Mtg 11/26: Tue-13-Feb-2024

Outline for Today

Human interaction dynamics

Administration

Response to Responses

Response to responses

Today

Ordering flowers for delivery in Canada
- AI assistant not helpful
- Dark Patterns being used
Parkade problems (see photo)
Dark Patterns research paper
Answers to Quiz:
- Interaction types: instructing, conversing, manipulating, exploring, responding
- 3 ways of knowing what to do: constraints, discoverability, feedback

Summary

For Next Meeting

Submit your response to this meeting before noon tomorrow
Read Dark Patterns paper (link above)
Take quiz before the start of our next meeting

Media

Transcript

Zoom Audio Transcript

In mourning.
Good morning.
So it seems like winter again today with the snow. I was going to say, if it's Tuesday, it must be winter. That reminds me of an old movie title. Ef it's Tuesday it must be Belgium referring to a whirlwind European vacation of. or it's hard to keep track of the countries you're in. anyway, that's an old reference. So how's everyone doing today? Yeah, things are busy. But anyone looking forward to the break next week. Okay, share screen. I think I didn't save something. My apologies. Okay. So so I didn't put on the list here. The revisiting the redesign or thinking about the climate controls in my forward edge. and how they might be more more friendly. Be more clear about what to do with them. But we'll take that up later. So just a bit of background. I wanted to send some flowers to my wife, who's now in Vancouver with her mom, who's in the hospital. So I, being an older person. my first reaction was to try F. Td. And then it came up. I searched for FTD. In Canada. and I clicked on the link. And my first clue that something was wrong is that showed Zip Code that it wanted me to enter. And then I realized I was in the American sight when it wanted a 5 digit or 5 character zip code. so there was no indication that they were interested in serving a Canadian customer there was no message about. Oh, you're trying to send flowers to Canada. Let's help you out. I believe they had a number to call. which I called. and they said, this number is no longer active. But that was a number listed on the website. So that was very frustrating. So then I went to Tel Avora. which seemed to be more interested in delivering to Canada. Now I'm going to see if I can do this as a live demo here. So let's say, this is the flowers I want to send. So let's use the university's postal code. for example. So it doesn't doesn't give any details here. That's not. I'm not sure what to do if it's registered or not. But I tried this, and this is this is what I want to show you it says, Find zip code. Please enter the city and state, search for zip, slash postal code. So Can you see that dialog box. So you can see this. So that's so. At this point. even though it seems like it would be possible to send something to Canada in Canada. I decided that I wasn't going to use this website. So I wanted to. Yeah. this site. Seems it seems to be screaming designed with apathy. We have to allow Canadians to send flowers to one another. Let's not make it easy. or I don't care if it's easy or not. Hostility. Yeah, that's I don't know a pathy that corresponds to outright hostility or malice. anyway. So I want to just show the to this cookie dialog box here that says we use cookies on this site tube to be a. to make it work. to capture analytics and to tailor the site to your interests and present relevant in advertising and information except all cookies. So there's a big except all cookies. But then there's a link here that isn't obvious. Let's click on that. So there's no other option to select tracking. and it's not clear what happens ef I just leave the box here so I can. Seems I didn't select this except all cookies. anyway. Let me get back to our meeting. Page and I have a couple more links here. So I I found a web site that was connected to a company in Canada, in in BC, in the Greater Vancouver area. and so I ordered with them. and in the process of entering the information II used a form fill in for some of my for my billing address. and I didn't check that. It changed BC. To Saskatchewan and the delivery address. So then, I replied, I said, there's an error. And then I got an AI generated message. saying that they had corrected Saskatchewan. Coquitlam, Saskatchewan to coquitlam, BC. But it didn't. The address didn't show the unit number or my wife's cell phone that I had included. So I reply to the AI. And I. So I asked if there was a unit number. and if the cell phone was attached and it said No. and then I said it should. The address should have the unit number and the cell phone. And then I got a reply. It said, Oh, too late! It's been sent so for delivery already, and that was at 5 30. I got the email at 7, 30 local time. So that's 5 30 in BC. And it said they couldn't make any changes. So I copied that email to a customer care address that that sent me another offer. And the email said that email bounced it said that address wasn't. Wasn't that didn't exist. So I resorted to calling somebody. and I got to speak with somebody right away. They took the order number and they said, yeah, it has a unit number. Yes, it it says it's equivalent. BC, yes, your wife's cellphone number is there? So the AI was was helpful to begin with, but then it was unhelpful. or the rest of my interactions with it. So I wonder whether AI and they make us more productive. But the quality of the interactions. I think, is going to decrease may very well decrease. hey? So I came across quite an accessible paper about dark patterns, so that that cookie example is who just looked at as an example of a dark pattern. So there's so here's the page for the paper in the Acm digital library. What makes a dark pattern dark. And here's the Pdf. Of the paper. So you should be able to access that on campus or with proxy. So I got this in an email. I think it was an email. So this is about Microsoft, and whether they're using personal data to train AI. So they had 9 9 experts look at the new service agreement and none of them could tell whether Microsoft plans on using personal data to train its AI model. So that seems like a dark pattern. So I wanted to just mention a couple examples. This one came up when I was setting up Zoom to add my phone number to zoom. And I got this error message. Please provide a correct phone number. Yes. So once or without the hyphens. So is that let's evaluate this in terms of what we've been talking about and the gulfs of execution and evaluation. So I want to enter my phone number and I enter it as I normally do with hyphens. So we have the area code 3 digits, the prefix, 3 digits and 4 digits. I wanted to say, suffix. I guess I'm not sure how these parts are named. The 7 digit local phone number, which we which we don't use anymore. We need to always specify 10 digits in Canada. So say, it's my mobile phone. That's straightforward. I get my country code from a drop-down. I can select select Canada and it comes up as a plus one. Then I enter my phone number. Now we get. please provide a correct phone number. Yeah. So there's an issue about what is the user's responsibility. And what's the system's responsibility? And then we also have the idea of the user's mental model that comes from their interaction with the interface. And then we have the designer's conceptual model that makes sense to the designer. But the system image. So we can't have access to the designer's conceptual model. We have system image that gives us this. and it's not clear how to resolve this. So the golf of evaluation is not as small as it could be here. and one way to resolve, that is. to reformat it. maybe not to reformat it on the screen. but to accept the input as it is and search for and modify the string internally. So we get the 10 digit number to extract it from the string that's entered. Maybe it would be good feedback to modify the number just to make the 10 digits. So the number is a correct phone number. So the message could be more clear. Yeah, the message could specify the issue that so once we clearly specify the issue, I feel like the system should say the programmer was too too lazy to check that. Your format that you have a correct phone number. But the format isn't what they coded for. So we apologize for that. Please enter without separators. That would help you make sure the number is correct when you enter it. So if we give that kind of message, then it may be. then maybe it would just beautiful. easier to to handle it in the code. It would be interesting to see a message like that, wouldn't it? Program was too lazy to to deal with your correct input. Yeah? So there are some websites that have text. It's not actual text, but as a model for input that has its own issues in terms of whether we need to clear that text before entering something new. because you can't clear that. So it just maybe adds a bit of confusion about how to use the interface. anyway. Does that make sense in terms of an analysis? I made this. Well, we'll talk about that in a minute. So this is parking pay station in the Kinesiology and health studies. Arcade, underground parquade. Please pay here tap or credit card. So there are some things worth mentioning here. so we can pay by coins. so we can use quarters, loonies, and Tunis. So the fact that here is a stick on sign indicates some problems with the instructions so to pay with tap or credit card insert ticket. So so, anyway, tapper, credit card insert ticket. press the blue flashing button. pay by tap or insert credit card. and then cash or coin one insert ticket pay by. So the cash or coin instructions are quite limited. Maybe people aren't. This is maybe an afterthought
where they have this size, O sticker that they're going to put on
so we can enter builds when you pay with a 5, a 10 or a 20. It's not. I'm not sure whether you could pay with a 50 or a hundred. So the issue here is using the images we can. We can convey the idea of coins and bills. but it's it isn't clear whether the coins and bills depicted are the only ones that are accepted, or whether they're meant to signify any coins or bills anyway. So tap or credit card insert ticket, press the blue flashing button may by tap or insert credit card. So the other thing I want to point out about this sticker that caught my attention is that press the blue, flashing button. They have a cutout of this sticker. and they've used it to point at the blue flashing button. So they they decided they needed to put a sticker on here to make it more clear. and then they took a bit of that sticker and pointed at the flashing blue button. So it's not. I'm I'm not preview to what this looked like before the sticker was put on. If it's hiding some information about the flashing blue button. any thoughts about that so answers to the quiz. So the interaction types are instructing, conversing, manipulating, exploring. and responding. So each of these different types indicates a way that the interaction is structured between the person and the system. So the interaction type for the parking meter is instructing. so does the parking meter do a good job of instructing. Does the pay station. Do a good job of instructing. Let me ask a question for that. Okay, so I'm going to launch the pole air. So I'll accept another answer for the 3 ways of knowing what to do. as that was indicated in the chat we are and the poor. Now we did pretty well with responses. So it's interesting. I gave a. The second question is, yes, no, maybe. And it looks like everyone planned coordinated their answers because we have equal split between. Yes, no, and maybe so. Anyone care to here to speak to any one from the yes, the no, or the maybe answers, would you like to speak to why you said it was yeah. So this parking apps or pay by phone. the pay by phone that's used on campus. There aren't parking meters anymore on campus where there were parking meters. Now there's a short, stubby pull with a cap on it. and so we have to deal with getting an app or not being able to park or hoping we don't get a ticket and hoping I don't get a ticket doesn't work very well. even when I paid for parking, and I've been late getting back to the parking meter. My my vehicle. II had a ticket on occasion, so. and the tickets are, I think I have it right here. Actually. So the ticket, if I didn't pay it quickly, was $50. But fifth, but it was $30 if I paid quickly. so I don't know people who don't have cell phones smartphones how they can. hey? I suppose you can go into the but 2, and at the booth if they starve the booth on MoD tube. Yeah, it's becoming less personal, isn't it? Okay? I got a couple yeses and and knows any maybes. Okay. anyway. any thoughts about designing the here let me show you better picture of. I had trouble getting this text into the right spot. Well. so I invite you to post sketches, so we had one post about with a sample from then. Andphigma. which is, looks looks very polished. You don't have when I ask for sketches. You don't have to use software to do it. You can use pencil and paper to make a sketch. and you can take a picture with your smartphone or scan it. So here's just my thought about when the duel is off. instead of just saying off here because this the fan isn't off. And but looking at an alternative here for the driver an alternative text instead of saying off. maybe having a message that says Driver. controlling the the temperature. Oh, okay. let me stop sharing this. Okay, sorry about that. Thanks for the heads up about the sharing the wrong window.
So this
a good compromise instead of having them. Let's do another will. So the options I am giving you are driver as in place of temperature. Okay, so 3 choices. So as we as you answer the question. and we're running out of time here. So I just I'll ask you to read that paper I have linked to on the page for next time, and we can just talk about implications of that for human-computer interaction. And so next day we'll talk about project groups. our assignment groups and project groups and the group interface in you our courses. And then we'll explore that a little bit as well. Okay. so thank you for today. Take care everyone have a good rest of your day, and tomorrow I have office hours tomorrow afternoon. Remember, if you want to come and see me. and we'll see you on Thursday. Otherwise have a good day.
Have a good day.
Thanks. You're all have a good one.
Thanks you, too.

Zoom Chat Transcript

morning
Good morning
Morning Daryl
morning
Good morning!
Morning sir
Good morning
Good morning!
Good Morning
Good morning
happy tuesday
Good morning
getting whiplash from this weather this year lol
cold
good
Doing well
Good
good
doing well
overwhelmed lol. busy week.
Waiting for the long weekend lol
yesssss
of course
yup
I am looking forward to it for sure haha
Yeah
What’s FTD?
Some websites detect your location and if, let's say, you're using the US website, then they give you a prompt to redirect you to the Canadian website.
For some reason I heard FTP at first, thinking how can you send flowers using File Transfer Protocol.
Yea, they don't have proper form validation...
Reacted to "For some reason I he..." with 😂
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It just stretches off the screen, no scroll bar.
this zip code lookup window looks so messy
This site is terrible
Wow thats bad
that is so inefficient
Also why can you just like, query all zip codes. How would that be helpful LOL
My eyes hurt looking at this...
Exactly, why don't they just let you type in your postal code normally like all other websites do
reminds me of those memes where people intentionally create the worst UI/UX, like the drag bar to enter your phone number
Reacted to "reminds me of those ..." with ❤️
The website is giving "I was built using AI" LOL
Reacted to "reminds me of those ..." with 💀
5 dollar option from fiver
Reacted to "5 dollar option from..." with 😂
Reacted to "5 dollar option from..." with 💀
I was gonna say, even website builders do a better job than this
Reacted to "5 dollar option from..." with 💀
apathy or straight hostility lol
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If the site is like this I can only imagine how they handle your personal details...
Reacted to "If the site is like ..." with 💀
Reacted to "If the site is like ..." with 😬
Reacted to "If the site is like ..." with 😬
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Lol if your still looking to send flowers your could try https://callia.com/en-ca
"choose your address from this list of addresses"
I wouldn't accept any cookies from them 🍪
I'm assuming it wants it without the hyphens?
yea they need a info box above (ex: 1234567890)
imo with good coding it would be able to detect the number's validity by ignoring symbols that are present
Reacted to "imo with good coding..." with 👆
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It could specify the issue
I feel it's always good practice to have one of those little hover tokens that tells you what the proper format is, if you're not going to handle the format on the coding side
Some websites have a faded text in the textbox that shows the format they expect to be inputted before the user inputs anything in the textbox
Reacted to "Some websites have a..." with 👍
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yes
for the 3 ways of knowing what to do question, can affordances, signifiers, and constraints be a valid answer?
I put that as well
I find most parking machines to be confusing and to have a lot of weird and unnecessary steps. Like why do I have to press the button to indicate I'm paying with a card? Why can the machine not just detect what I am doing when it comes time for payment?
The other issue with the parking machines on campus is that some of them do not accept cash or coins. One time I had to run around campus since my credit card was broken and had to try and find a pay station that accepted coins.
Replying to "I put that as well"
Replying to "I find most parking ..."
Reacted to "The other issue with..." with 😩
Get rid of the machines, make parking free, problem solved.
Reacted to "Get rid of the machi..." with 💯
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Reacted to Get rid of the machi... with "💯"
Replying to "I put that as well"
Reacted to "OK, will include tha..." with 👍
Replying to "I put that as well"
Replying to "The other issue with..."
Reacted to "I've noticed this tr..." with 👍
I said "no" because I found the organization of information to be weird and not intuitive.
I said "yes" because I thought the instructions on the parking station did an ok job to illustrate and clarify to the customer/user what they have to do
I also like the sticker thing they did to help point to the "flashing blue button"\\
I said "no" because I found the instructions for the credit card excessive and it left little to no space for coin,bill instructions
Reacted to "I said "no" because ..." with ☝️
whoops I forgot to do that lol.
Are you looking at the correct screen? I can see the flower zip code screen.
there it is
Thank you, have a great day!
Thank you sir
thank you and take care!
Thank you
Have a great day sir
Thank you Sir
thank you!
Thanks Daryl. See you Thursday.
thank you and take care
Take care! See you next class!
Sounds good, have a great day
Have a great day!
thank you
Thank you. Take care Sir!
thank you, you as well
Have a good day!

Responses

What important concept or perspective did you encounter today?

There were several perspectives discussed today. First one was about flower website, and the importance of making the order process user friendly. Specifically what was mentioned is the postal code field should be able to detect the postal code being entered, instead of providing large number of suggested ones. Similar for a phone number input field. Programmers should not be lazy when implementing such things. Another one was about parking payment machine, and the instructions that are placed on it.
Discussing Zoom Layout and Dark Patterns
Interaction types
Dark patterns was an interesting topic of discussion and intersting that there is research into the topic
The importance of empathetic design over apathetic
Today we learn "normative perspectives" in the context of analyzing dark patterns in user interface design. This concept highlights the importance of considering ethical, legal, and societal norms when evaluating the impact of design choices on individuals and society.
AI in day-to-day life and as we know anything as its own advantages and drawbacks.
the new heater design and the bad flower site set up for address
Not clear enough instructions on Zoom when entering the number
AI Assistance
Today I learned about classifying the different types of interactions, allowing me to speak about design in a more academic and professional way.
Type of interaction regarding the ticket system
talked about parkade problems and also dark patterns
I learned that I might need to take a closer look at the readings, as I had incorrect answers for the quiz response despite genuinely doing the readings. I also learned the different ways in which users are informed on using a specific interface, regarding mostly that of the U of R pay to park machine located in the KIN building.
We looked at another interface, this time it was a pay station for parking. We addressed the 5 cases of interaction and in this case it was instructing. However there were some issues with it in terms of organization and ease of use so there's room for improvement there.
Today the general theme was responsibility: is it the designer's responsibility to ensure that wrong input is handled, or is it the user's responsibility to input correctly? We discussed how a designer might handle taking on more of that responsibility with various in-class case studies.
That instructions on how to do something may be clear to some but very confusing to others
Some websites have a really bad user interface, which is not user-friendly and functional. The reason is mainly because of the developers of the website.
I enjoyed learning about concepts like constraints, discoverability, feedback their differences and the different interaction types. I also enjoyed reading about the Lego motorcycle from the book, The design of everyday things.
In todays lecture we studied and discussed about a online flower ordering website in which we found some design issues and discussed how we can improve it. We also discussed parkade problem and did a poll for that problem.
We discussed parkade problem which was a informative part of lecture as well as did some discussion on weather control settings.
Balance between ensuring correct input and bad interface for user
About AI assistant that replaces customer service representative.
I encountered the idea of how important validation is for the user so they are not wasting time!
AI assistant not helpful.
We talked about a few more design concepts and we discussed, as a class, whether or not these design concepts are done in a good or bad way. In addition to that, the professor also mentioned, at the end of class, that we will discuss the assignments and projects' groups next class and that we will talk further about the first assignment in more detail
interaction types, how to know what to do
An important concept was how responsive feedback is a great fallback if the other modes of communicating how to use something fails. Like the phone number format example.
dark patterns and type of interactions
I learned that dark patterns are user interfaces that have been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things.
Ordering flowers for delivery in Canada AI assistant not helpful Dark Patterns being used Parkade problems Dark Patterns research paper Page
Patterns like dark patterns and what there are important to know about
In today's lecture, we fist saw the teleflora's website page for ordering flowers in canada, the web page design was just normal like any other online shopping site. Then we discussed about the AI assistant not helpful due to quality of interaction decreases. Also about dark patterns being used, photo on the Parkade problems, dark problems research paper, the page in ACM DL user login and account create web page, also the Microsoft example which shows the ask AI web page.
Dark Patterns with examples of FTD, parking payment and Car dashboard
Dark Pattern
Interaction types
Dark patterns
Dark patterns
We discussed some examples of interface design, including the poor interface of the ZIP code within the flower for delivery website, the indistinct phone number format of Zoom’s form, the payment instructions of a parking machine, and the redesign DUAL mode of the climate dashboard.
AI assistant not helpful
AI not helpful
Instructing the interaction type in parking kiosk design.
i found that flowers shop website has poor user interface design and did not handle error (phone number) properly which made user confused.
No matter how much "effort" is put into a products design there will always be something people disagree with.

Was there anything today that was difficult to understand?

Nothing comes to mind.
No
Everything was easy to understand
The dark patterns was a little difficult but still an interesting topic, once I got over the hump was an esay topic to learn
nope
NO
No. It was easy.
Everything talked about today was clear and I understood it all
No everything was understandable.
I had a difficult time understanding the differences between the classification, because it seems that sometimes designs will fit into multiple categories.
The add phone number design
not at all
I was a bit puzzled about the quiz answers, but thankfully the first one was changed and accepted for my answers, as I genuinly thought I was correct.
Why would anyone in their right mind design a Postal code finder like that on a website
Yes, I found that sometimes it would be hard to point out what we can do to improve the interface, so it could be more user-friendly and easy to understand.
No, there was nothing I found difficult to understand.
No I didn't find anything difficult to understand in todays lecture.
No. I understood everything.
No there isn't anything that is difficult to understand.
Why the floral shop decided that Postal code navigator was a good idea haha
No everything was pretty well explained
no
No, things were pretty clear to me.
No.
N/A
No
I would not say difficult but the web design photos for interaction of the car dashboard and the parking pay station ticket counter machine picture, just need more research, interaction, and practice I would say for designing or redesigning them.
No
Nothing!
No
None
No
There was nothing difficult to understand in class today.
no
No
no
no , it was all great!
No nothing is difficult as usual all good
N/a

Was there anything today about which you would like to know more?

About different validation tools available for address or phone validation in the input fields.
Looking forward to reading Dark Patterns Paper
No
More about dark patterns and more examples would be nice to learn more about
not really
No
I don't think so.
the group assignment and project
Yes, I am enjoying more now that we are discussing about bad design in software I want to learn more of it.
Parkade problems
I will learn more about the way interfaces I use in my life can be categorized
More interaction type examples could possibly help me grasp further
probably doing some reading and research should help
Diving a bit more into the pay by park machines, I think it would be interesting to not only look at their UI and design, but also their locations around campus. As I had mentioned in the chat, not all of them accept coins or cash, which has caused me trouble when my credit card was flagged for fraud and I was unable to pay for parking until clearing it up. I had to run around the campus looking for a machine that would accept coins, all the while I could have been getting a parking ticket.
I'm curious if the responsibility is heavier on the designer for specific interaction types or if it is the same no matter what the interaction type is.
Yes, I wanted to know more about many more ways that we can do to improve the interface of applications.
I'm excited to learn more about designing good software and about Human-Computer Communication
I would like to know more about Dark patterns.
Yes, I was having hard time finding material for the quiz. I want to know more about where can I find link to reading material for the quiz.
Dark patterns
Better ways to ensure correct input without compromising interface design
Want to know more about Dark Patterns.
Was there a real good reason why the floral shop did that or did they just not know how to implement properly??
I would like to know more about Dark Patterns.
with poor designs, what was the ultimate goal of the designer (besides apathy)? is it laziness? or is their idea of good design just objectively bad and they aren’t aware?
Dark patterns: Here is a site I found, that has list of dark patterns of popular websites: https://www.deceptive.design/hall-of-shame
No.
N/A
No
Yes, as I mentioned above regarding the pictures of different machines and editing or designing them, learning about the key concepts of the core of designing the machines and then softwares.
No
Not Really!
No
More about dark patterns
Dark patterns
I would like to know more about the Dark Patterns and some examples that are applied by each interaction type principle.
no
No
no
not really
Dark patterns.

Wiki

Link to the UR Courses wiki page for this meeting

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