The Information School of the University of Washington
Information System Design
Info-440
Autumn 2002
Session #18
The Information School of the University of Washington
Agenda
• Usability approaches
– Soft vs. hard
• User-centered Design Process
– The big picture
• Break
• Cases example
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
2
The Information School of the University of Washington
Admin
• Announcements
– Visio lab
• Tuesday, Sept 3, 3:30 – 4:30
• Monday, Sept 9th, 3:30 – 4:30
• Tuesday, Sept 10th, 3:30-4:30
(or other time in afternoon)
(or other time in afternoon)
• Anyone?
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
3
The Information School of the University of Washington
Upcoming
• Assignment #4
– December 4
• Quiz #4
– December 9 – On Nielsen, Chap. #5
• Interactive Prototyping Project
– Friday, Dec 13, Noon (or earlier)
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
4
The Information School of the University of Washington
Last time: Heuristic evaluation
• Some key points:
–
–
–
–
–
Aim for good coverage
Aim to be systematic
Aim for nuanced judgment
Aim to develop special-purpose guidelines
Practice, practice, practice
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
5
The Information School of the University of Washington
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
6
The Information School of the University of Washington
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
7
The Information School of the University of Washington
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
8
The Information School of the University of Washington
Framework for thinking about
usability
The Information School of the University of Washington
A general framework (after
Scriven, in Carroll 2000)
Formative
Summative
Payoff
Intrinsic
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
10
The Information School of the University of Washington
Definitions
• Formative evaluation
– Seeks to identify aspects of a design to improve,
priorities for redesign
• Summative evaluation
– Seeks to measure a design against a scale
• Payoff
– Direct empirical testing (solid facts, hard to interpret)
• Intrinsic
– An inquiry (no solid facts, many possible interpretations)
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
11
The Information School of the University of Washington
A general framework
Payoff
Intrinsic
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
Formative
Summative
Think aloud
Time on task
 Guidelines
Benchmarks
Guidelines
Heuristic
evaluation
?
12
The Information School of the University of Washington
Case study
• Goal
Double the conversion rate at My Lycos
• Metric: Conversion Rate
CR= no. visitors/no. of signups
• Current metric
CR = 8%
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
13
The Information School of the University of Washington
Solution
• You’ve been asked to develop a plan to improve
the conversion rate… What would you do?
• Hint…
Formative
Summative
Payoff
Intrinsic
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
14
The Information School of the University of Washington
User-Centered Design
Process
The Information School of the University of Washington
Process:
Where we are now?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Requirements Analysis, Part I
Week 3: Requirements Analysis, Part II
Week 4: Conceptual design
Week 5: Conceptual design
Week 6: Interaction design, Part I
Week 7: Interaction design, Part II
Week 8: Evaluation, Part I
Week 9: Evaluation, Part II
Week 10: Special topics (UCD Process & Examples)
Week 11: The literature, personalities, and history
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
16
The Information School of the University of Washington
Methods (Approx 20)
– Affinity diagramming
– Card sorting
– Comics for summarizing
workplace data
– Cognitive walkthrough (lab)
– Conceptual models
– Contextual inquiry
– Design-space analysis
– Focus groups
– Guidelines
– Heuristic evaluation
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
– Information architecture
diagrams
– Inspecting objects (Norman’s
vocabulary)
– Metaphors
– Prototyping & participatory
design
– Personas
– Scenarios
– Task analysis
– Trade-offs: Representation
technique
– Usability evaluation
17
The Information School of the University of Washington
What’s the big
picture?
The Information School of the University of Washington
Answers
1. Methods fit within a process
–
Select the methods that make sense
2. Methods serve as springboard
–
–
Many more methods
With experience, you’ll invent your own
3. Methods are tools for design
–
Use them to deal with vagueness/ambiguity
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
19
The Information School of the University of Washington
Some processes
• Code  Launch
• Code  Usability Test  Launch
• What’s wrong with these?
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
20
The Information School of the University of Washington
A process
Version Release
Define: Vision/scope
Deploy:
Needs assessment
Delivery stable
technology
Beta software
Vision/scope document
Develop: Build
Design: Invent the
the technology
technological solution
Design specifications
document
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
21
The Information School of the University of Washington
IDEO process
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
22
The Information School of the University of Washington
The elements of user experience (Jesse
James Garrett)
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
23
The Information School of the University of Washington
Carbon IQ | User Centered
Design Methods
•
•
•
•
•
Inquiry
Participatory design
Profiling
Testing
Inspection
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
24
The Information School of the University of Washington
Inquiry
•
•
•
•
•
•
Focus groups
Log analysis/logging
Questionnaires
Contextual inquiry
Surveys
Ethnographic study
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
25
The Information School of the University of Washington
Participatory Design
• Prototype testing
• Rapid prototyping
• Card sorting
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
26
The Information School of the University of Washington
Profiling
•
•
•
•
Persona development
Scenarios
Task analysis
Conceptual modeling
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
27
The Information School of the University of Washington
Testing
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Thinking aloud protocol
Question protocol
Performance measurement
Eye tracking
Teaching method
Coaching method
Journaled sessions
Self-reporting logs
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
28
The Information School of the University of Washington
Inspection
•
•
•
•
•
•
Consistency inspection
Standards inspection
Pluralistic walkthrough
Cognitive walkthrough
Heuristic evaluation
Feature inspection
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
29
The Information School of the University of Washington
Scenario-base design (Rosson &
Carroll)
Analyze
Analysis of stakeholders,
field studies
Problem scenarios
Claims about
current practice
Design
Metaphors, information
technology, HCI theory,
guidelines
Activity scenarios
Information scenarios
Iterative analysis
of usability claims
and redesign
Interaction scenarios
Prototype & Evaluate
Summative
evaluation
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
Usability specifications
Formative
evaluation
30
The Information School of the University of Washington
A General Way to Think About
Design Methods
• Research
– What facts bear on the problem?
• Invention
– What are the possible solutions?
• Evaluation
– How good are those solutions?
• Different design methods serve different
needs
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
31
The Information School of the University of Washington
Case study
• Product manager says:
“We think we should make the search results page
accessible to all blind and visually handicapped
users… We are going to build a specialpurpose page and launch it in 6 weeks”
• Some facts
– The company has no experience with
accessibility
– The search page gets 500K hits/day
– The audience for the site is diverse
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
32
The Information School of the University of Washington
Your analysis
•
Questions:
–
•
Do you have any questions?
What design process would you suggest?
Possible format:
Method
Outcome
Expected time
Rationale
1.
2.
3.
…
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
33
The Information School of the University of Washington
Next time
• Case studies of applying User-Centered
Design methods
Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440
session 18 - 12/02/2002)
34