InfoSys 214 - Needs Assessment and Evaluation of Information Systems
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SYLLABUS (ORDERED BY DATE & TOPIC)
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Introduction and Overview

Jan 22 & Jan 24
Intro to usability & UCD; Overview of methods
Read :
Rubin textbook
 Rubin, ch 1, Problem of unusable products and systems (includes intro to user-centered design).
Preece, Jenny, ed. Guide to Usability: Human Factors in Computing, Addison Wesley, 1993; Chapter 6, "Evaluation." (Class handout.)
Rosenbaum, Stephanie, "Not Just a Hammer: When and How to Use Multiple Methods in Usability Programs," Usability Professionals Association Conference Proceedings 2000. (Class handout.)
Vredenburg, Increasing Ease of Use, Communications of the ACM, May 1999, p.67-71 (Class handout.)
Browse :
List of Usability Evaluation Methods and Techniques
The Usability Methods Toolbox
Usable Web
Recommended :
Chrusch, Marc. The Whiteboard: Seven Great Myths of Usability. Interactions interactions (ACM) Sept 2000, p. 13-16. (Available online from campus ip addresses.)
Nielsen, Usability Engineering, ch. 2, What Is Usability?
Class Presentation Materials :
Needs and Usability Assessment Methods Matrix (PDF) - Prof. Van House.
Usability Overview (PPT slides presented in 1/24/02 class) - Prof. Van House.
Usability Process (HTML PPT slides presented in 1/24/02 class) - Kevin McBride (from last year's class).
Assignment #1 :
Naive Usability Assessment (paper), due January 29th.
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Collecting Data about Users and Tasks

Jan 29
Thinking about Users (assignment #1 due today)
Read :
Rubin textbook
 Rubin, ch 6, Selecting and acquiring participants.
H&R textbook
 H&R ch 2, Thinking about Users.
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Jan 31
Ethnographic Methods
Read :
course reader
 Blomberg, Jeanette L. "Ethnography: aligning field studies of work and system design." in Monk, Andrew F., and G. Nigel Gilbert, eds., Perspectives on HCI: Diverse Approaches. ch 8, p. 173-197. Academic Press, 1995. Read sections 8.1-8.25; the rest is recommended.
course reader
 Blomberg, Jeanette, & others, "Ethnographic Field Methods and their Relation to Design." Douglas Schuler and Aki Namioka, eds. Participatory Design: Principles and Practices. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1993; p. 123-155. Read pp. 123-147; the rest is recommended.
Recommended :
Brun-Cottan, Francoise and Patricia Wall (1995). "Using Video to Re-Present the User." Communications of the ACM 38 (5): 61-71.
Hughes, John, and others. "Ethnography in Interactive Systems Design." Interactions II.2 April 1995 p. 58-65.
Class Presentation Materials :
Users and Ethnography (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
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Feb 5 & Feb 7
User & task analysis
Read :
H&R textbook
 H&R, ch 1, Intro to User and Task Analysis for Interface Design.
H&R textbook
 H&R, ch 3, Thinking about Tasks.
H&R textbook
 H&R, ch 4 Thinking about the Users' Environment.
H&R textbook
 H&R, ch 5. Making the Business Case for Site Visits.
Class Presentation Materials :
User and Task Analysis (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
User's Environment (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
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Feb 12
Setting up site visits; observing (final project milestone)
Read :
H&R textbook
 H&R, ch 7. Setting Up Site Visits.
H&R textbook
 H&R, ch 8. Preparing for the Site Visits.
H&R textbook
 H&R, ch 9. Conducting the Site Visit -Honing Your Observation Skills.
Class Presentation Materials :
Site Visits (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
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Feb 14
Interviewing
Read :
H&R textbook
 H&R, ch 10. Conducting the Site Visit - Honing Your Interviewing Skills.
Recommended :
H&R textbook
 H&R, ch 6. Selecting Techniques.
Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects: http://cphs.berkeley.edu:7006/
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Feb 19
Analyzing and presenting qualitative data (final project milestone)
Read :
H&R textbook
 H&R, ch 11, Analyzing and Presenting the Data You Have Collected.
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Feb 21
Contextual Inquiry and Design
Read :
course reader
 H. Beyer and K. Holtzblatt. Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems, 1998, San Publishers, Inc.
  • Chapter 3, "Principles of Contextual Inquiry"
  • Chapter 6, "Work Models
Don't read expecting to learn how to do this; you just need to be aware of this method's existence.
Class Presentation Materials :
Contextual Design (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
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Feb 26
Heuristic evaluation (assignment #2 due today)
Read :
course reader
 Nielsen, Jakob, "Heuristic Evaluation," in Nielsen and Mack, Usability Inspection Methods, Wiley and Sons, 1994, Chapter 2
Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics
course reader
 Nielsen & Tahir, Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed, New Riders Publishing, 2002.
  • ch 1, p. 7-33 homepage design guidelines
  • ch 2 - p. 37-53 homepage design stats
The rest of the book is 50 homepages analyzed; the book is in color. On reserve in the campus library.
Bruce Tognazzini's design principles.
Usable Web links about usability.
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Feb 28
Heuristic guidelines (final project milestone)
Read :
Review thoroughly Usability.gov's Evidence-based Guidelines.
Class Presentation Materials :
Heuristics (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
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Mar 5
Usability Inspection Methods; Competitive Evaluation
(heuristics exercise to be handed out today)
Read :
course reader
 Nielsen and Mack, Usability Inspection Methods, Wiley and Sons, 1994, Chapter 1: Executive Summary.
Bunnyfoot - Competitor analysis: an alternative approach.
Nielsen, Jakob, "Users First: Test Your Competition" (note: article extends on 4 pages).
Before Class...
Begin to develop a draft set of heuristics for your project, to be used in evaluating the subject of your project OR in evaluating a close competitor.

You will not turn these in yet. The idea is for you to have some experience trying to develop heuristics before our discussion on Tuesday. Then you will get some experience actually trying to apply them."
Class Presentation Materials :
Inspection Methods (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
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Mar 7 & Mar 12*
Surveys
(*survey exercise to be handed out today; heuristics exercise due date)
Read :
course reader
 Babbie, Practice of Social Research, 5th ed., pp. 145-159: questionnaire construction.
Singleton, ch. 10: Survey Instrumentation.
Web resources for survey research :
Info Sys 271 covers survey research in greater detail. Browse the survey links from that course.
Amer Stat Assn, What is a survey?.
Class Presentation Materials :
Surveys & Interviews (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
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Mar 14, 19* & 21
Usability Testing
(*final project milestone; survey exercise due)
Read :
Rubin textbook
 Rubin, Jeffrey. Handbook of Usability Testing:
  • ch. 2, Overview of usability testing
  • ch. 5, Developing the Test Plan
  • ch. 7, Preparing the Test Materials
  • ch. 8, Conducting the Test
The rest of the book is recommended.
Dumas, Joseph S. and Janice C. Redish. A Practical Guide to Usability Testing (class handout):
  • ch. 11, Selecting and Organizing Tasks to Test
  • ch. 13, Deciding How to Measure Usabilit
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Mar 26 & Mar 28
Spring Break!
 
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Apr 2
Collecting Data from Users; Focus Groups; Journalled Sessions;
Self-reporting Logs
Read :
David L. Morgan, Focus Groups as Qualitative Research, Sage, 1988; pp. 53-71, Conducting and Analyzing Focus Groups.
Nielsen, Usability Engineering, Chapter 1, pp. 214-217. (Class handout.)
Krueger, Richard A., Focus Groups, 2nd ed. Sage, 1994; "Asking questions" pp. 53-69.
Recommended :
ASA Series: What Is a Survey: What Are Focus Groups? (very simple, clear intro).
Nielsen, Jakob (1997) The Use and Misuse of Focus Groups.
Nielsen, Jakob (1999) Voodoo Usability.
Fuccella, Jeanette and Jack Pizzolato, Creating Web Site Designs Based on User Expectations and Feedback. ITG Newsletter 1.1 June 1998.
There are many good books on focus groups - a common marketing research method. Sage publishes a lot in this area.
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Apr 4
Server Log Analysis
Read :
Look at http://usableweb.com/topics/000649-0-0.html and http://usability.gov/serverlog/index.html. Review their content and several of the papers linked from each site to get a sense of what can be done with server logs.
Class Presentation Materials :
Focus Groups (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
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Apr 9 & 11
Analyzing and reporting results
Read :
Rubin textbook
 Rubin, ch. 10, Transforming data into findings and recommendations.
H&R textbook
 H&R, ch 11. Analyzing and Presenting the Data You Have Collected.
Class Presentation Materials :
Survey Exercise Follow-Up (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
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Apr 16* & 18
Ethics & Reporting (final project milestone)
Read :
Oliver K. Burmeister, "HCI Professionalism: Ethical concerns in Usability Engineering" (PDF) & "Usability Testing: Revisiting Informed Consent procedures for testing Internet sites" (PDF), Australian Institute of Computer Ethics Conference, 11/12/2000.
TRUSTe Model Privacy Statement.
Look at http://usability.gov/about.html for their statements about the site and their privacy statement.
Please review a sample test plan and sample report:
http://www.ablongman.com/barnum/pdf/hotmailtestplan.PDF
http://www.ablongman.com/barnum/pdf/hotmailtestreport.PDF
Class Presentation Materials :
Ethics (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
Reporting (PPT slides presented this week) - Prof. Van House.
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Management Issues

Apr 23
Managing Usability - GUEST SPEAKER: Kevin McBride, IBM
Read :
Rubin textbook
 Rubin, ch. 11, Establishing a Usability Program.
course reader
 Carlshamre, Par and Rantzer, Martin, Dissemination of Usability: Failure of a Success Story, Interactions Jan/Feb. 2001, p. 31-41.
Class Presentation Materials :
Managing Usbility, PPT slide presentation by K. McBride.
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Apr 25
NO CLASS TODAY
 
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Apr 30
CHI Updates
 
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May 2
Accessibility
Read :
course reader
 Nielsen, Jakob. Designing Web Usability, ch. 6, Accessibility for Users with Disabilities, p. 281-8.
course reader
 Nielsen, Jakob. Designing Web Usability, ch. 7, International Use: Serving a Global Audience, p. 289-304.
course reader
 Vanderheiden, Gregg. "Fundamental principles and priority setting for universal usability." Proceedings of the Conference on Universal Usability, November 2000, p. 289-304.
Review :
Usability.gov's Accessibility Resources. A thorough source of accessibility laws, guidelines, and resources. Read, in particular, "Why is Web Accessibility Important?" and the part about section 508 -- you MUST know about section 508 requirements.
Also browse Web Accessibility Initiative:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/full-checklist.html
Finally, if you are designing a site, for this or another course, test its accessibility: http://www.cast.org/bobby/
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May 7
Project Reports (final project milestone)
 
Group Project (15 min.): Saifon & Linda.
Individual Projects (10 min.): Dieyanna; Ramona; Scarlett.
Remaining 35 min.: Course recap?
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May 9
Project Reports (final project milestone)
 
Group Project (15 min.): Diane, Leticia & Maggie.
Individual Projects (10 min.): Naidu; David; Christina; Carie.
Remaining 25 min.: Course future recommendations.
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May 13
FINAL PAPERS DUE 5 PM (no class May 14)
 
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