1. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY User Studies Basic principles, methods, and examples 30.10.2001 Sari Kujala Qure Project Software Business and Engineering Institute (SoberIT)

2. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Contents  User studies: goal and principles  User study process: methods and templates  Analysing stakeholders  Planning  Studying users  Analysing and reporting  Presenting results  Effort estimations, lessons learned

3. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY User studies  The goal is to gather USER NEEDS for product development  User need is manifested by the context of use, problems, and possibilities  Context of use means the characteristics of the intended users, users' present tasks, tools and environment  Understanding users’ goals is essential

4. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Principles of user studies  Plan the focus and objectives for the visit  Watch, listen to, and talk with users in their own environment  Treat users as experts  Take the role of the apprentice. Your task is to confess your ignorance and ask stupid questions.

5. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY User studies: What to look for?  Background information  User’s goals and preferences  Current processes and problems  User’s knowledge, skills, & experiences  Context of using  Pros and cons of the current tools and processes

6. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY User study process  Analysing stakeholders  Planning  Seeing users  Analysing and reporting  Presenting results

7. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Analysing stakeholders  Utilising existing documents  Identifying stakeholders  Identifying user groups  Preliminary user description

8. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Planning (Hackos and Redish, 1998)  Decide issues and objectives for the study  Select user study methods  Plan how data will be analysed and reported  Choose participating users  Choose locations where to go  Form a user study team and decide roles  Plan how the user visits will be recorded  Prepare materials for user visits  Plan a pleminary schedule

9. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY User study methods  Observing and video-observing  Interviewing  Contextual Inquiry  Artifact walkthrough  Thinking-aloud method  Simulations, role-play  Interactive feature conceptualization

10. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Selecting user study methods

11. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Observing  Users are observed in their own environment performing their tasks  Focus on gathering non-verbal information: routinised actions, detailed behaviour, environment  Can be time consuming, if not used together with other methods

12. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Interviewing  Users are interviewed in their own environment using their language  Focus on verbal information: user goals, tasks and sequences in general level, domain specific information  Predefined interview themes are used flexibly  Efficient method, but detailed and nonverbal information may be lost

13. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Contextual Inquiry (Holtzblatt and Byer, 1998)  Interviewing and observing is combined; users are watched, listen to, and talked with while they work in their own environment  Focus on uncovering detailed work practice and context of use

14. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Artifact walkthrough  Users are asked for examples of artifacts: forms, reports, hand-written manuals, notes  The artifacts can help to understand  how tasks are done  what is difficult for users to do or remember  what kind of information flows there are from user to user

15. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Thinking aloud-method  Focus on gathering non-verbal information: skills, selection rules and problem solving, beliefs  Users are asked to tell and show how they use a tool

16. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Simulations  If it is not possible to disturb users in real situations, the use situation can be simulated  Or you can videorecord the situation and discuss with users afterwards

17. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Interactive feature conceptualization  During an interview, tools, places, persons are written in sticky notes. In the end, user is asked to rearrange the notes in categories, the over all picture is drawn together with the interviewer using arrows etc.  Focus on visualisation of user information, the overall picture, checking the validity of interviews

18. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Analysing and reporting  User profiles  Task sequences and hierarchies  Scenarios  User needs tables -> use cases  Affinity diagrams  Videoshots and photographs

19. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Example: A user need table

20. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Example: Use Case

21. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Report contents  Case summary  Customer descriptions  User descriptions  Context of use descriptions  User needs tables  Findings-tables

22. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Presenting  Presentations better way in sharing than a report alone  Videoshots and photographs were prefered  Presentations inspired salesmen to give more examples and information

23. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Number of person hours spent on the user studies

24. SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Lessons learned from the cases  A small-scale user study pilot has been a good way of introducing user needs gathering to companies  Results visible: increased innovations and customer satisfaction  Motivating for people and organisation  Learning by doing  A multi-disciplinary team work was efficient