February 26th: Midterm
and
Post-Midterm Fun
Announcements
Plan of Attack
Tonight we're going to do the following:
I have to submit midterm grades by Noon on Friday (3/01). Unfortunately, I only have an essay, participation, a couple reading quizzes, and (after tonight) this midterm exam to base your grade. If your performance is unsatisfactory, you'll get a notice, but please know that there's lots of the semester left.
Speaking of participation, I have a midterm participation gauge (up to this point in the semester) on Moodle. I'm going to try to get your class webpage links up tonight, so make sure your link works.
User Document #1 Issues
I tried to comment on all your User Documents #1, but I didn't get a chance to. So far, some are very good, and some are ok. It's perfectly normal not to have a PERFECT draft because your
grade is based on your final portfolio, so I expect revision.
Please keep all
portfolio work that I've commented on. You will turn these originals (User Doc #1, #2,and #3) in with
your final portfolio.
Not including the drafts I've commented on will affect your grade.
Please remember that your assignments have two parts--a meta-analysis persona documents (or planning document) and the actual user document. You must have both.
I have some general feedback for you on User Document #1. I have a webpage up that addresses some concerns about User Doc #1.
Midterm Fun
A midterm only happens once a semester, and tonight's gonna be a good, good night...I can feel it!
Logon to Moodle to access the Midterm. I'll open it up 5 minutes after we finish the above discussion on User Doc #1 issues.
After you finish the midterm, work on the items below quietly. When you finish, you're free to go.
Webpage "Reading"
I would like you to examine the following Resort webpages:
Then, pick one of the webpages to
analyze its features. If we assume that webpages are supposed to be for the
user, then we can assume that a user-centered design would be best. Let's consider ease of navigation to be a top
priority for an effective webpage.
Some questions to ask about "good" webpages:
-
What is the purpose of the webpage (or
website)?
-
Who is the primary audience? Secondary?
Tertiary? Etc.?
-
How does a user navigate the website?
What facilitates navigation?
-
How can the user find "help"? Is it effective? (for
navigating...some might say all webpages offer help)
-
Thinking from the audience's
perspective, how useful is the information that's available?
- Can you quantify the layers of
information? For instance, your ideal user has to sift through how much information to accomplish an obvious goal--you need not explore all goals. Basically, how many clicks does it take to get information he or she might need?
- Aesthetics (does it look nice)
- What's aesthetically pleasing about the
website? Why?
- What's not aesthetically pleasing about
the website? Why?
- Finally, what would make the page (or site)
better for a user?
I realize that much of your analysis will
be based on your own subjective tastes. I hope we can explore that further in a
larger class discussion.
Add a page to your own website to record this
information. You should have a link to this page from your homepage. Do your best to get this up before the end of class. This will
help us easily locate the pages during our future discussion--after Spring Break.
If I don't have your correct webpage link on the Classmates Webpages page, please e-mail it to me.
Sample User Docs
Below are two user documents for products. I would like you to review one of the documents and construct a brief analysis, which you'll briefly--very briefly--argue for whom the ideal user of the document is. I want you to make assumptions about the ideal user and defend them using analogies or metaphors. For instance, you might say something like...
"The ideal users for this document would be people with knowledge of text-based operating systems, such as Unix, because the product lacks a graphical user interface that would make a general audience comfortable." You don't need to do research like you'll do for the Persona Research assignment, but this exercise should make you think about defining users in generalized ways.
Counting from the FRONT of the room (where my computer is), if you're in Rows 1, 2, and 3, review the first user document. If you're in Rows 4, 5, and 6, review the second user document. After you've reviewed them, create (yet another) webpage where you describe the following about the users:
- Who is the ideal user?
- What level of technological literacy does the primary audience have?
- Compare this primary audience to non-computer skills (hacking, needle work, video editing, etc.) that might be comparable but not identical
- Possibly list software proficiencies based on your understanding of the primary audience's capabilities
- Consider occupation assumptions you have about the primary audience
- Hobbies/pastimes assumptions about the primary audience {think Cooper and piloting}
I didn't do the best job scanning these
images, so bear with me. You'll have to scroll horizontally and vertically to
read everything.
Planning for User Doc #2
What instruments would work well for our
next assignment? Hmm...search engines were good for the first User Doc, but we
need to move beyond obvious Internet-based functions. One thing's for sure,
though, we're going to have a much larger meta-analysis persona documents and more
analysis on user testing. Also, we're going to try and see my goal of
"inspiring" the user through to fruition. Does anyone have any documents that
advocate or encourage users to explore the functions/functionality of
instruments?
Although I've stressed and used
computer-based examples overwhelmingly in our discussions, you are more than welcome
to document other kinds of technology. Of course, we're going to do the usability testing
in class, so your instrument would have to fit that
constraint. However, I would consider out-of-class user testing if you
documented it well.
Remember, you need to build
on your skills throughout the semester (and from the previous
semester, year, or what have you), so I want to see some sophistication.
Let me show you what a student did a couple years ago...
User
Doc #2
User
Doc #3
Planning for User Doc #2 User
Testing
We'll have more in-depth meta-analysis persona document this time around. Unfortunately, we aren't getting live subjects...er...participants from
outside class, but I know all of you will work hard to help your fellow
classmates by being as objective as possible. The first change,
though, will be that I want you to come up with three personas for the
instrument you'll document. I also want you to include the following:
- Describe the instrument
- Explain how the user will approach the
set of instructions
- Plan how you will test your draft
- Develop a pre-test briefing strategy: make a statement to tell each user (a script), ask questions about comfort level, and/or have them watch something (this last one works best for descriptive documents like natural or mechanical proceses).
- Come up with five post-test questions
that use a Likert scale and have a comments section
- Set at least four goals and make sure
they're measurable (operationalized)
- User did all steps in XX minutes...
- User completed the instructions in XX minutes...
- User used the help menu less than XX times
-or-
User never had to look at the help menu or ask for help.
- Describe three Personas you had in mind
when creating the document--these are Cooper personas and not the detailed ones for your Persona Research assignment
- Actually create the instructions
Have a rough draft of the above planning document (think of it as a memo if you'd like) to accompany the rough draft of the user document when we come back from Spring Break. Who has an idea of what they'd like to do?
Persona Research
If you have time left, you can always start on your persona research.
IRA-Career Essays
I passed back your IRA essays two weeks ago. I have some general comments on last week's webpage.
Future Stuff
I'm giving you next week off, so we won't meet again until Tuesday, March 12th. We'll go over Johnson, Ch. 6 when we come back.
Make sure you have a rough draft for User Doc #2 on 3/12. Your User Test will be on 3/19, and the document is due 3/26.
.. |
Aaron
A. Toscano's Homepage
