Group assignment

The group assignment shall be carried through in groups of 3.5 students and presented in a written report and in a short oral presentation.

Purpose

You shall learn how to study a work practice through observations of the practitioners in purpose to design or redesign an IT-system supporting that work. In this way, you are to learn how to analyse an IT-system with focus on usability and how the system supports the specific work situation. To carry through the groups assignment, you have to find a suitable work place or work situation to study. This can be troublesome and requires several attempts, so please start this process very early.

Content

There are two kinds of assignments for the group work to choose from:

Type 1: Analyse - redesign: You are to analyse an existing IT-system used in some kind of practical work. You are to do an evaluation of the usability in the system and make a proposal, a redesign, of the system to solve the problems you have identified in the analysis.

Type 2: Analyse - design - testing: Find a work situation in need of a supporting IT system and develop such system. The proposed IT system is to solve problems identified in the analysis. Then make a (lighter) evaluation of the proposed system together with real potential users.

No matter what type you choose, you are to focus on usability, the design of the interface and the users´ practical use of the IT system. Also make carefully descriptions of the environment where the IT system is or is to be used.

Before you start the group assignment you must send a email to Niklas where you specify 1) names of the group members, 2) a short description of your chosen assignment, 3) where you plan to carry it out and 4) if you have arranged a workplace and a contact person on that place.

Supervision

Further information of this group assignment will be given at a certain occasion according to the schedule. Also supervision will then be given on a certain occasion. Questions can also be answered by mail.

Presentation

The group assignment is to be presented in two ways by the group; a written report and a oral presentation

Report

The report shall consist of 10 to 20 pages and contain:

Type 1:

A short description of the work situation you have chosen and what kind of IT support is concerned.
A description of concerned user groups and work tasks.
A description of the usability evaluation -method, execution and results. You are to choose a method that requires participation of the (real) users. A heuristic evaluation is not enough.
A description of the usability problems identified in the system - related to the real users and the real usage. If you have based your evaluation on general design guidelines, you are to account for why a design solution bakes a certain guideline and why that is a problem in this coherence.
Descriptions of the goals with the improvement of the system.
Sketches of new design solutions. Descriptions of the problems they solve and how.
Discussion and reflection
Used references

Type 2:

A short description of the work situation you have chosen
A description of the organisation, the users and their work. Describe the method, how it was carried through and the results in terms of descriptions of the different user groups and their work tasks.
Problem solving - describe the specific problems you aim to solve with your proposed IT system.
A description of how you developed the prototype. Describe method and how you carried through the design process.
Detailed description of the prototype.
Describe the evaluation of the prototype from a user perspective. Method used, how it was carried out and the results. You are to choose a method that requires participation of the (real) users. A heuristic evaluation is not enough.
Discussion and reflection
Used references

Irrespective of witch type of assignment you have chosen you shall finish your report with a discussion and reflection (point 7) of your work. What was good/bad? Why? What difficulties have you faced? What information have you gained, and what have you missed? Why have you chosen these methods and this line of working? What is the strange and weakness with these methods? How could they be approved?

In our assessment of the group assignment we will pay extra attention to the extent of your written report, how well thought out and motivated your choice of methods are together with extent and depth of the discussion part of the report. Note that there is seldom any clearly rights and wrongs in this kind of work. Our judgement is more about how you have utilized/assimilated presented theories, methods and approaches and apply them in practice; and how you can account for your choices and line of action during your work.

The written report is to be delivered to Niklas Johansson by mail (pdf/rtf/doc) or printed on paper. Deadlines according to the schedule.

Oral presentation: During the presentation you are to show briefly what you have done. Illustrations are preferable used, describing your prototype and proposed system. All members in the group must participate and the presentation is to last for at least 10 minutes a not much more. When time is short, concentrate on the most important; what you have done, why you have chosen these methods and what you have found. Use well founded motivations. A projector (beamer) will be available. If you need any further means like a computer etc. so please let us know in advance. Normally there is no internet connection in the lectures rooms. Please note that the presentation occasion implies a compulsory attendance. All students must participate.

Accounting of work effort

As a part of your report you shall also account for each student´s work effort in the project. This is preferably done in a matrix where you describe different work moments, participating students and there respectively effort in hours spent. You do also certify that the information about the work effort is true. This group assignment is to in all consist of one week of work, implying 40 hours - per student.

Example for accounting matrix:

	Person 1	Person 2	etc...	Totalt
Moment 1	X hours	Y hours	etc...
Moment 2
etc...
Total				Sum:

Resources

In addition to the course book there are numerous resources available.

Links

http://www.upassoc.org/usability_resources/guidelines_and_methods/index.html - Här finns länkar till diverse olika metoder för olika steg i processen, samt style guides och guidelines.
http://www.acsd.se
Tips för hur man gör användarprofiler, personas och HTA-analyser finns på

Books and reports

Beyer, H. and Holtzblatt, K. (1998). Contextual Design - Defining Customer-Centered Systems
Cooper, A., (2003). About face 2.0 : the essentials of interaction design (some of the content aviable on http://www.cooper.com and http://www.cooper.com/articles/art_goal_directed_design.htm
Mayhew, D. J. (1999), The Usability Engineering Lifecycle

Good luck!

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