Requirements Gathering & Expressing

Agenda

Project Team Formation Requirements Gathering Methods

continued Requirements Expressing

Personas Scenarios

(Not All) Requirements Gathering Methods

1. Observation2. Thinking Out Loud & Cooperative

Evaluation3. Interviews4. Questionnaires5. Focus groups6. Study Documentation7. Look at competitive products8. Ethnography - learn by immersion/doing

Domain Expert Interviews

Expert describes how it should be done (not necessarily how it is done)

Questionnaires

General criteria Make questions clear and specific Ask some closed questions with range

of answers Sometimes also have a no opinion option,

or other answer option Do test run with one or two people

Seven-point Likert Scale (use odd #)

Could also use just words Strongly agree, agree, neutral,

disagree, strongly disagree

Questionnaires - Example

See ID 13.3 for more tips

Other Typical Questions

Rank the importance of each of these tasks (give a list of tasks)

List the four most important tasks that you perform (this is an open question)

List the pieces of information you need to have before making a decision about X, in order of importance

Are there any other points you would like to make? (open-ended opinion question; good way to end)

Open ended questions

Can ask questions similar to semi-structured interview …but you can’t follow up, so take care

what you ask Keep as short and simple as

possible

Focus Groups

Group of individuals - 3 to 10 Use several different groups with different roles or

perspectives And to separate the powerful from those who are

not Careful about few people dominating discussion

Use structured set of questions More specific at beginning, more open as progresses Allow digressions before coming back on track

Relatively low cost, quick way to learn a lot Audio or video record, with permission

Example: mall kiosk

Who to interview? What questions? Who to give questionnaire to? What

questions? What about focus group?

What are differences between methods?

Study Documentation

Similar in some ways to the expert interview

Often describe how things should be done rather than how they are done Try to understand why not done “by the

book”

Look at Competitive Products

Looking for both good and bad ideas Functionality UI style

Do user task performance metrics to establish bounds on your system

Ethnography

Deeply contextual study Immerse oneself in situation you want to

learn about (has anthropological and sociological roots) Observing people in their cultural context

For UI designers: understand current methods, activities, environment, problems to aid design

Drawbacks Time consuming requires training and experience

Which Methods to Use?

Depends on Resources Current knowledge of tasks and users Context

Can’t use talking out loud if work involves two people working together

Essential to use some methods Not likely you will use all methods

See pg. 214 in ID

Which Methods to Use?

• Self-service filling and payment system for a gas station

• On-board ship data analysis system for geologists searching for oil

• Fashion website for buying clothes at large department store

(Not All) Requirements Gathering Methods

1. Observation2. Thinking Out Loud & Cooperative

Evaluation3. Interviews4. Questionnaires5. Focus groups6. Study Documentation7. Look at competitive products8. Ethnography - learn by immersion/doing

Bus Location Web Page

Create a requirements plan which methods What to look for/ask/do for each?

Recall:

Gather data Interviews, observation,

surveys/questionnaires, documentation, immersion

Organize data Notes, cards, brainstorming, computer tools

Represent data Lists, outlines, matrices Narratives Hierarchies, Networks, Flow charts

Making Sense

Organize/categorize information “coding scheme”

Card Sorting Affinity Diagrams Task analysis

Affinity Diagram - “Sorted Cards”

From Interaction Design, Preece Rogers and Sharp

Describing requirements activities

Narratives Personas Scenarios Task Analysis & other task

descriptions …next lecture

Recall: User Characteristics

Attitude, morale, willingness to change, motivation, reading level, typing skill, education, frequency of use, training, color-blindness, handedness, gender,…

Novice, intermediate, expert System experience, task experience, computer

literacy Cultural factors

Uses of icons, colors, words, metaphors - more later

User Motivation

UserLow motivation, discretionary useLow motivation, mandatory useHigh motivation, due to fearHigh motivation, due to interest

Design goalEase of learning

Control, power

Ease of learning, robustness, control

Power, ease of use

Implications of Experience

ExperienceTask Systemlow low

high high

low high

high low

Design goalsMany syntactic and semantic prompts

Efficient commands, concise syntax

Semantic help facilities

Lots of syntactic prompting

Persona

Description of user and what user wishes to do

Be specific/detailed, even give names and picture

Three personas for ATM usage follow Adapted from User Interface Design

and Evaluation, The Open University Developed by Cooper (1999)

Felix (representing teenage ATM users)

Felix is 13 and gets pocket money each week. He spends it with his friends, so doesn’t make regular deposits. He does receive gifts for his birthday, Christmas, etc. and saves that money for special purchases, such as a computer games console or trendy clothes. He has an ATM card allowing him to make withdrawals when needed for his purchases.

Sandra (representing young adults thru middle age)

Sandra is 30, is married to Jason, has two children Todd(6) and Carly (18 months). They live in a subdivision that is about three miles from the town center, where the bank and stores are located. Jason uses the car for work, and works long hours, leaving at 6:45 am and returning at 8:00 pm. Sandra does not drive, so has to use public transportation. She tries to run errands and shop while Todd is in school, so she only has to take Carly to town with her. She typically needs to make two trips to town each week to get everything done. She uses a stroller with Carly, and the bank is one flight up via escalator, so she prefers to use the ATM outside the first floor, even though there is no canopy to protect customers from bad weather.

Grandpa Marvin (representing middle age to senior citizens)

Marvin is 68 years old, and his social security is deposited into his bank account at the start of each month. He goes to the bank every week, withdrawing enough cash for the week - for miscellaneous expenditures. Regular bills are paid by check. He stands in line for a live teller, as he prefers the social interaction to using an ATM, even though his new artificial hip makes standing in line uncomfortable. He does not have an ATM card.

Task Implications

Frequency of use High - Ease of use Low - Ease of learning & remembering

Task implications High - Ease of use Low - Ease of learning

System use Mandatory - Ease of use Discretionary - Ease of learning

Job Characteristics

Mission critical Life and safety High stress environment High mental workload Low mental workload

Implications of these types of jobs?

Scenario

Describe tasks and context in sentences

Natural way of describing general idea

Not effective for details branching tasks parallel tasks

GREAT as introduction to diagrams or outlines

Scenario: Example 1

Its Friday afternoon and John just got paid. He wants to deposit his check immediately so he can pay his rent. He stops at one branch of his bank on the way home from work. He waits in his car while another person finishes using the ATM in front of the bank since it is drizzling outside. He walks up to the ATM to deposit his check. Only, as he is about to put the check into the envelope at the ATM, he realizes that he has not signed the back of it, and he has no pen and can not find one on or near the ATM machine. He cancels the transaction on the ATM, and enters the bank, which luckily is still open for 5 more minutes. He goes to the counter, finds a pen, and signs his check. He also fills out a deposit slip. He then waits to see a teller in person to deposit his check, and get money for the weekend.

Scenario: Example 2

Annie walks up to the ATM to deposit her weekly pay check. She puts her ATM card into the slot in the machine. She then enters her PIN number quickly, trying to block the person waiting behind her from viewing the keypad, and knows that she does not have to press “Enter” at this particular machine. She then chooses “Deposit” and “Check.” She enters the amount of the check using the keypad, then takes an envelope from the ATM machine, puts her check inside, seals the envelope and writes the amount of the check on the outside. She feeds the envelope into the slot into the ATM machine. She then selects “No other transactions” to finish, and waits to receive her receipt and ATM card.

Example

Register for classes

What kinds of activities could we write a scenario about?

Let’s write one together

Exercise: Movie Ticket Kiosk

What data gathering techniques would you use? Who would you interact with?

Who are the stakeholders? What are typical user characteristics? What is physical/social/technical

environment? What is a typical scenario of use? What is an atypical or problem scenario?

Next Assignments

Create a persona: Due in one week Create a scenario: Due 1 ½ weeks

Think about your project topic Confer with teammates

Last Assignment

What did you learn about transportation?

What did you learn about interviewing?

How would you do it differently next time?