Usability 101

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Usability 101

• by Karen BachmannSeascape Consulting, Inc.

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Navigating This Presentation

• This presentation is audience-driven, so it is
  organized to allow a flexible rather than a
  linear flow.
• Slides 3-13 provide an overview of the
  user-centered design process and some key
  activities and deliverables.
• Slide 14 serves as a launching point (or table of
  contents) into detailed discussions.Click a link
  to go to that specific topic.
• A link back to slide 14 is provided at the end of
  each detail section.Click the to
  return to slide 14.

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Usability Defined

• ISO 9241-11 Usability the extent to which a
  product can be used by specified users to achieve
  specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency
  and satisfaction in a specified context of use.
• ISO 13407 "Human-centered design is
  characterised by the active involvement of users
  and a clear understanding of user and task
  requirements an appropriate allocation of
  function between users and technology the
  iteration of design solutions multi-disciplinary
  design."

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Usability Defined

• UPA Usability is an approach to product
  development that incorporates direct user
  feedback throughout the development cycle in
  order to reduce costs and create products and
  tools that meet user needs. There are many
  definitions of usability
• Jakob Nielsen Usability is a quality attribute
  that assesses how easy user interfaces are to
  use. The word usability also refers to methods
  for improving ease-of-use during the design
  process.

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Usability Defined

• Wikipedia Usability is a term used to denote
  the ease with which people can employ a
  particular tool or other human-made object in
  order to achieve a particular goal. Usability can
  also refer to the methods of measuring usability
  and the study of the principles behind an
  object's perceived efficiency or elegance.In
  human-computer interaction and computer science,
  usability usually refers to the elegance and
  clarity with which the interaction with a
  computer program or a web site is designed.

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Usability Defined

• A process for delivering the quality of usability
• A quality of a product
• In practical terms,

it depends
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Usability in the Development Life Cycle
Analysis
Design
Development
Testing
Maintenance

• User Research
• Task Analysis
• Environment Analysis

• UI Design Prototypes
• Usability Requirements

• UI Functional Prototypes
• Screen Elements, Interactions, and Behaviors

• User Interface

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User Research

• The process of learning about ordinary users by
  observing them in action (Hackos and Redish)
• Identifies user needs and expectations
• Identifies user demographics, background,
  experience, knowledge, and other characteristics
• Does not result in a single profile of an
  average user, but you can use the information
  to develop composites
• Requires more than just scientific principles and
  data gathering techniques it requires empathy
• Is subject to change

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Task Analysis

• The process of learning about ordinary users by
  observing them in action (Hackos and Redish)
• Define the way users perform tasks in their own
  world
• Understand the users models for interacting with
  data and tools to perform their tasks
• Focus on process not tools

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Environment Analysis

• Understand the conditions that users will face
  when using the end product
• Detail the users working environment
• Identify noise in the communication

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Usability Requirements

• Are the expected and desired user reaction to a
  system
• Define how well a product should work for the
  intended users
• Turn user goals into measurable success criteria
• Communicate user expectations to the development
  team
• Help keep users needs visible throughout
  development

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UI Design

• An iterative, exploratory process for creating a
  product that meets user needs
• First deliverables that SMEs are likely to react
  strongly to
• Deliverables
• Sketchlets Early concepts to illustrate key
  tasks
• Wireframes Present layout and functionality
• Mockups Present functionality with look-and-feel
• Functional Prototypes Present groups of
  functionality and allow functional walkthroughs
• Content Outlines
• Site Maps

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Usability Testing

• Evaluates the usability of a design against
  defined success criteria
• Conducted throughout the development life cycle
• Preferably occurs early and often
• Tests the following questions
• Does the product meet user needs?
• Does the product meet user expectations?

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Usability 101
Analysis
Design
Development
Testing
Maintenance

• User Research Surveys
• Task Analysis
• Environment Analysis

• UI Design Prototypes Sketchlets, Wireframes,
  Mockups
• Usability Requirements

• UI Functional Prototypes
• Screen Elements, Interactions, and Behaviors

• User Interface

Usability Testing
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User Research
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User Research

• The process of learning about ordinary users by
  observing them in action (Hackos and Redish)
• Defining user needs and expectations
• does not result in a single profile of an
  average user, but you can use the information
  to develop composites
• requires more than just scientific principles
  and data gathering techniques it requires
  empathy
• is subject to change

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The Purpose of User Research

• To understanding current user experiences
• To be able to distinguish between user needs and
  user wants
• To anticipate what user reactions to and chances
  for success with particular development effort
  will be
• To increase the likelihood of a projects success
• To identify all possible users of the product as
  concretely as possible

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General Steps for Conducting User Research

• Determine who your users are
• Determine what user tasks your product helps
  accomplish
• Develop questions that you need to know about the
  users and their processes
• Determine the method of user research to conduct
• Plan research
• Conduct research
• Present results

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Types of Questions to Ask

• Industry experience
• Job experience
• Roles
• Computer experience
• Education and training
• Age ranges

• Working conditions (environment)
• Usage constraints
• Satisfaction with current conditions
• Perspective on changes to current conditions

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Who You Should Ask

• Users themselves
• The immediate managers of users
• The company-level management (the people who are
  paying for a project)
• The general industry through research

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Common User Research Techniques
Least

• Industry research
• Surveys and questionnaires
• SME interviews
• Feedback from users
• Usage tracking
• Focus groups
• Interviews
• Usability testing
• Observations
• Site visits

Interaction with real users
Most
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Applying Research

• Develop complete profiles of all users and any
  composites for design
• Develop user personas
• Organize any user artifacts (such as forms,
  documentation, and similar)
• Use as basis for usability validation
• Share with the development team

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Making User Research Part of Your Development Plan

• Know the objections and have answers for them
• Prepare a formal request
• Provide cost analysis of savings from solid user
  analysis in similar projects
• Look for ways to integrate user analysis in
  existing processes
• Prepare management for plan changes

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Task Analysis

• The process of learning about ordinary users by
  observing them in action (Hackos and Redish)
• Defining the way users perform tasks in their own
  world
• Understanding the users models for interacting
  with data, tools, and tasks

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Environment Analysis

• Understand the conditions that users will face
  when using the end product
• Detail the users working environment
• Identify noise in the communication

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Where the Analysis Takes You

• User Analysis
• Task Analysis
• Environment Analysis

User Goals

• Not necessarily the same as
• The business units goals
• The developers goals
• The customer goals

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User Research Questions?
TOC
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User Surveys
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Definitions

• Survey planned method of finding something out
• Questionnaire formal series of questions,
  sometimes with choices for answers
• Interview planned discussion of a topic

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Interview or questionnaire?

• Interview
• Talk to the user
• Interviewer captures the answers
• Flexible
• Requires small samples

• Questionnaire
• Do not talk to the user
• Receive written answers from user
• Inflexible
• Supports large samples

Face-to-facedata collection
CATI

• Face-to-facedata collection

• CATI

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Poor (but typical) choice of method

• Decide to do a survey
• Write some questions
• Circulate internally for comment
• Revise
• Administer
• By email to everyone
• As a pop-up window to every site visitor
• By including in every manual

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Ideal method Iterative information gathering
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When NOT to do a user survey

• Dont yet have a business definition of the users
• Forced to use a method that doesnt match the
  time available
• Cant do anything with the results

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10 steps

• Preparation
• Set goals
• Decide on target group
• Interview target users
• Production
• Create content
• Decide on delivery
• Test
• Revise for final survey

• Delivery
• Conduct
• Compile and analyze responses
• Publish results

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User Survey Questions?
TOC
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Usability Requirements
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Usability Requirements

• What they are The expected and desired user
  reaction to a system
• Define how well a product should work for the
  intended users
• Define target user satisfaction goals
• What they arent Functional requirements, use
  cases (strictly speaking), marketings product
  mission statements, nebulous user wish lists

• Does the product work well for the intended users?

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Source Information for Usability Requirements
Analysis deliverables
Business
User

• User and task analysis
• Expectations
• Work environment
• Profession description
• Personal productivity goals

• Market needs
• Industry analysis
• Technology changes
• Budget
• Company productivitygoals
• Growth strategy
• Competitive Analysis

Pays you
Determines how truly successful your product is
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When to Determine Requirements
Requirements
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Why Develop Usability Requirements?

• Provide a common, familiar language to focus on
  user needs
• Include usability into a product foundation
  rather than add it as an afterthought or fix
• Test design and development assumptions
• Support usability testing
• Serve as a rallying cry for user satisfaction

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General Usability Criteria to Consider

• Learnability How quickly do users come up to
  speed on the product?
• Efficiency How easy is the product to use and be
  productive?
• Memorability Do users remember how to use the
  product between uses?
• Error tolerance Do users make few errors? Are
  errors recoverable?
• Relevance Does the product meet users real
  needs?
• Attitude/satisfaction Do users enjoy using the
  product?
• Accessibility Does the product support the usage
  needs of all potential users including those with
  special physical requirements?

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How Usability Requirements are Constructed

• Determine what usability criteria to measure and
  the priority for each.
• Determine how the criteria be measured. Create
  tangible measurements of intangible user
  satisfaction statements.
• Set a realistic percentage of users that must
  achieve the goals. (100 of users will almost
  never accomplish 100 of all usability goals.)
• Define the conditions that must exist for the
  product to successfully fulfill the requirements.

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What are the Components of a Usability Requirement

• What task should the user accomplish Clearly
  define the specific, finite task that a user
  should perform and the goal to be achieved
• Who will accomplish the task Define which user
  type (novice? expert?) the requirement addresses
• What conditions will the task be performed under
  Amount of training, work environment, computer
  experience, etc.
• How well should the task be performed A concrete
  measure of success as a percentage of the right
  users under the right conditions

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General Tips for Writing Usability Requirements

• Convert qualitative wants and needs to
  quantifiable goals
• Absolute A concrete measure of success
• Relative Compared to another criteria such as a
  previous release
• Write them in terms of user tasks and goals
• Prioritize needs of different user groups
• Prioritize the usability requirements
• Be realistic success is rarely 100 of users
• Test the requirements

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Usability Requirements Questions?
TOC
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User Interface Design
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Design Process

• An iterative, exploratory process for creating a
  product that meets user needs
• Starts with users actually tasks not system
  functionality
• Show very tangible output of the analysis phase
• Provides first deliverables that SMEs are likely
  to react strongly to
• Developed iteratively and incrementally
• Tested throughout

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Purposes that Prototypes Serve

• Explore
• Create a strong design by iterating through ideas
  rapidly
• Communicate
• Demonstrate progress against time lines in
  tangible format
• Collaborate
• Enhance collaboration with other teams through
  clear understanding and a shared vocabulary
• Validate
• Test a design in early stages when changes can be
  made easily

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Prototyping Goals

• 1. Can users work effectively with the interface
• Visual or information design issues
• Can the user find and understand the information
  on the screen?
• Navigation issues
• Does the user understand the meaning of each
  control? Can they find the controls or
  information needed to complete their task?
• Efficiency issues
• Can the user work quickly enough to meet
  usability goals

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Prototyping Goals

• 2. Demonstrate the user interface
• Communicate the design to developers, marketing,
  management, or customers
• Walk through proposed navigation design
• Match screens and controls to use cases
• Demo proposed functionality to internal or
  external groups

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What to Include in a Prototype?

• Horizontal
• Full breath of functionality, but with little
  depth
• Vertical
• Complete demonstration of representative tasks or
  information paths
• Key Screen or T-Prototype
• Full breadth indicated, with 1-2 tasks prototyped
  in detail

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When to Prototype?
1
2
3

• vision prototypes expose early ideas to comment
• wireframes accompany use-case analysis or
  participatory design sessions
• key screen prototype demonstrates interaction
  structure/UI architecture
• prototypes validate specific or complex work
  flows
• visual prototypes test layout for usability and
  technology

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Types of Prototypes

• Low fidelity
• Simple layout sketches which usually focus on
  content and layout
• Sketchlets, Wireframes, Content Outlines
• Slide shows
• High fidelity visual design, but with minimal
  interactivity
• Wireframes, Mockups, Site Maps
• Medium fidelity
• Good visual fidelity with nominal interaction
  capability following a scenario
• Mockups, Prototypes
• High fidelity
• Full interaction capabilities and detailed screen
  layouts.
• Prototypes

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UI Sketchlets

• Early concepts to illustrate key tasks
• Typically, created as a quick and dirty
  exploration tool
• Encourage discussion and input
• Validate thinking as early as possible
• Capture early ideas
• Presented as wireframes, storyboards, paper
  prototypes, whiteboard designs, and similar

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Sketchlet Examples
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UI Wireframes

• Present layout and functionality
• Shows data fields and controls
• Focused on specific functionality
• Does not show graphics or look-and-feel

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UI Wireframes
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UI Mockups

• Present functionality within design concepts
• Shows functionality within the context of the
  design
• Presents examples of how the final product might
  look

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UI Functional Prototype

• Present groups of functionality and allow
  functional walkthroughs
• Is a design deliverable
• Guide feedback
• Use for usability testing
• Validate and document design
• Presented often as complete screens, but may not
  represent all functionality in the system

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Selecting a Prototyping Tool

• Paper
• low fidelity and difficult to distribute
• HTML
• good for navigation, but not always appropriate
• Development environment
• high fidelity, but slow and can limit creativity

• Director (or other interactive environments)
• good for experimental interactions, can be rapid,
  can be too different from final environment
• Visio
• hybrid rapid, high screen fidelity, moderate
  interaction

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How Do Users Interact with the Prototype?

• Navigation is done on-screen
• All buttons, links or other major navigation
  controls are active and can be used to move from
  page to page
• Post-it notes represent
• Drop down menus or combo boxes
• Some popup windows
• Filling in forms on paper
• Print outs of the forms let users write in any
  data they would enter.
• Talk through the actions
• Users describe aloud what actions they take and
  data they use

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User Interface Design Questions?
TOC
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Usability Testing
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Developing a Usability Test Plan

• Identify the most significant group of users to
  test
• Highest priority usability requirements
• Highest quantity of usability requirements
• Identify which user tasks to test
• Identify the usability test methods to use at
  each phase of development
• Write test scenarios
• Specify results necessary to pass
• Develop testing schedules

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Planning a Usability Test

• Establish goals and scope
• What do you hope to learn?
• Plan the usability test
• What tasks or sections of the product are
  included?
• Scripted task or user-driven exploration?
• What functionality must be active?
• Recruit users and set up facility
• 2-3 users per round
• Plan facilitation and interaction areas

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Thoughts on Testing Logistics

• Locations
• Within the users environment
• In a lab environment
• Recording
• Audio and visual
• Capture screen movements
• Good quality microphone
• Permissions
• Observers
• Analysis of data
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

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Guerilla Usability Tests

• Small in scope
• Looking for input on specific design problems
• Testing overall organization of workflow or
  information architecture
• Small number of users per iteration
• Just enough to gain enough insight to confirm or
  iterate design

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Sounds Crazy!

• but it works.
• The informality is infectious
• Its relaxing and interactive for the users
• Users have little trouble moving from screen to
  paper when necessary (as long as they match)
• The fact that its obviously a work in progress
  encourages users to make suggestions and talk
  easily
• Users will feel that they are making a real
  contribution to the development of new products

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Formal Usability Testing

• Broad in scope
• Looking for input for sets of functionality
• Testing more sophisticated prototypes or
  alpha/beta products
• Larger number of users overall
• Strive for a statistical sampling
• Usually more expensive

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Reporting

• Tailor to your audience
• Focus on significant conclusions and provide
  recommendations
• Recognize the limits of your data
• Avoid forcing more conclusions than the data
  support
• Acknowledge the other constraints (business
  drivers, schedule, budget, and so on) on
  development when making recommendations
• Recognize that the details that may grab your
  attention may not be that significant

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Usability Testing Questions?
TOC
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Questions?

• Karen_at_seaconinc.com

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User and Task Analysis References

• Marlana Coe, Human Factors for Technical
  Communicators.
• Joann T. Hackos and Janice C. Redish, User and
  Task Analysis for Interface Design.
• Theo Mandel, The Elements of User Interface
  Design.
• Jakob Nielsen, Usability Engineering.
• Ben Shneiderman, Designing the User Interface
  Strategies for Effective Human-Computer
  Interaction.
• Jakob Nielsens Website http//www.useit.com/

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Prototyping References

• Robin Kavanagh and John Soety. Prototyping Using
  Visio http//www.stcsig.org/usability/newsletter/
  0007-prototypingvisio.html
• James Hom (Site Owner). Usability Methods Toolbox
  (Section on Prototyping)http//www.best.com/jth
  om/usability/usable.htm
• Matthew Klee. Five Paper Prototyping Tips
  http//www.uie.com/articles/prototyping_tips/
• Using Paper Prototypes to Manage Risk
  http//www.uie.com/articles/prototyping_risk/
• Lawrence J. Najjar. Conceptual User Interface A
  New Tool for Designing E-Commerce User
  Interfaceshttp//www.internettg.org/newsletter/d
  ec00/article_cui.html
• James A. Landay and Brad A. Myers.Interactive
  Sketching for the Early Stages of User Interface
  Design http//www.cs.berkeley.edu/landay/researc
  h/publications/SILK_CHI/jal1bdy.html
• Carolyn Snyder. Paper Prototyping The fast and
  Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces.

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Usability Testing References

• C. Barnum. Usability Testing and Research.
• J.S. Dumas, J.C. Redish. Practical Guide to
  Usability Testing.
• J. Nielsen. Usability Engineering.
• J.S. Dumas, J.C. Redish. Practical Guide to
  Usability Testing.
• D. Stone, C. Jarrett, M. Woodroffe, S. Minocha.
  User Interface Design and Evaluation.
• K. Summers, M. Summers. Creating Websites that
  Work.

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User Survey References

• Don A. Dillman. Mail and Internet Surveys The
  Tailored Design Method.
• A. N. Oppenheim. Questionnaire Design,
  Interviewing and Attitude Measurement.
• Priscilla Salant and Don A. Dillman.How to
  Conduct Your Own Survey.

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Professional Organizations

• STC Usability and User Experience
  http//www.stcsig.org/usability/
• Usability Professionals Association
  http//upassoc.org/
• ACM SIGCHIhttp//www.sigchi.org/
• Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
  http//www.hfes.org/

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Recognitions and Thanks

• Prototyping presentation originally created and
  presented with Whitney Quesenbery
• User survey presentation originally created and
  presented with Caroline Jarrett

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About the Presenter

• Karen Bachmann, an independent consultant and
  partner with Seascape Consulting, Inc., designs
  usable user interfaces, bringing usability into
  the earliest stage of development to keep the
  project focused on the user. She also helps
  companies new to usability implement usability
  practices. Karen currently serves as manager of
  the Society for Technical Communications
  Usability and User Experience community and is an
  active member within the Usability Professionals
  Association. Karen can be reached
  karen_at_seaconinc.com.