What do we do with the results of user research? Tasks and Personas

1. What do we do with the results of user research?Tasks and Personas CS 5115 Fall 2012 September 17

2. Agenda for today • Look at updated schedule • Project check-in • Task-centered design / tasks • Personas • Counterpoint from Norman: “Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful” (!) • (Project work)

3. TCUID Principles • UI should match the users and what the users are trying to accomplish • Development process should use the users’ tasks throughout design and evaluation

4. Personas • Detailed descriptions of users to help guide the design process • Based on research • Fleshed out to feel “real”

5. Tasks • Detailed description of a complete job that specific users want to accomplish • What, not how • Concrete, detailed • Complete job • Not just feature lists • Transition between sub-tasks • Inputs/output: information flow

6. Example task Professor Terveen find out the schedule for 5115 for Fall 2012: it’s from 2:30 to 3:45 on Monday and Wednesday. Professor Terveen wants to enter all the course dates/times into his calendar. He also wants to check for any conflicts, rescheduling or cancelling as necessary.

7. Another Example • Loren wants to buy tickets for a trip to Ann Arbor, leaving October 4 and returning October 6. He wants to arrive by 5pm Local Time at the latest. For the return trip, he wants a flight that leaves as early as possible after noon, but gives him enough time to get to the airport comfortably. He prefers to fly Delta, since he’s a SkyMiles member. He prefers an aisle seat. He’d also like a row where no other passengers are seated or else an exit row so he’s got more room to stretch out.

8. What tasks? • Focus on frequent, important, and difficult tasks • Depth/quality of tasks more important than number • Number: typically 5 to 10 tasks • Size: typically 2 to 10 minutes to do a task

9. From Task to Design • Write-up tasks, circulate to users • clarify missing details • Sketch an interface, using existing systems or designs where possible • Sketch out how each task would be accomplished in the interface: develop walkthrough scenarios

10. Scenarios • Specific instance of system use: from what to how • A particular task • In a particular interface • What would the user do, in detail, in specific interface • Enough detail for a user to complete without task knowledge

11. Important: tasks and scenarios are concrete • Questions come in different kinds • Some can be settled through abstract argument • Are there more real numbers than natural numbers? • Some only can be settled empirically • Can students use OneStop.umn.edu to find out whether there is room to enroll in CS 5115?

12. Personas • Fictional user descriptions • Research-driven • Narrative • Basis • Cluster users by relevant attributes • Identify clusters • Create “realistic” representatives • Force you to consider whether your design is appropriate

13. Example Persona • Sara is a graduate student living in Minneapolis. She travels by plane about three times a year—about half of that time for conference trips for her University research group. When she travels on her own dollar, she is very price-conscious, and wants to be sure to get the lowest price, even if that involves obscure routes or indirect trips. When she travels for the University, she is happy to let their staff make the arrangements. As a computer scientist, Sara knows all about search engines and other computer systems. Sometimes this makes her skeptical that the system may be hiding the best fares. …

14. Another Persona • Patricia is a 31 year old accountant for a technical publisher who has used Windows for six years at the office. She is fairly competent and technical. She installs her own software; she reads PC Magazine; she has programmed some Word macros. She has a cable modem for her home PC. She’s never used a Macintosh. “They’re too expensive”, she’ll say, “you can get a 2.5 MHz PC with half-a-gig of RAM for the price of…”

15. Yet Another Persona • Nelson has been an English professor at Carleton College since 1975. He’s written several books of poetry and has been using computer word processors since 1980, but has only used two programs, WordPerfect and Microsoft Word. He doesn’t care how computers work; he stores all his documents in whatever directory they get put in if you don’t know about directories.

16. But…

17. Don Norman:Human Centered Design Considered Harmful • (Instead) focus on (fairly) universal activities • Evolutionary design • People adapt to technology instead of the other way around • In fact, technology defines activities! • Problems with HCD • Non-universal • Incremental • Piecemeal

18. Sometimes what is needed is a design dictator who says, “Ignore what users say: I know what’s best for them.” The case of Apple Computer is illustrative. Apple’s products have long been admired for ease of use. Nonetheless, Apple replaced its well known, well-respected human interface design team with a single, authoritative (dictatorial) leader. Did usability suffer? On the contrary: its new products are considered prototypes of great design.

19. Really? • We’ll come back to this later in the class!

20. Exercises

21. Exercise • Take a look at the student section of www.OneStop.umn.edu • Define a task(not scenarios) students might try to accomplish with the site • Remember what tasks are used for • Present tasks, discuss, ask questions