CSCI 499 - Cognitive Walkthrough

Purpose:

There are are number of good usability techniques. We will only have time to explore one: the Cognitive Walkthrough. You will practice the technique with existing software.

Preparation:

Read:

• General overview of one approach to CW:
  https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/how-to-conduct-a-cognitive-walkthrough
• Explains how to focus on labels:
  https://uxdesign.cc/assessing-interfaces-with-cognitive-walkthrough-9f92eae4321f
• Fun example of an unclear interface:
  https://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/cogwalk.html
• My Example:
  CognitiveWalkthrough.pdf

For this exercise you should:

1. Pick a fairly complex program that you have access to, such as Excel, Word, PhotoShop, etc.
2. Select a task which would take approximately 10-12 steps to complete (could be steps with sub-steps, as in my example).
3. Perform a cognitive walkthrough, using the format below (as illustrated in my pdf).

Format for your Walkthrough

Create a doc (submit in pdf) that includes:

• 1-2 sentence description of the task (what the user would want to accomplish)
• Persona assumptions. Make up a persona who is slightly different from you (e.g., maybe a parent or grandparent, or a teenager, or a professional who doesn't use computers often, etc.).
• List of steps (as stated in my pdf, you need to list the steps FIRST, then do the walkthrough... so you will go through the task two times)
• Analyze each step of the walkthrough. Although the four questions cited in the links are important, our format will focus more on what the user is thinking/trying and recommendations to not only clarify but make the user feel like a hero. So for each step, you should include:
  • What the user is thinking (their next task on the way to achieving the overall goal)
  • Actions the user might try, based on the user's background and the interface. For this question you will identify points of confusion in the interface.
  • Recommendations. These should address the confusion points and possibly suggest improvements that enhance the overall experience (e.g., my suggestion that clicking on the attribute part of the drawing would automatically bring up the Attribute tab. Clearly that's not necessary, but would be a nice feature).

Bottom line: your walkthrough structure will be similar to mine, but you do not need to include screen shots.

Submit

Submit your pdf in the specified format.

Evaluation

Grade will be based on whether the task had enough complexity to illustrate the process, the actions showed realistic user thought, and the recommendations provided valid solutions and at least 1-2 potential enhancements.

NOTE: if the task you have chosen is already very well designed (i.e., you really can't think of any improvements) - pick something else! There's plenty of subpar software available. Feel free to get suggestions from teammates or just ask friends/relatives for what bothers them.

NOTE 2: We will return to the topic of usability in your final paper.