UX from 30,000ft: Lecture 05 - Hat Racks for Understanding

specific: COMP33511

topic: Hat Racks for Understanding

# {{name}}: {{topic}}

### Lecture 05 (50 minutes)

### [@sharpic](http://twitter.com/sharpic)

.controls[[SAQ](saqs.html) [D](discuss.html) [OH](oh.html) [C](coffee.html) [P](coffee.html#2) [SLIDES](http://sharpic.github.io/COMP33511/#slides) [↩](#)]

---

noteid: Ch 04 - Hat Racks for Understanding

specific: COMP33511

website: http://sharpic.github.io/COMP33511

author: [@sharpic](http://twitter.com/sharpic)

---

topic: Hat Racks for Understanding

.credits[ {{author}} | UX from 30,000ft | {{specific}} | {{topic}}]
.controls[[SAQ](saqs.html) [D](discuss.html) [OH](oh.html) [C](coffee.html) [P](coffee.html#2) [SLIDES](http://sharpic.github.io/COMP33511/#slides) [↩](#)]

## {{topic}}

> I'll sit down to work on an assignment, start sketching screens or composing an outline, then suddenly stop and say to myself, "these are all 'hows!' What is the 'what?' What am I really trying to deliver?" There is an implicit 'what' underlying most software projects understanding.

---

topic: Awareness, Understanding, Action

## {{topic}}

.fig[![Hearing](Graphics/ch4-aua.png) .caption[Awareness, Understanding, Action. .credit[J. Cato. User Centered Web Design. Addison Wesley, 2001.]]]

---

topic: Discover, Design, Use

## {{topic}}

.fig[![Hearing](Graphics/ch4-ddu.png) .caption[Discover, Design, Use. .credit[J. Cato. User Centered Web Design. Addison Wesley, 2001.]]]

---

topic: User Centred / Participatory Design

## {{topic}}

> The major difference between the traditional engineering methods, and UCD is that the users participate far more in UCD, and that the cycles are not so ridged.

> Further, requirements engineering is often more concerned that all functionality is present and that this functionality works correctly -- important, to be sure.

> However, UCD is interested in making sure the functionality elicited in the requirements capture is the 'right' functionality for the users -- it is **'What People Want!'**.

---

topic: Who?

## {{topic}}

- **'Actor'** refers to a specific instance of the users such as a customer, manager, or sales clerk;

- **'Stakeholder'** is similar to an actor but in this case they are less involved;

- **'Role'** describes the persona the user will be taking, such as a purchaser or a seller;

and

- **'Proxy'** is used to describe a person who is not a specific user but is playing that role, in this case a proxy sales clerk.

---

noteid: Countdown

topic: What?

## {{topic}}

---

topic: What?

## {{topic}}

- **'Current System?'** What does the current system (paper based or not) do;

- **'Current Documentation?'** What does it produce and what terms / jargon is used;

- **'Improvements?'** What improvements could be made (where does it fail)?;

- **'Newness?'** What changes / additions / subtractions are required;

and

- **'Importance?'** What is important / what needs speed / what is less often used / what is the 'schedule'?.

---

noteid: Countdown

topic: How?

## {{topic}}

---

topic: How?

## {{topic}}

---

topic: How?

## {{topic}}

Time and Motion!

]

- **'Observation' (Observe)** Look at what people do, and note it down;

- **'Analysis' (Analyse)** Analysis the 'stuff' they produce;

and

- **'Discussion' (Discuss)**  Try to find out what these observations and analysis means;

---

topic: Methods - Qualitative (Qual)

## {{topic}}

---

topic: Got Six Months?

## {{topic}}

### Participant Observation

- 'Learn by Doing';

- Longterm / Interpretive;

- Embedded / Imbedded (Invisible & Embedded);

- Copious Notes and Analysis (Ethnography);

- Conversations with a Purpose;

- Deep but Narrow Understanding; using

- Strategies to NOT Standout.

]

### Task Analysis

- 'Learn by Observing';

- Can be Short Term;

- Invisible / Remote, but can be

- Close & Discursive;

- Notes with 'Formal' Models;

- Mid-Deep / Mid-Scope; using

- Less Interpretation.

]

---

noteid: Countdown

topic: Where Could these be Applied?

## {{topic}}

---

topic: Got Six Weeks?

## {{topic}}

### Focus Groups / Interviews

- 'Learn By Asking';

- Fast with many Participants;

- 'People Lie';

- Group think (in F/G) maybe Wrong;

- Wide but Shallow;

- Semi-Structured Questions; and

- Requires Even Less Interpretation.

]

### Social / Shorten 6 Months

- Social;

- Just Talking;

- Cannot get the full picture;

- Relaxed - Informal; **or**

- Observation on a smaller scale; but

- More Constrained - More Shallow, than PObs.

]

---

topic: Lack of Users?

## {{topic}}

### Archive

- Describe an organisation by the things it produces;

- The Letters and Trails it Creates;

- Important Documentation;

- Logs and Logbooks; in short

- The artefacts of the systems already created by the users.