COMM1PCOMM1P Professor Gilbert Cockton, FRSA Leader, Human-Computer Systems Group, School of Computing, Engineering and Technology Project Director, Digital Media Network Web Interaction Design 2

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 The Rule of HCI: Reminder 0905 Good Design … … demonstrably fits … … its context of use

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton Fundamentals: Reminder 0907 èContext Design Evaluation

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 How They Fit Together 0908 Context Evaluation Design Constrains  Informs  Tests Fits Implies

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Context: DefinitionS 0912 The circumstances within which an entity or process exists The environment within which systems operate The definer and determinant of success and failure A source of requirements (beware!) and acceptance criteria

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Context... of Use 0914 “of use” is a specialisation, a restriction to environments of usage, success and failure and their potentially relevant aspects relevance is a function of proposed design options RECALL THREE MAIN ASPECTS OF CONTEXT

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Objectives and Assessment: Abilities 1: Reminder 0917 Research context of use Users and Stakeholders Tasks and Activities Environments: Physical, Organisational, Cultural Individual Assignment requires skilled activities

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Potentially Relevant Context 0919 Not just end-users, but all stakeholders Not just immediate tasks, but embracing activities Not just physical setting for use, but organisational, cultural and technical

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Required Activities: Reminder 0920 èResearch and Design Grounding Explicit Design, Explicit Rationales Quality Testing

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Researching Context 0922 Identify stakeholders and their attributes Identify activities and critical success factors Model the usage environments HOW WOULD YOU COLLECT THIS DATA?

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Data Collection 0927 Contemporary Archaeology - study material culture, but talk to people too! Ethnography - observing activities and environments Interview, focus groups and questionnaires - profiling and understanding stakeholders

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Example: The Great Indoors (IBM/Sears Roebuck) 0929 Stakeholders: focus on US females Activities: redecoration projects, finding ideas, learning tips Tasks: selecting products Environment: apparently not considered

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 The Great Indoors: Research 0931 Prior to designing the store and subsequently the Web site, we spoke with thousands of women about their decorating and remodeling adventures and what their ideal experience would be. … They told us they wanted an extensive array of top quality merchandise options, the ability to see and evaluate the items clearly, design inspiration and solutions and an easy-to-navigate site John Yung, Director, thegreatindoors.com

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Modelling and Analysis 0933 Grounded Theory - concept hierarchies (affinity diagrams, issues and topics) Work Models - contextual design (flow, sequence, culture, artefact, physical) (Personal) Construct Theories Psychographics - demographics and lifestyle preferences Business Models - P/L, branding etc.

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Context Representations 0935 Beyer and Holtzblatt’s Work Models Contextual Design,

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Generating Designs 0940 Envisionment Scenarios Vision Document, Contextual Design credible narrative of existing and envisaged who, what, where, when, why? Domain Analysis (OO Methods) use cases become navigation routes information structure becomes information architecture

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Grounding Designs 0942 Design first, ground later Specify design, then link back to context models Identify unreferenced context and ungrounded design features Most designs will involve both generating and grounding

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Tutorials 0944 Until groups are formed, Mondays EC: ECA: For Monday, think about Desirable attributes of web-sites (-ities) Design Archaeology –why is this object the way it is? –Stakeholders, activities, usage environments

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Break minutes Please do be back on time Contexts of internet, intranets and extranets? How do internets, intranets and extranets differ on their stakeholders, activities and environments?

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Recommended Books Nielsen, J. Designing Web Usability Spool, J. et al. Web Site Usability Donnelly, V. Designing Easy to Use Websites

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 InTERnet or InTRAnet? 1000 employees vs. customers inTRAnet vs. inTERnet Stakeholders: primary

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 InTERnet or InTRAnet? 1003 Customer-centred vs. employee-centred? inTRAnet vs. inTERnet Stakeholder needs for information/activities

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 InTERnet or InTRAnet? 1006 needs vs. wants inTRAnet vs. inTERnet Mandatory vs. Discretionary Activity property

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 InTERnet or InTRAnet? 1014 Hundreds of Pages vs. Thousands inTRAnet vs. inTERnet Domain: Information range

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 InTERnet or InTRAnet? 1016 Browser, network speed, typefaces, display size, plug-ins, applications, known upgrade paths and timescales predictable vs. unpredictable inTRAnet vs. inTERnet Environment: technical

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 InTERnet or InTRAnet? 1019 Information structure organisation vs. customer-centred? inTRAnet vs. inTERnet Domain: information structure

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 InTERnet or InTRAnet? 1021 Jargon and acronyms vs. plain language inTRAnet vs. inTERnet Stakeholders: language needs

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 InTERnet or InTRAnet? 1023 Business model third-party revenue vs. no revenue inTRAnet vs. inTERnet Stakeholders: management, goals and needs

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 InTERnet or InTRAnet? create vs. reduce inTRAnet vs. inTERnet Activities: expected changes in context Stakeholders: impact

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 InTERnet or InTRAnet? 1029 Internal testing vs. competitive testing stakeholders: developers inTRAnet vs. inTERnet and so on regular vs. irregular usage (stakeholders) knowledgeable vs. anything (stakeholders) fixed home vs. anything (environment: technical)

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Extranets 1031 More like inTERnet or inTRAnet?

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Content 1: Reminder 1033 Human-Computer Interaction for the Web èContext Research, Usability Engineering Information Architecture Conceptual Functionality Navigation Structures, Display Design, Interaction Techniques

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Summary 1035 Context reseach, modelling and analysis loosely structured opportunistic precious limited essential

COMM1PCOMM1P SCET MSc EC/ECA © Gilbert Cockton 2001 Last Words from Jared Spool 1037 p.153 What’s “good enough”?