This question appears in Mumbai University > Human Machine Interaction

Marks: 10 M

Three Levels of Processing

1. Introduction

• The processing can be done in three steps, design is nothing but the effort to develop best user interface to communicate with machines.

• End user can share experiences by designing models and convert them into protype for development.

• Three levels at which we process information available, the seven stages of our actions can be understood in simple way.

• Every stage will perform action on a particular level.

• Norman has given overview of such mapping.

2. Level 1 :- Visceral level

• This is initial level of processing available information.

• In this step of processing human reacts to audio visual actions and other aspects of a product.

• The external look and touch feel of the product will dominate the user at this visceral level.

• A human need to decide things are good, bad, safe or dangerous.

• Human brains is trained to like or dislike things based on their own thinking level.

• E.g.

1) Boys like blue

2) Girls like pink

3) Kids like Red or dark colors

4) Indians like spicy food, etc.

• Visceral design often refers to creating best user interface and graphical appearance.

• The developer can have creative skills of a visual and graphical designs, it creates lot of impact to users.

• Once this level is approved, we proceed towards actual work.

• If this level is not designed properly, other levels will need more effort for product acceptance.

• The user of a product is one of the most critical to decide about product.

3. Level 2 : - behavioral Level

• The emotional brain is important while making decision.

• The more detailed level of product description than visceral.

• It is very difficult to work with complex systems, than working on simple environments.

• Semantics and usability practices are addressed in this level.

• It decides the behaviour and feedback given by the product.

• For example, a dialog box with an error message inform user about next step of action.

• ON and OFF mark on an electrical switch can simply explain its operation.

4. Level : - Reflective Level

• The final level of processing is analysis and reflection of all experiences is done in reflective level.

• All experience and its meaning is stored in human brain.

• This level mainly deal with analyzing past user experiences and future requirements to plan for goal.

• Then based user preferences, we choose a methods to execute plan.

5. Three Level overview

• Human emotions can affect decisions. These levels can be affected by human being.

• At the visceral level we perform the method.

• Physical aspects of performing the task can be considered.

• Human senses of vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste are used to perceive human actions.