Assessment Plan: User interface
This assessment plans aim to ensure learners have an understanding of how users can interact with
the user interface on a software through HCI (Human-Computer Interactions) and UX (User
Experience).
Competency Standard: User interface. Develops user interfaces as appropriate to the organisation’s
development standards and the type of software development being undertaken.
Outcomes to be achieved:
Apprentices understand the fundamental concepts of human-computer interaction (HCI) or
user experience design (UX), the development practices leading to a high-quality user
interface, and the programming techniques required to construct a graphical user interface.
Apprentices understand how to interact with screen or UI designers to ensure the logic layer
integrates with the user interface.
Apprentices understand how to interact with testers to optimise the user interface.
Activity 1:
Develop a simple user interface for a piece of software. For example: a web-page that interacts with
the user, a WinForms based application.
This interface should
o Be easy and pleasant to look at and use
o Expose the functionality of the software to the user
o Demonstrate an understanding of the fundamental concepts of HCI and UX design
Evidence must include a screenshot of the UI design with annotations and a description explaining
the different functions, along with reasons how they can aid the user.
Supporting evidence for this task should include:
Annotated printout of UI design (hard-copy or electronic)
A short explanation of how the UI is used
A short description of how the UI conforms to some of the fundamental rules of UI design
Guidance
When designing an interface, bear in mind that is doesn’t have to be flashy, complicated
or sophisticated. It just needs to allow the user to interact with the software in a way that
is painless for them and easy to learn.
At the same time, you need to be aware of the principles of HCI and UX design, so that you
can explain how your interface works in those terms.
There are many resources on HCI principles available on the Internet, however many of
these are very in-depth and require quite a lot of time and effort to get to grips with. Don’t
let these confuse you. Most of the principles are actually quite simple!
Doc No: AS/IT/310 Version No: V2 Date Released: 15/10/2018
Author: Michael Carrick Review Date: 30/06/19 Page Number: 1
L3 Software Development Technician: AP User Interface
One well-known list is Shneiderman’s Rules
You could also refer to some simple principles such as familiarity, visibility, reversibility,
and affordance.
Activity 2:
Write an account of how you have worked with Screen/UI designers and testers to (a) integrate your
code with the UI and (b) ensure the user interface is optimised for end users. You could include:
o Conversations you’ve had, whether verbal or electronic
o Procedures you’ve followed to optimise code or interfaces, for either of these groups
o Accounts of meetings where UI integration or optimisation were discussed
o Work you’ve carried out on either code or UI, in response to these interactions
Evidence must include the demonstration of communication with the designers and testers. Please
see the guidance notes below if your organisation does not have these designated roles.
Supporting evidence for this task should include:
Written account of between 300 and 600 words, depending on how much experience you
have of working with testers and UI designers (hard-copy or electronic)
Guidance
If you don’t have dedicated UI designers at your place of work, you will need to describe
instead how the conversations went between coders and whoever specified what the
front-end should look like.
Again, if you don’t have testers, you’ll need to describe how the test process – whoever
carried it out - has looked for UI improvements and then impacted on the UI.
To raise your work to the level of a Merit or Distinction, you could:
Describe how you used the principles of UI or UX design to inform the process of designing
the UI (rather than just describing your design in terms of those principles, talk about how
the principles influenced your thinking during the design process).
Explain why any alternative UI designs that were considered were not used.
Explain what factors might have encouraged the use of alternative designs.
Explain in more general terms (i.e. without focussing just on a single project), how your
organisation encourages cooperation between developers, UI designers and testers; or
how these processes could be improved to facilitate better cooperation.
Doc No: AS/IT/310 Version No: V2 Date Released: 15/10/2018
Author: Michael Carrick Review Date: 30/06/19 Page Number: 2
L3 Software Development Technician: AP User Interface