Conduct User Analysis
Website Design
With handout UseNeedsAnalysis.doc
Research
Before starting the analysis you should find
out about:
The organisation, its background and business
The department(s) or business areas that you
will be working for
The people you will be working with
Possible solutions
Prior knowledge of the organisation and its
activities will help you ask appropriate and
intelligent questions
Gathering Client/User Information
In Website Design there are two
groups you need to gather information
from:
The Client who wants the website
The expected users of the website
The Client can give you their
requirements
You may need specialist information in
order to fulfil those requirements
Gathering Client/User Information
Identify all levels of users
Users of a website can include:
External users – the customers or those
needing the service the website supplies
Internal users - Managers for analyses
to determine further strategies
Gathering Client/User Information
You can question the Client by:
Meeting face to face
Providing a survey
The Client may suggest others you
should talk to or survey
The Client can provide some user
information
More strategies are presented in
another Slide Show
Face to Face Meetings
Can be “one on one” or “round table”
Prior to the meeting, you should gather
information about the subject to be
discussed, for example:
Read your discussion notes from previous
meetings
Read the department’s business plans
Browse your file of articles from trade journals
Remind yourself of any special terminology
used by your client.
Know the names, titles and relations hips of the
people involved.
Inform the Client of anything you need
them to bring to the meeting
Face to Face Meetings
Some pointers to successfully leading a
meeting are:
You set the topic. Get them to talk.
You listen and steer with pertinent questions
Ensure everyone gets a fair hearing
Do not let a few people dominate the session.
Aim for consensus, but do not expect it all the
time
After discussion of a topic, summarise the
outcome.
Stick to the agenda
Handle lengthy sidetracks by calling a separate
meeting
Stick to the stated timeframe – clients are busy
people.
Face to Face Meetings
Remember to use “open” and
“closed” questions appropriately
Take notes as you go – it is not
usually possible to remember
everything that is said
The Client may even think you are not
taking them seriously
Surveys
Are the process of obtaining facts and
opinions from a range of people
Can be undertaken by:
telephone questioning
written questionnaire
personal questioning
A combination of methods is often
used successfully
Surveys
Surveys are helpful if you want the views of
a range of people and / or if those people
are geographically dispersed
They follow a very structured format
Questions are carefully worded beforehand
and asked in the same sequence
some may be omitted depending on the
responses to earlier questions.
Surveys
The following points need to be
considered:
Questions must be unambiguous
Multiple choice answers must offer distinct
choices where one of the answers can be
selected
Leading questions must be avoided – example,
‘tell me why you think the system is bad’ implies
that the system is bad
You need to include cross check questions to
check the answers to earlier questions
Surveys
A prepared questionnaire can be the
basis for a face-to-face meeting
It can be sent to the users in advance to
assist them to prepare for the meeting
Their answers can then be used for the
basis of further discussion.
You can prepare a set of questions to
be asked at the meeting.
In this interactive situation you can seek
elaboration on answers, or ask further
questions.
Determining Business Function in
Relation to a Website
What business functions need to be
represented on the site?
How they should be represented?
To assist representation:
Get to know the terminology of the
business
Gather sample forms (inputs) and
reports (outputs)
Analysing Business Activities
What – data is used for this activity
Where – it comes from and goes to
Why – it is used
How – it is used and possibly
transformed
Who – uses it
When – it is used and how frequently
Documenting Functional Needs
For each of the business functions you
have defined, you should:
Describe the function briefly
Describe the data and where it comes from
(inputs)
Define the processes that occur on that data
Describe the reports and other outputs
The business function on a website must
“connect” or “mesh” with the physical
business function
Describing the Business Function
Two or three sentences are usually
sufficient to explain the purpose of the
function
A brief description is sufficient for
providers of information technology
solutions to understand what your
requirements are
In a Team Project you may not be the
one implementing the IT solutions
Describing Processes
You need to describe the major
activity or group of activities
This informs the supplier of IT solutions
about the scope of the business function
They can then map their
product/expertise to website needs
Outputs
The term ‘outputs’ covers any report or form a user
requires from the system, or any interface to other
systems (such as a link to the head office
accounting system)
If the report is a standard output for this type of
business activity, there is no need to define it – the
title is sufficient
For each non –standard output, you need to state:
Title, usage, purpose (in brief)
Major data fields, sequence, page breaks
How often it is needed, when it is needed (for example, at
the end of each day)
Urgency (wanted immediately or overnight)
Unusual Situations
Most business functions are very
similar across organisations in the
same industry
Sometimes you will meet a situation
that is not standard
If it is an important difference, and if
there is good reason for the anomaly
to remain, you must mention it in your
report.
Other Considerations
There are a number of other aspects that
may be important, and need to be
documented. They are:
Security
Audit
Backup
Restore
Data integrity
Data and transaction volumes
Processing cycles
Predicted growth
Archive and purge