1. Requirements: Gathering

2. Why  To understand what we are going to be doing  We build systems for others, not for ourselves  Requirements definition: the stage where failure occurs most commonly  Getting requirements right is crucial

3. Functional vs. NonFunctional  Historically requirements  Features, functions that the system should do  Properties of the overall system  “-ilities” ( quality, evolveability, flexibility, etc.)  Usability requirements

4. Not just “requirements”  Overall goals, success criteria  User characteristics  Task analysis  Environment – physical, social, technical  Constraints  Usability goals, criteria

5. 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

6. Task Analysis Process of analyzing and documenting how people perform their tasks or activities  Learn what users do, why they do it, how they do it, when they do it, with what tools or people they do it Task-subtask decomposition

7. Physical Environment  Amount of space to work  Lighting levels / directions  Noise level  Temperature, humidity, dust…  Standing / sitting  Power availability  Dangers Implications?

8. Technical Environment  Computers/platforms for application  Technology to interact with  Networking  Mobility Implications?

9. Social Environment  How do users interact with system? Roles?  How do users interact with others?  Social implications of problem or solution? Interruption Privacy Implications?

10. Stakeholders  Primary – targeted end users  Secondary – receive output or provide input to system  Tertiary – others directly receiving benefits from system success or failure  Facilitating – design, development, maintenance

11. Stakeholder analysis  Cell phone  Bus location web page  Nuclear power plant control system

12. Typical Real-World Constraints  Elapsed time to market  Cost/effort to design and implement  Size/footprint/weight/power/price  Computer power/memory (related to cost and power  Consistency with overall product line  Backward compatibility  Differentiation from competitive products

13. Usability Requirements  Usability goals: such as learnability, consistency, robustness, etc.  Ways to measure and judge success Time to complete key tasks - min, max Time to become proficient - do given set of tasks in given time Subjective satisfaction

14. Example What factors (environmental, user, usability) would affect the following systems? 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

15. Bus location web page  User characteristics  Context: Environment, types of users  Constraints: device, market, etc.  Functional requirements  Non-functional requirements

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

17. Formative & Summative Evaluation  Formative evaluation Conducting this process to help guide the formation (ie, design) of a UI  Summative Evaluation Conducting this process to help summarize (sum up) the effectiveness of an existing or developmental UI  Many techniques can be used for both formative and summative evaluation Our focus right now is on formative evaluation Will revisit some of the methods again later

18. (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

19. Observation & Thinking Out Loud  Watch user(s) doing activity of interest to you  Video or audio record (with permission)  Think out loud - encourage user to verbalize what they are thinking Not everyone is good at this Hard to keep it up for long time while also doing something; need breaks

20. Observing Tips  Carefully observe everything about users and their environment  Think of describing it to someone who has never seen this activity before  What users say is important, so are non-verbal details

21. Cooperative (Participative) Evaluation  Sit with user doing activity of interest to you  Talk with user as the do their activity Ask questions  Why are you doing that?  How did you know the result was what you wanted?  Are there other ways to achieve the same goal?  How did you decide to do things this way?  Relaxed version of thinking out loud Observer and participant can ask each other questions

22. Example: mall kiosk  What could you observe?  How could you use coop eval?

23. Interviews  Structured Efficient Require training  Unstructured Inefficient No training  Semi-structured Good balance Often appropriate

24. Semi-Structured Interviews  Predetermine data of interest - know why you are asking questions - don’t waste time  Plan for effective question types  How do you perform task x?  Why do you perform task x?  Under what conditions do you perform task x?  What do you do before you perform…?  What information do you need to…?  Whom do you need to communicate with to …?  What do you use to…?  What happens after you…?  What is the result or consequence of…?  What is the result or consequence of NOT…? See ID 13.2 for more tips and discussion

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

26. 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

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

28. 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)

29. 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

30. 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

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

32. 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”

33. 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

34. Ethnography  Deeply contextual study  Immerse oneself in situation you want to learn about (has anthropological and sociological roots) Observing people in their cultural context  Behavior is meaningful only in context  For UI designers: understand current methods, activities, environment, problems to aid design

35. Ethnography  Things of interest to evaluator Structure and language used in work Individual and group actions Culture affecting work Explicit and implicit aspects of work  Example: Office work environment Business practices, rooms, artifacts, work standards, relationships between workers, managers, …

36. Drawbacks of Ethnographic Methods  Time required Can take weeks or months for large systems  Scale Most use small numbers of participants just to keep somewhat manageable  Type of results Highly qualitative, may be difficult to present/use  Acquired skill – “learn by doing” Identifying and extracting “interesting” things is challenging

37. 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

38. 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

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

40. (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

41. Assignment 1  Semi-structured interview 1 person List of questions Summarize responses  Think about your project topic  Due: Wednesday at noon

42. Brainstorming, cont.