Administrivia
214 Team
Email: kmcbrid@us.ibm.com
Website: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/academics/courses/is214/f05/
Office number:
Instructor Kevin McBride
Email: kmcbrid@us.ibm.com
Office number: (408) 463-2002
Office Hours: Monday 1:00pm-4:00pm TBD, South Hall
TA Jen King
Email: jenking@sims.berkeley.edu
Instructor Alice Chiang
Email: Alicechiang1123@gmail.com
Course Description
This course will teach you to use a variety of methods to evaluate and improve the usability of a software user interface. Both user interface and usability will be defined very broadly in the course. A user interface is any part of a system that a user interacts with, including functionality. Usability means both the ease with which users complete tasks, but also their satisfaction with the process.
The methods in this course start with analyzing users, their tasks, and the context of their work. You will learn to use surveys, focus groups, and prototypes to evaluate early designs, and to use traditional user testing, expert inspections, and guidelines to refine designs.
Finally, the course will discuss how to introduce and promote these methods in an organization. This course is appropriate for both 1st and 2nd-year MIMS students, and for students from other departments with a strong interest in user-based design and assessment, with the instructor's permission.Students will complete a major project related to needs assessment and evaluation. Second-year SIMS students may use this project to meet their final project requirement.
Course Information
Course Dates: August 29 to December 5, 2005
Lecture Schedule: Monday 1:00pm-4:00pm in 110 South Hall
Units: 3
Grading Option: Letter Grade or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory or Pass/Not Pass
Course Texts
Required
Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests, Jeffrey Rubin. Wiley, 1994. ISBN: 0471594032
This book will not be needed until the second half of the course.
Reader
Available at Course Website
Most course readings will be available on the course website and are password protected. Passwords will be sent out to the class list.
Grading Criteria
30% Class Participation
30% Interim Assignments
40% Final Project Report
Course Work
August 29 : Monday
Due on December 12
September 12 : Monday
What is Usability / Overview of Usability Methods
Required Readings
Schneiderman Ch.1 Usability Introduction Sections 1.1-1.4 [Online]
What is Usability? At UPA (follow the related links) [Online]
Usability basics from usability.gov [Online]
Interactive Methods Table [Online]
Usability Methods Toolbox [Online]
Jakob Neilsen - Introduction to Usability [Online]
Resources
September 19 : Monday
Explore the following sites to complete the Choosing Methods Scenarios exercise handed out in class:
Interactive Methods Table
Usability Methods Toolbox
Be prepared to discuss your answers.
Required Readings
IBM Ease of Use - Value [Online]
IBM Ease of Use - Business Opportunity Phase [Online]
Information and Design - Scenarios [Online]
Alan Cooper, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum - Ch. 11, Designing for People [Online]
Resources
September 26 : Monday
Required Readings
JoAnn T. Hackos and Janice C.Redish. User and Task Analysis for Interface Design, New York: Wiley, c1998. Chapter One: Introduction to User and Task Analysis for Interface Design [Online]
Hackos and Redish, Chapter Two: Thinking About Users [Online]
Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct 2002 - see especially sections on Privacy and Confidentiality [Online]
STC usability SIG on ethics [Online]
UC Berkeley Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects [Online]
Resources
October 3 : Monday
Required Readings
Hackos and Redish, Chapter Three: Thinking About Tasks [Online]
Hackos and Redish, Chapter Four: Thinking About The Users' Environment [Online]
Blomberg, J., Burrell, M., Guest, G. An Ethnographic Approach to Design. In Jacko J. A., Sears A. (eds.). The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies and Emerging Applications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.: Mahwah, New Jersey, 2003. [Online]
Resources
October 10 : Monday
Surveys / Focus Groups / Interviews
Required Readings
Mike Kuniavsky, Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research, San Francisco, Morgan-Kaufman, 2003. Chapter Eleven: Surveys [Online]
Nielsen on web surveys -- "Collecting Feedback from Users of an Archive." [Online]
Shneiderman, Section 4.4 [Online]
Dillman,Don A. (2000) Mail and Internet Surveys: the Tailored Design Method, 2nd ed. Wiley. Chapters 2, 3, and 5. (The rest of the book is recommended.) [Online]
Web-based surveys: Dillman, Don, and Dennis K. Bokwer. The web questionnaire challenge to survey methodologists. [Online]
Survey resources from UsabilityNet.org [Online]
David L. Morgan, Focus Groups as Qualitative Research, Sage, 1988; pp. 53-71, Conducting and Analyzing Focus Groups. [Online]
Krueger, Richard A., Focus Groups, 2nd ed. Sage, 1994; "Asking questions in a focus group." pp. 53-69 [Online]
Nielsen, Jakob (1997) The Use and Misuse of Focus Groups [Online]
Nielsen, Jakob (1999) Voodoo Usability [Online]
Robert S. Weiss, Learning from Strangers - The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies, New York: The Free Press, 1994. Chapter 3 - Preparation for Interviewing [Online]
Weiss, Chapter 4 - Interviewing: Part 1 [Online]
Weiss, Chapter 4 - Interviewing - Part 2: Examples of Interviewing [Online]
Weiss, Chapter 5 - Issues in Interviewing [Online]
Resources
October 17 : Monday
October 24 : Monday
October 31 : Monday
Inspections / Heuristic Evaluation
This week a selection of readings for different methods are included. Choose the ones that are of most interest to your project.
Required Readings
Nielsen and Mack, "Usability Inspection Methods," p.170-181 in Baecker, Ronald M. et al ed., Human-Computer Interaction: Toward the Year 2000, 1995, Morgan Kaufman [Online]
Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics [Online]
Nielsen, Jakob, "Test Your Competition" [Online]
Optional Readings
Inspection Methods: Nielsen and Mack, Usability Inspection Methods, Wiley and Sons, 1994, Chapter 12, "Observing, Predicting, and Analyzing Usability Problems," p.295-339 [Online]
Inspection Methods: Nielsen and Mack, Usability Inspection Methods, Wiley and Sons, 1994, Chapter 5, "The Cognitive Walkthrough Method: A Practitioner's Guide." p.105-140 [Online]
Design Exploration: Hakim, Jack, and Spitzer, Tom, "Prototyping for Usability" Usability Professionals Association Conference Proceedings 2000. [Online]
Design Exploration: User Inteface Engineering Paper, "Using Paper Prototypes to Manage Risk." [Online]
Competitive Evaluation: Li, Jin, "Goal-Directed Competitive Analysis: Evaluating the User Interface in the Real World," Usability Professionals Association Conference Proceedings 2000. [Online]
Competitive Evaluation: Jakob Neilsen "Competitive Testing of Website Usability" [Online]
Heuristic Evaluation: Instone on Site Usability Evaluation [Online]
Heuristic Evaluation: Instone on Site Usability Heuristics for the Web [Online]
Heuristic Evaluation: Tognazini, First Principles [Online]
Resources
November 7 : Monday
November 14 : Monday
Usability Testing - Analyzing and Reporting
Guest Lecturer: Peter Merholz of Director of Practice Development, Adaptive Path
Required Readings
Chapter 10, "Transforming Data into Findings and Recommendations" of Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests [Textbook]
Resources
November 21 : Monday
Tools / Guidelines / Accessibility
Optional Readings
W3C Accessibility Initiative: Introduction to web accessibility [Online]
W3C Accessibility Initiative: Introduction to involving disabled users in evaluations [Online]
W3C Accessibility Initiative: Quick tips for improving accessibility [Online]
Neilsen on International Usability Testing [Online]
Resources
November 28 : Monday
Managing Usability in an Organization
Required Readings
Chapter 11, "Establishing A Usability Program: Strategies and Tactics" of Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests [Textbook]
Optional Readings
Usability Professionals Association Code of Conduct [Online]
Resources
December 5 : Monday
December 12 :
last updated on 2005-11-27 by Jen King