BIT113: User Interface Design
LECTURE 07: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
CARD SORTING, UX, USABILITY TESTING
• Phase 0: Project Definition DUE TODAY Wednesday, January 28 (Posted to your Team Site repository)
Coming Up
• Site Design Sketches DUE Monday, February 2 (Posted on your Development Site)
• Card Sort Testing DUE Wednesday, February 4 (Posted on your Development Site)
• Phase 1: Project Planning DUE Wednesday, February 4 (Posted to your Team Site repository)
Head’s Up
• In-Class Design Presentations
DUE Monday, February 23 (Posted to your Team Site repository)
2
How Much Outside Homework/Time Per Week for a 5-Credit Class?
The Short Answer: It depends on the class (math vs humanities vs science vs development, etc.)
Rule of Thumb:
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Absolute Bare Minimum: 5 Hours
Average: 10 Hours (sometimes less, sometimes more)
Technical/Developer Classes: 10-15 (occasionally)
Upper-Level Classes: 15-20
Looking Ahead: Graduate School: 20+
This is College. The amount of time you spend on schoolwork also goes up with every class
level you advance. If you are pursuing a degree, and if you have a job, and if you want to do
well, then don't expect to have any free time except for the occasional Saturday or Sunday,
and the between-quarter breaks (then make the most of them, and try not to wake up in a
Mexican jail!)
3
Card Sorting
Card Sorting
Card sorting is a technique used in Information Architecture (AI). It involves participants using
logic while sorting and labeling content or "cards" into groups. Typically there are two types of
Card Sorting tests: Open and Closed.
Open Card Sorting ("modified")
Participants sort index cards into logical groups and create their own names for the new
categories.
Closed Card Sorting ("regular")
Participants are provided with a predetermined set of category names. They then assign the index
cards to these fixed categories.
Hybrid Card Sorting (A Combination of the Two)
This is a combination of both Closed and Open Card Sorts. Primarily this starts as a Closed Sort,
where you provide pre-defined categories, however if participants do not find an appropriate
category they can create and name their own.
Card Sorting
Card Sorting Sites/Software
• Interaction Design Foundation
• Card Sorting (Wikipedia)
• UsabiliTest
• ConceptCodify (Currently Free)
• UXSort
• CardSorting.Net
User Experience (UX)
User Experience (UX)
• User experience (UX) involves a person's behaviors, attitudes, and emotions about using a
particular product, system or service.
• User experience includes the practical, experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable
aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership. Additionally, it includes a
person’s perceptions of system aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency.
• User experience may be considered subjective in nature to the degree that it is about
individual perception and thought with respect to the system.
• User experience is dynamic as it is constantly modified over time due to changing usage
circumstances and changes to individual systems as well as the wider usage context in which
they can be found.
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IDF: User Experience
UX Design (Wikipedia)
UEO-Online
The Elements of User Experience
10 UI Design Fundamentals
Usability Testing
Usability Testing
The purpose of usability testing is to observe how members of the target audience use a web
site, to figure out what needs improvement.
When performing usability testing on a web site, I like to give participants several tasks to perform
on the site, and then watch to see how much time and how many steps are required to complete
those tasks. As errors occur or mistakes happen along the way, I get to witness them firsthand and
record the steps necessary to reproduce them. After the tasks are completed, any remaining time
can be used to ask how the participant felt about the process and whether she might recommend
the site to someone else.
I have even performed usability testing on web site mockups, by printing sample screens of a site
and asking participants to point and “click” the printouts to show where they might go next. This
can be a great and quick way to identify navigation systems that aren’t working, before a lot of
time and energy is spent actually building the back-end systems to support them.
Usability Testing
You can find out a lot more about usability testing online by visiting any of the following web
sites:
● Usability.gov www.usability.gov
● User Interface Engineering www.uie.com
● Human Factors International www.humanfactors.com
● uiAccess.com www.uiaccess.com