User Interaction
User considerations
Terminology:
[if !supportLists]l [endif]End User or user is anyone that is going to be directly using theproduct.
[if !supportLists]l [endif]A stakeholder is anyone who is affected by, or has an effect on thesuccess of a project, including such as the client, managers of the end user,and system administrators.
[if !supportLists]n [endif]Primary users, who will actually be using the product.
[if !supportLists]n [endif]Secondary users, who will occasionally use the product, or those whouse it through an intermediary.
[if !supportLists]n [endif]Tertiary users are people who’ll be affected by the use of theproduct, or make decisions about the product.
[if !supportLists]l [endif]UI, user interface, is anything that the end user will beinteracting with.
human computer interaction (hci)
User interfaces should be user-friendly andintuitive, easy to use.
When you’re designing the product with yourdevelopers or testing the product, keep the end-user in mind. Will they be ableto understand how this product works?
Human limitations
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Perceptual limitations (interact with the senses)
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Physical limitations
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Cognitive Limitations (commonly based on memory limitations)
A Harvard psychologist, George A Miller…suggests that the averagehuman has a short-term memory with enough capacity to hold seven items, plus orminus two.
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Cultural differences.
Involving clients
An important thing to keep in mind is that youare there to explore options with clients. You are not there to simply gathertheir ideas.
Numbering your requirements with someunique identifier will make requirements easy to reference throughout developmentfor everyone involved.
Elicit additional requirements
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Interview end-users.
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Conduct feasibility studies.
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Watch end-users using the product.
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Consult user manuals for similar products.
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Create a glossary for the product.
Ask good questions
Ask good open-ended questions. Stay focusedon the goal and purpose of the product. And try to stay as independent of technologyas possible.
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Ask “Why?”
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Try to structure the conversation to allow more organized thoughts. Thiswill make it easier to transform ideas into requirements.
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Make sure that you are not steering clients to a prematurelyconceived solution. You want to explore alternatives. If the client prematurelyagrees to a solution without exploring other ideas, they may end up less satisfiedwith the end result.[if !vml]
[endif]
Use case
A use case is a way to identify, clarify,and organize the details of a task. They consist of a set of possiblesequential interactions between users and systems. Independent.
Use case elements:
[if !supportLists]Ø [endif]Name, should be descriptive of the tasksimple and short.
[if !supportLists]Ø [endif]Participating actors: roles.
[if !supportLists]Ø [endif]Goals: a particular goal to achieve.
[if !supportLists]Ø [endif]Triggers: are events that prompt the usecase to begin .
[if !supportLists]Ø [endif]Preconditions and post-conditions:conditions must be met before or complete the use case.
[if !supportLists]Ø [endif]The basic flow: is a walk through of allthe steps that occur in the use case. (best case scenario)
[if !supportLists]Ø [endif]Exceptions, highlight any situation where this use case would not work. With exceptions you want to identify the step in the basic flow where the exception would occur then provide alternative steps to resolve the problem.
[if !supportLists]Ø [endif]Qualities: are any quality specificationsthat you want to meet.
[if !vml]
[endif]
Use case diagram is a good place to start.It is a high level visual representation of all the tasks supported by the product.It identifies the actors and the use cases in which they participate.
Wireframes
A basic visual representation of a product.Another term for a wireframe is a mockup. Wireframes focus on basic functionsand end user tasks to be supported. They can help you think about where you aregoing to put buttons, text fields, and images. Their placement top to bottomshould follow the flow of how a user performs each task.
StoryBoard(场景)
Storyboard is a sequential, visualrepresentation of an interaction.
Type one storyboard walks through thehigh-level user experience.
[if !supportLists]1. [endif]You want to identify the actorsinvolved and how they are going to be using the product.
[if !supportLists]a) [endif]You could also expand the storyboardto add more back story on the users, by giving each a persona. E.g ages,favorite dishes, allergies etc.
[if !supportLists]2. [endif]Purposes
[if !supportLists]a) [endif]This movie style storyboard isalso useful for getting the entire development team on the same page. It helpskeep the vision of the product in mind.
[if !supportLists]b) [endif]Is for marketing or generalpurposes. You can easily demonstrate to others, how and when the product is intendedto be used.
Another way of storyboarding gets furtherinto software design. The purpose of this is to show how a user will interactwith the user interface of a product in more detail. This type of story boarddemonstrates all the sequences of interaction between the user and the product.It is a combination of wireframes and the basic flow from use cases. It showseach state of the product and how a user would get to that state.
