Part –II Development Processes
Chapter 3- Managing Design
Processes
1
Introduction
• Current users are not dedicated to technology,
their background is more tied to their work
needs.
• Design should be based on careful observation
of current users, refined by thoughtful analysis
of task frequencies and sequences, and
validated through early usability and
acceptance tests.
(observation analysis validation).
2
Organizational Design to support Usability
• Many organizations have created usability laboratories to provide
expert reviews and to conduct usability tests of products during
development.
• Usability test subjects perform benchmark(target) task in carefully
supervised conditions.
• Companies may not yet have chief usability officers(CUOs) or vice
presidents for usability, but they often have user-interface architects
and usability engineering managers.
3
Organizational Design to support Usability
• In most large and small organizations, each project should
have its own user-interface architect who
• develops the necessary skills,
• manages the work of other people,
• prepares budgets and schedules,
• and coordinates with internal and external human-factors
professional when further references or usability tests are
required.
• This dual strategy balances the needs for centralized
expertise and decentralized application.
4
Organizational Design to support Usability
• Individuals will become highly skilled in specific problems
such as user-interface building tools, graphic-display
strategies, voice and tones design and online tutorial writing.
• As design moves to implementation, the choice of
user-interface building tools is vital to success.
• It enables the designers to build novel systems quickly and
support the iterative design/test/refine cycle.
• Usability engineers and user-interface architects who have a
concrete organizational plan, defensible cost/benefit analysis
and practical development methodologies are most likely to be
winners.
5
Organizational Design to support Usability
• Design is inherently creative and predictable.
• Carroll and Rosson characterize design in this way :
❖ design is a process, it is not a state and it cannot be
adequately represented statically.
❖ the design process is non-hierarchical, neither bottom-up nor
top-down.
❖ The process is radically transformational, it involves the
development of partial and interim(temporary) solutions that
may ultimately play no role in the final design.
❖ Design involves the discovery of new goals.
6
Organizational Design to support Usability
• Once the early data collection and preliminary
requirements are established, more detailed
design and early development can begin.
• (data collection requirements design
development)
7
The Four Pillars of Design
3-8
The Four Pillars of Design
1-Ethnographic(systematic study of people and
culture) Observation provides User-interface
Requirements.
2-Theories and Models provide a means of
developing Guidelines Documents & Process
3-Algorithms and Prototypes assist the development
of User-interface Software Tools which can be used
for Rapid-Prototyping.
4-Controlled Experimentation provides Expert Reviews
& Usability Testing
3-9
The Four Pillars of Design
• User Interface Requirements
– Clearly specifying user requirements is a major key to
success in any development activity
– Laying out the user-interface requirements is part of the
overall requirements development and management
process
– User interface requirements describe system behavior
• Ethnographic Observation
– Identifying and observing the user community in action
3-10
Examples of user-interface
requirements
• Performance requirements (The mobile device shall be able to
save draft messages when out of the service area)
• Functional Requirements(The system shall ensure that the PIN
entered matches the one on file)
• Interface Requirements(The website shall permit ordering
stamps online, the mobile device shall permit downloading of ring
tones)
3-11
The Four Pillars Of Design
Guidelines Documents and Processes:
•
Early in the design process, the user-interface architect should
generate, or require other people to generate, a set of working
guidelines.
Guidelines creation should be a social process within an
organization to gain visibility and build support.
• Guidelines documents are adapted to changing needs and
refined through experience.
•
•
Controversial(arguable/hot) guidelines should be reviewed by
colleagues or tested empirically(practically).(eg : when to use voice
alerts)
12
The Four Pillars Of Design
• When the guideline is adapted by the development team, the
implementation proceeds quickly and with few design changes.
eg : Microsoft Windows and Apple’s guidelines provide a good
starting point and an educational experience for many programmers.
• The four Es provide a basis for creating a living document and a lively
process:
• Education, Enforcement, Exemption, Enhancement
• Education(how to get it.?): users need training and a chance to
discuss the guidelines.
13
The Four Pillars Of Design
• Enforcement (who reviews): A timely and a clear process is
necessary to verify that an interface adheres(stick) to the guidelines.
• Exemption (who decides.?)(omission/freedom/release): When
creative ideas or new technologies are used, a rapid process for
gaining exemption is needed.
• Enhancement (how often.?) : A predictable process for review,
possibly annually, will help keep the guidelines up-to-date.
14
The Four Pillars Of Design
• Each project has different needs but guidelines should be
considered for :
• Words, icons and graphics(character set, fonts, font sizes, icons,
buttons, graphics, line thickness, backgrounds, abbreviations,
etc..)
• Screen-layout issues(Menu selection, form filling, dialog box
formats, feedback, error messages, use of headers and footers,
adapting to small and large displays).
• Input and Output devices(keyboard, display, cursor control,
pointing devices, response times for a variety of tasks, alternatives
for users with disabilities).
15
The Four Pillars Of Design
•
Action sequences( clicking, dragging, dropping and gestures,
command syntax, shortcut and programmed function keys,
error handling and recovery procedures)
•
Training(Online help and tutorials, training and reference
materials)
16
The Four Pillars Of Design
Recommendations for guidelines documents :
• Provides a social process for developers
• Records decisions for all parties to see.
• Promotes consistency and completeness.
• Facilitates automation of design.
• Allows multiple levels : Rigid standards, Accepted Practices, Flexible
guidelines
• Announces policies for : Education, Enforcement, Exemption, Enhancement.
17
The Four Pillars Of Design
User-interface software tools :
❖ One difficulty in designing interactive systems is that customers and users
may not have a clear idea of what the system will look like when it is
done.
❖ It is difficult, costly and time consuming to make major changes to
systems once those systems have been implemented.
❖ More serious difficulties can be avoided if at an early stage, the customers
and users can be given a realistic impression of what the final system will
look like.
❖ Eg : A prototype of menu system have only one or two paths active ,
instead of thousands of paths envisioned for the final system.
❖ Prototype of form-filling system simply shows the fields but not actually
process them.
18
The Four Pillars Of Design
❖ Prototypes have been developed with simple drawing or
word-processing tools, but graphical design environments such as
Macromedia’s Director and Flash are widely used.
❖ Development environments such as Microsoft’s Visual basic/C++
are easy to get started but have a rich set of powerful features.
❖ Sun’s java provide cross-platform development and a variety of
services.
19
The Four Pillars Of Design
Expert Reviews and Usability testing
❖ Website designers recognize that they must carry out many small
and large tests of components before release to customers.
❖ In addition to a variety of expert review methods, tests with the
intended users , surveys and automated analysis tools are proving
to be valuable.
❖ Procedures vary depending on the goals of the usability study, the
number of expected users , the danger of errors, and the level of
investment.
20
Development Methodologies
•
Many software development projects fail to achieve their goals
due to poor communication between developers and their
business clients or between developers and their users.
•
Successful developers work carefully to understand the
business needs and refine their skills to obtain the accurate
requirements from nontechnical business managers.
•
Successful developers also know that careful attention to
user-centered design issues at the early stages of software
development reduces both development time and cost.
21
Development Methodologies
• Such systems have low maintenance cost but produce
faster performance and reduce user errors substantially.
• Small consulting firms that specialize in user-centered
design have created innovative design methodologies such
as Contextual inquiry to guide developers.
(Contextual inquiry is a semi-structured interview method to obtain information
about the context of use, where users are first asked a set of standard questions and
then observed and questioned while they work in their own environments.)
• Large corporations have integrated user-centered design
into their practice.
eg : IBM’s Ease Of Use Method fits with the existing
corporate methods(next slide)
22
Developmental Methodologies
IBM’s Ease of Use development methodology specifies activities by roles and phases
3-23
Rapid Contextual Design
From Holtzblatt, et al., Rapid Contextual Design:
A How-To Guide to Key Techniques for User-Centered Design
3-24
Rapid Contextual Design
• The rapid contextual design method involves the following steps:
1. Contextual inquiry: plan for, prepare, and then conduct field interviews to
observe and understand the work task being performed.
2.
Interpretation sessions and work modeling: conduct team discussions to draw
conclusions based on the contextual inquiry, including understanding of the
workflow process, cultural and policy impacts on work performed.
3.
Model consolidation and affinity diagram building: consolidate the work models
to illustrate common work patterns and processes and create affinity
diagrams(hierarchical representations of the issues to address user needs).
4.
Persona development: This aids the team in communicating the needs of the
users and bringing those user need to fruition. Eg: 22-year old male with 5+ years
of video game playing experience.
25
Rapid Contextual Design
• 5. Visioning : review the consolidated data. The visioning session defines how the
system will streamline and transform the work of the users. Capture key issues and
ideas using flipcharts.(redesign of user tasks using pictures and graphs)
• 6. Storyboarding : defines and illustrates the “to be built” assumptions.
• 7. User Environment Design : the single, coherent representation of the users and
the work to be performed is expressed in the user environment design. The UEDs
are built from the story boards.
• 8. Interviews and evaluations with paper prototypes and mock-ups:
conduct interviews and test with actual users, beginning with paper prototypes
and higher fidelity(reliability) prototypes.
26
Eg: Affinity diagram
27
28
Flip chart
29
Story board –login page
30
Development Methodologies
Cognetics Corporation’s well-tested and widely used method ,
”The Logical User-Centered Interactive Design Methodology (LUCID)” identifies six
stages :
Envision, Discovery, Design foundation, Design detail, Build and Release.
• 1.Envision. Align the agendas of all stakeholders with organizational strategy
• and the need for "extreme usability' and develop a clear, shared product
• vision, embodied in a concept sketch.
• 2. Discovery. Study users to determine high-level user requirements, terminology,
• and mental models.
• 3. Design Foundation. Develop a conceptual design and create a key screen
prototype to convey the visual style. Usability test the design, revise, and repeat.
• 4. Design Detail. Flesh out the high-level design into complete specifications.
• 5. Build. Support the production process through review and late-stage change
• management.
• 6. Release. Develop a roll-out plan to support the users' transition to the new
• product; conduct a final usability test, and document the lessons learned.
31
32
33
Ethnographic Observation
• Ethnography The branch of anthropology(science that deals with
physical and cultural development, biological characteristics,….) that
deals with the scientific description of specific human cultures.
• Ethnographers join work or home environments to listen and
observe carefully, ask questions and participate in activities.
• As ethnographers, user-interface designers should gain insight into
individual behavior and the organizational context.
• UI designers differ from ethnographers in understanding their
subjects, they focus on interfaces for the purpose of changing and
improving the interfaces
34
Ethnographic Observation
• Traditional ethnographers immerse themselves in cultures for
weeks or months. UI designers need to limit this process to a
period of days or even hours to obtain the relevant data needed
to influence the redesign
• Guidelines for preparing for the evaluation, performing the field
study, analyzing the data, and reporting the findings might include
the following :
• Preparation, Field Study, Analysis and Reporting
• Preparation
-- understand organization policies and work culture
-- Familiarize yourself with the system and its history
-- set initial goals and prepare questions
-- Gain access and permission to observe or interview.
35
Ethnographic Observation
• Field Study :
-- Establish rapport(relation) with managers and users.
-- Observe or interview users in their workplace, and collect
subjective and objective quantitative and qualitative data.
-- Follow any leads that emerge from the visits.
-- Record your visits.
• Analysis :
-- Compile the collected data in numerical, textual and
multimedia databases.
-- Quantify(compute) data and compile statistics.
-- Reduce and interpret the data.
-- Refine the goals and the process used.
36
Ethnographic Observation
• Reporting
-- Consider multiple audiences and goals.
-- Prepare a report and present the findings.
• A thoughtful applied ethnographic process has proved to have
many benefits.
Increase trustworthiness and creditability, since designers learn
about the complexities of an organization by visits to the
workplace.
Personal presence allows designers to develop working
relationships with several end users to discuss ideas and they will
be the active participants in the design of their new interface.
37
Participatory Design
Participatory design is the direct involvement of people in
the collaborative design of the things and technologies
they use.
•
More user involvement brings:
– more accurate information about tasks
– more opportunity for users to influence design decisions
– potential for increased user acceptance of final system
38
Participatory Design (cont.)
On the negative side, extensive user involvement may:
-be more costly
-lengthen the implementation period
-build opposition with people not involved or whose
suggestions rejected
- force designers to compromise their design to satisfy
incompetent(unskilled) participants
39
Participatory Design
• A multiple-case study called plastic interface for collaborative
technology initiatives through video exploration(PICTIVE) approach
exist.(users sketch interfaces, slips of paper, pieces of plastic to
create prototypes).
• A scenario walkthrough is then recorded on video tape for
presentation to managers, users or other designers.
• Many variations of participatory design have been proposed that
engage participants to create dynamic performances, photography
exhibits, games or merely sketches or written scenarios.
• Careful selection of users helps to build a successful participatory
design experience. A competitive selection increases participants
sense of importance and highlight the seriousness of the project.
40
Participatory Design
• The sensitive project leader must judge the right level of user
involvement.
• The experienced user-interface architect knows that
organizational politics and the preferences of individuals may be
more important than technical issues in governing the success of
an interactive system.
• Many questions remain to be studied, such as whether
homogeneous or diverse groups are more successful, how to tailor
processes for small and large groups, and how to balance
decision-making control between typical users and professional
designers.
• Ideas about participatory design are being refined with diverse
users, ranging from children to older adult users.
41
PICTIVE
42
Participatory Design (cont.)
Druin’s model of the four levels of user participation
3-43
Participatory Design
• The levels of participation are becoming more clearer, one
taxonomy describes the roles of children in developing interfaces
for children, varying from testers to informants to partners.
• Testers are observed as they try out novel designs.
• Informants comment to designers through interviews and focus
groups.
• Design partners are active members of a design team.
44
Scenario Development(situation/picture)
❖
When a current interface is being redesigned, reliable data
about the distribution of task frequencies and sequences is an
enormous asset.
❖
A table with user communities listed across the top and task
listed down the side indicates which user performs which task.
❖
Another representation tool is a table of task frequencies,
indicating which task follow other tasks.
❖
A flowchart or a transition diagram helps the designers to
record and convey the sequences of possible actions. Line thickness
indicates the frequency of transitions.
Scenario Development
• During the early design stages, data about current
performance should be collected to provide a baseline.
• An early way to describe a novel system is to write scenarios
of usage and to act them out as a form of theater
(stage/show business)
• This technique is especially effective when multiple users
should cooperate(control rooms, financial trading rooms) or
multiple physical devices are used(eg. Customer-service
desks, medical laboratories).
• Scenarios can represent common or emergency situations
with both novice and expert users. Personas can also be used
in scenario generation.
Scenario Development
• The design team of National Digital Library gives 81
scenarios that portrayed the typical needs of potential users.
• Eg : I would like to open a grocery store specializing in organic
products in the grater Seattle metropolitan area. What are
the trends in production and consumption of organic food
products.?
• Some scenario writers produce a video tape to convey their
intentions.
• Apple’s Knowledge Navigator , Starfire scenario for Sun
Microsystems gave the realistic impression of a large-screen
work environment.
Scenario Development
• Cell-phone developers were producing scenarios on how personal,
family , and commercial relationships would change due to
mobile video communications.
• Eg : DoCoMO : it shows how a family can realize its goal of
remaining in close contact while children go to study far away
from home.