Abstract
User requirements analysis, also known as user needs analysis,
is often overlooked when money’s tight and deadlines
are short, even though it’s fundamental to User-Centered
Design. This tutorial will teach participants how to do
credible and valuable user requirements analysis in ‘real
world’ situations, within short timescales and small
budgets.
Learning objectives:
Participants will learn how nine practical techniques
can be used to gather and analyse user requirements
on projects where there is little resource for this
activity. The techniques will give results that are
credible enough to be essential building blocks for
subsequent developments.
Participants will also learn about some strategies
for coping with the common obstacles to undertaking
user requirements work, be they political, practical
or perceptive. Again, these will be practical strategies
that can be applied in real life situations.
Knowledge and pre-requisites for participants
This tutorial is aimed primarily at those who have a basic
understanding of usability techniques but are keen to
understand how these can be adapted to ‘real world’
situations, where time and budgets are limited. A typical
attendee will be someone who is interested in applying
discount usability techniques while ensuring that the
outcomes are meaningful, sound and highly influential
within development projects.
How the tutorial will be conducted
The tutorial will be class based and will be supported
throughout by an ongoing, real life, case study. Sarah
will seek input from participants regularly, in order
to break up the sessions and generate ideas and examples
from other ‘real world’ situations. Participative
work is likely to take up about a third of the tutorial
time.
Detailed description of material covered
by tutorial and a schedule of events
Background and context for the tutorial
User requirements analysis is fundamental to UCD, evidence
by its inclusion in ISO 13407 and all the major, respected
text books on the subject of usability. However, this
critical process is one of the most overlooked aspects
of the whole development cycle, of less interest to managers
and clients than prototype testing and heuristic evaluations.
Consultants and in-house developers are often asked
to develop intranets, portals, web sites and applications
to a set remit that shows little signs of ever having
been near a potential user. On top of this, when usability
professionals broach the subject of undertaking some
sort of user needs evaluation, clients and/or managers
rarely pay little more than lip-service to the time
and budget required to undertake this sort of analysis.
It is often seen as a time-consuming luxury that is
ill-afforded when deadlines and other pressures are
looming.
If done ‘properly’, ie, according to the text
books, requirements analysis can take months to gain a
true picture based on the most respected methods, such
as observation. When this is compared to usability testing,
which can be a relatively quick exercise, user requirements
analysis is often seen as impractical within project timescales.
However, development teams know that even when they deliver
a perfectly usable web site or application, if it doesn’t
meet user requirements, it won’t be well used and
risks failure. Ultimately that always reflects on the
development team as well as the manager or client.
So, within the very real context of unenthusiastic
management or client support for user requirements analysis,
this tutorial will raise awareness of the obstacles
and teach a range of techniques that usability professionals
can contribute to development projects to ensure that
they meet user needs.
Detail of topics that will be covered in the tutorial
There will be a running case study throughout the tutorial
of a user requirements analysis exercise undertaken for
a university’s portal project.
Introductions
Definition …. of user requirements
analysis and why it’s important.
“It’s
not like it is in the books…”
This section will look at the real world context in
which user requirements is done, and will explore the
reasons why the process is often overlooked.
There will also be some discussion within group, with
participants giving examples of obstacles they have
come up against and how they overcame them.
How to overcome or work with the limitations
Before trying to influence the client or manager to
undertake user requirements work, it’s essential
to be aware of the context in which the project is taking
place and what actions can be taken to influence thinking
on the importance of doing some user needs analysis.
Consider, also, that user requirements analysis may
not be appropriate.
This section will explore the actions that participants
can take at this stage, assuming that analysis does
seem appropriate and potentially useful to the development
project. If attempts to win support for undertaking
such analysis fail, we will also look at other techniques
that can be used to build a greater understanding of
users’ requirements early in a development project.
Examples from the case study will be given and participants
further ideas and suggestions will be included here.
The nine ‘real world’ techniques that
are practical on small budgets / timescales:
When doing user requirements work, it’s necessary
to know who your users are. This can be difficult if
client / manager is unable to be specific about their
priority targets for the development (and, let’s
face it, it happens!). We’ll look at how to manage
this situation.
We’ll then explore nine techniques that can be
used when undertaking discount user requirements analysis.
These can be used on a standalone basis, or in combination,
to produce valid and informative data which can be used
to specify the development project.
Techniques in practice The group will
discuss any experiences they’ve had of these techniques
and their effectiveness and / or limitations.
Portal case-study In this section
Sarah will demonstrate how she used some of these techniques
in the user requirements gathering process within the
portal case study, including:
- techniques used and how they were combined to ensure
their validity
- a brief look at the analysis techniques used
- How the results were presented
- the impact that the results have had on the development
project
Exercise
Participants will split into groups. They will be given
a project scenario, wherein they have a set amount of
time and human resource to conduct user requirements analysis
for a large intranet. Each group will come up with a project
plan for the analysis to include objectives, techniques
that will be used and the deliverables.
Group discussion about outcomes of exercise.
Instructor Biography
Sarah is a project manager at one of Britain’s top
universities, where she is a consultant in User-Centered
Design. Since joining the Institute for Learning and Research
Technology at the University of Bristol, Sarah has worked
on several major technical development projects and is
particularly adept at handling politically difficult and
organisationally complex developments. Recent challenging
projects include the delivery of a user needs analysis
for a large scale portal implementation and using classic
usability techniques as change management tools within
an institution undergoing radical reorganisation. Sarah
has previously worked in the field of intranets, knowledge
management, usability and information science for media
organisations, such as the BBC, and UK government bodies,
such as the Environment Agency. She has written articles
and given seminars on Web-related subjects such as design,
information architecture, usability, end-user surveying
and change management issues. |
