Abstract:

This tutorial will provide participants with the skills to conduct a Wants and Needs Analysis, Group Task Analysis and Card Sort. In addition, participants will learn how to interpret the data from these techniques and present the results. The tutorial will consist of hands-on exercises, group discussion, and lecture.

Learning objectives:

At the end of this tutorial participants will be able to go back to their workplace armed with the skills to conduct three user requirements activities. In addition to practical tips and tricks, they will learn to:

• Facilitate a Wants and Needs Analysis, collect the data, and analyze the results
• Facilitate a Group Task Analysis, collect the data, and analyze the results
• Facilitate a Group Card Sort, collect the data, and analyze the results
• Turn the results of these methods into design solutions that developers will be able to understand and implement
• Recruit the participants for these activities

How tutorial will be conducted:

The tutorial will consist of hands-on exercises, group discussion, case studies, and lectures. The lecture components will provide background, purpose, and origins of each of the methodologies. Photos, screen shots, and examples will be provided to demonstrate each of the techniques and their value. In addition, there will be an emphasis on hands-on exercises. Hands-on experience will be offered to participants via a mock Wants and Needs Analysis, Group Task Analysis, and Group Card Sort. They will also have the opportunity to analyze the data and interpret the results to form a meaningful picture.

Detailed Description of Material Covered by Tutorial and a Schedule of Events

Introduction to Tutorial and Instructors

During this time the instructors will be introduced and their backgrounds will be discussed. In addition, time will be allotted for each attendee to briefly introduce himself or herself. This will allow the instructors to get a sense of the job roles, the industries, and usability experience of the attendees. This information will enable the instructors to tailor the tutorial to suit the audience’s backgrounds and tutorial goals.

Wants and Needs Discussion

The Wants and Needs Analysis facilitates the collection of users' needs, wants, and desires for a particular product via brainstorming. During the brainstorming session the facilitator records the users' wants and needs on a white board or easel pad where they remain in view of the users. After the brainstorming session, each user is asked to write down his/her top five choices from the list of wants and needs brainstormed. This data is then compiled into a list of wants and needs where the items are ranked by the percentage of participants choosing each item. This step is what makes the Wants and Needs Analysis unique. Unlike a focus group, you have a prioritized list of what the users' wants and needs. Participants in the workshop will take part in a mock Wants and Needs Analysis to learn how to facilitate the session, collect the data, and analyze the results. Sample materials necessary for conducting a session will be provided for participants to refer to after the workshop.

Group Card Sort

The second technique is the Group Card Sort. Users are asked to organize concepts on cards into logical groups. These groups correspond to the users’ mental model of the domain. Therefore, the Card Sort methodology enables a designer to build the high-level information architecture for the product's proposed functions. The goal is to develop a layout of your product that users can navigate through easily and locate any of the functionality, objects, or content for which they are searching. Tutorial participants will take part in a mock Group Card Sorting session. Each participant will act as a user and individually sort items for an e-commerce site. We will then discuss data analysis and interpretation. Instructions for conducting a session, as well as sample materials, will be provided for attendees to take home.

Group Task Analysis

The final user requirements technique is the Group Task Analysis (GTA). A GTA enables you to understand how your users currently work. A group of four to six end users is brought together to develop task flows for functionality supported by the product in question. These flows detail the steps users take to accomplish the task as well as the sequence of these steps. This information is very important because it enables designers to comprehend how users accomplish their primary tasks. This in turn guides the development of the interaction architecture. Participants in the tutorial will take part in a simple Group Task Analysis and practice group facilitation. Instructions for conducting a session, as well as sample materials, will be provided for attendees to take home.

Recruiting

It is critical to identify who your end user really is. The tutorial will begin by illustrating how to create a user profile and recruit those users. Since only a small portion of the tutorial will be spent on this, the participants will be given a packet of reference materials including sample user profiles, phone screeners, and resources for recruiting users.

Question and Answers Session

Participants will be encouraged to ask questions throughout the tutorial, however, we would like to reserve some time at the end of the session for participants to ask any additional questions that they may have.

Origin

This tutorial has been received with much enthusiasm at a variety of conferences. Specifically:
- Usability Professionals Association 2002
- Designing Interactive Systems 2002
- BayCHI tutorial in January 2002
- Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 45th Annual Meeting, 2001

The tutorial has been modified for UPA 2003 to appeal to the UPA audience. The examples and case studies provided throughout the tutorial will focus on software requirements gathering, but can also be applied to hardware. In addition, we will discuss the activities from the perspective of a usability engineer who is a part of a diverse product team. A design component has also been added to enhance usability engineers' design skills and appeal to other audience members such as designers and product managers. In addition, we will make some modifications based on participants’ feedback from UPA 2002. Overall, the response to the tutorial was extremely positive so we will keep most elements constant. However, there will be fewer group activities. Some participants indicated that the large number of group activities in 2002 was quite exhausting. As a result, we have abbreviated some of these activities and omitted others that were of less value. This will result in a better balance of lecture and hands-on activity throughout the tutorial.

Instructors' Biographies

Kathy Baxter has been a usability engineer in Oracle Corporation's Usability and Interface Design Group in Redwood Shores, CA since 1998. As a senior usability engineer she supports desktop and mobile manufacturing applications within the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) division. In addition, she supports products within Healthcare, Public Sector, and Marketing products within Customer Relationship Management (CRM). She received her Masters of Science in Engineering Psychology with an emphasis on Human Computer Interaction from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Catherine Courage is a senior usability engineer in the Usability and Interface Design Group at Oracle Corporation. She works within the Applications division of the group and provides usability support to Human Resources and Financial applications. She conducts a wide realm of usability activities throughout the product lifecycle, including: usability testing, site visits, focus groups, and group task analyses. In addition, Catherine is the manager of Oracle’s Design Partners Program. Before joining Oracle, Catherine received a Masters of Applied Science degree specializing in Human Factors from the University of Toronto.