Development process
The CoCoFo interface
development process incorporated various user-centered design techniques.
Of particular importance were the creation of personas representing
the target users, and the development of representative task scenarios.
Personas
At the beginning
of the project, we used questionnaires and a focus group to obtain baseline
information about our target users' characteristics, needs, and preferences.
We found that an individual's "place" on the program timeline
(e.g., first-year student or second-year student) was a key factor in
defining their interests and needs. In addition, it is important for
us to address a range of technical backgrounds, and to be inclusive
of non-native speakers of English. Based on this data, we developed
the following set of personas representing users with a range of backgrounds:
- Cindy Zhou, an
incoming Master's student from mainland China. She has excellent programming
skills but little practical experience, and lacks confidence in her
command of English.
- Ed Rivera, a
first-year Master's student and a native Californian. He has extensive
work experience in computer hardware support but little web experience,
and is struggling to define his future direction.
- Annie Geever,
a second-year Master's student from Boston, Massachusetts. A former
humanities major with self-taught web skills, she is confident and
outspoken.
- Bosko Mijanovic,
a PhD student from Serbia, an extremely bright and quirky individual
with strong overall technical skills and an insatiable appetite for
conversation, electronic or otherwise.
- Meg Thompson,
a recent SIMS graduate with a background in Library Science, now turned
web design consultant. Originally from Oregon, she now makes her home
in the Bay Area and wants to maintain close ties with SIMS.
Over the course
of the project, the purpose of the site was refined and our focus narrowed.
From the five initial personas, we eliminated Meg (as outside the true
target population) and Bosko (as an edge case who did not add to our
understanding of core user needs). We retained Annie and Ed (as primary
personas) and Cindy (as a secondary persona). Since Annie's primary
need is to express her opinions, while Ed needs to explore information
on a wide range of courses, these two personas provide excellent coverage
for the site's tasks. However, retaining Cindy as a secondary persona
has helped to remind us to keep the site accessible to users who may
be new to SIMS or to the United States.
Detailed descriptions
of Annie, Ed,
and Cindy are provided on a separate
page.
Scenarios
The initial scenario
development covered a range of tasks related to a general discussion
forum for SIMS students, not limited to course information. Once the
project focus was narrowed to the specific area of course comments and
ratings, we reconsidered the personas' needs and developed the following
basic task scenarios:
- Ed is getting
ready to sign up for his second semester classes. He is interested
in learning more about networking and wants to look at the course
reviews for IS 250.
- Ed is also thinking
about taking a user interface design class, but he doesn't know an
exact course number or title. He needs to find out what classes are
offered in this area.
- Annie has just
finished taking IS 250. She really enjoyed the class and want to write
a comment encouraging future students to take the class. She thought
the professor was excellent, and although the coursework was challenging,
she felt it was worth it.
With only slight
modification, these scenarios served as the basis for all phases of
usability assessment performed for the CoCoFo project (paper prototype
testing, heuristic evaluation of the first interactive prototype, and
informal usability testing of the second interactive prototype).