Welcome TC518: User-centered Design

Tuesday, 6:15-10:00

Dr. Jennifer TurnsAssistant Professor

Technical CommunicationUniversity of Washington

Ms. Anita SalemFounder

Principal ConsultantSalemSystems, Inc.

Mapping out Day 1

• Introductions– Tell me about yourself– Go over syllabus– Finding potential project teammates…

• Introduction to User-centered design and usability– Lecture– Two activities– Revisit syllabus – focus on readings

• Project– Overview of activities– Group formation and project selection

Tell me about yourself

General• Name

(and preferred way to address you)

• Best way to contact you (e.g., email, phone, etc.)

• Place of employment

• Domains of interest (e.g., medicine, e-commerce, etc.)

Going Deeper• Self-characterization: Indicate your level of

agreement with the following statements by recording low, medium, or high for each:

– I consider myself a designer– User considerations are critical to my work

• Evaluation criteria: What criteria you would use to evaluate:

– a hair dryer– a website

• Design process: Write down the sequence of five or so major steps one should go through in developing and evaluating a new computer system for end users.

Please record the following information on an index card:

Getting a sense of the class…

High

Medium

Low

Low Medium HighAlr

ea

dy

are

de

sig

ner

s…

Already prioritize user issues…

Syllabus – Learning Objectives+• Following the course, students may need to

– Do user-centered design activities– “Sell” user-centered design activities– Plan user-centered design activities (and make choices)– Continue to educate themselves

• By the end of the course, students will be able to:– Critically discuss the concept & complexities of UCD– Identify and explain a variety of factors motivating/enabling UCD– Plan and execute activities that collectively instantiate a UCD process– Identify areas of scholarship useful in design to address user needs

• Class elements– Project (70%)– Readings and discussion (10%)– Final exam (20%)

Syllabus – Detailed schedule

Topic D: Gathering information, contextual inquiry and other methods Driving Questions: What types of information are useful for user-centered design? How will this information

be used to inform the design process? What methods exist for collecting the necessary information from users? What types of

tradeoffs exist among information types and data collection methods? What challenges are associated with data collection, in general, and each of the methods

specifically? What is involved in using these methods effectively? Readings (Discussed, Week 3): Hackos, J.T. and Redish, J.C. (1998). Chapter 2 – Thinking about Users, User and task

analysis for interface design, John Wiley and Sons: New York, pp. 23-50. Readings on Contextual Inquiry/Design

o Raven, M.E., and Flanders, A. (1996). Using Contextual Inquiry to learn about your Audiences, Journal of computer documention, 20(1), pp. 1-13.

o Mirel, B. (1996). Contextual inquiry and the representation of tasks, Journal of computer document, 20(1), pp. 14-21.

o Kleimann, S. (1996). Response to “Using contextual inquiry,” Journal of computer documentation, 20(1), pp. 22-24.

o Simpson, M. (1996). A commentary on “Using contextual inquiry,” Journal of computer documentation, 20(1), pp. 25-28.

In-class exercise – Designing contextual inquiry (Conducted, Week 3): In your team, design your approach for conducting the contextual inquiry. You should determine a) how you will select subjects, b) what tasks you will try to observe, c) what environments you would like to target, and d) how you will record and share your information. Remember to design your data collection so that each team member can complete the data collection in a one-week timeframe. Prepare a one-page quick reference documenting your design decisions. The instructor will copy this quick reference for all team members.

Project Exercise – Results from Analysis Method (Due, Week 4): Carry out a contextual inquiry in which you work with at least two users. Prepare a one-page description summarizing the data you collected, and potential implications for redesign (e.g., issues you are seeing, ideas for alternate solutions). Bring to class one copy of this exercise for each member of the team and one copy for the instructors.

Topic C: Gaining guidance from the professional literature Driving Questions: What type of information is needed to support user-centered design? What sources exist

for gaining this information (i.e., the sources of “literature”)? How does a designer evaluate this literature? What are the benefits and costs of turning to these sources in order to support design?

How does a designer accumulate sources of information so that they know where to go in order to get informed on a specific project?

Readings (Discussed, Week 2): Sawin, D.A., and Yamazaki, K., and Kumaki, A. (2002). Putting the “D” in UCD: User-

centered Design in the Thinkpad experience development, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 14(3-4), pp. 307-334. Online

Articles from the December 2003 Issue of Intercom, Overall pp. 4-24. o Rosenbaum, S.(2003). Stalking the User: Practical Field Research, pp. 4-6. o Jarrett, C. (2003). Usability Testing: Don't Let the Myths Put You Off, pp. 7-9. o Barnum, C. (2003). Usability Is in Your Future, pp. 10-11. o Mazur, B. (2003). Older, Wiser, and Wired, pp. 12-14. o Hart, G. (2003). Practical Tips for Improving Web Site and Intranet Usability. o Quesenbery, W. (2003). Designing a Search People Can Really Use, pp. 18-21. o McDaniel, S. (2003). Selling Usability: Scope and Schedule Estimates, pp. 22-24.

In-class exercise – Preliminary user and task analysis (Conducted, Week 2): In your team, discuss what you know (or think you know) about your users, their tasks, and the context in which these tasks are performed. Prepare a quick reference (1-2 pages) that documents this knowledge. The instructors will copy this quick reference for all team members. Project Exercise – Reporting on professional literature (Due, Week 3): Identify a reading relevant to your group’s project. Prepare a one-page description that a) summarizes the reading, b) describes the process by which you searched for the reading, e.g., the types of readings you were seeking and where you looked, c) discusses the strengths and shortcomings of the reading, and d) identifies potential implications for redesign. Bring to class one copy of this exercise for each member of the team, one copy for the instructors, and one copy of the reading itself.

TOPIC C TOPIC D

Syllabus - Class StructureWeek 1 Week 2 Week 3

Discuss project exercise 1

(topic B)

Discuss project exercise 2 (topic C)

Discuss project exercise 3(topic D)

Share resultsfrom project

exercise 1 (topic B)

Share resultsfrom project

exercise 2 (topic C)

Discuss NewConcepts via

Readings (topic A/B)

Discuss NewConcepts via

Readings (topic C)

Discuss NewConcepts via

Readings (topic D)

HW:• Readings• Online Discussion

• Project Work

HW:• Readings• Online Discussion

• Project Work

Syllabus – Project (70%)• Description:

– Follow a user-centered design process to explore the redesign of a product/process of your choosing.

• Examples: Students may redesign– Blood pressure cuff in local drugstore– Informational website for engineering educators– Check-out process for Internet retailer– Instructions/documentation for photo processing software – Educational toy designed for 5 year old

• Student Responsibilities– Project exercises (7, weekly homework, collectively 20% of grade)– Project deliverables (2, significant milestones, each 25 % of grade)– Review/advisory board participation

Syllabus - Readings & discussion (10%)

Responsibility Timing

Read each of the assigned papers Weekly

Participate in class discussions and activities

Weekly

Make contributions to the online discussion Weeklydue by Monday at 8:00 am

Present summaries of assigned readings during class discussion

Once during term

Stimulate class discussion using topics extracted from online discussion

Once during term

Identify and share relevant readings with the class

Once during term

Syllabus – Weekly schedule

Week What is “due” in class1 1 (1/6) Readings Building blocks (Topic A)

Readings Comparative evaluation (Topic B) 2 (1/13) Project Comparative evaluation exercise (Topic B)

Readings Gaining guidance from professional literature (Topic C) 3 (1/20) Project Reporting on professional literature exercise (Topic C)

Readings Gathering info, contextual inquiry and other methods (Topic D) 4 (1/27) Project Contextual inquiry exercise (Topic D)

Readings Characterizing users and tasks (Topic E) 5 (2/3) Project User analysis / task analysis exercise (Topic E)

Readings Moving toward problem definition (Topic F) 6 (2/10) Project Analysis and problem definition deliverable (Topic F)

Readings Design principles relevant to user-centered design (Topic G) 7 (2/17) Project Design I exercise(Topic G)

Readings User-centered evaluations (Topic H) 8 (2/24) Project User-centered evaluation exercise (Topic H)

Readings Special topics in user-centered design (Topic I) 9 (3/2) Project Design II exercise(Topic I)

Readings Presenting UCD solutions / Arguing for UCD (Topic K) 10 (3/9) Project Presenting the solution, The design & evaluation deliverable (Topic K)

Readings Planning UCD (Epilogue) 1 Contributions to the online discussion (i.e., postings to the bulletin board) are due weekly by Monday at 8:00 am. For additional information, see the section on “Readings and Discussion.”

Syllabus – Course Design Principles

Assumptions• Learning involves construction of knowledge• Students are diverse, and have knowledge to offer

Principles• Provide varied ways for students to learn & demonstrate knowledge• Ensure students have opportunity to learn from each other• Manage participant burden

Elements• Practice user-centered design activities• Reflect on user-centered design activities through discussions• Learn from perspectives of others• Various interactions w/ readings (summarize, discuss, synthesize)• …

Activity 1: Let’s move around…

• Your task:– Identify one or more domains that interest you– Find/meet other students who share domain interests– Talk about

• Your motivations for taking this class and• Nature of your interest in the specific domain.

• Motivation for this activity:– Projects involve teams– Teams organized around domains– Project easier if teams have prior domain knowledge– Team formation (project selection) by end of class…

Activity 2a – Difficult Products

• Individually: Think about some product/ process that you have found to be difficult: – What was the nature of the difficulty and the

consequences?– What might be included as part of a “user’s

experience with the product”?

• Group: Share your experiences.

User-centered Design

• User-centered design is what you do to achieve usable systems

• Usability is the way a user-centered design product is evaluated

• We will talk about usability then about user-centered design

Defining Usability

• “The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals in a specified context of use with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction” (ISO 9241-11)

• “The measure of the quality of the user experience when interacting with something – whether a web site, a traditional software application, or any other device the user can operate in some way or another” (Nielsen)

• “Usability means that the people who use the product can do so quickly and easily to accomplish their own tasks” (Dumas and Redish)

Defining Usability (Barnum, p. 6)

Dimension Description

Learnability System should be easy to learn, low start up overhead

Efficiency Possible to achieve high productivity

Memorability easy to remember, particularly for casual user

Errors low error rate, but also easy to recover from errors

Satisfaction pleasant to use, so users are subjectively satisfied

Benefits of a usable system

Benefit Examples…

Increased productivity Cost of being lost in information space

Reduced errors Aviation, Medicine

Reduced training and support

E-commerce, Large corporations

Improved acceptance Educational tools that are idle

Enhanced reputation, financial gain

IBM case study

(Maquire, p. 589)

Usability and User Experience

Usability stems from entire user experience:– Device Interface – Visual, tactile, input devices…– Support manuals– Packaging– Computer system– Workspace

Each of these aspects of a product/process can be redesigned to enhance usability…

Recap and apply…

Recap• Usability definitions and dimensions• Benefits of usable systems• Aspects of the user experience

Links to activity…considering your “difficult products”:• What does usability look like? • What would be the benefits of usability?• What would be included the comprehensive user experience?• What would we need to know in order to design?

Activity 2b: Difficult Products (cont.)

Discuss the following in groups:

• Suggest and justify one redesign to this system.

• What did the designers fail to take into account, such that the original design was difficult? Why might the considerations not have been taken into account?

UCD - Historical context• [Pre-1975]:

– Computing systems with specialized interfaces, expert users, – Severe limitations in terms of interface, computing power!

• 1977: Release of Apple II with graphical interface• 1985: Gould and Lewis promote User-centered Design• 1988: Norman and Draper, User-centered System Design

• [1990’s] – – Interest in field methods, – Rapid increases in computing power and options, – Emergence of prototyping tools, – Global marketplace, – Internet…

• 1999: ISO standards for human-centered design• 2001: Special issue IJHCI, Human-centered design• 2002: Special issue IJHCI, User-centered design at IBM

User-centered design• Goal: Achieving usable systems

• But what is it?– Principles– Process– Philosophy– All of the above– Something else?

• Questions:– How does user-experience design compare to other types of design

such as software design, navigation design, interface design, interaction design, learner-centered design, and usage-centered design?

– How does a user-centered design process compare to other design processes such as the waterfall model and extreme programming

Principles for UCD

• Early focus on users

• Empirical measurement

• Iterative design

Gould and Lewis (1985)

Assumptions behind principles

#1: Usability is an important goal.

#2: Users are difficult to predict variable, and hard to pin down.

“Principles are undervalued”(Gould and Lewis, 1985)

• Not worth following• Confusion with similar but critically different ideas• User diversity is underestimated• User diversity is overestimated• Belief that users do not know what they need• Belief that one’s job does not require it or permit it• Belief in the power of reason• Belief that design guidelines should be sufficient• Belief that good design means getting it right first time• Belief that the development process will be lengthened• Belief that iteration is just fine-tuning• Belief in the power of technology to succeed

UCD: Process and Products

Plan UCD: Decisions about which methods to use

Specify context of use: Description of users,

tasks, context, problems

Specify user/org rqmts:

Statements about what

the design should fulfill

Produce Design Solutions:

System specifications

Evaluate against rqmts:

Data on how well system

meets expectations

(Maquire, p. 589)

Methods available at UCD stages…

Planning Context of Use Requirements Design Evaluation

• Usability planning and scoping

• Usability cost/benefit analysis

• Identify stakeholders

• Context of use analysis

• Survey of existing users

• Field study / user observation

• Diary keeping• Task analysis

• Stakeholder analysis

• User cost-benefit analysis

• User rqmt interview

• Focus groups• Scenarios of use

• Personas• Existing system / competitor analysis

• Allocation of function..

• Brainstorming• Parallel design• Design guidelines and standards

• Storyboarding• Affinity diagrams

• Card sorting• Paper prototyping

• Software prototyping

• Wizard of oz prototyping

• Organizational prototyping

• Participatory evaluation

• Assisted evaluation

• Heuristic or expert eval.

• Controlled user testing

• Satisfaction questionnaires

• Assessing cognitive workload

• Critical incidents• Post experience interviews

Activity 2b: Difficult Products (cont.)

Discuss the following in groups:

• Suggest and justify one redesign to this system.

• What did the designers fail to take into account, such that the original design was difficult? Why might the considerations not have been taken into account?

And

• What process might you follow to explore potential redesigns?

• What would you want to know in order to do the redesign?

Where are we going from here

The design of this class – students will get- Experience user-centered design- Exposure to choices, tradeoffs, other examples- Information and sources for more information

Information from the readings… • Selection of topics• Selection of sources

Syllabus – Project, Overview• Description:

– Follow a user-centered design process to explore the redesign of a product/process of your choosing.

• Examples: Students may redesign– Blood pressure cuff in local drugstore– Informational website for engineering educators– Check-out process for Internet retailer– Instructions/documentation for photo processing software – Educational toy designed for 5 year old

• Responsibilities– Project exercises – weekly homework– Project deliverables – significant milestones– Review/advsiory board

Syllabus – Project, Structure

• Project Exercises (7) – Almost weekly homework – Graded credit/no credit, collectively worth 20% of grade – Scaled to fit one week, – One page limit.

• Project Deliverables (2) – Each worth 25% of grade – Summarize project progress, mediate next steps– One as paper, one as presentation

• Advisory/Review Board: – Students will serve on the advisory/review board for other students.

Project - StructureUCD Process Project Exercises/Deliverables..

Plan process Ongoing, part of several exercises…

Understand & specify context of use

Exercise: Comparative evaluation (week 2)

Exercise: Contextual inquiry (week 4)

Exercise: User/task analysis (week 5)

Specify the user & organizational rqmnts

Deliverable 1: Analysis & problem def (week 6)

Produce design solutions

Exercise: Design I (week 7)

Exercise: Design II (week 9)

Deliverable 2: Design and evaluation (week 10)

Evaluate design against requirements

Exercise: Comparative evaluation (week 2)

Exercise: User evaluation (week 8)

Deliverable 2: Design and evaluation (week 10)

Use what is known Exercise: Learning from professional literature (week 3)

Project – Group Element

• Groups of 4-6 students will jointly work on a shared product/process.

• Each student will complete each project exercise independently (and be graded independently).

• On the day the exercise is due, students will share the results with their group.

• As project moves forward, each student can use information created by any group member in making their own decisions.

Exercise 1: Comparative Evaluation

• Task: Decide which of two products is better… – Using the product you are proposing to redesign and one

competitor for this product, conduct an analysis to determine the conditions under which you believe each solution might be better for users and why.

• Prepare: A one-page summary describing – The two solutions, – The results of your analysis, i.e., the conditions under which

each is better for the user and why, and – Potential implications for redesign.

• Bring to class: Copies of summary for– Each team member– Instructors

Wrap-up… where we’ve been

• Introductions– Tell me about yourself– Go over syllabus– Finding potential project teammates…

• Introduction to User-centered design and usability– Lecture– Two activities– Revisit syllabus – focus on readings

• Project– Overview of activities– Group formation and project selection

Activity 3: Project Selection

Within your domain group– Select a shared product/process that will be

the basis of your term-long project1. – Give to instructor the team & product info.

– Discuss strategies for exercise 1 (with aim of having a broad cross section of information next week).

1Caveat: There will still be time to change next week, although this is not optimal…