CSC 842 - My Personal HCI Journey - Leo Wu

Building Your Portfolio: Website and Presentation Deck When I began building my portfolio for the tutorial application on the website and for the presentation deck, I knew I wanted it to clearly reflect the entire design process. I chose a simple, organized format for both the website and the presentation deck to guide viewers easily through the three stages of development: low-fidelity, medium-fidelity, and high-fidelity prototyping. One key design choice was using a visual timeline for each phase of the project, allowing users to intuitively follow the evolution of the tutorial application. The website was created using Google Sites, and each stage of the tutorial application was built in Figma. Screenshots from each development stage were captured in Figma and pasted into both the website and the presentation deck. The website serves as a more detailed page, in contrast to the presentation deck. It offers a deeper examination and explanation into the design process behind each aspe...

Evaluating the UI with Heuristic Evaluation To evaluate my medium-fidelity UI prototype in Figma, Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics is used by going through each screen in the tutorial application with the checklist on these principles. The peer feedback is also gathered to gain different perspectives and identify issues that might have been missed. The most challenging heuristic to apply was user control and freedom, since the initial design did not offer clear ways to undo actions or go back, which made the overall user experience feel limiting. Help and documentation was also difficult to incorporate without making the interface feel cluttered. During the evaluation, several usability issues are found. For example, some tutorial screens relied only on icons without labels, which went against the “Recognition rather than recall” heuristic. Additionally, the technical terms that did not match how most users naturally think, violating the principle of aligning the system with the real ...

Learning the Art of UI Design When I first started exploring UI design, I felt both excited and overwhelmed. Initially, I thought the main goal of UI design was mainly about making elements on a page look visually appealing, but I quickly realized there was much more to it. There is the challenge of finding the right balance between appearance and functionality. I am starting to understand how important it is to guide users effortlessly through an interface, which they can navigate through the page without confusion. One of the most important lessons I learned was the impact of organization in design. It is not just about arranging elements on a page, but about guiding the user’s attention in a way that feels intuitive. The placement of buttons, text, and visuals, along with proper spacing and emphasis, can make a huge difference in how easily someone navigates an interface. I realized that a well-structured design does not just look good, but it enhances usability by making interactio...