SIMS 213: User Interface Design & Development

1. SIMS 213: User Interface Design & Development Marti Hearst Tues, Jan 29, 2002

2. Readings • Cooper (Inmates, Chs. 9-11) • Constantine & Lockwood Ch. 5

3. Why User-Centered Design? • System will fail if it • does not do what the user needs • is inappropriate for the user • Why don’t we just define what a “good interface” is? • Infinite variety of users and tasks • guidelines are usually too vague e.g. “Provide feedback”, “Be intuitive” Slide by James Landay

4. Participatory Design • A subset of user-centered design • User actively participates in design of the system • Pros • potentially more accurate information about the tasks • more opportunity for users to influence the design decisions • buy-in from sense of participation • potential greater acceptance of final system Slide adapted from Ben Shneiderman

5. Participatory Design • Cons (potential) • more costly • lengthier implementation period • antagonism from those whose suggestion are not incorporated • force designers to compromise design • exacerbate personality conflicts between designers and users • highlight organizational politics Slide adapted from Ben Shneiderman

6. User-Centered Design Overview • Needs assessment • Find out • who users are • what their goals are • what tasks they need to perform • Task Analysis • Characterize what steps users need to take • Create scenarios of actual use • Decide which users and tasks to support • Design based on this • Evaluation • Test interface by “walking through” tasks • Do this before implementation

7. Caveats • Politics • advocating change can cause controversy • get a sense of the organization • important to get buy-in from all those involved • Don’t design forever without prototyping • rapid prototyping, evaluation, & iteration is key to technique • Systems level apps are poor candidates • networking, etc. Slide by James Landay

8. Student Course Enrollment:Helping the University HelpStudents Achieve their Goals achieve lifetime of success become successful IT manager learn to build useful systems enroll in sims 213

9. Help Users Achieve Goals • Example: Course Enrollment Software • What matters from the programmers’ point of view? • What matters from users’ point of view? • What about the course administrators?

10. User-Centered Design Example • You have been hired by Pizzas R Us (PRU) • Design a system to • make online orders from the web • Also considering special features • online discount coupons • allowing party orders in advance • customer recommendations, linking to reviews • comparing local pizza parlors

11. User-centered Design Example • Your job: figure out • how people do their pizza ordering now • how they would like to do it online • what features would make sense when • must also take into account the needs of the pizza parlor owners and workers. • This is the needs assessment. • Techniques: • Observation • Interview • Study existing successful designs

12. User-Centered Design Example • Observation • Visit one or more pizza parlors. Observe how people achieve their pizza ordering goals. • Observe what the counter people need to do. Optionally: interview these people

13. User-Centered Design Example • Interview • Prepare a list of questions about how people do their pizza ordering and what they would like in an automated ordering system. • Interview at least three people about what they would like in an automated ordering system and how they would like it to work. • Try to identify people with different needs and preferences, with respect to their attitudes about using online ordering systems. • Ask them what, if anything, must be in the system in order for them to prefer it over a phone ordering system or an in-person ordering system. (E.g., no busy signals, cheaper prices, comparison shopping, faster service, or would they prefer anything over current methods.) • Go look at at least one existing on-line food ordering web site and see how they handle these tasks.

14. User-Centered Design Example • Consider existing designs • Look at least one existing on-line food ordering web site and see how they handle these tasks.

15. User-Centered Design Example • Procedure • Answer the needs assessment questions • Try to understand the basic tasks that are currently supported within pizza parlors and via phone orders • Make a table showing • user types • tasks • (guesses about) relative frequencies of tasks • Decide which of the new tasks customers may perform using the new interface. • Make note of which ideas you decided to drop based on your interviews.

16. Needs Assessment Questions • Who is going to use the system? • What tasks do they now perform? • What tasks are desired? • How are the tasks learned? • Where are the tasks performed? • What is the relationship between the user and the data? Slide adapted from James Landay

17. Needs assessment Questions • What other tools does the user have? • How do users communicate with each other? • How often are the tasks performed? • What are the (time) constraints on the task? • What happens when things go wrong? Slide adapted from James Landay

18. Task Analysis • Characterize what happens when users perform typical tasks • Tools: • table of user communities vs. tasks • Who x What • table of task sequences • flowchart or transition diagram • videotape depicting scenario Slide adapted from Ben Shneiderman

19. Make a Table: Who by What(adapted from Shneiderman 98)

20. How Often Do Users Perform the Tasks? • Frequent users remember more details • Infrequent users may need more prompting • Which function is performed • most frequently? • by which users? • optimize system for tasks that will improve perception of its performance Slide adapted from James Landay's

21. Augment Table with Percentages(What percentage of the is this task done by this person)(Numbers are only suggestive, adapted from Shneiderman 98)

22. User-Centered Design Example • Scenarios • Create three scenarios that will exercise these tasks in the proposed interface • Create a description in which you outline • A person’s background • Their goal(s) • How they achieve these goals using the steps in the system • Note: this will change a bit when we use personas

23. User-Centered Design Example • Sketch an initial design • Explain how the pizza ordering system will work. • Either a textual description or a flow chart (or both) showing the sequences of steps that will be allowed in the system. • Provide rough sketches showing at least three of the important screens. • Walk through at least one of the scenarios you developed and show how it can be handled by the interface.

24. User-Centered Design Example • Pizza ordering system: An example • http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~ivory/sims213/task-analysis/interview.html

25. Online Pizza Ordering Example • By Masako Sho • Overview • Based on the task analysis of pizza ordering and the study of existing food ordering web sites, it is found that users prefer quick and easy access, as well as additional online features when ordering pizza. • The new online pizza ordering system supports user registration, order modification, online help, and features such as a preview image and calorie calculation.

26. Online Pizza Ordering Example • Interviewed three people • Each has different pizza ordering and Web experience. A. Order pizza often by phone. Use the Web mainly at work. B. Order pizza sometimes by phone. Use the Web mainly from home. C. Never order pizza by phone. Use the Web both at work and home.

27. Online Pizza Ordering Example • Interview questions: 1. Do you prefer to choose toppings and other options for your pizza by yourself? Or, do you prefer to select one from the restaurant's special combinations? 2. How long do you expect to spend on the Internet in order to place an online order? 3. Do you want to receive confirmation of your order? If so, in what way – via a web page, e-mail message or phone call - ? 4. Do you expect the price to be cheaper for an online order than for a phone order? 5. What if the online order system does not respond to your order submission? Will you try the same order again , call the pizza place, or forget about the pizza? 6. What features would you like to find in an online ordering system? For example, a preview image of your pizza, total calorie calculation for your order, the top ten pizza orders of the week …?

28. Online Pizza Ordering Example • Summary of results: 1. Prefer to choose toppings (A)(B)(C) 2. Should not take more than five minutes. I am hungry(A). Save time by registration (B)(C). 3. Confirmation on the web immediately after the submission of order (A)(C). Additional confirmation by phone (B). 4. Just a little bit cheaper (A). Doesn't matter. What matters is the taste (C). 5. Try again if the ordering process won't take time. Order by phone if it takes too long (A). Want to get a free pizza if pizza is not delivered (A). Give up to use the online system and make a phone call (B). 6. Nice to have a preview image (A)(C). Attractive if the calorie chart of the order shows pizza is not actually high in calories as I thought (A).

29. Online Pizza Ordering Example

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40. Another Example (Abbreviated) • By Melody Ivory

42. Another Example (Abbreviated) • By Melody Ivory

43. Summary • User-Centered Design • Design from the user’s point of view • As opposed to the system’s, the company’s • Participatory design involves the potential users, via • Observation • Interviews • Testing the design iteratively

44. Summary • Important steps • Needs assessment • Task analysis • Sketching and assessing designs according to these