1. HOW TO DESIGN USABLE SYSTEMS by John D. Gould p resented by Andrew Trieu Subha Narasimhan ICS 205 - Human Computer Interaction Department of ICS at UCI May 15, 2002

2. Introduction The focus of this paper is to describe a process of system design that will help you to design good computer systems for people. A good computer system is a system that is: easy to learn, easy to use, contain the right functions, and is well liked.

3. Overview To design good systems, the author suggests the following four principles: zEarly and continual focus on users - make direct contact with users and what they do, zEarly and continual user testing - users work with simulations and prototypes early in the project and measure performances/reactions qualitatively and quantitatively,

4. The Four Principles (Con’t) zIterative design - modify the system according to results from user test, and the testing cycle is repeated, zIntegrated design - all aspects of usability evolve in parallel and under one focus.

5. Overview (Con’t) The author suggested 20-30 informal methods to carry out the four principles in this usability design process. As a means of showing where these four principles fit into the system design, the author explains how to carry out the steps (i.e.the four principles) in four phases.

6. Usability Design Phases The author explains how to carry out the steps (i.e. Four Principles) in four phases.  Gearing-Up Phase - information gathering and conceptualization phase.  Initial Design Phase - early focus on users. Specification is based on existing system, etc. and information about workers and their environment is collected.  Iterative Development Phase - modification and evaluation is ongoing based on user feedback.  System Installation Phase - installing & using the system by the client.

7. Usability Has Many Aspects There are many aspects to usability which must be taken into account if a system is considered to be good. The components of usability are:  System Performance  System Functions  User Interfaces  Reading Materials

8. Components of Usability (Con’t)  Language Translation  Outreach Program  Ability for customers to modify and extend  Installation  Field Maintenance and Serviceability  Advertising  Support-group users

9. Principle 1. Early And Continual Focus On Users A first step in designing a system is to decide:  who the users will be and  what they will be doing with the system. This is done either before starting to design the system, or at an early stage after obtaining some general ideas about it. Designers Often Avoid This: the authors observed two serious types of reluctance:  one a reluctance to define the users, and  the other a reluctance to take the definition seriously.

10. Methods To Carry Out Principle 1 Talk with Users. Talk with the intended users. Ask them about their problems, difficulties, wishes, and what works well now. After analyzing their response, tell them what you have in mind and get their reactions. Visit Customer Locations. Visit potential locations for your system, particularly if these environments are new to you.

11. Methods To Carry Out Principle 1 (Con’t) Observe Users Working. Visit the workplaces of users. Observe potential users doing their jobs. You may learn what users do when they don’t know something or get in trouble. This should help you in designing your outreach program. See what they have difficulty with and what they dislike. The implications of these findings must then be incorporated into the design of your system.

12. Methods To Carry Out Principle 1 (Con’t) Videotape Users Working. Make a videotape of a few users working and show it to other members of the design team. Brief videotapes of users having difficulty carry more punch than do tables with lots of numbers. Learn about the Work Organization. Here the emphasis is upon understanding the organization of the work that your system is intended to help. This is particularly important where many different user groups are involved.

13. Methods To Carry Out Principle 1 (Con’t) Thinking Aloud. Having potential users think aloud as they are doing their actual work. Doing this while actually performing their job may yield different insights than having them reflect on their work later. Try It Yourself. Sometimes it can be rewarding to try a worker’s job yourself. Participative Design. Make intended users part of the design team. Experienced workers know a lot more about what they do than do drop-in designers. Also, they want to be actively involved in their work, and in the decisions that affect their work lives.

14. Methods To Carry Out Principle 1 (Con’t) Expert on Design Team. This expert is a consultant and not a full-fledged member of the design team. Putting experts on the design team is simple another way to phrase “participative design”. Task Analysis. Task analysis is an analytical process used to determine the specific behaviors required of people in a man-machine system. Task analysis is a comparison between the demands the task places on the human operator and the capabilities of the operator to deal with them. It is usually carried out through observation, interviews, or questionnaires.

15. Methods To Carry Out Principle 1 (Con’t) Surveys and Questionnaires. The data obtained from surveys and questionnaires can be useful. Testable Behavioral Target Goals. Most new systems specify in advance physical performance and capacity targets. Measurable behavioral targets, and where your developing system stands with respect to them, give management a metric to understand what progress has been made, and what is still required.

16. Principle 2. Early And Continual Users Testing Your job is to design a system that works and has the right functions so that users can do the right things. You won’t know whether it is working right until you start testing it. From the very beginning of the development process, and throughout it, intended users should carry out real work using early versions of training materials and manuals, simulations and prototypes of user interfaces, help systems, and so forth. The emphasis here is upon measurement, informal and formal. If you measure and then make appropriate changes, you can hill-climb toward an increasingly better system.

17. Methods To Carry Out Principle 2 Printed or Video Scenarios. As a starting point, sketch out a few user scenarios on paper and show them to members of the design team. Provide exact details exactly what keys users must press and the response of the system. Then carry the process one step further by typing up these scenarios to be shown to the prospective users for their reaction. What you have done with this procedure is to identify and organize functions in a way that intended users can understand and react to. You are designing the system from the user’s point of view.

18. Methods To Carry Out Principle 2 (Con’t) Early User Manuals. Begin writing the user manual before any code is written. Intended users can react to this helpfully, since the system is being described in the appropriate fashion. Mock-ups. By having mock-ups, we might identify situations or problems that we might not have been otherwise as easily envisioned.

19. Methods To Carry Out Principle 2 (Con’t) Simulations. Much informal and formal experimentation can be carried out by simulating important parts of the system. These simulations can help identified both how people used the systems and how they felt about them.

20. Methods To Carry Out Principle 2 (Con’t) Early Prototyping. Early prototyping can be made possible through the use of designer toolkits or user interface management systems. Try to develop pieces of your system to the point where potential users can carry out pre-defined problems. You will learn things you have possibly missed through simulations such as effects of multiple simultaneous users. You can measure people’s performance and feelings. Note: prototyping is expensive, but necessary.

21. Methods To Carry Out Principle 2 (Con’t) Early Demonstrations. Demonstrate working pieces of your system to anyone who will take the time to watch. It is even better to let users try it themselves on a brief task. Successful demonstrations of pieces of your system and manuals give management and customers confidence that you are making progress. Thinking Aloud. Performance measures, such as time and errors, do not give a clear indication of what is bothering users or what may be the source of an user error.

22. Methods To Carry Out Principle 2 (Con’t) Make Videotapes. Besides being useful for measuring time, errors, and user attitudes, brief videotapes of users attempting to use a new system have tremendous impact upon management, especially when the users are having problems.

23. Methods To Carry Out Principle 2 (Con’t) Hallway and Storefront Methodology. By putting a mock-up, simulation, or an early prototype in an obvious public place, passers-by just naturally are attracted to use it. This provides a source of invaluable comments and surprises. What gets learned in storefront and hallway methodology is valuable for user guides, user interfaces, display sizes and colors, identification of required functions, help systems, and the design and looks of the workstation.

24. Methods To Carry Out Principle 2 (Con’t) Computer Bulletin Boards, Forums, Networks, and Conferencing. Existing, extensive computer networks allow designers to send out a partial or an entire new user interface and obtain feedback from users all over the world -- most of whom would otherwise be unknown to the designer. These users can provide immediate feedback to the designer on their preferences, needs, and suggestions for change. However, one factor that motivated users to provide feedback is the speed with which we respond to them.

25. Methods To Carry Out Principle 2 (Con’t) Formal Prototype Test. Much of the emphasis so far has been upon informal experimental results. However, the author encourages formal experimentation where possible. If skilled human factors people are available to develop the experimental and statistical designs, then an even more accurate and valuable assessment can be made. Furthermore, as the project nears its end, it is better if you can have an outside group do the final evaluation.

26. Methods To Carry Out Principle 2 (Con’t) Try-to-Destroy-It contests. When the system is near its end, you might want to turned the system over to a group of college students and let them try to find bugs, crash it, break into it, etc. This will give you information that you might not get from all the previous methods. Field Studies. Laboratory and hallway studies go only so far. Putting your system into the field for a test can remind you of problems that you have put out of mind or identifies problems that other methodologies do not get at.

27. Methods To Carry Out Principle 2 (Con’t) Follow-Up Studies. Once a system has been released, studying how actual customers use it has value for subsequent releases and related new products. This work serves as a validation of the earlier prototyping and iterative design efforts, and it is particularly important in assessing the usefulness of various functions and what new functions are required.

28. Principle 3. Iterative Design Methods zSystem Development Work Organization yIdentification of required changes yWillingness to make the changes Caution: Should be aware of cyclic phases.

29. Methods [2] zSoftware Tools - Toolkits like MAC, UIMS yProvide ability to make changes ySeparate User Interfaces from Functionality yCan be a basis of prototyping yBring user-interface to the control of non-programming specialists yReduce cost by making programmers more productive yEnforce ‘Best Practices’ inherently yFacilitate User interface and cross system consistency

30. Integrated Design zIBM’s Olympic Message System, Field test e.g. from Boies et al. The word ‘Olympics’ had to be changed to ‘Olympic’. yAll User interfaces, help messages required the change. Messages were in 12 languages. All the speakers had to be recalled. yUser guides required the change and they were in 12 languages too, some with unprintable chars. yLettering on the signs had to be changed. yWas handled easily because all usability aspects were the responsibility of one person and all the messages were stored in one file.

31. Principle 4. Integrated Design zAll aspects of Usability evolve in parallel. zProjects are managed to only a few goals – low cost, processing speed, compatibility, schedule, reliability..Usability should be included as one of these goals. zDevelopment groups are fraction - Difficult to co- ordinate and achieve integrated design.

32. Methods for Integrative Design zConsider all aspects of usability in design. Requirements for both functionality and interfaces should be as complete as possible before design. zAll usability aspects should be under one focus and one group should be allocated the sufficient resources at the very beginning to drive usability.

33. Methods [2] zAssure adequate System reliability, robustness and responsiveness. zUser manuals should be continuously updated. zOutreach program – help support, training, hotlines, video zInstallation, Customization and field maintenance.

34. Where should a designer start? Starting Points zDefine the system: The most important starting point is to define what the system will be. For example, who will use it, what should it do, and why the users and/or organization will benefit from it. zFollow-on system: Most computer systems are not new. They always are new releases, or extensions of already existing in-house applications.  New influential systems: New technologies are often the driving force to create new systems.

35. Starting Points [2] zUser circumstances: Some times a good starting point is to build on existing user knowledge, skills, and resources. zJournals, proceedings, demonstrations: Paging through journals and proceedings can be a source of starting ideas.  Other designers and consultants: Other designers and consultants usually are benefit for you.

36. Summary zUsability is combination of many factors, each of which is often developed independently. zUser Interfaces are becoming a large part of the code and existing guidelines are not enough. zUsability should be considered from the very beginning and throughout the development phase and beyond too. Usability should be measured and iterated continuously.

37. Conclusion [1] The paper described: zThe components of usability. zFour principles to guide usability design process. yEarly continual focus on users; make direct contact with users and what they do. yEarly and continual user testing ; users work with simulations and prototypes early in the project and measure performances/reactions qualitatively and quantitatively. yIterative design; modify the system according to results from user test. yIntegrated design; all aspects of usability evolve in parallel and under one focus.

38. Conclusion [2] zMethods for achieving the above four principles. zFour Phases of design process to fit the principles in : yGearing up Phase - Information gathering and conceptualization phase yInitial Design Phase - Early focus on users. Specs are based on existing systems, etc. and info about workers and their environments is collected. yIterative Development Phase - Modification and evaluation is ongoing based on users feedback ySystem Installation Phase- Installing and using the system by the client. zStarting points for a designer.