1. (Jennifer Hogle) According to Smith and Ragan (2005), the goal of instructional design is to create instruction that is "effective", "efficient", and "appealing". On page 27 of the Leventhal & Barnes chapter, usability is defined as, "the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use." What comparisons can be made between the usability and instructional design? How can understanding the process of instructional design help us in understanding usability?
o Usability can be incorporated with the ID process; they go hand in hand. You can design with usability in mind
o If you do bad instructional design, it’s not usable. If you do bad usability, you won’t have a good ID. If you create a ‘good’ ID, or a ‘good’ usability, then they will work hand in hand.
o Instructional Design is the umbrella for usability.
o Cognitive Load: germain (the difficulty that is related to the content); extraneous (stuff that isn’t related to the actual task or learning, but is required to get through to get to the task).
o Instructional design can help you think through what types of usability you will use and which onces you want to violate.
o Sometimes in Ed Tech you violate usability principles for good reasons.
2. (Joanna Gibb) Nielsen & Shackrel are similiar in that their definition of 'usability' is a sytem; is valid or usable if it is found useful. How many systems are usable, easy to learn, but have no use once they have been learned? How useful will the final project be once it's completed? Easy to access only, or worthwhile and applied once it's been presented?
o What is the purpose? It doesn’t matter how fabulous the program is, if there isn’t a purpose, it will remain to be unused
o Example of Portal: there is no user need, so no task match, which is violation of usability principles
o Participatory design – recruit a representative sample, design and prototype. This is done from the ground up. The person is participating in the design process.
o Ethnographic design – analyze what user would do and then create it. Designer will go observe social interaction amongst users, contexts of use, typical problems, what really goes on when this is used? Use gathered data to extract a design. It’s like studying users in their natural environment.
o Avoid situations in which a program lacks purpose. Do research prior to creating to ensure the need.
o Apple products and Google applications are example of features demonstrating having researched usability.
Toward a Multidisciplinary Science of Human-Computer Interaction - John M. Carroll
1. (Camille Cole) The very last sentence in this chapter says, "No single design can possible fit every situation." So why is it important to follow a model of usability?
o They are useful as a guideline; if questions are asked to begin with, it would save a lot of time in revamping.
THE GOLDEN RULE FOR HCI:
You are NOT your user! The more you learn, the more you know. Once you know something, you are no longer your user so it's very important to involve your users.
Usability for Ed Tech
- Not just whether system is used (cf., Eason)
- System Functions should include
- Outcome of use(!)
- are you getting something out of the use
- Task Characteristics should include
- Desirable difficulty
- Task match will need to include relevance to mental models/cognitive processes
Usability Engineering
- Works best early in design/development
- Before developing you HAVE to know what the task and process is!
- Good interface won’t solve all your problems
- better menus and cool graphics won't solve task matching
- HCI Usability Engineering builds on foundation of:
- Task
- User
- Context of use
- Slightly more than 30% of the code developed in application software development ever gets used as intended. 70% if it is used is icing on the cake (or if it's used as it's intended)
- Likely because developers do not understand what users need
Useful Systems Support Tasks
- Task ≠ User can use the system
- something the user can do that is specific
- Tasks:
- Specific
- Observable
- Will you know if you’ve successfully accomplished it? How will the user know it was successful?
- Reflects end-goal of a user session
- Relate to key aspects of system components
- What do you think are the key parts of the system?
- for email: who are you sending it to? What are you doing with the messages? the folders?
- What will be frequently used?
- for email: what is the most typical thing? send messages, manage messages
Task:
Find a roundtrip flight for one person, from Salt Lake City, UT to Tampa Bay, FL, leaving Feb. 12 or 13 and returning Feb. 15 or 16, for under $300 (including tax).
- very specific, certain person is in mind, reflects an end goal, realistic task
Educational Digital Library
Task:
Find a QuickTime video animation appropriate for a middle school classroom that focuses on either the theory or mechanisms of plate tectonics.
- specific task, it's observable, reflects the goal of going to this website a lot, a pretty good task for either a test or a task analysis
What is a Task Analysis?
- Analysis of how a task is performed
- Detailed description of behaviors in interface
- Highly detailed
- Step-by-Step
- Procedural (ignore mental processes for now) step by step (what are the observable behavioral steps)
- Specify problems/gaps in process
- Highlight unnecessary or inconsistent steps
- Specifies procedural aspects of key tasks
- Requires concrete analysis of user actions
Brushing Teeth: Task Analysis
•Wet the brush
•Take the cap off the toothpaste tube
•Put toothpaste on the brush
•Replace the toothpaste cap
•Put toothpaste back in drawer/cupboard
•Brush the outside of the bottom row of teeth (3 sec per tooth?)
•Brush the outside of the top row of teeth
•Brush the chewing surface of the top row of teeth
•Brush the chewing surface of the bottom row of teeth
•Brush the inside surface of the bottom row of teeth
•Brush the inside surface of the top row of teeth
•Brush tongue
•Spit
•Rinse the brush
•Replace the brush in the holder
•Locate drinking cup
•Grasp cup
•Fill cup with water
•Take a sip of water
•Swish water in mouth, rinsing teeth
•Spit
•Replace cup on counter
•Wipe mouth on sleeve or towel
A very detailed analysis, broken down to the absurd (think of when I wrote down the changing the tire scenario)
For next week:
•DUE:
- HCI Exercise: Task & Task Analysis Exercise
- choose an educational technolgy
- choose a task for it (the technology is up to me: a software or a website)
- It can be found under Assignments on WebCT
- write a task and then do a task analysis
- think about where it's difficult to not let the mental processes take over, just have it be procedural. Where do the mental processes need to take over, but it has to be procedural.
- should have educational relevance.
- such as a power point presentation?
- 2 articles on personas
- 2 questions per article on WebCT discussion area
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