CSCI 499 - Final Paper

Purpose:

Reflect on the material we covered and think about how you might apply what you've learned to future design projects.

Paper Questions

The Process

Our team project followed an agile-like process (from LeanUX) with supplemental stories (from User's Journey). Think about your future software teams and answer the following questions:

  1. Which techniques would you encourage the team to use? How comfortable would you be explaining (and maybe leading) each of those techniques?
  2. Are there techniques you believe have significant value, but you would need more practice/explanation to feel comfortable using? Which ones?
  3. How difficult do you think it would be to convince others on your team to be more user focused? Explain how you might convince them.

The Guidelines

We also covered a number of UI/UX guidelines, along with cognitive explanations. Please review all the Mind in Mind chapters, as well as any supporting links, and answer:

  1. Pick 5-10 ideas/topic areas that seem most important to you (could be from supplemental links/material rather than the Mind text). This could be a topic with lots of sub guidelines (e.g., two I really like are: "Recognition is easy, recall is hard" and "Users don't remember closing tasks") OR a single idea/motto that really resonates (e.g., my favorite UI motto is "Don't make me think"). Explain why they are especially relevant.
  2. We didn't have time to cover Mind in Mind chapters 9-14. Quickly skim the chapters. Which chapter do you think would be most interesting and/or relevant to read in the future? Why?

Usability Testing

For this section, you will critique a design from one of your teammates (created in unit 8). You previously practiced a Cognitive Walkthrough. Another good/simple usability technique is Think Aloud.

Both Cognitive Walkthrough and Think Aloud are "formal" processes with clear steps. The good news is that we as designers can get value even from an informal process that is inspired by these techniques. In a CogWalk, you write down the steps first and then imagine what the user is thinking at each step. In a ThinkAloud, you present a user with a goal, which they attempt to perform while continuosly sharing their thoughts and observations. In both techniques, you create a list of areas which are confusing or could be improved/ enhanced.

For your informal process, you should state the goal of the features you are critiquing (e.g. the goal is to add a recipe, the goal is to understand the value of this career builder software, etc.). Then walk through the process, creating a list of your observations (e.g., The first step is to select Add Recipe, very clear. It looks like the first thing is to give the recipe a title, makes sense. Next is a list of ingredients. I'm not sure here how to enter quantities. Etc. Etc.)

Because this is informal, I am not specifying an exact format for your critique. You might want to write down all your thoughts, as in my example. Or you might want to just do a summary of areas that were confusing, areas that were effective, and suggestions for revisions. The main goal is for you to see how software designs can be improved even with a quick, simple process.

Submit

Put all your answers in a single pdf.

Evaluate

This paper is 5% of your grade. It should be obvious from your write-up that you spent a fair amount of time reviewing and reflecting on the material (this is really for your benefit, as a final review should help you remember and solidify the most important ideas). As described on the home page, this assignment will be assigned a letter grade (A=5, etc.).

Future Work

We have focused primarily on techniques and tools you could apply as an individual designer. If your goal is to take a leading design role within your organization, you might want to review more of the material within LeanUX: