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Applying the Usability Engineering Lifecycle in Tool Development. VT SENRG Will Humphries & Kim Gausepohl 12/04/07 2:50-3:20PM. Presentation Objectives. Share our experience integrating the usability engineering lifecycle into tool development Convince you that: - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Applying the Usability Engineering Lifecycle in Tool Development
VT SENRGWill Humphries & Kim Gausepohl
12/04/07 2:50-3:20PM
Presentation Objectives
• Share our experience integrating the usability engineering lifecycle into tool development
• Convince you that:– The inclusion of usability engineering will
improve the overall SAKAI user experience
– You can do it too!
2
Presentation Outline
• VT SAKAI Background
• Importance of Requirements Engineering
• Usability Engineering Lifecycle
• VT SENRG Project
3
VT Sakai Background
• Community Involvement– development– QA
• Mellon Award
• 2005 Pilot & 2006 Production– Usability complaints
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Situational Analysis
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Situational Analysis
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Immediate project needs:• Stakeholder group• Grad student: Usability• Grad student: Developer
Requirements Engineering
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Figure 1: Increase in cost to fix or change software throughout the lifecycle
Boehm, B. W. (1989). Verifying and validating software requirements and design specifications. In Software risk management (pp. 205-218): IEEE Press.
What is Usability?
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• the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.
ISO 9241-11 (1988) .
Usability Engineering Lifecycle
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Hix and Hartson (1993). Developing User Interfaces: Ensuring Usability Through Product and Process. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
SENRG
• Sakai Electronic Notebook for Research and Groupwork
• Motivation: Helpdesk requests
• High level goals: – replacement for paper lab and
classroom notebooks– improved collaboration
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Systems Analysis
• Stakeholder Group Formation– 7 faculty from science, engineering, and
humanities domains
• Ethnographic approaches– Interviews– Field Visits
• Stakeholder meeting to determine high level requirements and priorities
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Interviews & Field Visits
• Example Interview Questions– What is purpose of notebook?– How do you measure the quality of a
notebook?– How do you manage notebooks?– Who is responsible for the notebook?– What complaints do you have about your
current use of notebooks?
• Field visits– Artifacts– Context of use
User Interaction Design
• Screen Mock-ups
• Individual stakeholder meetings – Obtain feedback on paper
prototypes
– Ask follow-up questions
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Initial Screen Mock-Up
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After Several Iterations
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Prototype Development
• Development in RSF
• Interface development switched to XHTML
• FCKEditor used for text entry
PrototypePrototype screenshot here
I’m waiting on a build at the end of the weekend
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Evaluation• Interactive Prototype
• 10 student participants– Engineering
• Benchmark tasks– Critical incidents– Time to complete task– Comments
• Qualitative survey for user satisfaction
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Evaluation Results
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Mean MedianDisplay layouts simplify tasks 6.8 8(never-------------------always) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Sequence of Displays 7 7.5(confusing----------------clear) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Use evaluation to inform design
Post-test InterviewSampling of the negative1. Feedback should be prominent at every stage to
understand the task flow
2. Entering section name is not obvious
3. Use better labels
Sampling of the positive1. It is not tough to use. Its better than Scholar
2. This system is much better than Scholar
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What’s Next?
• Design changes based on usability results
• Development of high priority features informed by faculty feedback
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Lessons Learned
• Rapport with stakeholders is key
• Stakeholder involvement creates “buy-in”
• Conflicting requirements ~= conflicting stakeholders
• Start recruiting participants early, especially students
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References
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Boehm, B. W. (1989). Verifying and validating software requirements and design specifications. In Software risk management (pp. 205-218): IEEE Press.
Hix and Hartson (1993). Developing User Interfaces: Ensuring Usability Through Product and Process. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
