CS 443/543, Fall 2023, A.Hornof, 9/25/23

Project #1
Understanding the User

Due dates:
The point of the project
In this project, you will learn methodologies that can be applied to the requirements-analysis and design phases of building easy-to-use and easy-to-learn user interfaces. You should learn how to better understand the user and their needs by conducting interviews, writing scenarios, and conduct hierarchical task analyses.
A Warm-Up Exercise: Explain how to do a (non-computer) task that you know how to do well.
This is a warm-up exercise in which you will write a story about yourself, and some sort of non-computer activity that you can do well. The goals of the warm-up are to (a) start thinking analytically about how people do tasks and (b) introduce yourself to your classmates. Try to pick a skill that might be somewhat unique, or that helps to define who you are. Some possible tasks might be something related to:
Ideally the activity would be one that you have done enough times such that you could explain to a novice how to do it. Ideally, your level of expertise could be validated by some sort of accomplishment (such as achieving a certain time on a marathon, or getting invited back to perform at a venue) or by sheer number of accurate repetitions of a task (such as having led 20 backpacking trips without any major problems).
     Though most of the writing in this class will be technical writing, the writing for this warmup exercise should be a blend of technical writing (such as to describe the steps to do the task) and expository writing (in which you tell a fun story about yourself).
     Your summary should be about 500 words, and include a summary of how to do the task. If the summary has lists (and it probably should), the lists should be bulleted or numbered. Your document should include your name, the date it was written, and a title describing the contents of the document.
     Submit a PDF on Canvas before the due date and time.
     Here is an example completion of the warm-up exercise: Getting Rid of Blackberry Bushes (PDF)

The major steps and components of the project (after completing the warm-up exercise).

1. Pick an educational, creative, civic, or health-related activity that people engage in on or near campus. This could be a UO-related event that contributes to learning, creative expression, political activism, or good health. It cannot be the planning of a party. It should be something that most students could participate in. It could, for example, be the planning and running of a class or lab, taking a class or building something in the craft center, a UO club organizing and executing an event, a band or deejay planning and completing a performance, a "get out the vote" campaign, or the planning and executing of an activity through the UO Outdoor Program. Observe a situation in which users are truly engaged in the actual planning or execution of the activity. You should observe some of the actual planning and, ideally, the actual event (so select an event that will take place before the project deadline).

2. Observe two real users engaged in the tasks, and interview these users. Find two people, ideally not students in the class, who will permit you to observe them doing the task, and would be willing to answer questions about how they do the task. First, try to get each participant to show you exactly how they do the task. Listen carefully and take notes. After they do the task, interview them. The observation and interview process should take about 30 to 60 minutes per participant. Optionally, take some photos. Pages 42-56 of the course textbook, and Pages 51-54 of Rosson & Carroll, provide some guidance on how to observe and interview users. The observations and interviews should produce two sets of notes, one per participant, that you submit with your project submission. If you handwrite your notes during the observation and interview, consider typing them up; it would make it easier for you to draw from them for the next part of the project. The grammatical structure of the notes does not need to be perfect, but the writing should be easy to read and understand.

3. Write a scenario based on the interview materials. Create a scenario that is a narrative of how the task is accomplished based on your observations of real users doing the task, and interviews of these people. You may supplement the users’ stories with your personal beliefs of how you think that people do the task, but keep in mind that your personal opinions should generally carry less weight that what you actually observe other people doing, and the reports of other people. Be clear about what parts of the scenario are derived from your opinions and assumptions versus what you observed in and learned from other people. You may include photos in the scenario if you like, but only submit photos that convey useful information and are of good quality (such as with good exposure, focus, and composition).
     You can model your scenario after the examples in the textbook, such as the “problem scenarios” on pages 68-70 of Rosson & Carroll, but please use topic sentences. (Do not worry about the fine distinctions between these two different kinds of scenarios.) The scenario should be roughly 1,000 words in length.
     This photojournalistic essay of the Classic Tetris World Championship accomplishes some aspects of the assignment. It captures some scientific activities that take place within a computer gaming event. Note how the photo-essay captures the people, the tasks, and the artifacts, and provides a wealth of information that would be useful for anyone who wanted to build technology to support any of the tasks. But please note that the Tetris competition photo-essay would not satisfy this assignment very well. The assignment calls mostly for a textual essay, with photos complementing the essay. This Tetris photo-essay is mostly photos, with a little bit of text complementing the photos. Also, it is much easier to produce a good written document than a high-quality photo-essay.

4. Conduct a hierarchical task analysis (HTA) that accurately characterizes the hierarchical nature of the tasks described in the scenario. The HTA should have at least 25 nodes and should be be at least as detailed and thorough as the supermarket checkout task example in Figure 2.1 on page 25 of Annett (2003) (from Shepherd, 2001) or Figures 2.7 or 2.8 on pages 59 and 60 in Rosson & Carroll. Annotate nodes with additional information such as is done in the Figure. For example, specify whether all of the subtasks in a particular level need to be accomplished, or just some of them; and whether the subtasks can be accomplished in a strict order, or any order. Create a diagram like Figure 2.1, not a table like Table 2.2. Start your HTA using paper and pencil. This is essentially a design task, and should require some iteration. It should take some time for you to decide what hierarchical structure best characterizes how people do the task. Write roughly 300 words of well-organized and well-structured text that explain what is shown in the HTA, and what the HTA helps to reveal about how people do the task.

5. Write a brief reflection on the project. This should be roughly 300 words in which you reflect on the project, including what went well, what was difficult, what you learned, and how the approaches used here relate to designing easy-to-use and easy-to-learn user interfaces.

What to Submit
Submit, via Canvas, a single PDF file with a filename of “<lastname>-P1-Initial.pdf” for the initial submission, and “<lastname>-P1-Final.pdf” for the final submission. The PDF file should include:
  1. Two sets of notes from your two user observation sessions and interviews. But put these notes at the end of the entire document, as an addendum.
  2. A scenario. (Roughly 1,000 words.)
  3. A hierarchical task analysis, annotated as needed. (At least thirty nodes and as detailed as Annett, 2003, Figure 2.1.)
  4. A discussion of what is shown in the HTA, and what was learned by doing the HTA (roughly 300 words).
  5. Reflections on the project. (Roughly 400 words.)
Good Writing
All of the writing should be well-composed and well-written, should use topic sentences, and should follow the guidance for “Good writing” in the syllabus and on the course web page on Good Writing. Please do not use any generative AI assistance with your writing.
You may work in groups of two for Steps 1 and 2 but ...
The two of you must observe and interview four people, both of you must be present at all four interviews, and you must take separate observational and interview notes. You must then complete Steps 3 through 6 separately. All of the submitted materials should be different except that the you will have observed and interviewed the same three people.
Grading criteria
Do the participant observations and interviews, and the scenario, accurately capture the true complexity of the task? Were these studies conducted and was this scenario written in an earnest and thoughtful manner? Does the HTA provide a thoughtful and accurate decomposition of the task hierarchy, with roughly equivalent levels of abstraction at each level of the hierarchy? Is the HTA adequately annotated so that the task decomposition is completely clear? Does the reflection on the project demonstrate analytical and critical thinking? Is the submission clear and well-written, following the “Good Writing” guidance in the syllabus? Is the assignment completed as specified?
Extra Credit
For all students, you can get 5% extra credit by including, in the scenario, five or more high quality (good exposure, focus, and composition; and each photo under 1MB) photos that vividly help to convey the story. To progress towards taking high quality photos, you can read about topics such as holding the camera, cropping and framing, exposure compensation, the use of histograms, and photographing in sunlight at geofflawrence.com and elsewhere. Here are some examples of high-quality photos: photojournalistic essay of the Classic Tetris World Championship