT assessment. The results are processed based on an algorithm that simulates and predicts the results that could be obtained in high-fidelity prototype tests. This application issues specific recommendations on the visual components of the interfaces, to obtain better results in the production of high and low-fidelity prototypes.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Gestalt Prototyping Framework - Evaluation Tool

The Gestalt Prototyping Framework linked the Nielsen Usability Heuristics to the principles of human perception and presents some parameters that can be used in developing high and low-fidelity prototypes for mobile application interfaces. The link between the fundamentals of usability and Gestalt principles focuses on the graphical components of the interfaces and the functions that they fulfill in the development of different functional actions. Previous articles have presented promising experimental results in reducing trial-error regressions in the interface design process and improving interface redesign processes; There have been positive results in parameters such as learnability, ease of use, perception of simplicity, and user preference. Within this same line of research, the present work describes the development process of an application that summarizes the fundamental aspects of the Gestalt prototyping framework in an evaluative model, which helps application designers, software engineers, and usability experts, to assess the prototypes of the interfaces and the incidence of the different graphic components in usability interactions. The tool is based on the most widely used usability parameters and is structured based on the responses that the development team fills in an automated LIKERT assessment. The results are processed based on an algorithm that simulates and predicts the results that could be obtained in high-fidelity prototype tests. This application issues specific recommendations on the visual components of the interfaces, to obtain better results in the production of high and low-fidelity prototypes.Publicada en: Russo D., Ahram T., Karwowski W., Di Bucchianico G., Taiar R. (eds) Intelligent Human Systems Integration 2021. IHSI 2021. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1322. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68017-6_11