Effect of fidelity in diagram presentation

The visual fidelity (fidelity) of a design diagram affects perception and design performance. Hand-drawn diagrams are more effective working documents for early design tasks such as user interface designs than the equivalent computer-prepared formal representation. However people prefer more formal representations because they feel that hand-drawn diagrams look unprofessional. Sketch-based design tools make it possible to present partially tidied designs. We have postulated intermediary levels of visual fidelity in a systematic manner and implemented these levels into a sketch tool to evaluate the effect of computerization and fidelity on perception and design performance. Our findings show that: performance decreased systematically with increased fidelity; that computer presented designs decreases performance and that performance was decreased by computerization of the hand-drawn diagrams. In contrast, user satisfaction was higher with increasing levels of fidelity. These results pos...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: BCSHCI
• Authors: Louise Yeung, Beryl Plimmer, Brenda Lobb, Douglas Elliffe
• Keywords: BCSHCI 2008, Design, Hand-drawn Diagrams, Human Computer Interaction, Visual Fidelity