Representing the results of user research: tasks and personas

CS 5115Fall 2013

September 16

Agenda for today

• Project check-in• Task-centered design• Personas • (Project work)

Task-Centered User Interface Design

• UI should match the users and what the users are trying to accomplish (== tasks)

• Development process should use the users’ tasks throughout design and evaluation

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

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Professor Terveen finds out the schedule for 5115 for Fall 2013: it’s from 9:45 to 11:00 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.

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Example task

Another Example

• Loren wants to buy tickets for a trip to Toronto, leaving December 6 and returning December 8. 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. And he wants to be sure he’s on the upgrade list… even though he never gets upgraded.

Yet another example

• Loren just got a new Samsung Galaxy S4. The first thing he wants to do is turn off some of the fancy features that use battery life and slow the phone down. He thinks that a lot of these features have “Air” somewhere in their name but he’s not sure.

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

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• 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

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From Task to Design

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

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Example

• Task. Loren just got a new Samsung Galaxy S4. The first thing he wants to do is turn off some of the fancy features that use battery life and slow the phone down. He thinks that a lot of these features have “Air” somewhere in their name.

• Scenario.– Pull down the settings menu– Touch the gear icon– Touch “My device” icon– Scroll down– Touch “Motions and gestures”

Personas

• Fictional user descriptions– Research-driven– Narrative

• Basis– Cluster users by relevant attributes– Identify clusters– Create and “realistic” representatives– Helps you consider whether your design is appropriate

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 think that the system may be hiding the best fares. …

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.

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Exercises

Exercise 1

• 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

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Exercise 2

• You’re in charge of designing the software for information kiosks for the Minneapolis / St. Paul airport. The kiosks will help travelers do common tasks, such as checking flight departure and arrival times and baggage claim locations, finding restaurants and shops, etc.

• Your job:– What sorts of user research methods would you use to find out

about the user population?– Based on your experience and intuition, identify at least two

categories of users– Write personas for these categories

• Factor out tasks if/as necessary

Project work