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Second International Conference on Usage-Centered Design

TOPIC - Inspection & Review Techniques

MONDAY

M22 - 11:00a-12:30p

Forum: Research and Teaching

Robert Biddle, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (Moderator)

This session presents multiple short presentations on current work by those teaching and doing research in the area of usage-centered design and modeling, evaluation techniques, and tool support.

Learning and Doing Expert Evaluation: A Dilemma in Teaching User-Centered Design

Jarinee Chattratichart, Diana Cave, Andreea Vaduva, London Metropolitan University

User-interface design courses are often run within a single semester, a time span too short for students to be able to correctly apply the theoretical knowledge acquired through lectures and the literature throughout the whole design process. This presentation reports on our student-centered approach to teaching user-interface design to undergraduate students with a focus on the dilemma that by the time requirements gathering and design solution phases are satisfactorily completed there is little time left for evaluating the design solutions. Further we face the challenge in which knowledge about and application of expert review methods must be effectively introduced to students who are by definition non-experts. This paper presents case studies highlighting the difficulties students experienced with actually using a heuristic evaluation method in evaluating their web design solutions and how these problems could be overcome using HE-Plus, an extended version of the heuristic evaluation method.

Cognitive Walkthroughs vs. Usability Testing: Experiences Using Evaluation Techniques to Improve Design

Yong Liu, Indiana University

This paper presents a case study based on developing a Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) administration GUI for the Active Spaces project at Indiana University using both a Cognitive Walkthrough approach and usability testing to improve the design. The report discusses the evaluation procedure, the initial design and the usability-improved design of the GUI. The predictions made by the Cognitive Walkthrough evaluation are then compared with the actual usability problems found in empirical usability tests. The strength and weakness of the two methodologies and their respective task scenarios are discussed. Based on the analysis, suggestions are made as to how to improve the effectiveness of the two evaluation methods while highlighting the problems that still remain open.

M42 - 3:30p-5:00p

Persona-Based Expert Review: A Technique for Usefulness and Usability Evaluation

Joshua Seiden, 36 Partners

Personas are traditionally associated with the process of creating system design. But personas offer valuable advantages to usage-centered design teams during the evaluation of software systems. Persona-based expert reviews are more robust than typical expert reviews, because they combine principles-based reviewing techniques with the use of explicit user models. Persona-based reviews are particularly good at ensuring coverage during the review process. The method also excels at uncovering bad matches between system functionality and user expectations. This session will explore persona-based expert review in depth, discussing techniques to ensure your personas are well-suited for evaluation purposes, describing how personas are used during the evaluation process, and stepping through a typical software evaluation.

TUESDAY - 21 October

T21 - 10:30a-12:00n

Forum: Usability Processes and Practices

Robert Biddle, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (Moderator)

This session of short presentations explores new ways to integrate and refine usability and software engineering approaches to improve the quality of software design and development.

Heuristic Evaluation Plus: Toward Usage-Centered Expert review for Website Design

Jarinee Chattratichart, Jacquelin Brodie, London Metropolitan University

To date, comparative studies have not been able to convince the HCI community as to the reliability of “discount” usability methods such as heuristic evaluation compared to traditional usability testing. The main cause for this is a perceived lack of focus on the part of the expert evaluator(s). This lack of focus arises partly from carrying out a review without the involvement of users and their tasks - leading to a restricted understanding of the context of use. In this presentation we describe our method - HE-Plus, which extends heuristic evaluation through contextualization. We report on our studies that compared results obtained from heuristic evaluation, HE-Plus, and usability testing of the same websites and demonstrate how HE-Plus can help make heuristic evaluation more usage-centered, and hence, yield more reliable results.

T32 - 1:30p-3:00p

Usability by Inspection: The Collaborative Approach

Lucy Lockwood, Constantine & Lockwood, Ltd.

How do you find what's wrong with a user interface design before you commit it to code or put it in front of customers? Collaborative usability inspections identify usability defects quickly and reliably. Easy to learn and easy to put into practice, they have helped hundreds of organizations to improve the usability of their software, Web sites, and Web-based applications. Faster and more efficient than testing in the usability lab or in the field, inspections can provide rich feedback early in the design and development cycle. This class will introduce the basic techniques for conducting usability inspections of paper prototypes, simulations, or working software and live Web sites. You will learn how assigned roles and a carefully worked out process for structured review can help you to quickly identify and prioritize usability problems of all kinds. A live demonstration exercise will provide hands-on experience with the technique.

T43 - 3:30p-5:00p

Visual Design Patterns in Action

Jim Hobart, Classic Systems Solutions

Visual Design Patterns offer a powerful new way of applying design solutions based on specific context by telling the interaction designer when, why and how the design solution can be applied. Successfully implementing design patterns for complex user interfaces is both challenging and potentially very rewarding. Learn what a design pattern is and how can it be used in user interface design. Find out how to document and communicate a design pattern, how to use design patterns in usability testing, and learn tips and techniques for implementing design patterns within your organization. This talk will look at several design patterns in detail and then describe real world situations where they were applied successfully.

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Full Program

Pre-Conference Tutorials

Plenary Sessions

Short Presentations

TOPIC THREADS -

User Performance & Performance Support

Visual & Interaction Design