Usability with Project Lecture 4 – 19/9/08
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Danish students conducting a project on British produce evaluate a website to determine if British food is as unhealthy as it sounds. They book a flight to the UK, hire a car, and explore the culinary delights of England. The exercise involves analyzing the website's usability shortcomings, categorizing the problems based on usability heuristics, and providing suggestions for improvement.
Usability with Project Lecture 4 – 19/9/08
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Usability with ProjectLecture 4 – 19/9/08 Dr. Simeon Keates
Exercise – part 1 • Each group will be given a web-site on which to perform a heuristic evaluation • Analyse the site for the particular task that you have been given • Work as a group to analyse the site and identify as many usability shortcomings as possible
Task • A group of Danish students working on a project about British produce decide to find out if British food really is as unhealthy as it sounds… • […and to bring some back for their lecturer!] • The 4 (or 5) students book a cheap flight with Easyjet / Sterling / SAS to Stansted / East Midlands / Heathrow and want to hire a car for 3 days to explore the culinary delights of England • Car needs to be large enough for all 4 (or 5) plus luggage. • Also needs a child safety seat (for testing the baby products) • And 0 GBP insurance excess collision damage cover
Exercise – part 2 • Prepare a presentation for Friday morning • E-mail it to me by Thursday lunchtime at the latest! • Presentation must address: • Name of site • Type/purpose of site • Task analysed • What you liked about the site • What you did not like about the site • Problems found (number, type, severity) • Suggestions for fixing the problems
Use of the heuristics Use is two-stage 1 – To indicate the types of areas to consider when looking for problems 2 – To classify the problems when you find them Remember – look for problems, then classify • Not the other way around!
Your presentations • Over to you…
Approaches to design (source: Keates and Clarkson “Countering design exclusion”)
A stage-based model of the design process (source: BS7000: 1 “Guide to managing innovation”) No representation of “iteration”
An alternative stage-based approach • Clarification of the task • Take vague idea/market need and identify true requirements and constraints • OUTPUT: “Design specification” • Conceptual design • Generate concepts with the potential to meet the functional and phsyical requirements in the design specification • OUTPUT: “Concept” • Embodiment design • Lay foundation of detail design through structured development of concept • OUTPUT: e.g. detailed layout drawing • Detail design • Specify precise shape, dimensions, tolerances, etc. • OUTPUT: e.g. “blueprints”
Better models of design • Stage-based models typically focus on modelling process of design • More emphasis needed on meeting the product’s acceptability targets • Need to add 2 important questions: • Verification: “Are we building the product correctly?” • Validation: “Are we building the correct product?”
A “systems” approach to designing • Evaluation of acceptability (verification and validation) is crucial • Provides evidence of “performance” (whether good or not) • Additionally, evaluation of product must be done in context of its use • For genuine usability (and inclusivity): where the product is part of a system, the entire system should be evaluated • Where the product is a service, the entire service delivery chain should be evaluated
Iterative models of design • Most “classical” models still represent design as largely “linear” • In reality, most design is iterative (design, evaluate, design, evaluate…) • Newer models reflect this…
Other approaches to design • All models so far are “engineering” models of design • Focus on “practical acceptability” • Alternative approach from “product” design • More focus on “social acceptability”
Another view of design • A product-centred approach: • A user-centred approach: Product Product
Setting the scene • “Rehabilitation Robotics in Europe” c.1997 • EU funded many projects under TIDE initiative • LOTS of money!!! • Projects generally major disasters • Let’s see why…
EPI-RAID failed because… • No in-built market to sell to • Had to sell on its own merits • Too expensive • (~5000000DKK) • Overtaken by new technology • Internet • Not enough consideration of what it was to be used for • Too much focus on the technology Needed a user-centred design approach!
Question • Can we use Nielsen’s heuristic in the design process? • i.e. not just for post-hoc testing
Exercise – part 1 • Work as a group • Write a script (ask analysis) for how you envisage each of your personas would use your site • Try to follow that script using your site • Log any problems you encounter • Then try another group’s site (more if you have time) • Make any changes to your site based on your evaluations