Retrans Project
Describe a specific situation
To make the global navigation more intuitive and effective a reconstructive initiative was started.
Tasks that needed to be done
- Combine a heuristic review with a participatory design structure for requirement gathering session.
- Extract common industry terms used in the interview process
- Produce an annotated wireframe with information architecture structure.
- Review and revise information architecture with stakeholders.
My Contribution
- Lead person for producing information architecture
- Conduct heuristic review and requirement gathering session.
- Produced annotated wireframes
The results
The global information architecture closley matched the users' metal model.
Heuristic Evaluation Report:
Purpose
Performing the heuristic evaluation started the conversation during initial requirement gathering sessions. This vehicle uncovered usability issues the stakeholders did not have on their radar.
Goals:
- A vehicle to start separating what the project, system, or solution needs to accomplish, from how. (e.g; Business vs. Functional) requirements.
- To examine usability issues on a screen by basis with the heuristic as a justification of those issues.
- Continuing the conversation in which business and project goals are clarified.
A well designed user interface is comprehensible and controllable, helping users to complete their work successfully and efficiently, and to feel competent and satisfied. Effective user interfaces are designed based on principles of human interface design. The principles listed below are consolidated from a wide range of published sources (Constantine & Lockwood, 1999; Cooper & Reimann, 2003; Gerhardt-Powals, 1996; Lidwell, Holden & Butler, 2003; Nielsen, 1994; Schneiderman, 1998; Tognazzini, 2003) and are based on a long history of human-computer interaction research, cognitive psychology, and design best practices.
Usefulness
Value: The system should provide necessary utilities and address the real needs of users.
Relevance: The information and functions provided to the user should be relevant to the user's task and context.
Violation
The home page provides limited or no access to the freight container utilities, career information, or company history.
The freight container management system interface elements (button, menus, and text boxes) are mislabeled and do not correlate to what the user needs to accomplish.
Consistency
Consistency and standards: Follow appropriate standards/conventions for the platform and the suite of products. Within an application (or a suite of applications), make sure that actions, terminology, and commands are used consistently.
Real-world conventions: Use commonly understood concepts, terms and metaphors, follow real-world conventions (when appropriate), and present information in a natural and logical order.
Violation
The freight container management system contains different labels, a confusing visual layout, and they are no common actions between these applications.
The main navigation labels do not follow industry standard conventions (e.g; Home, about us, careers, contact)
Simplicity
Simplicity: Reduce clutter and eliminate any unnecessary or irrelevant elements.
Visibility: Keep the most commonly used options for a task visible (and the other options easily accessible).
Self-evidency: Design a system to be usable without instruction by the appropriate target user of the system: if appropriate, by a member of the general public or by a user who has the appropriate subject-matter knowledge but no prior experience with the system. Display data in a manner that is clear and obvious to the appropriate user.
Violation
The home page does not provide a login page for quick access to freight information.
Quick access to support options is not available.
Communication
Feedback: Provide appropriate, clear, and timely feedback to the user so that he sees the results of his actions and knows what is going on with the system.
Structure: Use organization to reinforce meaning. Put related things together, and keep unrelated things separate.
Sequencing: Organize groups of actions with a beginning, middle, and end, so that users know where they are, when they are done, and have the satisfaction of accomplishment.
Help and documentation: Ensure that any instructions are concise and focused on supporting the user's task.
Violation
Home screen navigation is not present when switching between the freight container management system.
Violation: Contact information is not focused on a particular task or department, user is not sure message is reaching the correct recipient.
Error Prevention and Handling
Forgiveness: Allow reasonable variations in input. Prevent the user from making serious errors whenever possible, and ask for user confirmation before allowing a potentially destructive action.
Error recovery: Provide clear, plain-language messages to describe the problem and suggest a solution to help users recover from any errors.
Undo and redo: Provide "emergency exits" to allow users to abandon an unwanted action. The ability to reverse actions relieves anxiety and encourages user exploration of unfamiliar options.
Violation
To exit the freight container management system browser back button has to be used.
Efficiency
Efficacy: (For frequent use) Accommodate a user’s continuous advancement in knowledge and skill. Do not impede efficient use by a skilled, experienced user.
Shortcuts: (For frequent use) Allow experienced users to work more quickly by providing abbreviations, function keys, macros, or other accelerators, and allowing customization or tailoring of frequent actions.
User control: (For experienced users) Make users the initiators of actions rather than the responders to increase the users’ sense that they are in charge of the system.
Workload Reduction
Supportive automation: Make the user’s work easier, simpler, faster, or more fun. Automate unwanted workload.
Reduce memory load: Keep displays brief and simple, consolidate and summarize data, and present new information with meaningful aids to interpretation. Do not require the user to remember information. Allow recognition rather than recall.
Free cognitive resources for high-level tasks: Eliminate mental calculations, estimations, comparisons, and unnecessary thinking. Reduce uncertainty.
Usability Judgment
It depends: There will often be tradeoffs involved in design, and the situation, sound judgment, experience should guide how those tradeoffs are weighed.
A foolish consistency...: There are times when it makes sense to bend or violate some of the principles or guidelines, but make sure that the violation is intentional and appropriate.
Business and Functional Requirements:
Business
Employees of ReTrans need the website to provide them information about re-trans and their partnership with other businesses.
Functional
Introduction company content on about page needs to develop with how other business integrates with ReTrans.
Business
Customers using track and trace need updated information on the path their shipment is taking.
Functional
A tracking system that is integrated with the website needs to be developed.
Business
The system needs to inform ReTrans and customers about milestones in the shipping process.
Functional
A notification system needs to be developed which contains information about city, state, cleared customs, and port.
Business
ReTrans employees who perform sales need an area of the website for their customers to submit a rate quote or quotes.
Functional
A form capturing detail information about customers’ cargo will be developed which will enable a sales person to deliver a quote.
Business
Customers need more in-depth contact information.
Functional
Press, technical support and general email addresses with purpose descriptions or the reason why you should contact this department will be developed and posted.
Business
ReTrans employees who perform recruitment activities need a system to manage potential employee resume data and easy allow potential employees to apply for positions at ReTrans.
Functional
A recruitment database system needs to be purchased for managing resumes and potential employees data.
WireFrame
Graphics with Text Project
Describe a specific situation:
The Center for Multimedia Arts Research and Business services needed a graphic representation of their newly implemented user centered design process along with a text description of the stages.
Tasks that needed to be done:
- Create a graphic illustration of the iterative stages in a User Centered Design process.
- Design a graphic illustration that is visually appealing and intuitive.
- Describe the Center for Multimedia Arts User Centered Design stages.
My Contribution:
- Created Concept
- Design graphic illustration in Omni Graffle
- Created copy to explain the User Centered Design stages
The Results:
A clear vision of the Center for Multimedia Arts User Centered Design process is presented to potential clients.
Center for Multimedia Arts (CMA) provides a holistic User Centered Design Approach. Each Stage Piece in our UCD process builds a foundation to progress to the next area of your project.
Needs Assessment
In order for the CMA staff to access the direction you want you project to go, we employ information-gathering sessions to understand how you and your users interact and accomplished tasks with your product. We do this through the following methods:
Interviews
User centered design team members will collaborate with your primary and secondary users via in-person or conferance call. In addition to the interviews, we will incorporate participatory design activities to emerge and refine business and functional requirements.
Card Sorting
By using a web based service or coducting the card sort in-person, we will sift through how people organize and categorized information.
Contextual Inquiry
A person from the UCD team observes and inquires about certain methods and tasks of a typical user of the product or service in their natural environment and creates models for representing these behaviors.
Inspection Methods
Sometimes your time and project constraints are limited and to discover usability issues within a limited time frame with your product we utilize the following methods:
Heuristic Evaluation
Members of the User Centered Design Team will use industry standard “heuristics” for discovering usability problems with the interface
Cognitive Walkthrough
Analysis of how easy a system is to learn will be performed with a detailed report generated
Pluralistic Walkthrough
Users walkthrough a series of defined product or service tasks using a prototype
User Modeling
Our team will create models that make sense of complex unstructured raw data for the purpose of better understanding, discussing and visualizing them. The following methods will achieve this goal:
Wireframing
This document will be used as an aid to discuss the layout and placement of fundamental elements with your project
User Scenarios
We will step through a typical day with your product or service
User Task Flows
We will lead you through each step that is taken to accomplish a specific task
Usability Testing
Using our state of the art lab we will improve the usability of the product through a structured testing process.
Lab Testing
We will be using state of the art equipment which has the analying capability to gather quantitative and qualitative data in-house or remotely.
Additional Services
Training and Development
We can provide introductory and strategic course development and training on specific user centered design techniques.