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SE 204, IES 506 – Human Computer Interaction

Lecture 7: Evaluating Interface Designs

Lecturer: Gazihan Alankuş

Please look at the end of the presentation for assignments (marked with TODO)

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Outline

• Weekly show and tell about interfaces that you use

• Talking about your experience with the homework

• Continuing evaluating designs

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Show and Tell

• What good/bad interfaces have you seen lately?

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Nokia smartphones

• I helped my uncle yesterday. It took me more than an hour…– Hard to tell which

internet connection you are using. Wifi vs GSM data.

– Menus under menus under menus… Many keys that you use in the process…

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Others?

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Your experience with the homework

• People who didn’t observe a user were going to observe– How many people did?– How many still need to do?– High school students?

• Let’s hear from your experience– How did it go? – What were the difficulties? – Have you learned anything? – What would you change next time?

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What have we done so far?

• Identify a problem• Identify requirements• Create a prototype• Evaluate the prototype– Evaluate yourself– Evaluate with expertsEvaluate through user tests

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User Tests

1. Find users!2. Test prototypes with them

Recruiting Users

• Find people with the same experience level as the typical user• Don’t get people who are familiar with the product or your

views on it.– Be careful about “friends and family” testing– Public places like libraries, dining halls, coffee shops can be good

places to find people who wouldn’t mind helping for a few minutes.– Some companies have user testing labs that they set up and they

handle recruiting users.– In academia, we often post fliers or set up agreements with local

organizations. – A small budget to give out gift certificates or something can help.

9[source: Caitlin Kelleher]

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How should you conduct user tests?

• Some Techniques for Observing Users– Kathleen Gomoll, Advanced Technology Group,

Apple Computer, Inc.– Please read!

• Qualitative Evaluation Techniques– Saul Greenberg– We will follow his slides today

TODO: Homework week 6 due next Thursday (April 2)

• If you haven’t used a campus visitor BEFORE creating a paper prototype you have to do this:

• Create another prototype, with actual ethnographic observation– Remember our iterative loop!– Bring a guest to IEU!

• Observe what they want to find/do/see• Interview them• (optionally) participatory design

– Form hypotheses based on your observations, make the prototype(s) accordingly

• You can use high school students. Talk to Barış Bey in Öğrenci Dekanlığı

TODO: Homework week 7 due April 16

• Get two users to test your prototype– Don’t have to be on campus (can be if you want)– Should be in your target audience (people that do not know

the IEU campus well)– Identify a couple of clear tasks that your interface is created

to address• Test each of them one by one

– Videotape the prototype• Optionally, also videotape the user’s face

– Learn from the user test• Follow the instructions in Saul Greenberg’s slides• Create the necessary deliverables

TODO: Homework for IES 506 only, due two weeks from now

• Rettig, M (1994) Prototyping for tiny fingers. Communications of the ACM, April, Vol.37,No.4.– Summarize it in about a page

• Also– Send me weekly reports about your projects– Previous summaries were due today

TODO: Prepare for the midterm

• Mark your calendars for the midterm exam– 9 April– 17:30-19:20– Location: C302, C303