Information System Design Info-440

1. Information System DesignInfo-440 Autumn 2002 Session #14

2. Agenda • Participatory design & prototyping • Finish • Usability testing • Introduction • Assignment #4 • Introduction

3. Admin • Announcements • Who wants a lab on Visio? • Who will not be here next Wednesday? • Reminder • IA summit 2003 (March 21-23 Portland, OR) • Poster submissions: 15 Jan • Great opportunity to present assignment #2 • http://www.asis.org/Conferences/IA03/

4. Upcoming • This week and next week: Usability • Read Nielsen, Chapters 5 & 6 • Prototyping project • Bring prototypes to lab • 1st iteration of prototype (25 Nov) • Quiz #4 • 25 November • Chapter #6 only • Assignment #4 • December 4

5. Review • Development process • Waterfall vs. prototyping models • Prototyping methods • Storyboards • Wizard of Oz • Semi-working system • Video prototyping • Etc.

6. Review (continued) • Prototyping: Two major questions • What materials to use? • Low vs. high fidelity • How should users participate? • Indirectly vs. indirectly • No simple choices – just trade-offs

7. Prototyping Patterns

8. Patterns for employing prototyping Pattern A • A business analyst brings an idea to engineering • Engineering builds a specification and starts implementing • Visual design paints an interface • Using detailed page renderings on paper, usability conducts an evaluation

9. Patterns for employing prototyping 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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.

15. Usability Testing

16. Books • Krug, S. (2000). Don’t Make Me Think. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders Publishing • Rubin, J. (1994). Handbook of Usability Testing. New York: John Wiley.

17. Objectives of usability tests • Science/engineering view • Estimate usability • Easy to learn • Efficient to use (once learned) • Easy to remember • Few errors • Test correctness of features

18. Objectives of usability tests • Design view • Test assumptions for how people behave • Develop an intuition for the users • Gather inspiration for what to do • Social role • Develop common ground within a team • Persuade decision makers

19. Reasons to test • Develop understanding of user goals • Before beginning a project • You observe people working with systems • Goal: Identify tactics, strengths, weaknesses, etc. • Competitive tests (X vs Y) • You believe a competitor is better than you • Determine which is more usable • Goal: Uncover best practices at competitor site

20. Reasons to test • Alternative interfaces (X1 Vs X2) • You have two alternative versions of a UI • Goal: Determine which is the better direction • Test-and-iterate • Iterative development process • Goal: You seek incremental improvement

21. Usability process • Decide on objectives • Decide on participant profile & develop scenario • Analyze system & make predictions • Decide on participant goals • Prompt participants to complete goals • Carefully observe 4-6 participants • Identify critical incidents • Measure performance (time, errors, etc.) • Debrief participants • Prioritize issues • Team discussion • Develop presentations, reports, etc.

22. Video examples

23. Assignment #4

24. Four parts • Part I: • Heuristic evaluation • Part II: • Task analysis • Part III: • Task performance estimate • Part IV: • Usability evaluation

25. Deliverable • A usability report • Outline is given in assignment • Target audience • Product design team, which includes business people, engineers, visual designer, and information architect

26. Part I & Part II • To be discussed on Wednesday

27. Part III: Objective • Derive an estimate for how long it takes to discover movie times using: • Telephone • News paper

28. User goal • Find the playing times for movie, M, at location, L, around the following time, T • L == “University district, Seattle, Washington” • T == “Between 6-9pm” • M == <m1> <m2>

29. Part III: Data collection • Each person in the class will generate this table: User ID Trial Method Time Dgh-me m1 news 40 Dgh-me m2 news 67 Dgh-me m2 tele 40 Dgh-me m1 tele 67

30. Part IV: Main objective • Determine which of three movie sites is the best • The sites: • Yahoo: http:/movies.yahoo.com • Lycos: http://entertainment.lycos.com/movies/ • MSN http://www.movietickets.com/default.asp?afid=msn

31. Part IV: User goal • Find the playing times for movie, M, at location, L, around the following time, T • L == “University district, Seattle, Washington” • T == “Between 6-9pm” • M == <m1> <m2>

32. Part IV: Procedure • Participant #1 • Complete goal for M1 • Complete goal for M2 • Participant #2 • Complete goal for M2 • Complete goal for M1

33. Part IV: Data collection • Each person in the class will generate this table: User ID Trial Method Time Dgh-P1 m1 Yahoo 40 Dgh-P1 m2 Yahoo 67 Dgh-P2 m2 Yahoo 30 Dgh-P2 m1 Yahoo 87

34. Break

35. A huge number of details are important – We will consider only a few

36. Some details • Human subject ethics • Participants • Creating good tasks • Being a good moderator • Think aloud protocols

37. Human subject ethics • Guidelines • Acknowledge that that system is being tested, not the participant (remind repeatedly) • Tell the participant that she is free to leave at any time • Reveal who is watching & what is being recorded • Do not report results such that a participant is identified • Avoid telling the participant that he is making mistakes or doing things wrong • Acknowledge participants efforts but in a neutral fashion • Bottom line: Treat people with great respect

38. Participants • Participant profile • Computer/net experience • Experience with system • Interests • Example • You want to study an online teen magazine • Consider • 15 year old girls who use IM • Anyone else • The most important decision to make

39. Creating good tasks • Clear beginning and end states • Easily stated • Cover target areas of the system • Consider • Find the 5-day weather forecast for Toronto • Here’s $75.00 -- use eBay to buy something

40. Being a good moderator

41. Think aloud