Olympic Message
System
John Kelleher
Material Source:
THE 1984 OLYMPIC MESSAGE SYSTEM:
A TEST OF BEHAVIORAL PRINCIPLES
OF SYSTEM DESIGN
GOULD, STEPHEN J. BOIES, STEPHEN LEVY,
JOHN T. RICHARDS, and JIM SCHOONARD
Overview
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1984 Olympic voice-mail system
15 behavioural methologies employed
Three principles
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Early focus on users
Empirical measurement
Iterative design
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J. Gould Principles
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Early focus on users and tasks
This means first understanding who the users will be by directly studying
their cognitive, behavioural, anthropomorphic, and attitudinal
characteristics. This required observing users doing their normal tasks,
studying the nature of those tasks, and then involving users in the design
process
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Empirical measurement
Early in development, the reactions and performance of intended users to
printed scenarios, manuals, etc. is observed and measured. Later on, uses
interact with simulations and prototypes and their performance and
reactions are observed, recorded and analysed.
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Iterative Design
When problems are found in user testing, they are fixed and then more
tests and observations are carried out to see the effects of the fixes. This
means that design and development is iterative, with cycles of ‘design,
test, measure, and redesign’ being repeated as often as necessary.
2
Reactions to 3 principles
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“They’re obvious – everybody says that”
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“Everybody does these things.”
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should be process-oriented not mile-stone oriented
“Human factors is just fine-tuning.”
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Gould study1: 26% mentioned none; 35% mentioned only
one
Gloss does not fix design defects – not peanut butter
“In real life, you can’t follow them.”
“You can’t measure usability”
1 Gould.
J.D.. and Lewis. C. Designing for usability: Key principles and
what designers think. Commun ACM 28, 3 (Mar. 1985). 300-311.
3
Background
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High risk system
Short project schedule
10,000 Olympic athletes and officials
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across two campuses
extended family and friends (postcards provided)
6 networked mainframes
25 kiosks
12 different languages supported (a first)
24/7 system
4
Use of system
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Kiosk housing:
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CRT of Olympians with new messages
Push-button telephone
Entertaining videodisk of a mime giving
instructions on use (4 min.)
Copies of OMS guide
People from around the world send
messages to athletes (>18,000 sent)
Olympians send messages to each
other
Olympians pick up their own
messages (43,000 sign-ons)
5
How principles were followed
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Printed scenarios
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first definition of system function
tangible, identifiable usage of system available at
a time when comments could have greatest
impact
several features dropped (E.g. call verification)
later coding saved
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How principles were followed
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Early iterative tests of user guides
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guides written before coding began
Olympians’ guide – 200 iterations
Families guide – 50 iterations
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needed to minimise long distance call times
option to change language heard E.g. Canadians.
Discouraged late changes
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proposals had to be proved to be better empirically
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How principles were followed
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Early simulations
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Wizard of Oz prototyping on ‘simpler-to-program’
IBM VM System
Provided early feedback from users
Lab personnel and visitors proved poor judges of
usability
Feedback helped form ‘prompt’ messages
Need for consistent ‘escapes’ identified
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E.g. USA Olympian accidentally enters USSR
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How principles were followed
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Early Demonstrations
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Olympians on the design team
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Prompted dropping of several functions to reduce
audio prompting.
Ghana ex-Olympian
Tours of Olympic Villages
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Difficulty of access
Classroom training for Olympians rejected due to
campus layout, climate and availability of large
rooms
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How principles were followed
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Interviews with Olympians
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Overseas Tests of Family/Friends interface
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Insight into their routine and time schedules
Added an example to OMS guide
Hallway and Storefront Methodology
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Refined dimensions of kiosk and documentation
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E.g. Deutsch rather than German
Asked people to find their name on the list
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How principles were followed
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Yorktown Prototype test
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Try-to-Destroy-it Tests
Pre-Olympic Field Test
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100 participants
Competitors from 65 countries
57 usability issues arose
Embarrassed at exclusion of competitors from Oman,
Columbia, Pakistan, Japan and Korea
Yorktown Final Prototype Test
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2800 participants
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Sample Dialog
User:
OMS:
User:
OMS:
User:
OMS:
User:
OMS:
(Dial 8540.)
Olympic Message System.
Please keypress your three-letter Olympic country code.
Systeme de Message Olympique
Tapez le numer de votre pays, s’il vous plait.
USA
United States. Les Etats-Unis.
Please keypress your last name.
goul
John Gould.
Please keypress your password.
319
Welcome to Olympic Message System.
New Message from Stephen Boies.
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Usability Findings
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1/3
Three-letter Olympic country code
Interruptible initial prompt not obvious
“Time-out” help messages tuned only for
English.
Name problems
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Middle/Far Eastern uses unsure of whether first or
last name required
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Solved by referring to Olympic ID badge
Indicated by change in all documentation
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Usability Findings
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2/3
Name issues (contd.)
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Alphabet translations often inaccurate for 5 languages
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Spelling names of other Olympians
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Added ‘reply’ option for messages received
Sign-on required only enough chars to distinguish from other
Olympians from same country
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Referred to badge for accuracy
‘smart sponge’ programming
80-90% of Olympians spoke 1 of 4 major languages
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Testing indicated need for 12 languages to be supported
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Usability Findings
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3/3
Passwords
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Often did not know password
Solved by initially assigning last 3 digits of badge
number as password
Some non-English-speaking users had difficulty
answering some prompts by chars and others by
digits
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‘We have to read the telephone keys differently’
Typography changed to emphasise distinction
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Upper case used and letters separated
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