Information System Design Info-440

1. Information System DesignInfo-440 Autumn 2002 Session #13

2. Agenda • Questions on assignment #3 • Feedback on project proposals (continued) • Participatory design & prototyping • Return quiz #2

3. Admin • Announcements • IA summit 2003 (March 21-23 Portland, OR) • Poster submissions: 15 Jan • Great opportunity to present assignment #2 • http://www.asis.org/Conferences/IA03/ • Anyone?

4. Admin • Upcoming • Design Exercise #3 • Nov 15th • Prototyping project • User needs and wants (in Journal now) • 1st iteration of prototype (25 Nov) • Next week: Usability • Read Nielsen, Chapters 5 & 6

5. Assignment #3:Questions?

6. Assignment #3:Reminders • Two notations: • Conceptual modeling • Entities are not nouns (not goals/tasks) • IA specification • Scenario • Concerns ‘personalization’ in general (not My Yahoo in particular) • Metaphors • Seeking metaphors within the My Yahoo site • An example: my

7. Project Proposals: Feedback

8. Reminder of common challenges: Avoid these • The objective is for everyone to be able to do X better • All cooks will cook better • The design will replace person X • The ‘joke machine’ will replace all comedians • The design will be X because of X • The design will be easy to use because it presents clear and concise information • The design will be a super-combination of X, Y, and Z

9. Vision statements • Focus on ‘hook’ or ‘root concept’ that makes your idea innovative and unique • Hints • Narrow is better • What is the ‘value proposition’ • Why would people be excited by your idea • Strike a balance between user needs and technology for satisfying them

10. Background • Describe • The major factors and issues within the situation • How your design will respond to those issues • Hints: • Compare your design to ‘paper books’ or other everyday technology • Suggest how your design with ‘amplify’ or ‘augment’ existing human skills or activities • Try to avoid redundancy between background section and vision

11. Stakeholders • Once you’ve identified the stakeholders • Consider the relationships amongst them • Narrow your focus SCIENCE FAIR influence supports Judges Students Parents mark advise communicates Teachers Community at large

12. Social impact statement • Some projects might not have significant social issues – It’s okay to say that (but do justify your belief)

13. Timetable • Many copied it from the assignment • Expected you to enhance it make it your own • Some people added things such as: • Methods for working with users to generate requirements (interviews, simple experiments, observations, etc.) • Iterations

14. Hints • Think about who the audience is • Advance Concept Group (ACG) • Think about your objective • Convince ACG that you have a great idea and a way to solve it • Do some background reading in your domain • Find ways to gather feedback from real people • Brainstorm and talk about your ideas

15. Prototyping

16. Development process • Waterfall model • Linear process with well-define phases • One phase feeds into the next • Documents are outputs and inputs • Example • Analysis of functional requirements • Software design • Implementation • Testing • Maintenance

17. Development process • Prototyping and iterative development • Create a working model • Demonstrate model and test it quickly • Prototypes can be created at different phases: • Requirements • Conceptual design • Detailed design

18. Trade-offs • Waterfall model + Simplifies management • Cost estimation • Tracking progress • Coordination amongst large number of people • Feedback on system is weak • New requirements are uncovered during testing • No early feedback • Tendency to focus inward on the process

19. Trade-offs • Prototyping + Feedback is strong • Early feedback on requirements • User involvement throughout process • Identification of dependencies • Incremental approach • Risk that prototype becomes the system • Risk that prototype will reflect incremental changes rather than radical changes

20. Prototyping can fit into each phase of development Version Release Define: Vision/scope Needs assessment Deploy: Delivery stable technology Beta software Vision/scope document Develop: Build the technology Design: Invent the technological solution Design specifications document

21. Exercise • How might prototyping be used in? • Define • Design • Develop • Deploy

22. Prototyping methods

23. Methods (from Rosson & Carroll) • Storyboard • Sketches or screen shots in sequence that illustrate key points • Paper mock-ups • Simulated displays and controls • Wizard of oz • Workstation connect to invisible person who simulates the computer

24. Methods • Video prototype • Recording of person enacting a scenario or tasks • Computer animation • Screen transitions showing flow • Rapid prototype • Interactive system created with special tools (Director) • Working, partial system • Working implementation of parts of the system

25. Two key questions • What materials to use? • Low fidelity • High fidelity • How should users participate? • Indirectly through usability testing • Directly in design process

26. Trade-offs • Low-fidelity (high-fidelity is basically the reverse) + Inexpensive to create + Willing to through away + Users can shape + Effective for understand goals and task flow - Ineffective for understanding Subtle UI issues Dynamic displays Navigation within large info system Social issues amongst a community of people

27. Pattern A A business analyst brings an idea to engineering Engineering builds a specification Visual design paints an interface Using detailed page renderings on paper, usability conducts an evaluation Pattern B Marketing, design, engineering, and usability develop a spec Design mock-ups some pages in paper Using detailed page renderings on paper, usability conducts an evaluation Patterns for employing prototyping

30. Participatory design Pattern C • Marketing, design, engineering, and usability propose some user goals • Design & usability sketch a prototype • Design, usability, and a user revise prototype together • Iterate #3 for a week • Design and usability finalize design spec

31. Participatory design • Intimately involving users in the design process • How the process can work? • Agree on goals and activities (from contextual inquiry) • Give users elements of a design (building blocks) • Guide users in constructing a solution • Ask users to complete their goals using their designs • Gather feedback • Iterate • Many variations possible

32. Trade-offs with participatory design • Pros + Users are intimately involved in process + Users are giving a continuous stream of feedback + Teams are prompted to look outwards (harder to design for yourself) • Cons • Users unlikely to think strategically • Users unlikely to be skilled in sketching, user-interface look-and-feel, etc.

33. Quiz 2

34. Grade distribution (average: 4)

35. Feedback: Metaphor question • Overly literal use of metaphor • Physical calculator must optimize use of space because a bigger device costs more to make • Examples: • One small display for input & answers • Very small labels to indicate functions • An ‘Alt’ key to set function mode

36. Feedback: Visual vocabulary • Acceptable: • Conceptual model • Task flow • IA specification • Entities are not tasks/goals • Looking for entities specific to the portfolio