CIS 764 Database Systems Engineering

Fall 2007 http://www.cis.ksu.edu 1

CIS 764 Database Systems Engineering

L14: Usability - Part 2 : examples, About Presentations

(beginning slides are copied from L6a)



Usability …

a measure (a ranking or quantitative assessment) of user satisfaction and performance in using an interface (web, application UI, or service API) for an application or service.

“good”, “nice” are not measures ! “number of ..”, time, Likert scale… are measures.



includes:

function (functionality) ... the use-cases , appearance ........... the "look and feel", ( readable, simple: 7+-2 ) operation ........................ the required behavior of the user and the behavior of the application



Why important?

1. usability will dominate the success/rejection of the application.

2. presentation & usability team typically UI design = same effort as model implementation !! 10% of UI design == usability



Refs:

Usability.gov ... http://www.usability.gov/basics/

Nielson Usabiltiy 101 http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html Nielson: Ten Heuristics http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html

more links http://www.usableweb.com/ books old The Design of Everyday Things, (Norman) 2001 Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed (Nielsen) 2000 Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity (Nielsen)

current … $$$ for usability reports



Your usability evaluations:

seeking e-commerce-like sites (user interaction to a back-end DB)

seeking some bad site, some good site. (many found both bad and good at same site)



Amazon, Yahoo, Monster Orkut (2), Digg.com Google, Yahoo Gmail, KSU webmail NY Times, Manhattan Mercury, KSU Collegean CIS540 HP(3), Dell (2), Sony, IBM(2), BEA, Microsoft, CircuitCity Verizon espnStar ING Stonybrook U from India: rediff, indicthreads, naukri KeyPoster, LongCycle, Durlston, ocgov deal2buy, slickDeal, JustDeals whattheboat, latex-project dzinerHolidays Chilpotle



Good features:

layout .. simple

fast (simple)

easy

rich

personal



Good features: “good” organization / layout (5); standard layout (bbb); organization by user roles; Nielson’s features fast (2): no ads

easy navigation: rich functions, drop down selection, good search (spelling); tutorials;

rich functions: dynamic update ( usually Ajax) data mining … customer helps

personal profile data mining … customer helps multi-language … select non-english auto-region detect …



Bad features:

(layout) complex layout (4); complex lists of items; color clash, icon visibility

(fast) big ads, blinking, clutter, many ads, useless flash

(easy) long navigation, numeric user id, multiple register

(rich) hides the cost (2), no product reviews missing feature (fwd email) weak search; no search feature

(bad) bad links not cross-browser incomplete drop down list security breach not Nielson features



Class web evaluation pages:

... No name (many) … non-active links (text, but no link) … several … no images ! …. few vs too large images … many vs bad link to image … few … did not answer the question: “what good / bad feature” … few … spelling errors … several



Nielson 2000, Top ten mistakes:

1. Bad search2. Pdf files3. Color of visited links4. Non-scannable text5. Fixed size fonts6. Weak page titles7. Ads8. Violating design patterns9. Opening new windows10.Not answering key questions (like price)

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/



Bad features:

How can this be?

What is the answer?

Is the state of software quality any different from the state usability? Ans:



Bad features:

How can this be?

* GUI design by programmers. * Test / evaluation by the designers. good for the business =/= good for user natural difference in preferences

What is the answer?



Bad features:

How can this be?

* GUI design by programmers. * Test / evaluation by the designers.

What is the answer?

follow established standards

* (Nielson) visual prototypes [if necessary, mock back-end data] * user personas (and real users) * patterns (of domains & interactions) * usability testing labs



Doc Searls : used to sell many books his site linked to Amazon for fulfillment. changed site to link to Wordsworth for fulfillment …. sold zero single books !!

Why?



Doc Searls : used to sell many books his site linked to Amazon for fulfillment. changed site to link to Wordsworth for fulfillment …. sold zero single books !!

Why? users do not want to learn any new interface Wordsworth violated guidelines for ecommerce: - bag vs cart - “add to bag” gives no feedback - cannot find the “checkout” link (all these have been changed)



Response times:

0.1 sec .. Interaction OK, no other feedback 1.0 sec .. Not direct interaction, but no other feedback 10 sec .. OK wait time with feedback longer … user will multi-task to other windows.



GNOME Usability Guide http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/ (could you find it from http://developer.gnome.org/ or http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/



Usability Testing Wichita State Software Usability Research Laboratory http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/ example studies:

10 mistakes of shopping carts: http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/42/shoppingcart.htm about fonts http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3S/font.htm 3 auto insurance sites http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/42/insurance.htm image speed / compression http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3S/download_time.htm



http://www.zenhaiku.com/archives/usability_applied_to_life.html

1 prevent errors: put items out the night before 2 consistency & standards: always put keys in right pocket 3 prevent errors: auto schedule key bills …



About the class presentations:

Why?




Why?

Dimensions of “knowledge”

technical / concrete … coding constructive / abstract … design concept /abstract …. speaking / teaching language …. writing relational …. group work

… many more




Presentation Evaluation Form: Name: ________________________________ Date:_______________ Topic:__________________________ ___________________________ Start: __________ Stop:___________ Time:____________________ Eye contact: Font Size: Position: Colors: Volume: References: Confidence: 7+-2 UM’s, “you know”: Diagrams: other: Concept: negatives: Example:

Difficulty: Response to questions:

Technical content: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Presentation style: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Notes:



Speaking:

Eye contact … make regular eye contact Position … face the audience, not the screen Volume … strong, but check that audio clips not overdriven Confidence … be in control, sound sure UM’s, “u-kn” … 1-10 is OK , 35-70 is don’t rush – take time between each sentence, slide negatives …. Profession presentation; No – apologies, bad/slang words, negatives (“I’m don’t quite understand this, but …”) other … don’t read slides (particularly lists of items ) time … 8-14 minutes (look for moderator waving the watch) questions … allow a time for questions



Slides: Name and title Font Size … not too small Colors ……. contrasting colors Density …. not long text; use bullets, key words 7 + - 2 … few points per slide; except of lists of example items Diagrams … very helpful Concept & example … need both References … included Questions … allow a point for questions Difficulty … don’t re-do the basic concepts of 764 ; do contribute “new” information.



* send slides in advance or have them loaded on your machine

* record audio clips (sometime .. before, during, after the talk) (submit final slides with audio for posting)

* post on your homework page: ~ 2 page summary / overview of your slides: w. name, title, main definition, your purpose, references [ Why … evaluation of writing proficiency.]



Final evaluation questions (at the end of the semester):

First, provide a collection of 2 sentence reviews of each (most) talks: (a) what is the subject (brief statement/definition) (b) what did the presenter say / present about the subject e.g. Intro, overview, example, critique, relation to other topic, …?

More about this at the end.



end.

CIS 764 Database Systems Engineering

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