IM2044 – Week 12Dr. Andres Baravalle

Before we start

• As I mentioned in class on Friday, I will not be able to teach the class on Friday 10th May

• After discussing with the students in class, you will be able to take the class on any one of these dates:– Thursday 9th May in ITC09 at 13:00 OR– Tuesday 14th May in ITC02 ITC07 at 10:00

Lecture content

• Don’t make me think!• Feedback• 2012-2013 dissertation supervisions

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Usability heuristics

• The first law of Usability Engineering (according to Steve Krug) is...

• Don’t Make Me Think

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#1: Users don’t read web pages

• Users don’t read web pages – they just scan

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#2: Don’t make optimal choices

• Optimal choices are in most cases a waste of resources

• Typically is not needed to commit the resources needed to have an optimal interface rather than a good interface– People don’t look for perfect plans – they look

for good enough plans– Are you really going to look for a second price

when you find a book in Amazon at £ 3?

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#3: Users have no understanding of how things work

• Nor they should need to, in many cases– Knowing the TCP/IP stack is not going to help

you to send an email

• Don’t design interfaces that require learning from users – most probably users are NOT going to learn how to use your interface

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The trunk test

• Imagine you are blindfolded in the trunk of a car

• Driven around• Dumped somewhere

– Once you are out, you need to assess your situation

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The trunk test (2)

• A usable web site will allow you to “survive” a trunk test

• On a usable web page you’ll be always able to answer these questions:– What site is this– What page I’m on– What are the main sections– What are my options– Where I am– How can I search

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The trunk test (3)

• You can use this approach by printing a set of pages and asking users to circle some or all of those areas

• You can compare user’s performance on different web pages to have an indicator of their usability

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Designing home pages

• A typical home page will include:– Site identity and mission– Site hierarchy– Site search– Teases (e.g. Featured content)– Timely content– Deals (including ads)– Shortcuts to content – Registration

• A home page should always pass the “trunk test”!

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Usability evaluation methods

• Usability inquiry: focus on talking to and/or observing users

• Usability inspection: focus on expert analysis

• Usability testing: focus on testing interfaces with users

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Always, always, always TEST

• Testing one user is better than testing none!

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Test soon, test often

• Testing one user early is better than testing 50 at the end

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Testing is iterative

• No point in testing if you don’t correct the errors that you find...

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And this is (nearly) the end...

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Feedback

• Module feedback available on UELplus• Please submit the feedback – let us know

what you liked and how we can improve

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Bibliography

• Krug, S. (2009) Don’t Make Me Think

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SUPERVISIONS

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Final year supervision

• This is for September 2014• I’m happy to consider supervising (in

2013-2014) students in the following areas: – Web APPLICATIONS development– Open Source technologies– Usability, accessibility and HCI

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Remember!

• It’s your research/dissertation – you have to pick something that you enjoy– I’m open to supervise thesis in my areas of

interest– I’m not interested in supervising thesis that

are not interesting for me too

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Supervision meetings

• I hold all my supervision meetings on one day (currently Tuesdays)–It is not negotiable

• If you are not free on that day I cannot supervise you

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Where to find more

• A selection of available dissertation topics is available here:baravalle.com/teaching

You can write me at a.baravalle@uel.ac.uk

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