Part 1: Report on your system

Before starting this part of the assignment, read the instructions in the Introduction about selecting a system or a piece of software on which to base your coursework.

In this part of this assignment you will produce a report on your system. You need to supply enough material for the grader to understand what the system does and what it looks like. You may supply an appendix with background detail if this will help to explain the system, but try to keep it brief and avoid including unnecessary detail.

You will be assessed on how well you can describe the system, so do not submit all the available material on the system – be selective. If you find that you cannot describe your system within the word counts mentioned, then contact the grader about changing or limiting your choice of system.

Question 1: Introduction – [about 150 words, 3 points]

Write a brief introduction that (i) places the report in context as the first project’s assignment for CSE212, (ii) summarises the purpose and content of the report and (iii) explains why you chose this system for your coursework.

Question 2: Description of the system and its users – [about 100-150 words for each, 45 points]

Chapters 3 and 4 illustrate how to describe the system.

2.1 (5 pts) Describe the user interface to the system. Include as much visual material as possible (for example screen dumps, figures, diagrams) to show how the system or software works. The use of ‘before and after’ sketches or screen displays might be helpful to show a change in the interface. For example, you might illustrate a screen before and after a particular button has been selected, showing the changes that occur. If you have chosen part of a system, describe how this part fits within the overall system.

2.2 (8 pts) Write profiles of two contrasting groups of users of your system, describing their main characteristics.

2.3 (8 pts) Describe the domain in which your system operates. List briefly the goals of the users when they use this system. Briefly explain how you derived your domain description and goal list.

2.4 (8 pts) Describe the tasks involved in achieving one or two of the goals you have listed above. Describe the characteristics of the tasks that the users are engaged in when they try to achieve their goals.

2.5 (8 pts) Describe the physical environment, the social or organisational environment, and the user support environment.

2.6 (8 pts) Discuss the relative importance of efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction in your system. Construct three usability metrics, one for each of efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction. Explain whether these metrics are sufficient as the usability requirements for your system.

Question 3: Investigation and analysis – [about 150 words for each, 30 points]

Chapters 3 and 4 explain how to investigate and analyse systems.

3.1 (7 pts) Briefly interview or observe users from one of the user groups identified in 2.2 to find out how they use the system. Based on the findings of your interview or observation, choose a task that causes problems for these users. Describe the task and explain why you consider it to be problematic. Regarding the problems they experienced, justify your answer by including comments from these users, or other evidence, such as observation notes.

Concrete use cases are explained in Chapter 4.

3.2 (6 pts) Create a concrete use case for the selected task for your chosen system.

Cognitive walkthrough is described in Chapter 4.

3.3 (8 pts) Using the concrete use case from 3.2, carry out a brief cognitive walkthrough for the selected task for your chosen system.

3.4 (9 pts) Compare and discuss what you learned about the problematic task from:

interviewing and observing users
your creation of a concrete use case
your cognitive walkthrough.

If you think that you did not learn anything from your investigations or analyses then explain why not.

Part 2: Initial evaluation

Question 4 – [about 400 words, 15 points]

Here we get you straight into the evaluation of a user interface. Do not be concerned that it is so early in the course. We want you to practise looking critically at interfaces, and thinking about your experiences as a user.

Important note. This question involves reviewing a sequence of screens from an early version of the Blackwell’s website. Do not review the current Blackwell’s website.

Before answering this question, do the Activity in the appendix to this Assignment Booklet.

Describe three different problems that you think ‘real’ users might have when they use the Blackwell’s website.
Describe three different aspects of the Blackwell’s website that might make it easy to use.
Explain which problem you consider to be the most serious, and which positive aspect of the interface you consider to be the most beneficial. Justify your answer in terms of concepts from parts 1 and 2 of the course text.

Question 5: Conclusion and quality of the report – [about 200 words, 3 points for conclusion, 4 points for quality]

Write a conclusion that (i) describes what you have achieved in the report and (ii) re-states the main points of your work, including any recommendations and proposed future actions. Your report will also be assessed for its overall quality – its consistency, coherence, completeness and legibility.

Appendix.

Initial evaluation (to be completed for Part 2 of Assignment 01)

Background

Blackwell’s Bookshop is a chain of academic bookshops in the United Kingdom. Its flagship location is in Oxford. Blackwell’s core market is academic: researchers, teachers and students. It also offers a comprehensive range of books for the general reader.

Activity

You have been invited to participate in an evaluation of the Blackwell’s Online Bookshop as it was in October 2000. You are in the role of a student studying an HCI course who is also working in a user interface group. Your manager has asked you to purchase a book each month to build up a usability library for your group. You have a budget of £50 a month (approximately $70).

We have a series of pages (8 images) from the Blackwell’s website on the following link

Entitled blackwell1.htm to blackwell8.htm.

The pages are fixed and will not react to your clicks. This is similar to ‘paper prototyping’, which is mentioned several times in the book.

As you work through the images, please note your reactions to each page. If the next page in the sequence is not what you expect, make a note of these reactions as well.

The user’s task is to find a book relating to usability within a budget of £50

Look at page 1. The online bookshop home page

Ask yourself the following four questions.

Where would you click or type next on the page?
What do you expect to happen next?
Are you getting closer to your goal of purchasing a suitable book?
Any other comments on this page?

From this point on, we have included a predicted route through the system. Your preferred route may be different, but (as is usual in paper prototyping) we only have one route available, so you may need to adjust to each new screen as it appears.

The predicted action was that the user would:

type ‘usability’ in the ‘QUICK SEARCH’ box
click on the ‘SEARCH’ button

Even if you would have done something different, please pick up the thread again on the basis that this has been your action. This results in page 2 being displayed.