Design Discovery

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Design Discovery

• CS 160, Spring 2002
• Professor James Landay
• January 28, 2002

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Interface Hall of Shame or Fame?
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Interface Hall of Shame

• ?

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Interface Hall of Shame

• ?
• Requires recall over recognition
• want recognition over recall

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Design Discovery

• CS 160, Spring 2002
• Professor James Landay
• January 28, 2002

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Outline

• Review
• Usability
• Customer-centered design
• Design process
• Involving the customer
• Administrivia
• Task Analysis

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Review
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Review
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Review
Spreadsheets have unleashed hundreds of new
tasks
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"One most unfortunate product is the type of
engineer who does not realize that in order to
apply the fruits of science for the benefit of
mankind, he must not only grasp the principles of
science, but must also know the needs and
aspirations, the possibilities and the frailties,
of those whom he would serve." -- Vannevar Bush
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Usability Metrics ?

• Ease of learning
• faster the second time and so on...
• Recall
• remember how from one session to the next
• Productivity
• perform tasks quickly and efficiently
• Minimal error rates
• if they occur, good feedback so user can recover
• High user satisfaction
• confident of success

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Customer-centered Iterative Design

• Developers working with target customers
• Think of the world in customers terms
• Understanding work process
• Not technology-centered/feature driven
• Iterate at every stage

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Waterfall Model (Soft. Eng.)
?
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Waterfall vs. Iterative Customer-Centered Design

• Focus differs
• WF lacks customers perspective
• customer is the client

• WF has no feedback
• high cost of fixing errors
• increases by factor of 10 at each stage
• iterative design finds these earlier

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Why Do It?

• Nearly 25 of all applications projects fail.
  Why?
• overrun budgets management pulls the plug
• others complete, but are too hard to learn/use
• Solution is customer-centered design. Why?
• easier to learn use products sell better
• can help keep a product on/ahead of schedule
• training costs reduced

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Design

• Design is driven by requirements
• what the artifact is for
• not how it is to be implemented

• A design represents the artifact
• for UIs these include (?)
• screen sketches or storyboards
• flow diagrams/outline showing task structure
• executable prototypes
• representations simplify

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outline fill out outline Start word processor
find word processor icon double click on
icon Write outline write down high-level
ideas . . .
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Web Design Representations

• Designers create representations of sites at
  multiple levels of detail
• Web sites are iteratively refined at all levels
  of detail

Site Maps
Storyboards
Schematics
Mock-ups
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Design Process
Discovery
Design Exploration
Design Refinement
Production
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Design Process Discovery

• Assess needs
• understand clients expectations
• determine scope of project
• characteristics of customers
• evaluate existing interface and/or competition

Discovery
Design Exploration
Design Refinement
Production
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Understanding the Customer

• How do your customers work?
• task analysis, interviews, observation
• How do your customers think?
• understand human cognition
• observe users performing tasks
• How do your customers interact with UIs?
• observe!

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Administrivia

• Roll
• Hand in project proposals
• projects chosen by Wed. -gt must attend
• Reading handout
• most readings will be online (linked off
  schedule)
• Questions?

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Example of Design Failure

• BART Charge-a-Ticket Machines
• allow riders to buy BART tickets or add fare
• takes ATM cards, credit cards, cash

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Example of Design Failure

• BART Charge-a-Ticket Machines
• allow riders to buy BART tickets or add fare
• takes ATM cards, credit cards, cash
• Problems (?)
• one path of operation
• ticket type -gt payment type -gt payment -gt ticket
• BART Plus has minimum of 28, no indication of
  this until after inserting gt 1
• cant switch to regular BART ticket
• order of payment / card insertion non-standard
• large dismiss transaction button does nothing

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Lessons from the BART machine

• Failure to create convenient machine
• Did the designers understand/care
• range of customers using the machine
• what tasks they would want to carry out
• some would find the behavior of the machine
  disconcerting
• How can we avoid similar results?
• What is required to perform the customers task?

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Task Analysis

• Find out
• who the intended customers are
• what tasks they need to perform
• Observe existing work practices
• Create scenarios of actual use
• Try-out new ideas before building software

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Why Task Analysis?

• System will fail if it
• does not do what the customer needs
• is inappropriate to the customer
• the system must match the customers tasks
• Why not define good interfaces?
• infinite variety of tasks customers
• guidelines are usually too vague
• e.g.,give adequate feedback

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Questions
Task Analysis

• Who is going to use system?
• What tasks do they now perform?
• What tasks are desired?
• How are the tasks learned?
• Where are the tasks performed?
• Whats the relationship between user data?

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Questions (cont.)

• What other tools does the customer have?
• How do customers communicate with each other?
• How often are the tasks performed?
• What are the time constraints on the tasks?
• What happens when things go wrong?

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Who?

• Identity?
• in-house or specific customer is easy
• need several typical customers for broad product
• Background
• Skills
• Work habits and preferences
• Physical characteristics
• height?

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Who (BART)?

• Identity?
• people who ride BART
• business people, students, disabled, elderly,
  etc.
• Background
• have an ATM or credit card
• use BART fare machines
• Skills
• know how to put cards into ATM
• know how to buy BART tickets

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Who (BART cont.)?

• Work habits and preferences
• not applicable
• Physical characteristics
• varying heights -gt dont make it too high or too
  low!

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Talk to Them

• Find some real customers
• Talk to them
• find out what they do
• how would your system fit in
• Are they too busy?
• buy their time
• t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.

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What Tasks?

• Important for both automation new functionality
• Relative importance of tasks?
• Observe customers
• on-line billing example
• small dentists office had billing automated
• assistants were unhappy with new system
• old forms contained hand-written margin notes
• e.g., patient As insurance takes longer than
  most, etc.

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What Tasks (BART)?

• Old tasks?
• cash to buy new ticket
• cash to add fare to existing ticket
• cash or credit to buy a BART Plus at window
• New tasks?
• cash, credit, or ATM card to
• buy new ticket
• add fare to existing ticket
• buy a BART Plus ticket
• Level of detail can vary

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How are Tasks Learned?

• What does the customer need to know?
• Do they need training?
• academic
• general knowledge / skills
• special instruction / training

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How are Tasks Learned (BART)?

• Walk up use system (?)
• cant assume much background/training
• Training?
• too time consuming
• Must be simple similar to existing systems
• BART machines
• ATM machines

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Where is the Task Performed?

• Office, laboratory, point of sale?
• Effects of environment on customers?
• Customers under stress?
• Confidentiality required?

• Do they have wet, dirty, or slippery hands?
• Soft drinks?
• Lighting?
• Noise?

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Where (BART)? Train Station

• Loud
• dependence on voice I/O not a good idea
• Others looking over your shoulder
• not private
• PIN input must be confidential
• dont confirm with sound
• Lighting is dim
• make sure messages are readable

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What is the Relationship Between Customers Data?

• Personal data
• always accessed at same machine?
• do customers move between machines?
• Common data
• used concurrently?
• passed sequentially between customers?
• Remote access required?
• Access to data restricted?

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Data Relationships (BART)

• Personal data
• customers may use any machine
• store info on BART card
• Common data (?)
• fare rules (e.g., how much for BART Plus)
• used concurrently
• Access to data restricted?
• only you can use your ATM or credit card
• No need for remote access

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What Other Tools Does the Customer Have?

• More than just compatibility
• How customer works with collection of tools
• example automating lab data collection
• how is data collected now?
• by what instruments and manual procedures?
• how is the information analyzed?
• are the results transcribed for records or
  publication?
• what media/forms are used and how are they
  handled?

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Other Tools (BART)

• Not relevant

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How do Customers Communicate With Each Other?

• Who communicates with whom?
• About what?
• Follow lines of the organization? Against it?
• Example assistant to manager
• installation of computers changes communication
  between them
• people would rather change their computer usage
  than their relationship Hersh82

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A Better Subway Machine Hong Kong
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Summary

• Customer-centered design is different than
  traditional methodologies
• leads to solving problems up front (cheaper)
• Know thy customer involve them in design
• answer questions before designing
• who, what, where, when, how often?
• relationship between customers data?
• what other tools do customers have?
• what happens when things go wrong?

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Next Time

• Choose Project Groups
• Fill out course survey online today
• Contextual Inquiry
• Read
• Chapter 3 of The Design of Sites (online)
• Chapter 3 of Contextual Design (handout)