Requirements Gathering and Analysis. Jason Withrow

Transcription

1 Requirements Gathering and Analysis

2 Overview User Needs Analysis Methods of Gathering User Information The Role of Personas & Scenarios Setting Usability Requirements Competitive Analysis

3 User Needs Analysis The formal process of studying user needs is called user needs analysis Some firms employ User Researchers for the purpose of gathering user information Client needs are assessed through asking questions during meetings, but studying users offers many additional options

4 Subjective Methods Subjective, Opinion-Based Data: Ask the client Interviews Surveys Focus Groups

5 Pitfalls in Subjective Methods The data is self-report: Users say what is socially acceptable or what you want to hear, especially when in groups Memory is reconstructive, not exact: We always fill in gaps in memory and so you hear what the person thinks he/she did, not what they actually did Speculation on our future behavior is exactly that: speculation. What users claim they will do doesn t always equate to later behavior.

6 Pitfalls in Subjective Methods User recruitment: Finding representative users is crucial The individual who enthusiastically signs up may not represent most users In some cases you have detailed inclusion / exclusion criteria: Demographic Data (age, sex, income level, job) Lifestyle Choices (smoker, non-smoker, dieter) If employing a firm that locates users, watch out for expert users

7 Method 1. Ask the Client Request that the client describe the types of people who would use the website, based on their experience and/or research May be a necessity if: Specific types of users are needed and cannot be located (strict criteria) Users have little available time The project timeline is quite short The client is unwilling to fund user research

8 Method 1. Ask the Client Pros: Low cost (can be done via s to the client or over the phone, if the client is in another state or country) Cons: Client information may be incorrect or just limited, such as beliefs based on user stereotypes The client may have no information

9 Method 2. Interviews Can be conducted face-to-face (FTF) or over the phone. If done via it becomes a survey. Sessions usually tape-recorded for later transcription or to reference in the future. Try to interview at least a few people from different backgrounds to try to minimize sampling bias.

10 Method 2. Interviews Pros: In-depth information Lots of information on desired content & functionality (but keep in mind the pitfalls) Cons: Time-consuming and therefore costly Because only a small number can be interviewed, user selection is crucial

11 Method 3. Surveys A series of questions: In printed form, sent via , answered in a phone call, or posted online (link to it from the home page for greatest exposure) The goal is to keep these short: I recommend no more than a page of questions, which could be 6 or less The longer the survey, the less likely that it will be filled out

12 Method 3. Surveys Pros: Low cost Mass-distribution possibilities Cons: Poor response rates (5-10% is normal); intranets fare better Unclear question phrasing is always an issue, so pilot test the survey

13 Method 4. Focus Groups Gathering a group of users together with a moderator who directs discussion on a set of pre-selected questions Strong history of this in product marketing Size of the group often ranges from 8-10 participants Usually recorded (both audio and video) for later examination and possible transcription

14 Method 4. Focus Groups Pros: User discussion may reveal new insights Cons: Expensive and difficult to schedule Potential bias from moderator or from processes within group (e.g., groupthink, highly opinionated group members) May need to run 2 groups to validate results Can get stuck on superficial aspects of site

15 Objective Methods Objective, Usage-Based Data: Demographic Data Contextual Inquiry (User Observation) Server Logs

16 Pitfalls in Objective Methods You know what the person did, but not why: We are left to infer the reasons for this behavior and possible reasons are numerous Why did the user abruptly exit the purchasing process? Couldn t figure out how to proceed Got annoyed and decided to leave Saw the shipping charge and flipped out Had a doctor s appointment Favorite television show came on And many more

17 Pitfalls in Objective Methods The available data does not always fit the research question perfectly: Perhaps you buy some market research and it gives data about online purchasing of products, but it is not your product or you are selling a service online So you are left with gaps between what you know and what you are trying to find out This introduces an element of doubt into the decision-making process

18 Method 1. Demographic Data Using pre-existing data gathered by the government (e.g., census data) or by a private research firm (e.g., market research by Forrester Research) Research firms package these in reports on a given topic, while government data is generally not as organized and/or not as targeted to specific issues

19 Method 1. Demographic Data Pros: Government data is freely available Cons: Market research is expensive Data may not be exactly what you want

20 Method 2. Contextual Inquiry Visiting the work setting of the user and observing him/her interacting with the website Works well for intranet websites Not a structured test situation; the observer tries for the fly on the wall approach of staying out of the user s way Has ties to ethnographic research from the sociology and anthropology disciplines

21 Method 2. Contextual Inquiry Pros: Shows how the website fits into the person s everyday work and life Actions are irrefutable; none of the selfreport issues Cons: Does not fit for every project; best for intranets and web-based applications

22 Method 3. Server Logs Text logs are automatically kept by the web server software Every object requested (e.g., HTML file, image, PDF file) is recorded in the text log For sites with heavy traffic these logs can grow to be tens of megabytes (quite large!) Eyeballing these logs is impossible, so software is used to generate charts: Webalizer (

23 Method 3. Server Logs Pros: Free and easy to gather and analyze data Reveals usage patterns at the page level Very useful when doing redesigns of sites Helpful when planning future additions Cons: Strong temptation to over-analyze data

24 Search logs More on Server Logs Common terms, misspellings, synonyms Access and error logs ( Hit Logs ) Most and least frequently visited pages Browser and operating system used Unique visitors, return visitors, their locations Pages giving errors (404 File Not Found) Can help determine future capacity needs

25 Introducing Personas Designing for every single user is impossible, but personas enable you to design for the most common types Note: Some user experience professionals refer to personas as user profiles Alan Cooper, of Cooper Interaction Design, popularized the term personas in his books and it is the more commonly used term now

26 Who Are These People? Personas are not real people, in the sense that you don t (and shouldn t) recreate your mom or your neighbor Think of each persona as an archetype or composite user, representing a common type of user at your website Personas are derived from data gained through user research methods

27 Why Create Personas? They help inform/guide future decisions In making a difficult design decision, refer back to the personas and ask: What will be best for these users? They help to cut down on gee-whiz features and extraneous functionality: Avoiding gratuitous use of Flash animation Limiting feature creep/scope creep

28 Keeping Personas Manageable Usually 3-5 personas are sufficient, but more could be needed if: The site serves many different audiences Within a given audience there are many different subsets (smaller groups) to represent Create personas for the primary audiences only (not for secondary audiences) This keeps the focus on the most crucial users

29 Keeping Personas Manageable If you tried to accommodate every user the web team would be overwhelmed trying to keep track of all the details and individual needs Limited budget and time prevent this Invariably the different personas would have such conflicting needs/goals that their value in decision-making would be diminished

30 Common Persona Data Name Occupation Personal Information (e.g., marital status, age) Computer Skills (offline and online) Computer Resources (platform, browser, screen resolution, Internet connection type) Disabilities A quotation summing up that persona Scenario(s) of how and why the persona uses the site, involving their goals and needs

31 The Continuum of Personas Bare Bones Additional Details Every Detail Best if the client is not supportive of user research Sites that are less feature-intensive Useful for featurerich websites Large sites Small sites

32 The Development Process Pool user data from the research methods Brainstorm possible users - aim for a wide range of computer experience and information needs Meet with the client and/or project team to review what you have developed Discard secondary personas Consolidate others to arrive at a primary set of personas

33 Persona Development Tips To make the profile more real to the team, it is good to include a picture of the user For this class, don t worry about pictures Generally, you just find a decent picture of someone, a picture that works for the target demographic Sometimes these are posted on the wall, along with all the persona data

34 Sample Personas Website for an interior designer, artist, and photographer Four scenarios drive the personas: Couple remodeling their kitchen Interior design and artwork for a new house Graphic designer purchasing photographs Business owner wanting to improve the appearance of his business

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39 Brainstorming Personas What personas fit for: hotmail.com umich.edu cnn.com michigan.gov weather.com

40 Usability Requirements These are the standards for the site to meet in testing with users If the requirements are met, you feel more confident launching the site Requirements are typically created for: Completion rates for tasks Time to complete tasks Number of errors users make How satisfied users feel after using the site

41 Sample Usability Requirements 90% of users will successfully place an order 90% of users will complete the account registration process in 5 minutes or less 80% of first-time users will locate a desired product within 3 minutes The average user satisfaction with the website will be 5 or higher (on a scale from 1-7; higher numbers indicate greater satisfaction)

42 Writing Usability Requirements Set a reasonable level for success Typically 80% - 90% is reasonable; 95% - 100% is very hard to achieve However, if 90% do succeed in placing an order and there are 10,000 attempted orders in a year, that means 1,000 attempts failed The actual industry rate for abandoned shopping carts is much, much worse! Keep other parameters (e.g., time) at a reasonable size as well

43 Looking at Competitors Why examine competitor websites? 1. Sometimes the client simply does not have all the answers or is debating between various approaches to take. 2. If you/your team are new to the genre/type of website, looking at competitors can educate you very quickly. 3. You may need a baseline to compare your site against later on, especially for showing return on investment (ROI).

44 User Testing of Competitors A fairly common practice is to test users on the competitor website, studying the issues they encounter with common tasks: What was difficult? Why was it difficult? How could the process be improved? Saves your team from reinventing the wheel and identifies best practices

45 Conducting a Competitive Analysis Competitive analyses do not involve users, rather user experience professionals explore competitor websites to determine: Ideas for content and functionality (and what is commonly included) Approaches to structuring/labeling content Indications of target audiences that you may not have considered yet Interface ideas

46 Writing a Competitive Analysis Competitive analyses typically look at the websites of at least 3 competitors Screenshots are commonly included Tables can be helpful for comparing content and functionality across the competitors

47 User Testing vs. Competitive Analysis Think of the competitive analysis as an inventory of the competitor websites What are they doing, how are they doing it There is some evaluation of strengths and areas for improvement, but the focus is on documenting what is being done User testing, on the other hand, is an evaluation of how well the competitor s implementation works