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IST Conference. Paper Prototyping a Dynamic Software Interface: A Case Study Using APT. Andrew Barrett Jamison Judd. APT Overview. APT: Analysis of Patterns in Time A new methodology for researching temporal relationships in a system, developed by Dr. Ted Frick of Indiana University 1990
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IST Conference Paper Prototyping a Dynamic Software Interface: A Case Study Using APT Andrew Barrett Jamison Judd
APT Overview • APT: Analysis of Patterns in Time • A new methodology for researching temporal relationships in a system, developed by Dr. Ted Frick of Indiana University 1990 • APT is a means to capture and analyze the temporal relationship between actions and outcomes • Does not help to determine causality • Helps decision making involving prediction and description
Need for Temporal Analysis • APT directly measures temporal relations through counting the occurrences of the values of a variable • Comparable to approaches taken in other disciplines • people who smoke are more likely to get lung cancer than those who do not • how often does a player scores when specific conditions exist • Important because knowledge of likelihoods of temporal patterns can be used to find relationships that could not be found with linear approaches
Software for Temporal Analysis • There are a wide variety of tools available for conducting linear analysis (e.g. SPSS, SAS, MINITAB, etc.) • Few options for performing analysis based on an APT approach • The need for tools that are based on an APT approach has provided the stimulus for the development of associated software
Goal • Create a usable software interface for APT based on the following principles • Easy to use • Intuitive interface following convention • Flexible for different types of studies • Avoid modes when possible • An iterative design approach was taken that included usability testing and rapid prototype development
Prototype Development • Listed out all the required functionality • An SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) and Windows based paradigm was chosen for viewing and entering data
Paper Prototype Challenges • Scrolling • Pop-ups • Dropdowns • Text entry (making reusable) • All possible user actions
Methodology – Usability Testing • Developed authentic tasks to test out the prototype • Project Tasks • Creating, Opening, and Closing Project Files • Creating, Opening and Closing Scores • Switching between scores • Duplicating score format • Interpreting scores
Methodology – Usability Testing • APT Score Tasks • Adding, editing, and deleting classifications • Ordering classifications • Recording data in an APT score • Modifying data in an APT score • APT Query Tasks • Creating a new query • Duplicating and editing an existing query • Interpreting query results
How Prototype Was Created • Screen captures • Excels • Arts & Crafts
First Run Issues • Took too long to simulate • Prototype was too modular • Hard to quick change interface pieces
Paper Prototype Challenges • Pop-ups • Dropdowns • Text entry (making reusable) • All possible user actions • Dynamic interface elements • Highlighting selections
Methodology – Usability Testing Subjects: • 2 Faculty/Staff Members • 4 Graduate Students • 1 Data recorder • 1 Computer simulator • Followed standard usability procedure
Duration by Task Box Plot Outliers: Some subjects took considerably longer to complete tasks Large Spread: Duration varied widely among subjects Small Spread: Duration didn’t vary much among subjects
Result by Task Bar Graph All subjects succeeded in tasks 1.3 – 1.7, 1.9, 2.3, 2.4 All subjects had problems with task 3.3 “View the results of an APT query” Most subjects had problems with task 1.8 “Answer questions about APT score”
Problem Tasks A subjective priority level was given to each task where problems were experienced… 1.1: Create a new blank project (1) 1.2: Close a project and exit program (1) 1.8: Answer questions about APT score (4) 2.1: Add a classification (3) 2.2: Change the order of classifications (2) 2.5: Record changes in an APT score (3) 2.6: Edit a previously recorded change in an APT score (1) 3.1: Create a new APT query (1) 3.2: Create an APT query based on an existing APT query (1) 3.3: View the results of an APT query (3)
Conclusion • Generally we didn’t find significant issues with the prototype design • The main problems were: • Affordance Issues: need to move functionality to a more visible location • Difficulty with APT concepts: temporal nature of data • Terminology: Score, results, data, classifications
Demo • Questions or comments?