Project Management with Usability Engineering Methods

Project Management with
Usability Engineering Methods
PMI Switzerland Event, HWZ Hochschule für
Wirtschaft Zürich, Feb 7th 2012

Slide 1
7. February 2012

Dr. Thomas Memmel

© Zühlke 2012

Motivation

Both the software engineering and the user experience
design skillset is essential for the creation of high
quality software products.

Project Management with Usability Engineering Methods | Dr. Thomas Memmel 7. February 2012 Slide 2 © Zühlke 2012

Take Aways

Recognize when the user interface is important for the
success of the software. Have some methods & tools on
the list that support your project success.


Speaker

• Dr. Thomas Memmel
• Zühlke Engineering AG, Schlieren (Zürich)

• Business Unit Manager «Java Integration & Channels»
• Manager Competence Centre Client Technology

• Usability Engineering «Evangelist > 10 Years

• https://www.xing.com/profile/Thomas_Memmel


Baseline

Why is
Usability
important?

The Age of Usability & User Experience
Customer Interaction on Multiple Channels

Call Center Intranet

Call Center

Point-of-Sale
Corporate Portal

Tablets / iPad

Smartphone


Broad Variety of Use Cases, Contexts & Users

Demands of product managers and customers
with regards to productivity, new sales channels,
ease-of-use, learnability, etc.


The Apple Moment

Since the success of Apple’s devices in the customer
market, people across all social and business levels
SCREAM for usability.


Some Challenges

• Increasing user expectations
• Demand for effective and efficient interactions
• Software must be motivating or even fun
• Differentiation of channels and user profiles
• Implementation complexity increasing
• Time-to-market for software decreasing


Usability ISO 9241-11: 1998
Defined

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

User Experience Design
ISO 9241-210

Before Usage
During Usage After Usage
(Anticipated Usage)

Usability Engineering Lifecycle
ISO 9241-210

Analyse & Analyse &
Plan User-
Specify Context Specify User
Centred Activities
of Use Requirements

Design &
Implement Evaluate Prototype
Solution


Project Management
with Usability Engineering Methods

Usability Engineering will help you learning the right
things at the right time. This enables you in decision
making and leading the project in the right direction.


Project Management Tasks
Examples

• Requirements management • Definition of requirements
• Scope management • Understand vision and needs
• Change Request management • Build the right solution
• Cost management • Assess and decide about changes
• Time management • Goal-oriented spending
• Quality management • Delivery, time-to-market
• Communications management • Software quality (e.g. ISO 9126, Usability)
• Risk management • Common denominator
• Stakeholder management
• Efficient team collaboration

Challenges in Project Management
Typical Issues in PMP Life

• Poor quality of requirements • Quality of the software and the user
interface is evaluated too late
• Inaccurate project vision
• Bad user acceptance
• Communication gap between
Business & IT • Little interdisciplinary teamwork across
disciplines (e.g. design vs. development
• Pressure of time, especially in
vs. business)
case of error
• Consequences of unexpected
events
• Costly changes at later stage
• Test management
• Conflicts among stakeholders

Cosmetic Software Surgery

User interface cosmetics will not change the
behaviour of the software, but only add, move
or hide pixels across the screen

Surface alteration is costly and difficult. The chance
of failure is high – and may result in an even more
fake or ugly look & feel


Pivotal Question – This Talk

What can
Usability Engineering
do for you?

Complex Software Surgery (Refactoring)

Once a complex (or wrong) product is assembled,
changes and fixes are more expensive and time-
consuming than during earlier stages

Understand Context of Use:
Contextual Inquiry


Not to see the wood for the trees

User Needs:
Personas
Visualization of
requirements: Prototyping

Bunch of requirements


ISO 9241-210

Analyse & Analyse &
Plan User-
Centred Activities
of Use Requirements

Design &
Solution


Contextual Inquiry
Basis

Data Gathering with Users for Decision Making on FRs / NFRs
Goal
• Understand users and their needs (also tacit knowledge)
• Understand current work styles and processes
• Be objective
Simple Approach
• Go where the users are doing their work
• Observe users during their work
• Talk with users About their work
• In “empirical partnership”

Contextual Inquiry

• Find hard facts
• Listen to users – Instead of listening to assumptions
• Check interpretations of the development team and
stakeholders (e.g. sources of requirements) with real
users within the context of use
• Deduce consequences for product vision and design
from the given evidence
• Document implications
• Have traceability from design to learned facts and vice
versa


Contextual Design & Contextual Inquiry

5 Views on Context-of-Use
• Information- &
Communication Flow
• Workflows
• Artefacts
• Culture
• Physical Environment

Source : http://incontextdesign.com/contextual-design/

Contextual Design
Flow Model – How Information Flows Across People

Source : http://www.interaction-
design.org/encyclopedia/contextual_design.html


Contextual Design
Artefact Model –Learn From Today’s Artefacts

Source : http://www.interaction-

Contextual Design
Sequence Model – Visualize Processes & Scenarios of Use

Source: http://www.interaction-

Analyse & Specify the Context of Use

For Example Relevant During Benefits / ROI, e.g.
• Visioning • Understand users
• Definition of requirements • Learn about context
• Scoping • Shape product vision
• Quality assessment of • User acceptance
intermediate releases
• Make sure to develop a helpful
product
• Evaluate releases in the
context of use (field studies)
• Traceability design  facts


ISO 9241-210

Analyse & Analyse &
Plan User-
Centred Activities
of Use Requirements

Design &
Solution


Personas
Define and Describe Target Group

Characterized by
• Goals, values, fears & desires
• Function, responsibilities & tasks
• Behavioural patterns & procedures
• Technical & business know-how:
education, knowledge & skills
• Requirements for the product
• Frustration & excitement factors for the product
Bring the Persons to Life by
Alan Cooper, Robert
Reimann: About Face
• Age, name, citations, pictures, characteristics 2.0: The Essentials of
Interac-tion Design,
Wiley, 2003

Low-Fidelity Prototyping
Tools for Paper Prototyping


Low-Fidelity Prototyping
Overview

Typical Goals
• Gather (initial) requirements Sketch the
UI

• Communicate with stakeholders
Focus is on Users, context of use, flow of events
Discuss,
Supplementary methods, e.g. workshops, interviews Analyze

Sketch Wireframe Storyboard


Paper Prototyping

• Rapid feedback while the design is still (literally) “on
the drawing board"
• Clarify requirements through simulation
• Detect misunderstood requirements and usability
problems very early
• Promote communication between designers and
users
• One of the cheapest and fastest visual techniques
• Useful for any type of human-computer interface
• Only minimal resources and materials required


Paper Prototyping

• Paper prototypes simulates the UI dialog
flow
• System feedback is simulated by the
usability expert
• Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrV2SZuRPv0


Analyse & Specify User Requirements

• Definition of requirements • Reflect implementations with persons
• Decision making • Know your users (needs)
• Solution design • Personas are cheap “on-site users”
• Development • Discuss ideas with non-technical
stakeholders
• Communicate informally
• Externalize designs
• Reduce risk – Build the right product


ISO 9241-210

Analyse & Analyse &
Plan User-
Centred Activities
of Use Requirements

Design &
Solution


Requirements Documentation
A picture is worth a thousand words

«If I can't picture it, I can't understand it.»
- Albert Einstein


Why UI Prototyping?
Beyond Text-Based Requirements & Specifications

• Text has limited expressivity
with regards to interaction
design
• Tons of paper make needs &
requirements intransparent
• People do not see the wood
for the trees
• Consequences of
requirements not realized until
they can be experienced
• Make the impact of changes to
requirements obvious


Why UI Prototyping?
See and interactions before they are built

• Don’t loose time discussing
intangible requirements
• Visualize ideas in front of
users and stakeholders
• See and interact with
applications before they
are built
• Consider alternate designs
• Avoid premature decisions
• Visualize and change
requirements as long as
it is cheap and easy

High-Fidelity Prototyping
Overview

Typical goals
(Re-)Design
Prototype

• Visualize requirements and CRs in detail
Analyze

Define solution design, ensure product success
Results
•

• Discover usability issues, especially with interactive
behaviour Evaluate
Prototype

• Develop a UI specification
Prototyping Tool Prototyping with GUI Builder


High-Fidelity Prototyping
From Prototype to Product


High-Fidelity / Evolutionary Prototyping
Overview on Tools

MS Expression Blend
For Example
• Microsoft Visio, PowerPoint
• MS Expression Blend
• Axure Pro
• iRise Studio
Axure Pro

MS Visio


Microsoft Expression Blend
High-Fidelity Prototyping Tool

Source: http://www.microsoft.com Source: http://www.microsoft.com

Expression Expression Blend Visual Studio

Development
Design

User Experience
Design with Sketch Flow
Adobe
Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator


Design & Prototype Solution

• Requirements specification • Specify the product visually
• Construction • Reduce text-based material
• Change request management • Communicate with
stakeholders
• Visualize the impact of
(changing) requirements
• Get buy-In from stakeholders
early
• Reduce risk of late changes to
the product


ISO 9241-210

Analyse & Analyse &
Plan User-
Centred Activities
of Use Requirements

Design &
Solution


Heuristic Evaluation

Approach
• Several usability experts take on the perspective of
the user
• Use of checklists to assess the user interface in
different dimensions

Useful Heuristics
Use When
• ISO 9241-110
• Nielsen‘s 10 Heuristics
• No users available for usability test
for User Interface Design
• Shneiderman's Eight
Golden Rules of Interface
Design


Usability Testing

Approach
• Users execute realistic tasks with the product
• Recoding of screen and user reactions
• Experts analyse recordings after the test

Usability Testing is the Best Method to
• Highlight costly product failures
• Convince stakeholders (e.g. to invest in usability)
• Demonstrate improvements


ISO 9241-210

Analyse & Analyse &
Plan User-
Centred Activities
of Use Requirements

Design &
Solution


Agile User Experience

Iteration Iteration Iteration
n n+1 n+2

EXPLORATION DEVELOPMENT

Start Development
Development Current Complete
Iteration

UI
Parallel Tracks
Business Current Sprint (Iteration n)
Domain
Persistency UX-Experts:
User Research for Iteration
UI Concept System Metaphor
• UI Storyboards • Architecture Spikes n+2
• Usage Scenarios • Prototypes Prototyping for Iteration
n+1
Usability Tests for
Source: Jocham, R.; Memmel, T. (2009): Agile User Experience. In: Computerworld – die Schweizer IT-
Developed Parts (e.g. Small
Plattform für IT-Professionals, Ausgabe Fokus Software-Entwicklung. IDG Verlag, erschienen 21.11.2009,
24-25; online http://www.computerworld.ch/aktuell/businesssoftware/49822/
Release from Iteration n-1)

XP & Usability Engineering

XP Praktiken Usability Engineering Praktiken
http://www.extremeprogramming.org/

Iteration, Small Increments, Prototyping
Adaptivity
Story Cards, Task Cards, User User Profile, Task Model
Stories
On-Site Costumer User-Centered Design, User Participation

Testing, Test Story Evaluation, Usability Inspections

Metaphor Conceptual Model, Mental Model, UI
Metaphor

Agile Modeling & Usability Engineering

Agile Modeling Praktiken Usability Engineering Praktiken
http://www.agilemodeling.com/

Prove It With Code Prototyping

Create Several Models in Parallel Concurrent Modeling (User Role-, Task-,
Content-Model)

Active Stakeholder Participation Usage-Centered Design, User
Participation
Consider Testability Evaluation, Usability Inspections

Display Models Publicly Design Room


Agile + Usability
The Best of Two Worlds

Some goals of Agile projects
• Deliver in defined time and budget…
• Develop the simplest but most functional solution…
• …that fulfils the requirements of the customer
One important goal of Usability Engineering
• Develop software that works and deliver the best possible usability

Combined
• Do not just deliver the simplest solution in the most efficient way (Agile)
• But to also reach a high usability and user experience

Agile + Usability
Some Facts

• Scrum & UX methods demand a product vision in the beginning
• The agile way of handling requirements in a non-waterfall fashion perfectly
matches with UX
• Design space is kept open
• Developers and UX experts learn from small releases and can continuously
improve the product quality
• Delivered releases can be usability tested and assessed while applied in the
context of use


User Stories with Usability

Description of user
needs (e.g. reference to
persona)
User Story Discussion about
requirements in detail
Card (btw. user/customer
and developer).
Conversation Supported by
prototyping.
Confirmation Acceptance tests, e.g.
also usability tests
based on usability
goals etc.

Usage Scenarios, User Stories, Use Cases

User
Describes step of
Story
Usage
Scenario,
Prototype Describes step of

Explains possible sequence of

Use Case


Summary


Project Management with Usability
Summary / Discussion

• Develop the right product • Additional complexity for the project
• Define scope and • Additional costs for UX personnel
deliverables with real users
• More changes: user feedback is
• Create usable and iterative
aesthetically pleasing results
• Demands more agility
• Improve software quality
• Not all feedback is valuable
• Reduce risk due to high user
• Some stakeholders will know it better
acceptance and validation
• Reduce textual specification
and Documentation Effort Applied in the right way – UX
• Bridge the Gaps with Visual ROI will be significant
artefacts and Communication

Project Management with Usability Engineering Methods

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