Month: January 2024

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Discerning User Needs and Expectations – Let’s Do It!

Design and user research, like educational research, is iterative in its process which results in quite a few trials and, unfortunately at times, an equal number of errors when things just aren’t coming together. This is often a time-consuming and potentially expensive process. What if we just skipped the test and went to the final product or design? Would it really cause a problem? Well…..

Samuel S. Applegate and his “Device for waking persons from sleep” (patented in 1882)

Samuel S. Applegate’s “Device for waking persons from sleep” (patented in 1882)

In this patented design, Applegate had small blocks made “of light wood, preferably cork” designed to fall on the face of the sleeper once the alarm went off. And yes, it was designed to cause pain in the good-for-nothing late sleeper. 

A quick glance at his design by a friend, or someone who has a difficult time getting up in the morning,  might have given Applegate helpful feedback about the efficacy of his design. There is such a test in UX research – the 5-second test. I just took part in a 5-second test for an early iteration of this “to-do” app

Interface for simple to-do app

The Questions:
  1. What was the app for? (I already let that slip)
  2. Did you want to use it?
  3. If not, why not? If so, what would you do first? 
My 5-Second Thoughts:

Due to the “add a new task” directions along with the “add” button, the raison d’etre was immediately evident. I did want to use it because the interface was clean thereby highlighting the ease of use. 

Using It A Bit More:

Once I started playing around with it a bit more, the promise of the simple, classic interface was met by my real-world experience with using several different to-do apps (todoist and Goggle Tasks specifically). Here is my immediate response and corresponding notes:

I should be able to use enter to add a task to the list. This is taking too much time to use the mouse and cursor to add a task to the list!

Sort has no functionality???

The complete button appears to be non-functional due to the fact it is faded out when compared to the other buttons. Also, why is it crossed out? Is it telling me that is what is going to happen to my item? Where does it go? Is it going to maintain a list of completed items? 

No due dates can be assigned to the list. 

I am not able to group like tasks or duplicate similar tasks.

Sorting issues – when it does work, there are issues. It did not work for me until I completed a task. Also, I have no control over how sorting takes place.

Heuristic Inventory Form

In what other ways can we analyze our “to-do” app and increase our data? One such way is to apply Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design. 

  1. Visibility of System Status – N
  2. Use Familiar, Real-World Langage – Y
  3. Users Should Be in Control – N
  4. Follow Industry Standards – N
  5. Don’t Let Users Make Mistakes – N
  6. Recognition Over Recall – Y
  7. Flexible Designs – N
  8. Minimalist Designs – Y
  9. No Error Should Be Fatal – N
  10. Provide Help – N

The heuristics aren’t strict guidelines or “have-to” when designing an interface; however, they assist designers when creating an interface. They can even help when designing an augmented reality interface for students in kindergarten. 

What Do I Think Now?

I am struck by how my positive initial response (as it was quite strong) to the simple interface of the “to-do” app was so let down by my further engagement with it. I stare at lots of screens and am often trying to learn more sophisticated interactions with the LMS I have to use on a daily basis. It was so tempting to see a screen and seemingly know how to use it from the drop; however, it was ultimately a disappointment. 

I started to wonder how other users used a to-do list. I happened upon this post in r/productivity. There was a huge range of responses and depth of use. From the top poster which maintains 5 separate lists to some general techniques for getting the most out of casually using a list. 

What do I want? I would need the ability to work on short and long-term lists as I have both daily and weekly concerns in concert with semester-long responsibilities. Therefore, I would want to be able to group and assign dates. In addition, I would want integration into my calendar. I need the flexibility to share with others who might be working on a task with me. I would also like to be able to consolidate information and research into the same sight as well. Therefore, I think my dream to-do app would be a combination of Notion and Google Calendar which they just rolled out. 

Beginning My App

I am starting to think about what I would like my final app to look like. Here is a beginning mock-up

 
 
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ADDIE + User Experience

Getting Started

Having spent the last few years studying instructional design (ID) and applying it to my daily working life as a professor of communication, the connections between the ID process and the user experience process were hard to ignore. As with any discipline or profession, there are multiple models to employ. Depending upon the population or desired outcome, a designer could use Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction, Merrill’s 5 Principles of Instruction, Kemp’s Model of Design, or SAM. However, the ADDIE model is the most common and lines up rather neatly with the steps in the various case studies we reviewed. 

The ADDIE Model

Analysis

In this step, the ID attempts to discern the needs of the learner in tandem with the learning goals. This is the “so what” part of the design process. Many choices can be made but in the analysis stage, we are figuring out if they should be done. Why? Because we may not need another version of a training module or new app to order dinner tonight. Each of the different cases provided an individual “in” to the start of the process with either personal experiences (Whiskers), problem definition (Haven), or benchmarking (book study). They all provided a rationale as well as their ultimate goals for the project. 

In ID, we conduct a needs assessment. There are several different types we can employ:

  • Performance (gap) – Is there a skill or knowledge deficiency in the learning population? 
  • Feasibility – Would the cost of a new design or training be worth the investment?
  • Needs versus wants – Is there an actual business/learning need? Is the change just new and shiny? 
  • Goal – What behavioral changes do you wish to affect? 
  • Job/task – What is the correct way to complete this action? How can we break it into its most basic parts?
  • Target population – What is our audience? Are there other audiences that might potentially benefit from the intervention/innovation? 
  • Contextual – Are there influences in the environment (outside of training and design) that have an impact on our desired outcomes? 

Design & Development

Although Design and Development get their spot on the ADDIE wheel, it can be very difficult to differentiate the ending of the Design stage and the beginning of the Development one. In Design, we are outlining the process of how the material should be learned while in Development we are actually authoring and producing the new deliverables. This part of the process connects directly to the storyboarding and mood design of the user experience process. 

Implementation

When we finally get to Implementation, we get to go live and test it out with our populations. Like usability testing, we are in the trenches attempting to find out if all of our hard work and well-crafted design has been worth it….However, as with all design processes, we need to remember that not everything is going to work as we planned and those “failures” are just more data to help make the next iteration that much better. Therefore, it is generally worth it. 

Evaluation

In the Evaluation stage, we need to measure effectiveness and efficiency. Although it is listed at the end, this can happen throughout the design process especially if we are conducting a formative assessment rather than a summative one. The reflective considerations of the designers provided in their case studies have a lot of similarities to contemplative formative assessment. Stepping back and taking in the design process and outputs as a whole provides insight into our design process as well as what potential next steps need to happen. 

Another Case Study to Consider

I am very interested in how we can better integrate user experience design into higher education. As Dr. Pullman mentioned in his first lecture, we do have student-centered pedagogy. As online learning has expanded, however, I think there needs to be more user design experience involved in the process. Learning has moved well beyond the barriers of traditional educational organizations. Learning can be mobile, ubiquitous, and required by employers. We can study independently on LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Udemy, and other platforms. Therefore, I attempted to find an education-forward case study. The one I found was Learn2Earn.