S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Usability and acceptability Design for successful telecommunications products

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 What is “a good product” - for your company? - for the user of the product?

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Technical superiority is waste if no-one can really use it for anything that is fun or useful.

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 “There is a conflict of interest in the world of sofware development because the people who build it are also the people who design it. If carpenters designed houses, they would certainly be easier or more interesting to build but not necessarily better to live in. The architect is an advocate for the user. “ (Alan Cooper: About face)

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 A good telecom product? Supports the activities and communication of the user The whole system works, not only its parts Fits into the repertoire of communication systems of the user (compatibility - concergence!) The quality of the service is sufficient The user can use it and likes to use it

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Product maturity and usability 1) The Iron Age: Newly available functionality sells expensively, hard-to-use tolerated 2) The Functionality Competition: Feature lists 3) The Mature Product: Users want convenience and solutions 4) Transparency of product: Good usability makes product “disappear”

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999

Acceptability Social acceptability Practical acceptability CostReliability Compatibility Utility Usefulness Usability others (Nielsen, 1993) Acceptability and usability

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Usability / ISO goals Effectiveness Efficiency Satisfaction Intended objectives Outcome of interaction Usability Users Tasks Equipmen t and en- vironment

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 ISO Usability: The extent to which a product can be used by specific users to achieve specific goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specific context of use. effectiveness efficiency satisfaction

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Nielsen’s Usability Attributes Learnability (opittavuus) Efficiency (tehokkuus) Memorability (muistettavuus) Errors prevented (virheiden tekeminen estetty) Subjective satisfaction (tyytyväisyys)

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Inclusive design the process of creating products which are usable by people with the widest possible range of abilities, operating within the widest possible range of situations.

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999

User-centered design SYSTEM OPERATIONS output User interface Remote control Mouse

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Usability process Can be seen as a method for building as good as possible a system by removing things that cause problems using –user-centered approach –iterative developing & usability testing & expert-reviews –cognitive science & experience –guidelines and principles

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 The Waterfall model of software design Requirements specification Architectural design Detailed design Coding and unit testing Integration and testing Operation and maintenance (Dix et al. Human Computer Interaction, 1998)

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 The Waterfall model of software design with feedback Requirements specification Architectural design Detailed design Coding and unit testing Integration and testing Operation and maintenance (Dix et al. Human Computer Interaction, 1998)

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Using design rules Standards: –ISO 9241 Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals Guidelines –style guidelines for user interfaces of various companies –various guideline collections published by research projects and institutes –usability heuristics (Dix et al. Human Computer Interaction, 1998)

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Usability Engineering approach Including usability engineering goals into the design process Nielsen (Bellcore), Whiteside (IBM, Digital) Test of usability is based on measurements of user experience Addition of usability requirements to requirements specification (Dix et al. Human Computer Interaction, 1998)

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Sample usability specification Attribute: Backward recoverability Measuring concept: Undo an erroneus sequence Measurement method: number of user actions needed to undo error Level now: No current product allows this Worst case: as many steps as it takes to do error Planned level: Two actions Best level: One undo action

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 User-centered design universal design user-oriented design –real value for end users –matched to user capabilities –fit for the purpose for which they were designed systems oriented design –all technology operates within a context –provision process, training, support and maintenance (Trace center www pages)

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 User-centered design know the user, the task and the environment compare with existing systems set goals parallel design - competing versions

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 use heuristics and guidelines test prototypes assess usability redesign… and redesign... get feedback from usage of completed system participatory design

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Involving the user into design Product concept Specifications Prototyping Final design Follow-up Focus groups Ethnographic methods Benchmark testing Task analysis, Scenarios, user description, usability goals Rapid prototyping Expert evaluations Prototype testing Final usability testing User feedback

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Product concept design Ideas for products and knowledge about user needs Ethnographic methods (origin anthropology): observing the user in real-life context Focus groups: discussing daily life Participatory design methods Day-in-the-life methods

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 From product idea to definition Technical innovation Market innovationUser study innovation More user and marketing research Product concept Validation with more user research Definition of product

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Product concept The mission statement of the product –For whom, for what, why –on different stages of detail Is base of definitions Iterative

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Marketing vs. design Marketing: where are the customers, what would they pay Designer: How should this product work? (Beyer ja Holtzblatt, 1998 )

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Product concept design Ideas for products and knowledge about user needs Ethnographic methods (origin anthropology): observing the user in real-life context Focus groups: discussing daily life Participatory design methods Day-in-the-life methods

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Usability requirements specification User description: what kind of user groups is this designed for? User segments Task analysis: What are the user goals? How does the user work? Workflows, scenarios Environment analysis: external demands and requirements Usability goals

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Iterative prototyping visualising early design ideas for user feedback competing prototypes for comparative design paper prototypes - interactive prototypes horizontal: whole system at surface level vertical: part of functionality in whole depth whole prorotypes: whole functionality easy to produce - easy to discard!

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Parallel and iterative design (Nielsen, 1993 )

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 User participation Involve actual users users usually will not be able to come to new design ideas, but they will react to existing design don’t ask what users want - let them try it out for long projects, refresh the user group - users start understanding the developers’ problems

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Iterative prototypes Icons, terms, main view, horizontal/ vertical scenarios as prototypes rapid prototyping early stages: paper mockups and storyboards, navigation maps, verbal prototyping advanced stages: wizard-of-Oz-techniques, interactive prototypes interactive prototyping - modification on the fly

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Prototype evaluation expert evaluations –cognitive walkthrough –heuristic analysis –visual walkthrough –guideline/ standard inspection usability testing –testing of the whole prototype –testing of icons, terminology, vertical prototype

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Usability testing Most new, surprising usability problems will not be found by expert evaluation methods Users representative of the intended user group perform typical tasks (scenarios from usability requirements) with the system; test leader observes and interviews the user Test design according to goals of the test - often the usability goals of the system

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 Follow-up usability evaluation user feedback observing users in real work log of usage - analysis for errors and performance times final data on achievement of usability goals

S Product Development in Telecommunications, 1999 “If achieving the users’ goals is the basis of our user interface design, then the user will be satisfied and happy. If the user is happy, he will gladly pay us money, and then we will be successful.” (Alan Cooper: About Face)