Examples of analysis and description
All examples are taken from student work (with permission)
and are lightly edited.
© 2005 Linköpings Universitet
Time plan
This time plan contains several things you need:

First, it contains all the activities you plan to perform. This means that you can get
feedback on the important question Are we planning to do the right things?

Second, it contains all deadlines. This means that you know what to deliver, and when.

Third, it contains the division of labour. Then you can get feedback on whether you
have divided tasks that should be done in groups.

Four, it contains an approximation of the cost, in time. If you don’t know, then it can
be the time you have at your disposal. In real projects, people expect that you will
know how much time activities take. This helps you start getting an idea about this.
Example time plan
by Marianne Hougard, Ravikanth Majety, Alexei Bavelski and Michaël Mialhe
Deadlines



Tue 1/11, 12:00: Project plan (Supervision 1: Project report chapter 1)
Tue 15/11, 12:00: Concept design (Supervision 2: Project report chapter 2)
Mon 5/12, 12:00: Project report
Analysis of the current situation:
ACTIVITIES
RESPONSIBLE
TIME
COST
User analysis*
Task analysis*
Context analysis
Marianne Hougard
Ravikanth Majety
Alexei Bavelski
Week 44
Week 44
Week 44
20h
20h
10h
System analysis
Michaël Mialhe
Week 44
10h




User analysis. Provide user profiles.
Task analysis. Provide a hierarchical task analysis, a task list, and scenarios for key
tasks.
Context analysis. What does the site look like? What are people doing there? What are
their goals?
System analysis. What is the system doing for the user? Is it a good system? Provide a
task analysis for interaction with the system, a heuristic analysis, and an analysis based
on observation of use. Describe the usability of the system.
* These two analysis have to be done individually and in group. However we named a
responsible to take care of the final draft.
Analysis of the desired future, based on the analysis of the current situation.
ACTIVITIES
RESPONSIBLE
TIME
COST
Problem analysis
Analysis of strengths
What are the goals
Ravikanth Majety
Michaël Mialhe
Marianne Hougard
Week 45
Week 45
Week 45
10h
10h
10h
Alexei Bavelski
Week 45
10h
What has to be redesigned




Problem analysis. What problems are there, when considering user goals (from the
context analysis), what the system provides (system analysis) and usability (heuristics
and observation of use)
Analysis of strengths. What are the system doing really well, when considering user
goals (from the context analysis), what the system provides (system analysis) and
usability (heuristics and observation of use).
What are the goals, in terms of use and usability? Provide a list of end goals that the
system should support, and usability goals that describe important characteristics of
that use.
What has to be re-designed? Provide a description of what you need to re-design. You
may re-design the system, the environment, instructions to users, etc. Also note what
parts of the system you want to preserve (based on the analysis of strengths).
Prototyping and re-design
ACTIVITIES
RESPONSIBLE
TIME
COST
Work design
Tasks and functions
Interaction
Ravikanth Majety
Michaël Mialhe
Marianne Hougard
Week 46
Week 46-47
Week 47
40h
40h
40h
Alexei Bavelski
Week47-48
40h
Test



Work design. What is the user doing with the system, and what is done using resources
in the context? Show how the tasks are solved, step-by-step with your system and the
context.
Tasks and functions: What functionality is used, when performing the tasks? Base this
on the goals you discovered in your analysis.
Interaction: How can the user use the functionality? Focus on meeting the usability
goals you discovered in your analysis.
We decided to do this the prototyping part together. The whole team will work on it; but in
the same way as we did for the analysis there is a responsible for each part of the work.
Problem scenario
A good problem scenario clearly illustrates some usability problem(s). It also shows whether
the problem is connected to one aspect of the interface (easy to correct) or whether it is
connected to a deeper problem with the system. For a system re-design project, you will want
a system that has a deeper problem.
A good scenario illustrates a sequence of actions, involving the system, by a specific user,
having a specific goal.
It is also sufficiently complex (shows problems based on more than one trivial interface
mistake)
Example problem scenario
by Benichou Marianne, Kherian Catherine, Stenvot Marie and Pattapu Naga Krishna
Lars sits in front of his computer. He plugs his digital camera in his computer and transfers
his pictures. He wants to touch up quickly his vacation pictures for his wife Helen. One
picture in particularly represents Helen with their children but is not bright enough and wellframed.
He double clicks on the IrfanView icon on his desktop and a window appears right away. He
has only succeeded in downloading the English version, but he hopes he could find his way
easily through it.
He has to find and open the image, “but that’s Ok, it’s like in every object editing software”
he says. He browses for the first of the pictures. The picture appears on the screen. “What’s
that size?” It’s way too large, I can barely see all the children. How can I adjust it to the
screen size?”, he thinks. He tries to zoom blindly but he kept telling himself that there must be
a way to fix it for good. After scrolling everything in the menu, he eventually finds “adjust the
image to the window” among lots of other options.
“Ok, now I want to, how do you say it in English, ah yes …crop it” Where is the crop
button… I would have expected it to find it in the Image Menu but it’s not in it. Ah, it is in the
Edit Menu, weird.” He clicks on “crop the selection” but nothing happens, “well how does it
know the selection?”. After a few seconds, he has the idea to click left in the picture and draw
a rectangle and then select the crop option in the Edit Menu. “Well, I finally did it, now let’s
try to resize it”. He remembers when browsing all the menus that he had seen “resize the
picture”. He expects it to be in the Image Menu and finds it. He has no problem with entering
the desired size in the windows that has appeared and clicks “Ok” to confirm. “Well, that is
done”, he thinks.
“Now, I want to change the contrast”. But he does not remember the option while browsing
the menus; it does not seem to be in the Image Menu. After a few seconds of search, he
eventually gives up. “Well I’m done for now but it must be somewhere, I will ask Helen later.
I have already spent 15 minutes for this I didn’t expect it to be that long”.
Finally, he saves his new picture in a new directory, where he puts all of photos he likes the
most. To do so, he types the shortcut he is used to, yet, using Ctrl+S save the new picture,
removing the former one. As he would like to keep the rushes, and save the modified picture
in another file with another name, he tries to cancel the manipulation he has done, pressing
Ctrl+Z. Yet he realizes that he only can cancel the latest operation. He tries so to redo the
changes with Ctrl+Y, and fails. Searching in the menus, he realizes he has to redo by himself
the change he cancelled. After doing so, he selects save as in the file menu. To show his
pictures, he decides to create a diaporama. Once again, he does not manage to find how to
proceed, and so decides to ask his wife for help for she has more experienced in this.
Storyboard
A good storyboard illustrates what happens in the interaction. For a problem storyboard, it
illustrates what goes wrong. Therefore, as in the example below, it is vital that relevant
illustrations are used.
A good storyboard illustrates a sequence of actions, involving the system, by a specific user,
having a specific goal. The interaction is documented by using images, or drawings. This is
the main difference between a storyboard and a scenario.
Example storyboard
by Benichou Marianne, Kherian Catherine, Stenvot Marie and Pattapu Naga Krishna
“Lars opens IrfanView thanks to
the red and friendly icon on his
Desktop and browses his files to
find the pictures he wants to
modify.”
“Then he looks at the first
picture opened and thinks it is
really too large so he will try to
zoom less and change the
options for next time”
“Then
he
opens
the
picture with
the children
and tries to
crop it with
the selection
rectangle”
“Then he uses the
resize window but it is
very complete and he
does not really know
what format to choose
nor if he has to change
something in the filter
used… he will really
call Helen!”
Task analysis
A good task analysis shows how a user reaches a goal, through interaction with the system. It
is more formal than a scenario. It is hierarchical, dividing tasks into subgoals and actions
needed to reach the goals. In the example below, “view message history of a contact”, is a
goal. The subgoals are “Select and view a contact message window”, then “Open history of
that contact”. It is also important to say something about the task, such as the frequency of
use, and whether there are problems or other issues with the task.
Task analysis example 1
By Ravikanth Majety
Tasks
Sending messages
User’s Frequency
every 1-2 minutes
Add Contacts
Sending
files
and
receiving files
Viewing history
Sending offline messages
Once in a week
3-4 times a day
Changing status
Viewing User details
Changing settings
Very often
Once in a month
Once in awhile
2-3 times a day
4-5 times a day
Comments
No Send button, (press
“ENTER” key to send
message)
Easy
Easy, navigate the path of
the file which has to be sent
Display is not user friendly
Initially the user has to
customise the option to view
offline contacts
Easy, select the protocol
Simple
Tedious
Task Lists:
Sending Messages:
The user selects the contact in his list and double clicks on it so that a message window opens
and user can type the message and press “ENTER” to send the message.
Add Contacts: The user clicks on “find/add contact” in Miranda toolbar, select the protocol to
search or add the contact in it. If the contact is available in the list then we can send message
directly or else we can add the contact to the list.
Sending files: For sending files the user has to select the contact (who is also online) and click
the “user- menu” and select “File” option and add select the file which has to be send and the
user can give description of the file and click “SEND” to send the file.
View History: The user has to select the contact id from the contact list and double click it to
open the message window and click the menu to click view history or “View User’s History”
icon in the message window.
Sending Offline Messages: Select the buddy in the contact list and double click it to send an
offline but some protocols don’t support offline messaging option like MSN Messenger.
Changing Status: The users can change their status of the protocols. There are two possible
ways to change the status: Click “Status” menu in the Miranda instant message window
choose the protocol and choose the status. (OR)
Click the icons (select the protocol) which are bottom on the contact list window, and choose
the status.
Viewing Contacts details: This can be done by clicking the menu in the message window and
click “User Details”, from which the user can view and add the contact details of his /her
contact.
Changing Settings: The settings of Miranda IM can be changed by clicking the “options” in
menu and set the required settings. This task is more complex.
View History:
View the
message history
of a contact
Select and view
a contact
message
window
Select the
contact list
Displays Contact
list
Double click the
contact name
history icon
Displays
message window
Open history of
that contact
Click menu of
message window
Displays the
menu
Click View
History
bar
Displays the
history
0. View users message history
1. Select a contact
1.1 Select contact list
1.2 Double click the contact
2. Open contact history window
2.1 Click menu of message window
2.2 Click view history
Plan 0: do 1-2. If message window is already open do 2.
Task analysis example 2
By Michaël Mialhe
Task list
Send message
The user clicks on contact’s name; a new conversation window opens and he types his text
and click on send.
Select the protocol
The user selects the protocols he wants to log on. He can choose among IRC, Jabber, MSN
Messenger, ICQ, Aol Instant Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger.
Change status online/offline
He can be online in MSN Messenger, away on ICQ and busy on IRC. Basically the user clicks
on the protocols and choose between online, offline, busy, away, be right back, on the phone,
out to lunch, do not disturb and free for chat.
Find contacts/add contact
The user clicks on “find contact” in file toolbar, writes the name of the contact and chooses in
which protocol he is. Then he clicks on “search” to find his contact. Once he has found him
he can clicks on “add contact” to add him on the list and can change the displayed name for
example.
View user’s details profiles
In the conversation window there is a button to see details about user profile:
age/gender/address etc.
Change profile
As other users can see our own profile we can change it too.
Help
The help option appears in file toolbars and contains link to the Miranda IM official website
to retrieve updates, documentations for help etc.
Change options
Miranda IM provides a lot of options, advanced users can customize his application in many
ways. As a sample we find options about status, icons, list, text, events, logs, hotkeys, sounds,
notifying, plugins and advanced specific features for each protocols etc.
Send/Receive file
The users can send files trough every protocol. Basically he can do this when a conversation
window is opened with a contact. Then he clicks on the button “send a file” and browses his
hard drive to find the file.
Hotkeys
Miranda IM supports the use of hotkeys. Advanced users may be interested in. He can setup
the hotkeys in options and then use them later to show/hide or read messages for instance.
Ignore/delete contact
In the same way that contacts can be added on the lists we can remove and ignore people. To
do so, the user needs to select the contact name he wants to delete and then click on “delete”.
Log events
In the conversation window with a contact there is a button to show all of the conversation
history of this contact.
Plugins
As we said, Miranda IM supplies plugins. Users can install them; an important amount of
plugins are available with Miranda IM and the users can customize his application in many
different ways.
TASKS
Send message
TIME
10 times per minute
Select the protocol
2 or 3 times per day
COMMENT
Feelings depends on the
environment
This tasks can be boring
Change status online/offline 3 to 5 times per day
Find/add contacts
1 per month
View user’s details profiles
Twice per month
Change profile
Once
Help
Once per month
Change options
Twice a month
Send/Receive file
Twice per day
Hotkeys
Always
Ignore/delete contact
Sometimes
Log events
Once per month
Plugins
2-3 per month
A lot when install the
application for the first time.
Then it is less used
User doesn’t really use it ; he
may already know who is
talking with
It is seldom that the user
change his profile after he
did it the first time
Help is especially used
during the beginning of use
User
doesn’t
feel
comfortable with the options
window, it’s not easy to find
what is wanted
An advanced user will use
that a lot
When the user
remember
an
conversation
doesn’t
old
Task analysis example 3 (diagram only)
Marianne Benichou –resizing
Open IrfanView
Open a picture
Select Image Menu
Resize
Choose
Resize/Resample
Save
Quit
A resize window appears
Set new size
Set new size
as
percentage
of original
Set new size
by choosing
one of the
standards
User analysis
A good user analysis describes the user characteristics and relates them to the system. For
instance, tool expertise level is a relation between the system and the user (see the first
example below). Another example consider the following from the second example below
“Third user is probably living with his parents, attending school for persons with limited
hearing. IM plays important role in his life, because he can’t use telephone or even easily talk
to people in normal way.” This says something about the importance of the system to the user.
So, describe, and relate!
Remember, if you try to design for everyone, then your design has to fit people with no arms,
blind people, people who see perfectly, people who are 30 years old, three years old, and 100
years old –at the same time. This is of course not realistic. Therefore, you have to design for a
specific user.
User matrix example (comparative)
By Alexei Bavelski
Life situation
(Work)
environment
Usage frequency
Primary user
Student, single
(might be recent
graduate, just
starting
to
work)
University
or
office work
Every day
Tool expertise / Low
experience
User 2
High-school
student,
probably living
with parents
User 3
High-school
student,
probably living
with parents
User 4
Low
vision/Visually
impaired/Color
blindness
High-school
Special-school
Home-office
Once or twice Very often
per week
Medium
Experienced
Low
Low
User profile example
By Alexei Bavelski
1. Life situation
Our primary user is a 23 year old person, who probably just graduated from university and got
a new job. He is using IM for communicating with his college friend, who graduated too and
moved to different parts of the world. He is independent person, living alone or with his
girlfriend. The user might also occasionally use IM to communicate with his parents, brothers,
sisters, also probably uses IM as a secondary task at work.
Life situation of the secondary users may be different. Second user is probably high school
student or college junior. She might live together with her parents or in student dormitory,
uses IM for communicating with friends. Third user is probably living with his parents,
attending school for persons with limited hearing. IM plays important role in his life, because
he can’t use telephone or even easily talk to people in normal way.
2. (Work) environment
Primary user is a recent graduate. He probably just got a job, working in the office with a lot
of new people. He is able to use IM as a secondary task, most likely for communicating with
friends. Also there exists a possibility that he is using IM with his co-workers for discussing
some project details, analyzing something, getting some help.
Secondary user is a student. She has a lot of friend around, a lot of real communication. Most
likely she does not use IM at school; most of the occasions of using IM are at home. Third
user might use IM both, at home and at school.
3. Usage frequency
Primary user, most likely uses IM pretty often. He has a lot of friends, who just moved to
different parts of the world, and communicates with them via IM. So usage frequency is every
day. Second user probably does not use IM very often. She always has a lot of friends around
and a lot of real communication, at school and at home. But occasional use is possible, mostly
at home, probably once or twice per week. Third user uses IM very often, because this is
easiest way of communication for him. So he probably uses it both, at home and at work. Last
user users IM occasionally, only its audio features, probably once or twice per week.
4. Tool expertise/ experience
Primary user is not very experienced in using IM applications. He also does not have too
much time too learn and to customize the system. But he is smart and can understand basics
of the system without any problems. Second user has some experience with IM, but only on a
basic level: sending and receiving messages and files. Third user has a lot of experience of
text communication. He is using the system a lot, spending a lot of time customizing it and
learning it. This is important part of his life. Fourth user has neither experience of using
system nor desire to learn or customize it. He only uses one particular feature of the system.
Context Analysis
A good context analysis describes the environment and relates it to the system. For instance,
in the example below “Concerning the noise, it may be annoying for other users in the same
room to hear unexpected different brief sounds, if earcons are implemented in the interface.”
Context Analysis example
by Benichou Marianne, Kherian Catherine, Stenvot Marie and Pattapu Naga Krishna
IrfanView is a software mainly used at home for personal goals. Since it is used at home,
there is no lighting issue. Concerning the noise, it may be annoying for other users in the same
room to hear unexpected different brief sounds, if earcons are implemented in the interface.
It is not likely that the user needs confidentiality for his work, more probably the results aim
to be shared and displayed.
In order to install and run IrfanView, the user should have a computer running a version of
Windows, no version have yet been made for other operating system such as Linux and
MacOs. The software is free and can easily be downloaded on the Internet. Hence it is
available for anyone who owns a computer that runs Windows, which a lot of people do. In
that way it can reach a quite large public so it is a big asset. Moreover IrfanView is released in
many different languages which make the English speaking constraint fade away.
The user, most of the time, is not in a hurry to touch up pictures but it could happen that they
have to do it in the last minute. It is not uncommon that a group of persons works on the same
project or at least one operates while the others look at the pictures and give their opinions.
That is why is should be rather easy to display quickly different pictures on the screen (using
tabs for example). Moreover while he is at home, the user can be disturbed or interrupted in
his work by different events. Others software are running on the computer such as e-mail, msn,
etc. The work should then be regularly saved and at least the last version be retrieved. The
software should remind the user to save his work.
Besides if IrfanView is ever used in a professional framework, touching up pictures is
definitively a part f a larger task, such as an advertising campaign editing. Features offered
and results should then be reliable.
Problem analysis
A good problem analysis explains why there are problems with the system, by relating
problem statements to the preceding analysis.
Usability criteria
Also, explain what the usability criteria are for this system (effectiveness, efficiency,
learnability, etc….) Explain what for instance effectiveness means for this particular system.
Re-design idea
Here, you briefly explain the basic idea for your re-design. This is an update of your vision
scenario from chapter 1. Explain why you think it is going to be an improvement. Relate to
problem analysis and usability criteria.
Examples
These three last sections of the analysis were previously done differently, so we await your
good examples.