Thursday, 22 October

Week 9: Usability Testing 2/3

How did you do on your mid-terms?

Any questions on what I sent out Tuesday?

Review Mid-term Reflections

How has your understanding of HCI/d changed so far this semester?

Most students found their understanding of what good design is has completely changed and their understanding of HCI/d has changed a lot so far during the course of the semester. 

They mentioned they changed their understanding of user design experience, especially with affordances and constraints, metaphors, feedback, etc. 

Are you finding the class more or less useful than you expected?

Majority of the students found this class to be much more useful than they expected.

There is one student mentioned she find the class to be useful; however, she does not feel challenged.

What has been the most valuable thing you've learned so far?

• Affordances, contraints 
• Evaluation - analyze its structure and how it affects the user. 
• What makes good design and what makes bad design
• Understanding that there is no perfect design

The class follows a process, we are developing the sets of user-responsive understandings that will enable us to do effective design in Project 4.

Review Project 2

Good examples

Overall observations:

Be clear about mapping -- it's not simply a flowchart, it's the extent to which the user's mental model is embedded in the design.

Group work -- if there are issues with your group please bring them up with your Mentor promptly. Ensure that you do your Group Member Evaluations promptly including your own!

Project 3.1 due

How did they turn out?

It will be very important to clarify any confusion today

 Five Second Test: http://www.usefulusability.com/5-second-test/

https://usabilityhub.com/

 Set out what is due in Project 3.2

Revise what you have

Add Overview, Background, Findings, Design Recommendations, Conclusions, References

User Interface Design Tools:

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2012/03/user-interface-design-tools.html 

Looking ahead to Project 4

Group Meeting Time

In-class writing (1 per group):

List the changes that you're going to make to Project 3.1

List the top three usability issues you identified in your work to date

Indicate how, through design, you plan to address those usability issues.

 
Homework for Tuesday, 27 October

Work on Project 3.2  

Prepare for a Quiz with the follow Potential Questions from UXD, pp. 144 – 155 “Mindset and Toolkit” through “Design Patterns," the Edward Tufte iPhone interface video (Thursday, 15 October lecture) and on the "Trunk Test" (Tuesday, 13 October lecture):

1. What is empathy? Why is it important? How is it cultivated in the UXD context? 
2. What is project management? Why is it important? What tools are available to help with project management? Do you use any of them in your projects? 
3. What approaches are available to visualize interface designs? Review a range of options and cite examples of any of the approaches that you, yourself, have used. 
4. What tools are available to help elicit feedback from users? Be specific about the approaches and their characteristics. 
5. What is a “prototype”? What are the two types of prototype? What are the characteristics and benefits of each? 
6. What is "Computer Administrative Debris"? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Why? Please give an example.
7.  What are the six aspects of a "Trunk Test" according to Steve Krug?