Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships ProjectGUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:

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Introduction to User-Centred Analysis (UCA)

Data Gathering TechniquesSelection parameters

Cristina Cachero

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships ProjectGUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:

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The technique selection depends on several parameters:

1. Nature of the data that needs to be collected (task flow, features needed, performance, subjective perceptions, etc.)

2. Number of people from which data must be collected (less than 25/more than 25?)

3. Do we need specific data or exploration data?

4. Do we need to gather data about any complex issue?

5. How quickly are data needed?

6. Which are our budget restrictions?

7. How much data do we need?

8. Do we need information about user errors?

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

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User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques

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Some companies provide cheatsheet to help in the decision of which technique to use

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

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User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques

E.g. We need to collect data about the features needed for the new application to better support the customer service of our company. This would incline us towards working with a direct method, where you can probe the user.

Surveys could be another option.

We have 10 people available to work with. This would discard surveys, since there are too few subjects to make it cost-worthy.

This is the beginning of the study, so we are interested in exploratory data Again, this situation inclines us towards more conversational-like methods, such as interviews

or observation followed by discussion.

There are some complex issues involved in the service (complex task flows with many exceptions) This strongly suggests the use of interviews and/or observation, where we can ask for further

clarifications when needed.

Particularly, data on user errors while using the actual system (which is preventing customer service workers from giving correct solutions to the users) is needed This would make it advisable to use observation, since users are not prone to reporting their

own errors... many times the are not even aware of them!

Source: HFI

Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships ProjectGUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

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User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques

Imagine that our software application to support the customer service is being redesigned in an iterative manner. The goal of the first increment consists in fixing the most important complaints about the current design. Data gathering technique?

Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships ProjectGUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

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User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques

We want to develop an on-line tool to help people decide when to go to the emergency room in a hospital and when to wait for the doctor to fix an appointment with them. Data gathering technique?

Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships ProjectGUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:

EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

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User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques

There is a lot of people coming to your e-commerce website, but few of them are buying and turning into customers. Data gathering technique?

Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships ProjectGUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:

EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

7

User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques

We want to design a data entry device for ambulance workers for them to register what happened in each call and check the patient’s medical records. Data gathering technique?

Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships ProjectGUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:

EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

8

User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques

We have an internal operations application that is so difficult to use that important company processes are being ignored, critical data are not being captured, and so on. Data gathering technique?

Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships ProjectGUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:

EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

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User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques

Solutions (not unique!): Customer service: Help desk reports (what information do

they need to gather and in which format?), then interviews and observation

Emergency room: Interviews for doctors and surveys to get the correct names for diseases (using medical jargon may confuse users)

E-commerce web site: Web analytics, then interviews or user observation

Ambulance data-entry device: Interviews (complex process involved, observation may not be possible)

Internal operations application: Interviews (complex issues probably involved)

Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships ProjectGUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

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Importance of choosing the right technique: The Wallmart case of study

Read the following case of study: http://goodexperience.com/blog/2011/04/ignore-the-customer-e.php

Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships ProjectGUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:

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These slides are made available under the license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND. More information about license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.These slides were created under Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project 2012-1-PL1-LEO04-28181 GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY: EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES (http://usability-accessibility.org/).

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

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