UCA is a multistage process which allows designers to analyze and foresee how user is going to use the product. UCA employs proven and objective data-gathering and analysis techniques to develop a clear understanding of who the users are and how they will approach a website or application.

1. User Centered Analysis

2. What is UCA
UCA is a multistage process which allows designers to analyze and foresee
how user is going to use the product. UCA employs proven and objective data-
gathering and analysis techniques to develop a clear understanding of who
the users are and how they will approach a website or application.
Process of discovering….
•Who the users are
•How they think and work
•The stakeholder goals and objectives
Collecting data on…
•User profiles
•Work environment
•Scenarios of how user’s will use the interface
•Task analysis

3. Uncovering the user’s mental model
•People come with mental models
•It usually come from past experience
•Mental models don’t always match reality
•Mental models set expectations, which drive shape and behavior
•80% of usability derives from matching the conceptual model
•People can’t describe their own mental model

4. UCA vs. UT
UCA
•Data gathering and analysis to design a product
•How do users think and work in the entire domain
•What are the factors affecting users’ tasks?
•What do users want or expect from the design?
•What are the users’ aspirations, problems and motivations?
UT
•Evaluation of existing design with set criteria
•Is the design usable?
•Does design match the way users think and work?
•Is the design effective, efficient and satisfactory for the user?
•Can users complete their tasks?

5. UCA vs. UT
UCA techniques
•Interview
•Surveys
•Contextual observation
•Focus groups
•JAD Sessions
UT techniques
•Walk through
•Performance test
•Subjective Rating
•Heuristics
•A-B testing
•Click Stream

6. Creating Design strategy
•The design strategy fosters cross-department communication by pulling
together all the goals for everyone to see. It documents
consistencies, allowing priorities, scope, and objective to be discussed.
•It specifies the description of the problem and the definition of good solution
by identifying critical aspects of the solution.
•A design strategy communicates a positive message to the team by including
their point of view and concerns, valuing and trusting previous work, and
working as efficiently as possible.
•It incorporates existing documentation if possible to increase efficiency and
prevent reinventing of the wheel.

7. Components of Design strategy
• Business Goals – usually phrased as specific metrics regarding
sales, costs, name recognition, etc.
•Target Users – Primary users for whom the interface must be a success
•General tasks – Conceptually, the tasks users are expected to accomplish
•Technological constraints – what is possible given the technology of existing
database, architecture, standards, etc.
•Marketing/Branding Goals – The values and personality the interface must
project. Aspects that differentiate the interface, product or service from
competitors
•Critical success factors – Key outcomes that must be met to succeed.
Outcomes usually phrased in terms of user experience or business metrics.

8. Usability improvements
How user-performance can be improved?
•Highly specific to the project
•Measurable
•Get management’s input
•Communicate to whole project team
•Use as usability testing objectives

9. Profiles and personas
•User groups
•User profiles
•Task profiles
•Environmental profiles
•Personas

10. User Groups
Sites or applications typically have some target users; a user group. Focusing
on many user groups creates design challenges. Selecting the important user
groups to focus on is business decision.

11. User Profiles
Profiles clarify assumptions about users and their tasks, including the task
environment, and communicate those assumptions. Profiles highlight the
aspects of the user groups that influence design, and provide a means to
document the rationale for early design decisions. They emphasize the
variation among user groups, and form a basis for prioritizing the user group.

12. User Profiles
Characteristic Customer service Customer System
representative Administrator
Age/Gender 75% Female, 75% Male, Age 25- 80% Male, Age 25-
Median Age 32 40 Median 30 35 Median 27
Education Some higher Most have degrees Technical education
education
Language English, Spanish, English English
French
Computer/web Low to med Med High
experience
Domain Expertise Low to high Med High
Task knowledge Initial : Low to Med Low to med high
after 1 week high
Expectation Ease of use, speed Ease of use Comprehensive
of task functionality

13. Task profiles
One way to select which tasks to analyze and redesign is to examine which
tasks are performed by which types of users.
Tasks Roles
Customer Outside Sales Customer Administrator
service
Representative
Request New X
User name &
Password
Find customer X X X
View customer X X
Enter/ edit X X
customer data
View reports X X

14. Environmental Profiles
Capture characteristics of the user’s location, workspace, lighting
conditions, hardware and software.
Characteristic Variable Design Implications
Location Indoor/outdoor weather Equipment options
exposure position entry
Workspace Cramped / spacious Display size position entry
Lighting Bright to dim Color contrast fonts
Hardware Monitor size/resolution Legibility presentation
color system sound card options color palette
video card compatibility
Software Browser technology HTML/script support
constraints response time detail
design compatibility

15. Personas
A persona is a concrete characterization of a single user group. It synthesizes
information from the user, task and environment profiles. It is a detailed
example of a potential end user that represents a specific target audience
type and focuses on probabilities not possibilities. Create a persona for each
major target group do not develop personas for less important groups. Design
up to three personas rarely more.
Personas help designer think in terms of users by providing a concrete
characterization of them and how they might use the site.

16. Field studies
•Direct and indirect data gathering methods
•One-on-one interview techniques
•User observations

17. Three dimensions of data-gathering
methods
Direct – obtaining data from actual user
Indirect – obtaining data from users without direct contact
Individual vs. group
Individual – one person at a time
Group- more then one person at a time
Performance vs. discussion
Performance-the tasks are performed in the session
Discussion-the tasks are discussed, recalled, projected, opinions given etc.

18. One on one interviews
One on one interviews are a good choice if it is difficult to have people
perform a task while being observed. It also helps to complete a picture of
their perspective and ideas instead of just observing them.

19. Complementary data-gathering
methods
Methods that are less expensive or use less time are referred to as
complementary methods because their advantages and disadvantages are
different then field studies.
•Direct data gathering methods for groups
•Indirect data gathering methods

20. Direct methods
Group of users
•Focus groups
•JAD (joint application development sessions)
•User group meetings and usability roundtables

21. Direct methods
•Focus groups – are made up of small groups of participants (8-10
participants) that are led through a set of subjects by facilitator. The session is
made up of moderated discussion and brainstorming. Focus groups are best
used early in the development process.
Benefits include:
•Rapid feedback from users
•Design team gets a window on user’s stated priorities
•Generates product possibilities that stakeholders may have missed
Drawbacks include:
•Participants may influence each other
•Some participants may dominate conversation
•Talking about something is different from actually doing it

22. Direct methods
JAD (joint application development sessions)
A facilitated workshop or JAD session is similar to a focus group, but it include
a cross section of stakeholders, engineers and users.
•They help getting rapid feedback on big decisions, as they bring the
users, developers and designers together. They can also help identify missed
or unnecessary design elements.
•The concerns are the same as those for focus groups. They also need a good
moderator. Also it may be tempting to design on the spot, and to educate
users about the backend rather then offer solutions.

23. Direct methods
User group meetings and usability roundtables- user group meetings and
usability roundtables are similar to user interviews, but are conducted in a
group. They typically include more sophisticated or longtime users, and are
conducted away from the user environment. The participants bring work
samples to present and discuss.
•Benefits include user feedback on problems from the actual users, and also a
sample of real world examples of the user’s work.
•However, participants are not always good at selecting important samples,
and samples are out of context. Also participants may influence one another
on important topics.

24. Indirect methods
Reviewing customer feedback
•Conducting surveys
•Analyzing help desk or support line calls
•Analyzing bulletin boards or discussion groups
•User representatives
•Analyzing web trends

25. Indirect methods
Conducting surveys
•Surveys offer a fast and cheap data collection method with the ability to cast
a wide net quickly. Data collection and analysis can be automated to reduce
time and cost.
•Surveys tend to focus on preferences and rely on memory. It is harder to
learn about performance and there is no opportunity to probe or follow up.
Also the reliability of the data is difficult to establish. The motivation and
attention span of the participants are critical and it can be difficult to achieve
a representative sample.
Three common types of surveys are-
•Marketing survey
•Needs assessment survey
•Evaluation survey

26. Indirect methods
Help desks and support lines
Summaries of logged communications from phone support, email and in
person requests for help.
•These summaries highlight the difficult functions or interactions and relative
frequency of problems. They can identify additional needs and provide direct
access to the user vocabulary.
•This sampling is neither systematic nor complete and only highlights the
problems people could not solve on their own. Only irritated users who can’t
get help elsewhere call.

27. Indirect methods
Monitoring bulletin or discussion boards
Bulletin and discussion boards typically summarize bug reports/fixes user
problems and work- around.
•The problems are chronologically reported and often include user generated
troubleshooting. They usually include user wish lists (if read carefully) and can
be used to create FAQs.
•Many users may not take advantage of these resources as they may be
difficult to use and users may not know they exist. They offer a systematic
method for discovery of problems but not for determining the frequency or
criticality of the problems.

28. Indirect methods
User or organizational representatives
User or organizational representatives are intermediaries who document
user’s goals and needs.
•They may impart a basic understanding of the task.
•They may not an actual user even if they used to be. Hence their perspectives
on the tasks are quite different. They may also have a design agenda. They
may supervise users and therefore may not hear accurate information from
them. Also they may not impartially diagnose users needs, but project their
own opinions. An intermediary’s presence may make direct contact seem
unnecessary.

29. Indirect methods
Web analysis logs
Web analysis logs of frequently hit pages, path analysis and exit points. They
also offer an insight into time on task.
•They provide guidance on the kinds of questions to ask.
•Web log data are often inaccurate.

30. Selecting the right method
There is no perfect or even best method of gathering data about users. Each
method has advantages and disadvantages. The detailed circumstances of
your situation will determine which you want to use and when.
The richest data are produced by
•Direct – from the user themselves with no filtering through someone else
•Individual-no summarizing across users and believing there is an ‘average
user’
Use more then one method for optimum results.

31. Thank you
By Preeti Arora
Priiti_chopra@hotmail.com