CHAPTER VII. THE ANALYTIC TO LINGUAL ASPECTS OF EwT - ENGAGING WITH THE TECHNOLOGY HCI - HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION In this chapter we look at the analytic to social aspects of the interaction between human user and the computer or other information system as such, mostly considering the user interface (UI). These are the main cognitive aspects. In the psychic / sensory aspect, we see, hear, feel and respond, and the design of the user interface is concerned with digital bit patterns and bytes. » In the analytic aspect the human user becomes aware of what is important, giving attention to it while ignoring other things. » The formative aspect deals with the structure of the interactions, both input and output. » The lingual aspect deals with meaning conveyed by the interaction, both to and from the user, and it links with EMC (engaging with meaningful content). We look at each aspect in turn: » the analytic aspect is about awareness of meaningful VII-1 AWARENESS OF MEANINGFUL THINGS (Analytic Functioning at the UI) From the vantage point of the analytic aspect of EwT/HCI, we see the EwT/HCI and UI in temcs of basic pieces of data, such as numbers, entities and words. We are concerned with three main issues here: » Distinction: How easily the user can distinguish what is important among what they receive psychically from what is less important; » Attention: The user's awareness of, or focus upon, important; » Conceptualisation of it as various types of data. This can be with any of the channels: visual output, sound output, haptic output, or motor input. First we look at the distinguishing of basic pieces of data by the visual and aural channels, in text and speech. Then we look at attention and focus. Then we look at the basic types of data as such and the notion of 'affordance', which recognises that certain psychic phenomena carry certain types of information better than others. VII-1.1 Visual Distinctions in Text: Fonts, Letters and Digits Colours and Background: Consider having yellow text on white background: not easy to see. The difference in colour between text (or graphics) and its background makes a huge difference to how easy it is to be detect. Upper v Lower Case. Fonts are basic shapes used to express letters, digits and other characters via the visual channel (printing or screen). For a font to work well, it must be very easy to distinguish what letter or other character it refers to. There are two important characteristics, especially if any of the users might be visually impaired - even slightly so. The first is that lower case it is easier to distinguish words than with upper case, because the outline-shape differs when using lower case: cat dog whereas with upper case, the outline-shape is the same, just a rectangle: CAT DOG Font Shape: The second important thing is the actual shape of the letters or digits and how easily they can be distinguished from each other. Compare the following fonts to see how easily you can distinguish various digits from 8 (the ones before the break should be more difficult in some fonts because those digits are slight modifications of 8). 8283858689808 8184878 8283858689808 8184878 8283858689808 8184878 Notice how in the right-hand groups the digits are easier to differentiate than in the left-hand groups. Notice also how in the third font it is slightly easier to differentiate the 9 and 6 from the 8, despite being smaller than the first, because the 9 has a descender and the 6 points upwards rather than turning down. Examples: See above. Arial font (not shown above) is particularly bad for digits - which is a pity because it is the standard one for spreadsheets. Exercises: » Notice examples where you have difficulty differentiating fonts, shapes, etc and classify the difficulties according to the above. » Notice how difficult it is to read Arial font in spreadsheets. » There are certain fonts designed to make every character easy to read. These are especially useful for visually impaired people. How do I design for this?: » Except where you want to make it difficult for the user (e.g. in games), use contrasting colour brightness for the text or object over its background. » Use contrasting colour hues for different categories. » Use larger fonts for important information and smaller for less important; this helps reader differentiate what is important. » For digits, use a font in which some digits have descenders and ascenders so that some protrude out of the normal digit box. Going deeper (Extant ideas): VII-1.2 Distinctions in Speech: Phoneme and Words Speech is composed from individual waveforms called phonemes - the very basic sounds of speech. To speak text involves at least two stages: converting text to suitable phonemes, then rendering the sequence of phonemes into the sound output buffer. Algorithms are available for the first step, which converts text into a string involving the International Phonetic Alphabet. Here is some of the IPA: IY - vowel as in beet EH - vowel as in bet IH - vowel as in bit N - consonant as in men NX - consonant as in sing EY - diphthong as in made OY - diphthong as in boil Converting text to IPA is not as easy as it sounds because it involves knowing how each word is to be pronounced - for example the word 'lead' can be pronounced 'leed' or 'ledd'; which is correct must often be worked out from the context, and often the algorithm makes the wrong choice. The challenges include: » Finding the correct consonant » Finding the correct vowel or diphthong » Adding appropriate stress to syllables » Altering intonation (e.g. for end of sentence, for question, etc.) » Controlling the pitch and speed of speaking, and how it varies at various points in the sentence; e.g. pitch or speed is often lowered at end of a sentence and raised at the end of a question » Maximising intelligibility: for example polysyllabic words like 'enormous' are often more intelligble than monosyllabic words like 'huge'. » and much more. Alternatively, record someone saying each word in every possible intonation, and play back that which is needed. The second stage involves converting the phonemes to actual sound (or rather a waveform that is converted to sound via the hardware). One way is to use a method like that used for music, use samples of individual phonemes. But this has its own challenges: » Merging them together in a way that is smooth » Keeping the appropriate gaps between words » Differentiating male from female voices, and also accents » Altering the notes for stress and intonation » Raising and lowering pitch at end of sentence etc. » Raising and lowering speed. » and so on. Computer speech and music has progressed very well (e.g. listen to announcements on public transport) but it is an area where exciting advances can still be made; for example, there is very little attempt at computer singing! Examples: See above. Exercises: » Read up on the International Phonetic Alphabet. » Notice how hard or easy it is to hear what a computer-generated voice or reader is saying. Notice at what points it is difficult to hear. How do I design for this?: Going deeper (Extant ideas): VII-1.3 Attention and Focus Miller [1956; see also Eberts 1994, p.169 ff] investigated how many things can we be aware of at any one time? In a paper entitled 'The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two' he found the answer: around 7, some people can only be aware of 5, others up to 9. If more things are in the visual field then we suffer a kind of information overload and just don't notice some of them. This can explain why fiddling with the radio while driving can cause accidents. Of course, we usually have many more than 9 things in our visual field, so how do we cope? Answer: 'chunking'. We group things into chunks. For example we see a group of children playing by side of road: that is one chunk. Until one of them starts running across the road, when that one becomes a chunk in its own right. But chunks are when we recognise that a number of things 'belong together' and so do not distinguish between them, but distinguish between the thing that these make up from the rest. There are several challenges for EwT/HCI, user interface and multimedia. Miller's result suggests: Don't require the user to be aware of more than five things at once; design your UI accordingly. Design your graphics presentation with a maximum of five lines1 of text on screen. Design your multimedia to present only five main visual effects. Design your web page so that there are five main visually distinct areas on the page. Group things that the user will see as of similar meaning: make it easy and natural for the user to chunk things that they should see as one group, for example by making the things in group a similar shape, size and colour and placing them next to each other. Of course, in games, these might be reversed, especially for advanced levels where the player needs to be challenged. For the earlier example of a battle-terrain computer game, where the player is flying low in an aircraft over a mountainous terrain, and they come up over a ridge, and have to spot enemy locations and fire at them before they fire at you, Miller's law would tell the games designer to ensure that at the easier levels, there is no more than five things of importance on screen (trees, buildings, enemies, etc.), but at higher levels, make sure there are more than nine. At medium levels, let there be lots of things but they are mostly of the same type, so player learns to chunk them, before progressing to higher levels. Results like Miller's introduce the issue of clutter. Clutter is where the number of things is just too large and the user cannot find any means of chunking them. That is, there is no obvious way in which the things can be meaningfully grouped together. Inter-channel interference. There have also been experiments of how different channels interfere with each other. For example, movement attracts attention. So does sound. So if a web page, for example, has an animated advertisement, it will keep attracting your attention - and get annoying. Sound can also interfere with, or it can support, what is being read. Examples: Chunking is used in toolbars to create groups of icons. But it is not used on the desktop! Exercises: » Take note of examples of use of chunking in all user interfaces. And where not used, and where the number of items in the visual field is too many, causing confusion. » In computer games notice where the number of visual and aural items varies with the level of difficulty. » Experiment: can you be aware of more visual items together, or more aural items together (e.g. a room with lots of different noises, a springtime woodland in which many birds are singing during the dawn chorus). How do I design for this?: Chunk! Going deeper (Extant ideas): Read Miller [1956 and Eberts [1994, p.169 ff] VII-1.4 Types of Raw Data and Affordance The analytic aspect conceptualises, and each concept is raw data - data that is not connected with any other data (connections are the formative aspect). What it conceptualises is highly varied - amounts, shapes, truth values, entities, relationships, structures, names, and so on - that is, raw pieces of data are of many types. At the user interface, the sensory-psychic functioning of the user usually carries some types of data. Different types of psychic functioning 'afford' different abilities to express these. Affordance is covered in Chapter VI. VII-2. ACHIEVING PURPOSE OF THE INFORMATION; STRUCTURE AND RELATIONSHIPS (Formative Aspect of EwT/HCI) The formative aspect is concerned with formative power, with the shaping or construction or structure of things, with putting things together rather than just leaving them is a random pile. We look at structure of the UI, then of the data itself, then modification of data. Donald Norman wrote about two 'gulfs' between the user and the computer: » Gulf of Evaluation: when it is difficult to make sense of the output » Gulf of Execution: when it is difficult for user to achieve what they want. Evaluation is necessary for Execution. Example 1: Norman's example of wide Gulf of Execution. Consider a shower connected to hot and cold taps: you have to reduce the flow of the shower without changing the temperature. It is difficult because you must adjust both taps at the same time by exactly the right amount. Example 2: Applying this idea to EwT/HCI. Consider RGB sliders for setting colour: you have to darken the colour without changing the hue. This is even more difficult because you must adjust three sliders exactly together and by exactly the right amount. Much better is HSV sliders. In this section we try to understand structure of EwT/HCI and how user can achieve what they want. VII-2.1 Structure of the User Interface Output The layout on screen is not (usually) random, but is structured (formed) in a way to help the user understand the symbols on it. For example: » the edges of screen is where the navigation and other general information occurs » the top of screen is where the title occurs » the middle of screen is where the main information occurs, which itself has structure, for example: - tables show similarity of things down the columns and across the rows - bullet lists show a collection of things that are different in a certain way - text is structured into linear sentences that obey a certain syntax, - ... and these sentences are visually structured by wrapping the text into paragraphs - box and arrows diagrams are structured such that each arrow must start and end at an item - ... and so on. The structure of the layout is very important to helping us understand the meaningful content of the screen. In this way the formative aspect serves the lingual aspect. In designing the structure of the screen the developer considers what the user might want to achieve (thus considering the formative aspect of the HLC of the user) and tries to match the spatial structure on screen to that requirement. For example, on a web page the navigation bullets are usually kept separated from the text on right or left side, so user can see them easily and know where they are. Sometimes they are in the middle of the text, e.g. at the foot of every section; this makes it very convenient. Sound also has structure, though it is mainly a linear one. This is why good syntax of speech is so important, because without it we would get confused. Also music has structure. Examples: See above. Exercises: Think: Imagine what it would be like if your screen (e.g. on your mobile phone) had no structure. Try to work out *why* each piece of information is where it is. How do I design for this?: Think carefully about how each piece of information relates to others (e.g. plot it out as a boxes-and-arrows diagram) and then plan your layout so as to emphasise the most important relationships and structures, rather than the less important ones. Going deeper (Extant ideas): » See various books on user interface design. » Look at the navigation examples on site Web Pages That Suck' "http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/worst-website- navigation-of-2011.html" VII-2.2 Structure of User Input In the 1980s everybody was rushing to adopt WIMP, GUI, etc, and Microsoft made a killing in the late 1980s out of this tendency to jump on bandwagons. Our aim here is to get beneath the surface and understand the issues involves. There are a number of common structures of user input dialogue, each giving a different style: # Commands, in which the user types in commands and supplies various parameters to guide their execution. The Command style of dialogue is the oldest in interactive computing, and perhaps the most flexible. # Menus or Toolbars, in which the commands or objects are selected from menus rather than identified by name. # Question-and-Answer, in which the computer asks a question and the user supplies the answer, repeatedly. e.g. 'Are you sure?' on deleting something. # Form filling, in which the computer puts a form up on the screen with a number of spaces which the user fills in. # Direct Manipulation (DM), in which the user selects objects (usually with the mouse) and identifies commands by graphical movement, such as drag-n-drop. # Control Panel, in which the computer supplies what looks like a control panel with knobs, etc. and the user identifies what needs to happen by hitting these with the mouse pointer. The DM style usually assumes an Object-Oriented structure, since it is based around the idea of direct operations on selected objects. {*** You should read chapter 13 of Preece 1994. ***} Locus of control (refce, 19) refers to whether the user or the computer is in control of the interaction activity, that is whether the user or the computer takes the initiative for each action. In the middle we have what have been called Mixed Initiative systems. Therefore, we speak rather of spectrum of freedom - whether the user or the system has certain types of freedom in the activity at the user interface. There are several aspects of such freedom: » Action freedom - to detemcine what happens next » Value freedom - freedom in the range of data values to enter » Item freedom - in the range of types of item to attend to. The various dialogue styles vary in these freedoms: Command style: Action freedom: High (as wide as the commands available) Value freedom: High (as wide as any value that can be expressed) Item freedom: High (as wide as any item that can be indicated) Menu style: Action freedom: Only whether or not to select from menu, plus any actions present on the menu itself Value freedom: Restricted by those offered on menu Item freedom: Restricted by those offered on menu Toolbar style: As menu. Question and answer style: Action freedom: None - must answer the question presented (though many question panels also have other action buttons for e.g. help) Value freedom: Little; as dictated by question Item freedom: Usually none; cannot select different question Form style (a set of questions to answer): Action freedom: As question and answer style Value freedom: As question and answer style Item freedom: Little: can select which value(s) to enter Direct manipulation style: Action freedom: Limited to types of action available Value freedom: As wide as continuous spatial movement Item freedom: Can select and act on any items seen. During the 1980s, when DM was new and fashionable, it was seen as superior to all the others, especially the 'old-fashioned' command style. But in fact, each style has its appropriate place, depending on what needs doing. In generic packages like word processors and drawing packages the user should have total freedom in all three. For instance, in a word processor, s/he should have action freedom to decide whether to type, erase, split paragraphs, search, cut, paste, save, load, etc. S/he should have value freedom to detemcine what font size, what colour, what emphasis, etc. to give to text. S/he should have item freedom to decide to what text to add to or alter, etc. But this is not appropriate in all software. There are four main reasons for restricting the freedom of the user: a) When the user lacks knowledge of the domain or application covered by the software. e.g. In CBT and other training packages, it is usually necessary to restrict the order in which the user goes through the material (item freedom regarding which topics to learn about next). In installation scripts it is usually necessary to restrict where files can be placed (item and value freedom). b) When there is danger. In many cases if the user is allowed full freedom then things would go wrong. For instance, in an installation script, all the steps of installation must be completed, and in the correct order, so the action freedom of the user is normally severely limited to those actions necessary for installation. c) When the user requires a feeling of security. The novice user especially requires a helping hand and the feeling of security, or rather of being able to orientate themselves in 'surroundings' that are easily understandable - and one way of achieving this is to limit the number of options available in those 'surroundings'. d) When more elaborate help is needed. If the range of actions a user can take is wide, and the user asks for help then only a small amount of help can be given about each option. If more elaborate help is needed then it might be appropriate to limit the range of options available and give more help on each. Examples: See above. Exercises: Notice, over the course of several hours of use, where each style or structure of user input is used. Is it used appropriately? How do I design for this?: See above. Going deeper (Extant ideas): See below. VII-2.3 Links with Extant Ideas Much has been written about people's ability to carry out tasks, and the ease with which this might be done, both in the EwT/HCI literature and in psychology more generally. We can take knowledge from the world of psychology to inform our design of the EwT/HCI and UI. Here we give just one example. Eberts [1994, p.171] describes 'The Cooker Experiment'. A cooker with four burners is shown on screen, along with knobs that control them, with suitable labels. Three or more layouts of burners and knobs are tried. Participants sit in front of the screen, which is a touch-screen, and suddenly one of the burners or knobs will light up. The participant must then touch the associated knob or burner as fast as possible. Times are measured. It was found that if the knobs are laid out similarly to the burners (e.g. knobs and burners in a square, or knobs in a row with burners slightly askew) then response is much faster than the usual arrangement, with burners in a square but knobs in a line in front of them. This experiment is an example that covers two aspects. The main one, the type of task being researched, is the formative aspect of achieving things (controlling cooker plates). But important in this is that the psychic aspect of pattern-recognition can greatly assist the formation functioning. Without such direct assistance with the psychic aspect, the user has to function fully in the analytic aspect to conceptualise what is in front of them, and the formative aspect of working out what to do. Of course, the row-of-knobs can be learned, but it takes longer to learn it because there is no help from the psychic aspect. Implications for EwT/HCI: Ensure the controls for a device match the various parts of the device. Examples: Exercises: Browse EwT/HCI textbooks and read International Journals of Human-Computer Studies and the journal Human Computer Interaction to seek other factors of how people carry out tasks or achieve goals or shape things (all formative aspect). Then fit them in here. This can be useful for your exams. How do I design for this?: Going deeper (Extant ideas): See the exercise above. VII-2.4 Anticipating the Lingual Aspect The formative aspect of EwT/HCI is to do with how the user can achievement what they want. What they want to achieve is related to the information content that is carried, which brings us to eh lingual aspect. There are, however, two ways of achieving: distal and proximal. These are two different types of relationship that the user has with the computer. Donald Norman [1990] said: "The problem with the user interface is that it is an interface. Interfaces get in the way. I don't want to focus my energies on an interface. I want to focus on the job." Distal EwT/HCI is when we have to focus on the interface. We have to be aware of the interface itself, and plan what we do. This fully involves the analytic and formative aspects. By contrast, proximal EwT/HCI is when we do not have to be aware of the interface, nor do we have to plan what to do, because we have become so used to it that we can operate it and engage with it almost without thinking about the interface. The analytic activity of awareness and the formative aspect of planning have been so well- learned that they have become tacit. Michael Polanyi [1967] discussed the difference between these. Considering the formative and analytic aspects of EwT/HCI focuses on the interface rather than on 'the job'. By 'the job', Norman meant the meaning that is represented via the symbols and their structures. As we consider the lingual aspect, we will be considering 'the job'. We will also find it links with EMC. VII-3. UNDERSTANDING THE CONTENT VIA THE USER INTERFACE (The Lingual Aspect of EwT/HCI) The lingual aspect of the interaction between the human and the computer concerns the 'signification' of the structured information that seen, heard, felt or input. » We see numbers arranged on a screen: what do the numbers tell us? That is their lingual aspect. » We see text arranged on the screen: what is it about? That is its lingual aspect. » We hear speech: what does it tell us? That is its lingual aspect. » In a haptic UI, we feel a kick: what does it mean? That is its lingual aspect. The lingual aspect is concerned with the meaning of information rather than its structure or what data types are used. When we consider the lingual aspect of EwT/HCI, we focus on the content rather than the technology. When we consider the lingual aspect of multimedia, we focus on 'what it says' rather than on 'what it looks like'. The lingual aspect of EwT/HCI links with EMC (Engagement with Represented Meaning). It is the very purpose of most EwT/HCI, and hence and is the qualifying, aspect of EwT/HCI. This is why it is in a separate section. VII-3.1 Information, Illustration and Decoration Not everything that comes through the visual, aural or haptic channels has information content: some is purely for decoration. Decoration functions in the psychic and aesthetic aspect but not very much in the lingual aspect of content. It is useful to differentiate three main purposes for pieces of EwT/HCI: information, illustration and decoration. Text and speech are almost always for information purposes, but graphics, animation, pictures, colour schemes, other sound, music and haptic feedback can be for all three. Think especially of a graphic alongside text to see the difference between them: When used in information role, the graphic conveys information of its own. A bar chart on screen is an example, as is a spoken sentence or a warning 'beep'. The information is usually not contained elsewhere, so the graphic or sound is essential. The graphic consists almost entirely of symbols. When used in illustration role, the picture is used to illustrate what other text is saying, in order to make clearer the meaning of the text. Illustrations often take the form of examples. Usually illustrations are not essential to the material being read, but can help to support it. Most of the slides that accompany these lecture notes are illustrative. The graphic has many symbols (SL) but can have some things that are only BL, e.g. a digitized picture or a video clip which the user can interpret. When used in decoration role, the picture or sound is has very little information meaning of its own. An example of decorative graphics is found on the introductory screen of much software. A musical introduction is also decorative. Usually decorations are superfluous to the meaning of the document, and can be omitted without harm. The purpose of decoration is often to make the document aesthetically pleasing, to sell it, or to provide 'atmosphere'. The latter is especially important in games. (One could argue that atmospheric decoration actually provides information, if one stretches the definition of information, but we will not take that line here.) Decoration is entirely psychic aspect because (or when) it has no symbolic value. Of course, there is a spectrum or spread between the three. e.g. games music might give a little information about whether there are lots of enemies around, by speeding up or becoming harsher. In most games, graphics and sound have important decorative roles, but decoration is perhaps less common in the stern world of business software. However, decoration can be important, in helping to set a context or provide light relief. It is becoming more important in CBT (computer-based training). Much graphics, sound and animation has at least partly a decorative role, and we can expect to see much more decoration in future. However decoration might be important in HLC - e.g. a decent screen backdrop might brighten up the office (aesthetic aspect). It is best if user is allowed to choose (ethical aspect). In practice, information, illustration and decoration tend to overlap, so that a given visual or sound effect will sometimes fulfil all three roles, or at least two. In this module we will focus mainly on information and illustration, because decoration often has no symbolic content. The key norm of the lingual aspect is understandability: So a good UI is one that makes it easy for the user to understand the meaning of the information. Language is important. In a text UI, the language in which the text is written is important. But languages can also be graphical; a diagram too, for example, has a 'language'. For example in a bar chart, the user needs to understand what the bars represent, what the two axes represent, why bars might be grouped together or have different textures, and so on. All lingual functioning at the UI requires the user to share the same 'language' as the UI designer. Otherwise there will be misunderstandings. Examples: » Your screen backdrop is usually decoration, without much illustration or information. Exercises: » Why not design a screen backdrop that is full of information for you to remember? » Look for inappropriate uses of decoration, especially those that use up too much screen space for no other purpose than to look nice. » Look for uses of sound (music) as decoration and decide whether it improves or reduces the user's experience. How do I design for this?: Think about the purpose of the graphic, video or sound. Prefer using if for illustration rather than decoration (which can squander space, time and user's patience) and information (because if it happens not to be available to the user then the information is lost. Reasons for being unavailable: the user's platform does not have a driver for it, or has a wrong version of the software that behaves badly (Powerpoint is well known for this!) Adobe Flash, for example, is not available on Apple products. Going deeper (Extant ideas): VII-3.2 Link with EMC It is the lingual functioning of EwT/HCI that is the primary link with EMC. Because it is by this functioning that the user understands what the symbols at the UI mean, and expresses their own meaning back to the computer. This is discussed at greater length in Chapter VI, §2. VII-3.3 Lingual Norms (Quality Criteria) for EwT/HCI What makes a UI or human computer interaction good (or bad) from the point of view of the lingual aspect. Largely, it is the same as for authorship of a book. These include: » What it means should be understandable. » It should be truthful. » It should be timely, up to date. » It should be relevant. » It should make sense, and have a 'logic' in it; this does not refer to formal logic, but rather than what is said 'flows' well. And so on. There are other criteria, but they lead into the post- lingual aspects, as follows ... Examples: See above list. Exercises: » Look for instances where the information is not understandable, not truthful (accurate), out of date, irrelevant, or where the argument or story seems illogical or not make sense. Are there any reasons for these problems (e.g. lack of screen space)? Think how it could be better. » Look for instances where the information is GOOD in all those characteristics - and be thankful! How do I design for this?: Take care and trouble. Consider EMC: the meaningful content. Going deeper (Extant ideas): » Learn the rules of authorship. » See how people who write good stories or good explanations, and learn from them. » Research Toulmin's model of argumentation, and see how it can help you design your content (EMC). VII-3.4 Foundational Dependency on Earlier Aspects The foundational aspects serve the lingual aspect as follows, first for output: » Organic/biotic aspect: Hardware devices that allow the user to see, hear or feel information; examples: screen, speakers, force- feedback joystick. Or even direct electrical connection to user's nerves. » Psychic aspect: The user sees shapes, colours, etc., hears sounds, feels kicks etc. which the computer generates. » Analytic aspect: The user distinguishes what is meaningful (as a symbol that carries information) from what is not, and conceptualises the meaningful ones as certain types of information, such as quantities, items, qualities, etc. » Formative aspect: User relates these pieces of information together and processes them. And for input: » Organic/biotic aspect: Hardware devices that allow the user to give information to or get information from computer » Psychic aspect: Movements of input devices; sensing of output device signals » Analytic aspect: Types of information that these signals represent » Formative aspect: What user wants to achieve in giving input. Examples: See above. Exercises: - How do I design for this?: Think about your design in all earlier aspects, and how it might affect the user's understanding of the information (meaningful content) you want to deliver. Going deeper (Extant ideas): Copyright (c) Andrew Basden & Janice Whatley. 16 September 2008, 18 October 2008. 3 September 2009, 22 September 2009, 25 November 2009, 20 September 2010, 14 September 2011, 14 August 2012, 17 September 2012.