Requirements Gathering & Expressing

Agenda Project Team Formation Requirements Gathering Methods continued Requirements Expressing Personas Scenarios

(Not All) Requirements Gathering Methods 1. Observation 2. Thinking Out Loud & Cooperative Evaluation 3. Interviews 4. Questionnaires 5. Focus groups 6. Study Documentation 7. Look at competitive products 8. Ethnography - learn by immersion/doing Ethnography is emphasis here. Jeff - please say somemore about 2 and 3 and more about diff with 1

Domain Expert Interviews Expert describes how it should be done (not necessarily how it is done)

Questionnaires General criteria Make questions clear and specific Ask some closed questions with range of answers Sometimes also have a no opinion option, or other answer option Do test run with one or two people

Questionnaires - Example Seven-point Likert Scale (use odd #) Could also use just words Strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree See ID 13.3 for more tips

Other Typical Questions Rank the importance of each of these tasks (give a list of tasks) List the four most important tasks that you perform (this is an open question) List the pieces of information you need to have before making a decision about X, in order of importance Are there any other points you would like to make? (open-ended opinion question; good way to end)

Open ended questions Can ask questions similar to semi-structured interview …but you can’t follow up, so take care what you ask Keep as short and simple as possible

Focus Groups Group of individuals - 3 to 10 Use several different groups with different roles or perspectives And to separate the powerful from those who are not Careful about few people dominating discussion Use structured set of questions More specific at beginning, more open as progresses Allow digressions before coming back on track Relatively low cost, quick way to learn a lot Audio or video record, with permission

Example: mall kiosk Who to interview? What questions? Who to give questionnaire to? What questions? What about focus group? What are differences between methods?

Study Documentation Similar in some ways to the expert interview Often describe how things should be done rather than how they are done Try to understand why not done “by the book”

Look at Competitive Products Looking for both good and bad ideas Functionality UI style Do user task performance metrics to establish bounds on your system

Ethnography Deeply contextual study Immerse oneself in situation you want to learn about (has anthropological and sociological roots) Observing people in their cultural context For UI designers: understand current methods, activities, environment, problems to aid design Drawbacks Time consuming requires training and experience

Which Methods to Use? Depends on Resources Current knowledge of tasks and users Context Can’t use talking out loud if work involves two people working together Essential to use some methods Not likely you will use all methods See pg. 214 in ID

Which Methods to Use? Self-service filling and payment system for a gas station On-board ship data analysis system for geologists searching for oil Fashion website for buying clothes at large department store

(Not All) Requirements Gathering Methods 1. Observation 2. Thinking Out Loud & Cooperative Evaluation 3. Interviews 4. Questionnaires 5. Focus groups 6. Study Documentation 7. Look at competitive products 8. Ethnography - learn by immersion/doing Ethnography is emphasis here. Jeff - please say somemore about 2 and 3 and more about diff with 1

Bus Location Web Page Create a requirements plan which methods What to look for/ask/do for each?

Recall: Gather data Organize data Represent data Interviews, observation, surveys/questionnaires, documentation, immersion Organize data Notes, cards, brainstorming, computer tools Represent data Lists, outlines, matrices Narratives Hierarchies, Networks, Flow charts

Making Sense Organize/categorize information Card Sorting “coding scheme” Card Sorting Affinity Diagrams Task analysis

Affinity Diagram - “Sorted Cards” From Interaction Design, Preece Rogers and Sharp

Describing requirements activities Narratives Personas Scenarios Task Analysis & other task descriptions …next lecture

Recall: User Characteristics Attitude, morale, willingness to change, motivation, reading level, typing skill, education, frequency of use, training, color-blindness, handedness, gender,… Novice, intermediate, expert System experience, task experience, computer literacy Cultural factors Uses of icons, colors, words, metaphors - more later

User Motivation User Design goal Low motivation, discretionary use Low motivation, mandatory use High motivation, due to fear High motivation, due to interest Design goal Ease of learning Control, power Ease of learning, robustness, control Power, ease of use

Implications of Experience Task System low low high high low high high low Design goals Many syntactic and semantic prompts Efficient commands, concise syntax Semantic help facilities Lots of syntactic prompting

Persona Description of user and what user wishes to do Be specific/detailed, even give names and picture Three personas for ATM usage follow Adapted from User Interface Design and Evaluation, The Open University Developed by Cooper (1999)

Felix (representing teenage ATM users) Felix is 13 and gets pocket money each week. He spends it with his friends, so doesn’t make regular deposits. He does receive gifts for his birthday, Christmas, etc. and saves that money for special purchases, such as a computer games console or trendy clothes. He has an ATM card allowing him to make withdrawals when needed for his purchases.

Sandra (representing young adults thru middle age) Sandra is 30, is married to Jason, has two children Todd(6) and Carly (18 months). They live in a subdivision that is about three miles from the town center, where the bank and stores are located. Jason uses the car for work, and works long hours, leaving at 6:45 am and returning at 8:00 pm. Sandra does not drive, so has to use public transportation. She tries to run errands and shop while Todd is in school, so she only has to take Carly to town with her. She typically needs to make two trips to town each week to get everything done. She uses a stroller with Carly, and the bank is one flight up via escalator, so she prefers to use the ATM outside the first floor, even though there is no canopy to protect customers from bad weather.

Grandpa Marvin (representing middle age to senior citizens) Marvin is 68 years old, and his social security is deposited into his bank account at the start of each month. He goes to the bank every week, withdrawing enough cash for the week - for miscellaneous expenditures. Regular bills are paid by check. He stands in line for a live teller, as he prefers the social interaction to using an ATM, even though his new artificial hip makes standing in line uncomfortable. He does not have an ATM card.

Task Implications Frequency of use Task implications System use High - Ease of use Low - Ease of learning & remembering Task implications Low - Ease of learning System use Mandatory - Ease of use Discretionary - Ease of learning

Job Characteristics Mission critical Life and safety High stress environment High mental workload Low mental workload Implications of these types of jobs?

Scenario Describe tasks and context in sentences Natural way of describing general idea Not effective for details branching tasks parallel tasks GREAT as introduction to diagrams or outlines

Scenario: Example 1 Its Friday afternoon and John just got paid. He wants to deposit his check immediately so he can pay his rent. He stops at one branch of his bank on the way home from work. He waits in his car while another person finishes using the ATM in front of the bank since it is drizzling outside. He walks up to the ATM to deposit his check. Only, as he is about to put the check into the envelope at the ATM, he realizes that he has not signed the back of it, and he has no pen and can not find one on or near the ATM machine. He cancels the transaction on the ATM, and enters the bank, which luckily is still open for 5 more minutes. He goes to the counter, finds a pen, and signs his check. He also fills out a deposit slip. He then waits to see a teller in person to deposit his check, and get money for the weekend.

Scenario: Example 2 Annie walks up to the ATM to deposit her weekly pay check. She puts her ATM card into the slot in the machine. She then enters her PIN number quickly, trying to block the person waiting behind her from viewing the keypad, and knows that she does not have to press “Enter” at this particular machine. She then chooses “Deposit” and “Check.” She enters the amount of the check using the keypad, then takes an envelope from the ATM machine, puts her check inside, seals the envelope and writes the amount of the check on the outside. She feeds the envelope into the slot into the ATM machine. She then selects “No other transactions” to finish, and waits to receive her receipt and ATM card.

Example Register for classes What kinds of activities could we write a scenario about? Let’s write one together

Exercise: Movie Ticket Kiosk What data gathering techniques would you use? Who would you interact with? Who are the stakeholders? What are typical user characteristics? What is physical/social/technical environment? What is a typical scenario of use? What is an atypical or problem scenario?

Next Assignments Create a persona: Due in one week Create a scenario: Due 1 ½ weeks Think about your project topic Confer with teammates

Last Assignment What did you learn about transportation? What did you learn about interviewing? How would you do it differently next time?