An investigation of the usability of software for producing origami instructions A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Open University’s Master of Science Degree in Computing for Commerce and Industry by Tung Ken Lam R4879389 13 September 2005 Word Count: 15,713 M801 Dissertation: An investigation of the usability of software for producing origami instructions Preface I would like to acknowledge the help and advice from my supervisor, Tony Roberts. I would also like to thank anyone who has helped make this project possible, either directly or indirectly. I especially wish to thank Sue Pope for her unstinting enthusiasm and encouragement throughout this project. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Tung Ken Lam R4879389 Page ii of 213 Submitted: 13 September 2005 M801 Dissertation: An investigation of the usability of software for producing origami instructions Contents PREFACE .............................................................................................................................................................................. II CONTENTS ..........................................................................................................................................................................III LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................................................................VIII LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................................................................X ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................................................... 13 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................... 14 1.1 ORIGAMI DIAGRAMS..........................................................................................................................................14 1.2 MAKING ORIGAMI DIAGRAMS WITHOUT A COMPUTER................................................................................19 1.3 MAKING ORIGAMI DIAGRAMS WITH COMPUTERS ........................................................................................19 1.4 LITERATURE REVIEW OF ORIGAMI AND COMPUTERS...................................................................................21 1.4.1 Computer Origami Simulation.................................................................................................................. 22 1.4.2 Origami-Oriented Software....................................................................................................................... 23 1.5 MOTIVATION.......................................................................................................................................................28 1.6 OBJECTIVES.........................................................................................................................................................28 1.7 REPORT STRUCTURE..........................................................................................................................................29 2 HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION .......................................................................................................... 30 2.1 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................................30 2.2 HCI AS A FIELD...................................................................................................................................................30 2.3 USABILITY...........................................................................................................................................................31 2.4 EVALUATION.......................................................................................................................................................32 2.5 TYPES OF EVALUATION .....................................................................................................................................33 2.5.1 “Asking Users” in a “Usability Testing” Paradigm............................................................................ 41 2.5.2 “Asking Experts” in a “Predictive” Paradigm..................................................................................... 43 2.6 PRINCIPLES, GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS...................................................................................................44 2.6.1 Nielsen’s ten heuristics for Heuristic Evaluation.................................................................................. 45 2.6.2 Norman’s “Seven Principles for Transforming Difficult Tasks into Simple Ones”........................ 46 Tung Ken Lam R4879389 Page iii of 213 Submitted: 13 September 2005 M801 Dissertation: An investigation of the usability of software for producing origami instructions 2.6.3 Shneiderman’s “Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design”................................................................. 46 2.6.4 The Cognitive Dimensions Framework................................................................................................... 47 2.7 A COMPARISON OF COGNITIVE DIMENSIONS, NIELSEN’S HEURISTICS, NORMAN’S SEVEN PRINCIPLES AND SHNEIDERMAN’S EIGHT GOLDEN RULES...............................................................................................................................48 2.7.1 Abstraction ................................................................................................................................................... 48 2.7.2 Hidden dependencies.................................................................................................................................. 50 2.7.3 Premature commitment.............................................................................................................................. 51 2.7.4 Secondary notation ..................................................................................................................................... 51 2.7.5 Viscosity........................................................................................................................................................ 52 2.7.6 Visibility........................................................................................................................................................ 53 2.7.7 Closeness of mapping................................................................................................................................. 54 2.7.8 Consistency................................................................................................................................................... 56 2.7.9 Diffuseness ................................................................................................................................................... 56 2.7.10 Error-proneness..................................................................................................................................... 57 2.7.11 Hard mental operations........................................................................................................................ 58 2.7.12 Progressive evaluation.......................................................................................................................... 59 2.7.13 Provisionality ......................................................................................................................................... 60 2.7.14 Role-expressiveness............................................................................................................................... 60 2.7.15 Guidelines not present in the Cognitive Dimensions framework .................................................. 61 2.8 UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE COGNITIVE DIMENSIONS FRAMEWORK............................................................61 2.9 EVALUATION USING THE COGNITIVE DIMENSIONS FRAMEWORK...............................................................63 2.10 SUMMARY ...........................................................................................................................................................69 3 INITIAL QUESTIONNAIRE................................................................................................................................ 70 3.1 AIMS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE..........................................................................................................................70 3.2 THE DESIGN RATIONALE ..................................................................................................................................71 3.3 CONTENTS...........................................................................................................................................................73 3.4 DISTRIBUTION.....................................................................................................................................................73 3.5 RESULTS ..............................................................................................................................................................73 3.5.1 Qualities of good diagrams ......................................................................................................................