9 November 2005
Today's Topic: Focus Group Analysis
Class time will be devoted to team meetings.
Members should analyze the focus group results, document observations, and note potential changes to the prototype resulting from the feedback.
7 November 2005
Today's Topic: Focus Groups
Class time will be devoted to focus groups.
The prototypes will be halved for critique during the first and second hour of class.
2 November 2005
Today's Topic: Usability Test 2 Analysis
Class time will be devoted to analyzing results of Usability Test 2.
31 October 2005
Today's Topic: Usability Test 2
Class will be devoted to running Usability Test 2. The expectation is that the test will be modified for finer levels of granularity, testing any modifications in the prototype, and also any innovations.
26 October 2005
24 October 2005
19 October 2005
17 October 2005
Today's Topic: Usability Test 1 Analysis
Class time will be devoted to analysis of Usability Test 1 results.
12 October 2005
Today's Topic: Usability Test 1
This class will be devoted to running the first of two Usability Tests.
10 October 2005
Today's Topic: Usability Assessment Methods
Once a usability test is conducted, how does one gauge level of success. This class will focus upon data collection tools and metrics.
Additionally we will devote the second hour to a review for the EXAM.
5 October 2005
Today's Topic: Team Meeting
Class time will be devoted to development of Usability Test #1 materials.
3 October 2005
Today's Topic: Usability Testing
The essence of usability testing is this - developers and designers of a product are the least objective people in the world in terms of guaging how usable their own creations are. Because they understand the conceptual arrangements and underlying structures they cannot really see their product as a user might.
This class will focus upon the process of usability testing and determining what the test should include.
28 September 2005
Today's Topic: 2.1 Presentations
Each group will give a presentation of their product. Key points that must be addressed:
- Define the key functions of the product
- Provide a high-vision statement
- Define the stakeholders
- Provide compelling reasons why we need this
Additionally, presenters will be graded on interaction style, clarity, and responsiveness.
Each group will have approximately 15 minutes to present their work. Any powerpoint slides should be emailed to me prior to class. Should you have any other media requirements, do also inform me of those as well.
ASSIGNMENT 2.1 : Design Document is due
26 September 2005
Today's Topic: Prototyping
In the design process, creators will create a series of maquettes - prototypes - to test whether or not development is on track.
There is a range of types of prototypes, some as simple as a piece of paper and pencil sketches, to balsa wood and hot glue, virtual constructions in 3D space, and working models.
21 September 2005
19 September 2005
Today's Topic: Usability Goal Setting
Considering the users, the critical tasks (as outlined through analysis), and the various interaction styles, how will you design your product to make it easy for your users to accomplish what they wish to do?
How will you know you've succeeded?
17 September 2005
Avast, Ye Mateys!
Tomorrow (Friday, September 19th) is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Just thought you'd like to know.
14 September 2005
Today's Topic: Personas and Task Analysis
In the previous class, we are infinitely cognizant of the direction of an undertaking with the end goal in mind. Today we talk about the specific who? and what?
Who?
This evening we get more concrete about the matter. Not only in the design process do we need to consider the general user, but we need to define all potential stakeholders in specific detail.
In order to bring the notion to life, more recent models of usability engineering have devised the notion of personas. Theater meets design. We create characters, flesh them out: what they look like, where they come from, their motivations, and where they are - all to understand how that affects user interaction.
What? What are the critical tasks that will make or break the perception of a quality experience? What is the basic functionality? Extraneous? Window dressing? How do we prioritize and order the myriad things a user can do?
12 September 2005
Today's Topic: Extreme GUI
A recap of gestalt principles as applied to graphical user interfaces and other interfaces that are coming to a product near you.
Additionally, some class time will be devoted to clarifying your teams' problem scenarios, high-level vision and stakeholders.
Below are links to the various interfaces demoed:
Color picker: http://www.pixy.cz/apps/barvy/index-en.html
Music chord illustrator: http://www.pixy.cz/apps/stupnice
SAP ring interface: http://www.aec.at/annualreport/
Peet's Coffee: http://www.peets.com/selector_coffee/coffee_selector.asp
SmartMoney's Treemap: http://www.smartmoney.com/marketmap/
Kurzweil: http://www.kurzweilai.net
Outpost: http://guir.berkeley.edu/projects/outpost/
Denim: http://guir.berkeley.edu/projects/denim/
Dasher: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/djw30/dasher/
Wearable computing:http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/
The Glass Engine: http://www.philipglass.com/glassengine/index.htm
Empathic Data Visualization: http://www.flong.com/jj/index.html
To Leading UI Research Labs (and the source for some of the above)
Group for User Interface Research at UC Berkeley: http://guir.berkeley.edu/projects/
Human Computer Interface Lab at UMD: http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/research/summaries.shtml
7 September 2005
Today's Topic: Root Concepts, Heuristic Evaluation
As a rule, it is best to began any endeavor with a clue.
Tonight we will discuss underlying issues that need to be addressed before product development begins.
- High-level vision
- Rationale
- Starting Assumptions
- Stakeholders
What makes products distinctive? Heuristic defined...
1) Describing an approach to learning by trying without necessarily having an organized hypothesis or way of proving that the results proved or disproved the hypothesis. That is, "seat-of-the-pants" or "trial-by-error" learning.
2) Pertaining to the use of the general knowledge gained by experience, sometimes expressed as "using a rule-of-thumb." (However, heuristic knowledge can be applied to complex as well as simple everyday problems. Human chess players use a heuristic approach.)
In today's class we consider what heuristics are, and how they are used in the design process.
5 September 2005
Introductions
I'm going to do my best to get to know you all by name before the end of the quarter. Use the comment feature on this entry to introduce yourself and tell me (and the rest of the class) something about yourself.
If you have a web page or blog of your own already, include the URL.
It really is in your best interest to be memorable. That is the assignment.
Today's Topic: Course Overview
This course focuses upon a design process that is user-centered. In this first lecture, we'll do general housekeeping. We'll discuss the course syllabus, the course outline, and this weblog.
We'll discuss my expectations of you, and also what you may expect of me.
We will also define the terms usability, usability life cycle, and hopefully provide a context in which you understand its importance and applicability within the Usability Engineering Lifecycle as presented by Mayhew and also through its implementation in other development processes such as Extreme Programming.
15 August 2005
welcome!
And so we begin...
This class blog is designed to serve as your interactive syllabus, class outline, and project timekeeper. This will be where I post readings, assignments, and information about the class.
A quick intro to its use: Use the tabs at the top to navigate to specific sections (like the syllabus and the course outline), and the calendar on the left to find materials related to a specific class meeting.