HCI Mobile Prototype: Design & Evaluation for Buffalo Pediatrics

This report delves into the application of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) principles in the design and development of a mobile device intended to serve as a receptionist for Buffalo Pediatrics. It addresses the prototyping process, exploring alternative approaches such as Rapid Prototyping, Incremental Prototyping, and Evolutionary Prototyping, comparing their strengths and weaknesses, and advocating for the use of evolutionary prototyping to manage changes effectively. The report further discusses conducting a heuristic evaluation on the prototype, emphasizing usability guidelines, user controls, and modal integrity. It also covers cognitive walkthroughs, usability testing methodologies, and the importance of expert evaluation, highlighting the complementary nature of usability testing and heuristic evaluation in identifying and addressing potential problems within the application interface. The document provides valuable insights into creating user-friendly and efficient mobile applications in healthcare settings. Desklib provides access to past papers and solved assignments for students.

Running head: HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION
Human Computer Interaction
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Answer to Question 2:
As leading the team of HCI designer for the development of the mobile device that would
serve the role of receptionist for Buffalo Pediatrics a prototype of the interface is needed to be
developed. For starting the development of the protype of the application the disagreement
are needed to be eliminated for eliminating its impact on the project development timeline.
a. Alternative Approaches to building prototypes: The alternative approaches to building
prototype can be divided into three namely Rapid Prototyping, Incremental Prototyping, and
Evolutionary Prototyping (Xiao et al., 2016). All three of the prototyping methods have
individual strengths and weaknesses. The explanation of these prototyping methods had been
given below,
Rapid Prototyping: According to Exner et al. (2014), the rapid prototyping is
developed with the consideration that the developed prototype would not become the part of
the final outcome. The prototype developed in this approach would be used for exploring the
options and collecting feedbacks from the clients/end users. Layout, interface design, and
interaction style are some of the applications of rapid prototyping.
Incremental Prototyping: The incremental prototyping follows the method of
building blocks and the addition and integration of the parts (Deniaud et al., 2015). It is based
on the overall design of the solution and the prototype developed would be a part of the final
solution. The approach helps in allowing the end users or the clients for testing the
functionality and the developed components. Application designing is the main application of
incremental prototyping.
Evolutionary Prototyping: According to Todorov et al. (2017), the evolutionary
prototyping is an iterative prototyping process as it involves the development of the mature
system using a series of the prototype iterations. The process involves a number of

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refinements until the solution is formed and each of the iteration of prototyped comprise of
some modifications. The approach is used when the specific requirements have been aligned.
b. Comparing Rapid, Incremental, and Evolutionary Prototyping: The comparison of the
methods of rapid, incremental, and evolutionary prototyping is shown below,
Rapid prototyping Incremental
prototyping
Evolutionary
prototyping
Special
Function
Prototype is not used
in final component
Method of building
blocks and the addition
and integration of the
parts
Iterative prototyping
Uses Used for exploring the
options and collecting
feedbacks from the
clients/end users
End users and clients
use it for testing the
functionality and the
developed components
Used when the exact
requirements are
unclear and final
outcome needs
improvement
Application Layout, interface
design, and interaction
style
Application designing Website Development
The Evolutionary prototyping should be used for the execution of the works in this
phase as it would help in easing the management of the changes. The iterative prototyping
would be helpful for the execution of the changes and modification in the project (Todorov et
al., 2017). It would assist in case any change from the client would be required. The
evolutionary prototyping would enable the step by step modification so that the final outcome
can align with the expected duration.

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c.
Story board

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Answer to Question 3:
a. For conducting a heuristic evaluation on the prototype developed for the frond desk
application for Buffalo Pediatrcs the usability guidelines are evaluated. The user controls for
the application interface is evaluated such that the users are in control and appropriate
controls are provided to the user for using the application. Overloading the interface with
cognitive, visual, tactile, auditory feature can cause limitation for the user for using the
application. The modal integrity is evaluated for performing the heuristic evaluation of the
prototype and the interface should attract ore number of people with its appropriate design.
The heuristic approach and cognitive walkthrough are used for the inspection of the usability
of the application interface designed for the organization. The user goals are identified and
the problems faced by the user while learning to use the interface is identified. For
conducting the cognitive walkthrough a set of questions are needed to be answered and the
user immediate goal is needed to be described.
The trade-offs that should be considered for selecting the heuristic evaluation is that
the potential problem is needed to be identified and a research should be done on the usability
guidelines for the establishment of the appropriate list of heuristic. The evaluator should be
selected and they should not be the end users. The evaluator should have knowledge about
the domain and briefed with the functionality of the application. For the evaluation of the
usability it should be divided into three phases and the problems should be recorded and
shared with the development team for the rectification of the problem.
For the analysis of the usability of the front desk application the cognitive walkthrough is
proposed because it helps in identification of the next atomic action that should be taken for
the development of the user interface. The accessibility of the user and their association with
the application is also identified and it helps in aligning the application interface design with
the requirement of the user and reducing the error in the final application.

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The evaluation should be done by an expert who have domain expertise in the medical
industry and familiar with the common queries that are made by the user to a receptionist.
The end user should not be selected because they don’t have general understanding about the
functionality of the application.
b. The usability testing is considered as a type of evaluation and there are different other
evaluation such as heuristic, cognitive, etc. It is used for the evaluation of the usability and it
is dependent on two types of data i.e. qualitative and quantitative data.
While designing a usability study firstly a prototype of the product should be
developed that should have limited functionality. In the second stage a draft of the test plan
should be prepared with open ended questions. In the third stage the test participants should
be recruited with the analysis of the characteristics of the user. In the fourth stage the test
should be performed by guiding the test participants throughout the process. The test results
should be documented and the issues should be corrected for enhancing the performance of
the application.
The usability testing plan is created by defining the methodology, participants,
training, procedure, roles and responsibility of the tester involved for testing the usability of
the application. The usability tasks and the metrics should be identified for the management
of the usability goals management of the severity of the problem. The results of the
evaluation should be reported and the result should be used for correcting the errors and
increase the efficiency of the application interface.
c. The usability testing and the heuristic evaluation are not mutually exclusive since there are
many aspects that are covered in both of the evaluation methodology. The problems in the
usability are discovered for categorizing the problem and identification of the impact of the

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problem. The heuristic evaluation is conducted for the identification of the compatibility and
identification of the preference.

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References
Deniaud, S., Descamps, P., Hilaire, V., Lamotte, O., & Rodriguez, S. (2015). An analysis and
prototyping approach for cyber-physical systems. Procedia Computer Science, 56,
520-525.
Exner, K., Lindow, K., Buchholz, C., & Stark, R. (2014). Validation of product-service
systems–a prototyping approach. Procedia CIRP, 16, 68-73.
Todorov, G., Kamberov, K., Kralov, I., & Ignatov, I. (2017, December). Influence of the
contact roughness upon railway monobloc wheel acoustic behaviour on virtual
prototyping approach. In AIP Conference Proceedings (Vol. 1910, No. 1, p. 020014).
AIP Publishing.
Xiao, W., Zaeem, M. A., Bal, B. S., & Rahaman, M. N. (2016). Creation of bioactive glass
(13–93) scaffolds for structural bone repair using a combined finite element modeling
and rapid prototyping approach. Materials Science and Engineering: C, 68, 651-662.