IWMW 2003: Focussing On Users: Gathering Users' Requirements

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Focusing on users:Gathering users’ requirementsSarah Agarwal Consultant Web development Project Manager and Usability Engineer Internet Development group Institute for Learning and Research Technology University of Bristolsarah.agarwal@bristol.ac.uk

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$120

m

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$1m

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Portal-mania…

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JISC funded national Portal Requirements Analysis project - http://www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/

“Both the news and the weather… form popular- near-ubiquitous in the case of the weather – portal features, yet they formed the lowest rated features over all….

…Laughter was a frequent response to the inclusion of aweather channel in the portal”

Liz Pearce, Ariadne, March/April 2003

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Meets requirements

Plan the human centred process

Specify the context of use

Specify user and organisational requirements

Produce design solutions

Evaluate against requirements

© Crown copyright 1998

ISO 13407 – User-centred design

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How to do the work?• Unmeasurable objectives for the portal• Project length – 2-3 months• Literature review – virtually nothing!• Visits and/or discussions with three universities in UK• Analysing the LSE offering

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Start of analysis• Identify (define) target audience

– Staff – primarily teaching– Students – postgrads and under-grads

• Key potential content areas identified from– LSE list of content– List of content from an existing internal specification– Any other suggested by people – No duplication with Blackboard

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Content areas – staff:Room bookingPersonal dataCalendaring / timetablingProgramme / Unit informationStaff infoFinancial dataPersonal web pageResearch (IRIS)Past exam papersMessage boardsStudent infoProgramme adminInformation services / libraries+ 8 more

Content areas – students:Contact students / staffPersonal detailsProgramme / Unit informationStudent infoTimetablingOnline document storeStaff infoInformation services / librariesPast exam papersFinancial dataAssessment (student view)Find accommodationStudents Union channel+ 6 more

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Content areas: issues• Staff vs students• Was the content identified what was actually required?• Definition of individual bits of content• Too much of it

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Interviews

Aim- to find out any additional content requirements (qualitative)- to prioritise requirements (quantitative)- to discover major issues and themes that could significantly affect the portal development (qualitative)

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InterviewsInterview subjects

Staff x 13 - 45-60 minute interviews

Students x 12 - Postgrads and undergrads - 25 minute interviews

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Interview method1. Task analysis2. Open questions and carefully meandering discussions3. Card sorting (prioritisation)4. Content identification

… all in 25 – 60 minutes!

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Did it work?probably!Good signs:• 4 of the 10 most highly ranked content areas were originally identified by interviewees• catalyst for clearer definition of business drivers • technical development has started on implementing 4 of the top ten content areas identified• issues raised are being taken seriously • development more practical than aspirational

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  Ranked in Top 5 by:

Content area Staff Postgraduates Undergrads

Online document store  

Access email via portal  

Contact staff / students  

Calendaring / timetabling  

Programme information  

Information services / libraries    

Notify    

Past exam papers    

Personal data    

Student information    

Top ten content areas

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  Ranked in Top 5 by:

Content area Staff Postgraduates Undergrads

Online document store  

Access email via portal  

Contact staff / students  

Calendaring / timetabling  

Programme information  

Information services / libraries    

Notify    

Past exam papers    

Personal data    

Student information    

Top ten content areas

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JISC funded national Portal Requirements Analysis project - http://www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/

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Internet Development (ID)• 6 web developers• 1 graphic designer• 1.5 usability engineers• 1.5 project managers

• 22 current projects, including…

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http://www.234car.com/

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References• ID: www.ilrt.bristol.ac.uk• CROS: www.cros.ac.uk• 234car: http://www.234car.com/• RED www.bristol.ac.uk/research• “University of Michigan cancels a closely watched portal project.

Chronicle of Higher Education. April 11th, 2002.http://chronicle.com/free/2002/04/2002041101t.htm

• University of Hull PORTAL project - http://www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/• "Apart from the weather, I think it’s a good idea“ by Liz Pearce, in

Ariadne April 2003. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue35/pearce/• Full Bristol portal requirements report at

http://www.bris.ac.uk/is/projects/portal• “Planning and implementing user-centred design”. Nigel Bevan and

Ian Curson. http://www.usability.serco.com/papers/ucdtut97.pdf