This was by far the most meticulous and laborious assignment, but it was also the one that we had the most productive output from our peers. To start off, it combined almost every element of SI422's curriculum: the interview process, the micro-usability report, the personas and scenarios and heuristics were all intertwined into one macro-project. With this in mind, it was also the one that took the most hours to complete, especially because we spanned work in the course of a week.
To recap: having met up every other day, we conducted field work with our usability users and took careful observations on how they completed the scenarios we gave them. It involved elaborate setup to get the MemCatch website ready for them, as well as setting up a microphone to record the audio and using Camtasia record their on-screen actions. The Loggers took careful notes on the performance of our users and used a stopwatch to keep track of the time.
This elaborate process ended up with pages of raw data that we used to analyze the possible causes of usability violations for MemCatch, and surprisingly, it showed the mistakes we found in one user also overlapped to others. One example we had in mind was that almost everyone failed to integrate Twitter to their MemCatch account, which we initially thought was an easy process. Because it occurred consistently, we noted it to be a problem.
As time consuming as it is to set up 5 users to take a usability test, we found that it was a real life application of all the methods we learned in class over the semester, and it was a true synthesis, and also a test, for us as students to see if we really understood the variety of methods.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Assignment 4: Heuristic Evaluation
The Heuristic Evaluation assignment was especially helpful in that it was our first foray into having a hands-on evaluation. The Nielsen's Heuristics guide was especially helpful in doing the project because it scientifically rationalizes the usability of a site that seemed very obvious to us users, but we could never really put into words. The without the guide, I feel like I wouldn't be able to come up with 90% of the heuristic violations I found on MemCatch.
One thing that boggles my mind is how easy it was to follow the sheet and do a heuristic evaluation. It seems that this is one of the cheapest, if the most cost effective evaluation method we've learned in class. It only entails using the Nielsen guide and following directions on a website. The materials and setup also factor into the cost effectivity, because you would only need a single evaluator and a computer for the entire test.
As far as the time needed to complete the evaluation, it seems like it would depend on how thorough you want your report to be. In the span of 5-6 hours, I already had two full pages of heuristic evaluations, including the time to find the errors, test them and typing them up.
One take away from the heuristic evaluation is that it still employs the software developer's perspective to find these errors. The errors found were not meant to catere to serve the audience it was intended for, but it still is a great method to have a quick usability evaluation for the website.
One thing that boggles my mind is how easy it was to follow the sheet and do a heuristic evaluation. It seems that this is one of the cheapest, if the most cost effective evaluation method we've learned in class. It only entails using the Nielsen guide and following directions on a website. The materials and setup also factor into the cost effectivity, because you would only need a single evaluator and a computer for the entire test.
As far as the time needed to complete the evaluation, it seems like it would depend on how thorough you want your report to be. In the span of 5-6 hours, I already had two full pages of heuristic evaluations, including the time to find the errors, test them and typing them up.
One take away from the heuristic evaluation is that it still employs the software developer's perspective to find these errors. The errors found were not meant to catere to serve the audience it was intended for, but it still is a great method to have a quick usability evaluation for the website.
Assignment 5: Personas and Scenarios
I had the most fun with this assignment so far because I never realized that something that took so much imagination was so important in the product development process. Since it borrows so much from the interview assignment, it seems to dig the product deeper than the heuristic evaluation and the competitive analysis in that it centers more on the user.
As far as costs and benefits go, it's definitely the cheapest and the best way to evaluate a product because it looks at the product from a customer standpoint and like a heuristic evaluation, evaluates the product using what users know. It priorities fixes from a user standpoint, which is more efficient than fixing problems when they arise.
I feel that the personas and scenarios is an extension of the interview process, because interviews only go so far as to let the developers get an idea of their target audience, but personas and scenarios allow the developers to use traits of the interviewee and find fixes from the site. One take away from the personas and scenarios project is how cost effective such a simple process can be, especially one that uses the developer's imagination the most.
As far as costs and benefits go, it's definitely the cheapest and the best way to evaluate a product because it looks at the product from a customer standpoint and like a heuristic evaluation, evaluates the product using what users know. It priorities fixes from a user standpoint, which is more efficient than fixing problems when they arise.
I feel that the personas and scenarios is an extension of the interview process, because interviews only go so far as to let the developers get an idea of their target audience, but personas and scenarios allow the developers to use traits of the interviewee and find fixes from the site. One take away from the personas and scenarios project is how cost effective such a simple process can be, especially one that uses the developer's imagination the most.
Assignment 3: Interviewing
Although radically different from the competitive analysis, I feel that interviewing is quite important in the process of gaining knowledge of the target audience. I think it was stressed that if product developers developed products with themselves in mind, instead of having input from users, then the product would more than likely fail in the market.
With this assignment, I felt more immersed in analyzing MemCatch because of the different opinions expressed by the interviewee. I can only imagine how much impact it would make had I been a software developer for MemCatch and was given the opportunity to sample my target audience.
I think one drawback of the interview process is how long it takes to setup an interview with someone. It took my group quite a while to find a candidate who had the time to spare to go through the interview process with us, but it did lead to a successful team project. I also feel that this project was one of the more intricate projects I've taken part in, because it requires alot of meticulous scripting -- we went over our script many times before we approved the final draft just through correcting confusing words in the script, however, the interview process proved to be worth its trouble.
With this assignment, I felt more immersed in analyzing MemCatch because of the different opinions expressed by the interviewee. I can only imagine how much impact it would make had I been a software developer for MemCatch and was given the opportunity to sample my target audience.
I think one drawback of the interview process is how long it takes to setup an interview with someone. It took my group quite a while to find a candidate who had the time to spare to go through the interview process with us, but it did lead to a successful team project. I also feel that this project was one of the more intricate projects I've taken part in, because it requires alot of meticulous scripting -- we went over our script many times before we approved the final draft just through correcting confusing words in the script, however, the interview process proved to be worth its trouble.
Assignment 2: Competitive Analysis
The Competitive Analysis, I feel, is a great way to get a surface-level evaluation of the website along with their competitors -- and converse, I feel like it should be taken only at surface level. With competitive analysis, we weigh more importance to features and aesthetic qualities of a website, which is perfectly fine for quick evaluation purposes, but it doesn't tell us much in terms of usability.
For example, example essays were asked to evaluate UrbanSpoon.com and students found their Audience, Design, Features and compared them with their competitors. The tables featuring arrays of checklists may give a firm some idea about which features are lacking and how their design could be improved better, but it doesn't mean it eases their usability of the website.
However, as an argument for the competitive analysis, it gives a quick and easy way to view the product's needs with very little manpower. The assignment shows us that, even with a few simple clicks, one can easily evaluate (albeit on a surface level) a product. As internet users, we have certain universal needs like ease of use, good aesthetics and simplicity which we can easily evaluate a product with. Best of all, it doesn't require a fancy lab to test since it only requires logging into a website and taking note of features present and lacking.
I learned from this assignment that it's not actually the tables and charts that provide the most information, but actually the synthesis of the data that provides the most information. What I mean by that is, charts and graphs don't let us know about the site more than actual critical thinking about why and how a product lacks a feature, and how important or trivial it is to bring that feature to life. For example, we all noticed that MemCatch, in its early stages, was lacking a comprehensive social networking feature. When I put it down in my report, I made an assumption that it was because it was focusing more on its information sharing aspect. Now that MemCatch has made greater strides in improving the site and social networking aspects, we can see how the gradual shift from information clipping to social networking changed the face of the site over a course of time.
For example, example essays were asked to evaluate UrbanSpoon.com and students found their Audience, Design, Features and compared them with their competitors. The tables featuring arrays of checklists may give a firm some idea about which features are lacking and how their design could be improved better, but it doesn't mean it eases their usability of the website.
However, as an argument for the competitive analysis, it gives a quick and easy way to view the product's needs with very little manpower. The assignment shows us that, even with a few simple clicks, one can easily evaluate (albeit on a surface level) a product. As internet users, we have certain universal needs like ease of use, good aesthetics and simplicity which we can easily evaluate a product with. Best of all, it doesn't require a fancy lab to test since it only requires logging into a website and taking note of features present and lacking.
I learned from this assignment that it's not actually the tables and charts that provide the most information, but actually the synthesis of the data that provides the most information. What I mean by that is, charts and graphs don't let us know about the site more than actual critical thinking about why and how a product lacks a feature, and how important or trivial it is to bring that feature to life. For example, we all noticed that MemCatch, in its early stages, was lacking a comprehensive social networking feature. When I put it down in my report, I made an assumption that it was because it was focusing more on its information sharing aspect. Now that MemCatch has made greater strides in improving the site and social networking aspects, we can see how the gradual shift from information clipping to social networking changed the face of the site over a course of time.
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