Project Part #2 - Establishing Requirement

Throughout class lectures, discussions and activities done, students are expected to have a clear idea on how to design, implement and evaluate a user interface.  In this semester-long project, each group will have to a particular interactive system/application (either for computer desktop or mobile) that interests them. The project may aim to replace or update an established system, or it may aim to develop a totally innovative product with no obvious precedent. The project phases will reflect the stages of interaction design process, and submitted as project deliverables throughout the semester. 

Process 1: Identifying needs and establishing requirements

Continuing from Submission project part 1 (project proposal), each group will now start to materialize their proposed solution by designing the interaction of the product/application. Designing interaction firstly require an understanding of the users and their capabilities, their current tasks and goals, the conditions under which the product/application will be used, and constraints on the product/application’s performance. Each group should attempt to achieve this understanding through the process of Task & User Analysis described below:

• Task analysis and User Observation (using Think Aloud technique)
• The purpose is to find and analyze what type of tasks your system/application/product should offer.
• Find an existing website/system/application that provides similar solution to what you are proposing e.g. if you are proposing an online food delivery system, a similar solution could be foodpanda app or https://www.pizzahut.com.my/
• Identify 3 tasks (with at least 2 of them as main functional tasks related to your domain) that a user can do with the system e.g. order food, track delivery and search for store.
• Find three (3) REAL users who represents your target user (e.g. a research student, a doctor, a housewife)
• Ask a real user representing each of your target group to use the system to complete each of the tasks, while thinking aloud (one of the data gathering technique that you carry out. Explain beforehand to the user what think aloud is). Give clear instruction to user for the task e.g. use Google calendar to ‘create event’, use https://www.mphonline.com to ‘buy the cheapest C++ programming book’.
• Record and observe each time a user is doing the task in order to understand the task analysis. You should have nine (9) videos (3 user x 3 tasks). You can record using a SCREEN recording software (e.g. Camtasia or any other screen recording software). Make sure that it can also record the voice of the user thinking aloud.

• User Analysis
• Identify the characteristics of your three (3) target user groups. Create one persona from each user group (totaling to of 3 personas).
• Determine 3 tasks (with at least 2 of them as main functional tasks for your proposed solution. Think of the context behind why your persona would need to do the 3 tasks you identified, and their expectations when doing it. Create a scenario for each persona when illustrating this.

Report - Report should include the following:

For task analysis and User Observation:

• Hierarchical Task Analysis. Based on the user observation videos, analyze the 3 tasks you have identified. Create the HTA for each task based on each videos (so you should produce 9 HTAs). At least one task should have more subtasks. Identify plans as needed. See example of “Borrow a book from library” from the teaching slides. You can sketch the diagram by hand (but you will need to take a picture/scan and upload) or use appropriate drawing software. Makes sure that the HTA is constructed following the correct format. You can use textual HTA to describe Task A, and graphical for Task B, etc.
• Discussion. What information/issues did you obtain from the HTAs you derived AND from the user’s thought process (thinking aloud)? Is there any difference on the way the three different users accomplishing the same task? By comparing the HTA’s for each user on the same task, what can you conclude? Is there any process that can be made simpler or more effective?
• For your proposed solution, what lessons (design requirements) from the HTA should you take into account i.e. which bits of the task would you keep, and which would you do away with or redesign? What insight have you learned from the user’s thought process (thinking aloud)?
• See example on deriving design requirements from HTA from teaching slides (i.e. example on the filing system and cataloguing system). Please DISCUSS YOUR FINDINGS.

For user analysis:

• Users’ Personas. Description of each persona created. Hint: Create their personalities in line with how your system/application can benefit them. Use the ‘empathy map’ to assist you. What would be their motivation, skills, goal, pains and gains? See example of “Bob” from lecture slides.
• Scenarios. Description of task scenario for each of the tasks you have identified. The analysis of the HTA should help you define the design needs/design requirements for your proposed system, and further give ideas on what tasks the user can do with your system (i.e. what function does your system provides). Hint: Think of what your persona might expect/ his or her goal (this is based on their own characteristics/personality) when doing the task. See example of “Brad”.