Tutorials

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.

PARTICIPANT KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE EXPECTED:

Attendees will be introduced to the field of user requirements. Novice usability professionals who are building a portfolio of skills, as well as experienced usability practitioners who are unfamiliar with these particular techniques will benefit from this tutorial. In addition, interface designers, product developers, and teachers of HCI or Human Factors will profit from this tutorial. Attendees do not need any prior knowledge of user requirements in order to participate. No materials or equipment will be required of participants.

GOALS FOR THE SESSION:

At the end of this tutorial, participants will return to their workplaces armed with the skills to conduct three user requirements activities. In the spirit of the conference theme, participants will learn how to connect with their end users in order to understand their requirements and connect with product teams to ensure the inclusion of these results. Specifically, participants will learn how to:

• Find and recruit the “right” participants for these activities
• Be an effective group moderator
• Conduct a Wants and Needs Analysis, collect the data, and analyze the results
• Conduct a Group Task Analysis, collect the data, and analyze the results
• Conduct a Group Card Sort, collect the data, and analyze the results
• Convey the results of these methods to developers in a manner that they will be able to understand and implement
• Use tips, tricks, and lessons learned to get the best data possible

PREVIOUS PUBLICATION OR USE OF THIS MATERIAL:

This tutorial has been taught at a variety of conferences with usability tracks. Specifically:

•  CHI 2004

•  Usability Professionals Association 2002 & 2003

•  Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 2001 & 2003

•  Designing Interactive Systems 2002

•  BayCHI tutorial in January 2002

HOW THIS TUTORIAL WILL BE CONDUCTED:

The tutorial will consist of hands-on exercises, group discussion, case studies, and lectures. The recruiting, and moderating sections will be composed primarily of group discussion. For the three method sections, 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 mock sessions. They will also have the opportunity to analyze the data and interpret the results of those activities. After each mock session, there will be a discussion of how the method has been used successfully via real-world case studies.

TUTORIAL SCHEDULE WITH TIME ALLOCATION:

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF TUTORIAL:

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.

Preparation

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 phone screeners and resources for recruiting users. Attendees will be asked to share their unique ideas and experiences recruiting. We will also discuss recruiting for international studies.

Moderation

In the spirit of connecting with users, we have also added this moderation discussion to our tutorial for UPA 2004. Excellent moderation is key to the success of any activity. Even when participants are provided with instructions they do not always know exactly what you are looking for, so it is your job to remind them. A moderator must keep the participants focused, keep things moving, make sure everyone participates equally, and ultimately ensure that meaningful data gets collected. Moderation of a group is more complex, however, moderation is also important for individual activities. We will provide advice and guidelines for moderating both group and individual activities. We will also ask attendees to share their experiences and lessons learned.

Wants and Needs

Discussion

The first technique we will cover is the Wants and Needs Analysis. The Wants and Needs Analysis provides information about the kinds of content, features, and characteristics users want and need in a product. This brainstorming activity works for any product or service and results in a prioritized list of users' wants and needs. This technique can be used to both validate current feature plans as well as to learn about new features that users would find valuable. Although it can be used at any time, this technique provides the most benefit when used during the conceptual stage of product development. The Wants and Needs Analysis can be conducted in about an hour and it takes even less time to analyze the data from a session, making this technique light on resources, but powerful in terms of results. Most often, the results of this activity are fed directly into the product's functional specification and design documentation. Tutorial attendees will be given an introduction to the origins, purpose and method of this technique. In addition, they will learn about the participants, materials, and facilities needed for this activity.

Hands-on
Participants in the tutorial will take part in a mock Wants and Needs Analysis to learn how to facilitate the session, collect the data, and analyze the results. Tutorial leaders will facilitate the mock session and the attendees will act as the participants. An ice-breaker activity will be used to open the conversation and get creativity flowing. Next participants will be introduced to the rules of the session and asked to brainstorm their wants and needs for an ideal system (e.g., a system that allows them to find and buy books on the web). Participants will be questioned after they state a want or need to be sure the true want and need is captured and understood.

Data Analysis and Presentation

Attendees will switch from the role of the participant to usability professional and conduct the data analysis from the mock session. In this section of the tutorial, the attendees will learn how to analyze the data from a Wants and Needs Analysis. In addition, they will learn how to interpret these results and relay them to the development team in a meaningful way. The results of a Wants and Needs Analysis should be fed into a product's functional specification. This document in turn will be used to drive the product's design. We will discuss creating functional specifications based on the Wants and Needs Analysis results. Tutorial attendees will take home guidelines for conducting the session, instructions for analyzing the data, and sample materials.

Group Card Sort

Discussion

The third technique the attendees will be taught is the Group Card Sort. A Card Sort is used to inform or guide the development of the information architecture of a product. For example, it can help determine the tab and sub-tab structure in applications. It can also provide information when deciding how to layout displays and controls on an interface. To conduct this technique, cards describing objects or concepts in a product are sorted into meaningful groups by each participant. By aggregating the sorts created by several users, we can learn how closely related each of the concepts are. This method tells us how a product's features should be structured to match the users' expectations about how those features are related. The data can be collected in two hours or less. Data can be quickly analyzed with one of several automated tools available today. Tutorial attendees will be given an introduction to purpose and method of this technique. In addition, they will learn about the participants, materials, facilities needed for this activity.

Hands-on

Participants in the tutorial will take part in a mock Group Card Sort. Each participant will act as a user and individually sort items from an e-commerce site. Participants can remove cards that do not apply or add cards that they feel are missing. After successfully sorting all of the cards into piles, participants will be asked to give each pile a meaningful name.

Analysis and Presentation

In this section of the tutorial, we will discuss the data analysis. Participants will be introduced to cluster analysis software and we will discuss the output of the cluster analysis in detail. In addition, we will discuss how the results of a Card Sort can be used to design the information architecture of a product. Instructions for conducting a session, as well as sample materials, will be provided for attendees to take home.

Group Task Analysis

Discussion

This method is used to gain an understanding of the steps users take to complete a particular task and the sequence in which they take those steps. Users work in small groups of four to six people and discuss the steps involved in completing a particular task (e.g., booking a vacation). By having people from different companies work together, you end up with a task flow that works for everyone. The flows generated by the activity are used to determine the task flows in an application. The activity takes about two hours and the results are analyzed in even less time making the group task analysis ideal for those short on time and resources. Tutorial attendees will be given an introduction to origins, purpose and method of this technique. In addition, they will learn about the participants, materials, facilities needed for this activity.

Hands-on

Participants in the tutorial will take part in a mock Group Task Analysis. Participants will be asked to outline the steps involved in a task such as, finding and buying a book on-line. Next, they will be asked to identify a trigger and an end point and arrange some steps provided (e.g., locate a book, purchase a book, etc.). They will be encouraged to remove steps that do not belong and add any that are missing.

Data Analysis and Presentation

Participants will switch from the role of the participant to usability professional and conduct the data analysis. In this section of the tutorial, the attendees will learn how to analyze the data from a Group Task Analysis. In addition, they will learn how to interpret these results and relay them to the development team in a meaningful way. We will demonstrate how the results of a Group Task Analysis can be used to influence flow and individual screen designs of the product. Instructions for conducting a session, as well as sample materials, will be provided for attendees to take home.

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. Group discussion will also be encouraged at this time.

SPEAKERS

Catherine Courage

Senior Usability Engineer

Oracle Corporation

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 leads the usability efforts for Sales and Financial applications. In addition her responsibilities include educating product managers about user-centered design and managing the Design Partners Program, a program focused on engaging customers in usability. Catherine received a Masters of Applied Science degree specializing in Human Factors from the University of Toronto.

Catherine is an active member of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA), Human Factor and Ergonomics Association (HFES), and Computer Human Interaction (CHI) special interest group of the Association for Computing Machinery. Over the past 5 years she presented a variety of papers and tutorials to the Usability and Human Computer Interaction community.

Kathy Baxter

Sr. Usability Engineer

eBay Inc.

Kathy Baxter is a Sr. Usability Engineer in eBay's User Experience and Design group in San Jose, CA. She supports multiple areas of eBay's web site through the user-centered development lifecycle. Previously, she worked as a usability engineer for five years in Oracle Corporation's Usability and Interface Design Group. She received her Masters of Science degree in Engineering Psychology with an emphasis on Human Computer Interaction from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Kathy is an active member of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA), Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), Computer Human Interaction (CHI) special interest group of the Association for Computing Machinery, and BayCHI. She has presented papers, posters, and tutorials to the Human Factors and Usability Community for over seven years.