1. Requirements Gathering
…along with Ethics

2. Agenda Questions? TA introduction Ethics Requirements gathering
Project brainstorming and informal group time
Project – must have some computing and interface component. Can have some physical aspect too that can be prototyped.

3. Assignment 2 Semi-structured interview Think about your project topic
2 people, 10 minutes each
List of questions
Summarize responses
Think about your project topic
Due: next Tuesday by class time

4. In class exercise – observe someone
Swap cell phones and observe each other
Look up most recently called and return call
Add your name to the phone book

5. Impressions? What was surprising? What problems did you observe?
How would this be different in real world?
How did you feel about being observed?

6. Working with People Issues of rights, respect, ethics
YOU will be observing and talking to people to:
Gather requirements
Get initial design feedback
Perform evaluations of your design
Important to be professional with any interaction with potential users

7. Why an issue? Usability testing can be arduous; privacy is important
Each person should know and understand what they are participating in:
what to expect, time commitments
what the potential risks are
how their information will be used
Must be able to stop without danger or penalty
All participants to be treated with respect

8. Consent
Why important?
People can be sensitive about this process and issues
Errors will likely be made, participant may feel inadequate
May be mentally or physically strenuous
What are the potential risks (there are always risks)?
Examples?
“Vulnerable” populations need special care & consideration
Children; disabled; pregnant; students (why?)

9. IRB, Participants, & Ethics
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Federal law governs procedures
Reviews all research involving human (or animal) participants
Safeguarding the participants, and thereby the researcher and university
Not a science review (i.e., not to asess your research ideas); only safety & ethics

10. IRB @ UNCC http://www.research.uncc.edu/comp/chuman.cfm
On-line tutorial
Guidelines
Consent procedures and template forms
Protocol application forms
Ethics certification
Standardized training to ensure everyone understands the issues

11. Why are requirements important?
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

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

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

14. (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
Ethnography is emphasis here.
Jeff - please say somemore about 2 and 3 and more about diff with 1

15. Know Thy User You want to know Who your users are What they are doing
When they are doing it
Why they are doing it
What tools they are using
How they are using them

16. Human Characteristics
Physical attributes (age, gender, size, reach, visual angles, etc…)
Perceptual abilities (hearing, vision, heat sensitivity…)
Cognitive abilities (memory span, reading level, musical training, math…)
Personality and social traits (likes, dislikes, preferences, patience…)
Cultural and international diversity (languages, dialog box flow, symbols…)
Special populations, (dis)abilities

17. 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

18. Design implications Consider the implications: Fact Implications
Users yrs
Range of text sizes
Range of grip strength
Some French speakers
Multilingual interface
Astronaut users
Extensive training available
Military context
Aesthetics less of an issue
Ruggedness is critical

19. What are the implications?
Young, busy professionals. Product for use in their home/personal lives
Busy professionals. Product for use in the office, discretionary use.
Range of office workers. Product for us in the office, mandatory use.

20. Are Cultural Differences Important?
Anna: the IKEA agent
Designed to be different for UK and US customers
What are the differences and which is which?
What should Anna’s appearance be like for other countries, like India, South Africa, or China?

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

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

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

24. 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

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

26. 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
More next week…

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

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

31. (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

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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

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

37. Interview Users Semi-structured: predetermine sets of questions
Example 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 7.4 for more tips and discussion

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

39. Focus Groups Interview groups of users – 3 to 10 at a time
Use several different groups with different roles or perspectives
Relatively low cost, quick way to learn a lot
Use structured set of questions
More specific at beginning, more open as progresses
Allow digressions before coming back on track
More challenging to lead than single interview
Some people quiet, some dominating
Easier to get off track

40. Questionnaires (or Surveys)
Easier to give to broader audience
Shorter, more focused than interview
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

41. 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)

42. Questionnaires - Example
Numerical scales:
On a scale of 1 to 7, how comfortable are you…
Could also use just words
Strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree
See ID 7.5 for more tips

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

44. 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”

45. 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

46. 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. 343 in ID

47. 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

48. Assignment 2 Semi-structured interview Think about your project topic
2 people, 10 minutes each
List of questions
Summarize responses
Think about your project topic
Due: next Tuesday by class time

49. Project brainstorming
Your ideas??
System for monitoring energy/water usage in your home
System to monitor energy/gas usage in your car
System to help track the carbon footprint of your daily activities
Web pages or mobile system to suggest alternative methods of travel to get from A to B.
Mobile device to suggest greener product alternatives at the store

50. Reminder: MUST have interface component Think of someone else
Avoid being biased by your intuitions
Think of everyday problems
Think about people and problems first, then technology
Suggested Project Theme:
Design a service to promote, encourage or support sustainability of the environment.