Human Factors - Chapter 2
What general limitation affects all task analysis data collection techniques?
All methods document existing behavior. Designing to support existing behavior means new controls/displays/etc may help to do same tasks better, but might not innovate what tasks are done.
Apply two of the design heuristics to the re-design of the instrument cluster of a car.
Attend to details: small changes to design can have big effect on user Consistency: common labeling means same thing across all situations Provide flexibility: people should be able to adjust, navigate, undo, redo, adopt shortcuts
What data recording technique or techniques would you use to design a route planning and navigation app for pizza delivery?
Automatic data recording could collect information unobtrusively. Observations show you what challenges they face. Retrospective protocol analysis to understand why they made certain desicions.
Why is the critical incident technique particularly useful for understanding the tasks people perform in high-risk environments?
Because accidents are rare, can't easily observe. You can recall and relive the event to get insights similar to direct observations.
Why are observations generally preferred over focus groups for front-end analysis?
Because often types what people say does not match what they do. They may also omit critical details on their work or find it difficult to image new technology/distort their description to avoid appearing incompetent.
Why is important to identify the focus and purpose of a task analysis before you begin?
Because task analysis can be quite time consuming and cover a very wide scope. This will also influence what information will be gathered.
Give an example of how the lack of holistic, systems thinking could lead technology development to have unintended consequences.
Book example: shortening healthcare worker shifts to reduce fatigue can increase the need for patient hand off and reduce quality or patient continuity.
What are the three basic elements of a task analysis?
Define purpose/identify required data Collect task data Interpret task data Innovate from task data
How might a design pattern speed the design of the payment system for the website of a car rental company?
Design patterns are solutions to commonly occurring design problems and usually associate with software. If the car rental company uses a similar payment system as other online shopping centers (amazon, retail websites), users can easily navigate between Order Confirmation, Payment, Billing, Shipping.
What alternatives to evaluation would be preferable to a comprehensive test and evaluation because they are less resource intensive?
Heuristic evaluations take less time and allow you to apply design principles and guidelines to the prototype to quickly asses how it may violate human factors.
What four types of data are typically collected and how might they be more or less relevant to designing the layout of machines in a factory? Compare that to designing news feed on a smart phone.
Hierarchical relationships - what/why/how tasks performed Information flow - who performs tasks, with what indications and feedback Sequence and timing - when, in what order, how long it takes Location/Environmental Context - where, under what physical and social conditions
If the focus of your task analysis is on coordinating the communication of baristas for a local coffee shop, what task summary approach would you use and why: task hierarchy, task flow, or task sequence?
I would use task flow to see the dynamic of different workers in one space and how information flows across workers doing different tasks to produce the correct drink. In this case, communication is very important.
Why is designing a beautiful interface often insufficient in creating a useful system?
It cannot save a system that does not consider the job or organization it supports.
How does a decision matrix help justify the selection of particular product features for inclusion in a product?
It relates user needs to system features and allows you to weight each need to prioritize what should be included in feature selection.
How does the master-apprentice mindset influence how one might observe and interview people as part of a contextual inquiry?
Observation would be more intense as you are learning how to perform an activity rather than just watching it. This may lead to asking more questions to verify understanding, as well as commenting on task descriptions/prototypes to look at applications.
How does the iterative nature of task analysis affect how you would organize your data collection and interpretation?
Organize data in hierarchies, flows, and sequences and interpret by listing challenges faced
What is the difference between the PDCA and Scrum development cycles?
PDCA is to enhance workplace efficiency and production quality starting with a target improvement. Plan describes objectives, Do implements the plan, Check assesses the intervention, Act implements intervention or develops new plan. Scrum is for consumer/software products and focuses on creating products to discover requirements in iterative process. PDCA has requirements in advance where Scrum discovers requirements as you work. Both are iterative!
How does defining a persona differ from identifying a users' role?
Persona highlights the most important user population of the product and why they use the product while the user's role contributes to how they use the product. Personas represent key characteristics of user population in the design process, gathered from observations and interviews.
Discuss how post-release surveillance would be used differently for consumer products and high-risk systems.
Post release surveillance is more important for high risk systems. This would result in recalling the product to fix newly found design flaws. For consumer products, nothing would need to necessarily be recalled, but updated versions or models could be released.
Describe how the speed-accuracy tradeoff would lead you to apply different human factors methods to a smart phone app versus a commercial airliner.
Rapid methods best fit scrum model (iterative) while other methods like a comprehensive task analysis take weeks/months and best fit the Vee model. In this case, a smart phone app would be best with rapid methods while a commercial airlines would focus on accuracy with comprehensive analysis.!Q
Describe the difference in the two types of understanding that guides prototype design: user tasks and general human capabilities.
Supporting user tasks must be consistent with how people see, hear, feel, comprehend, and act on the world and is often distilled into principles or design heuristics. Human capabilities ensures that the task can be performed safely and easily with proposed system.
If the focus of your task analysis is on training operators on the concepts needed to control a nuclear power plant, which task summary approach would you use and why: task hierarchy, task flow, or task sequence?
Task flow to see how information moves across. Task sequence also gives insight on what needs to get done, at what point, for how long and highlights communication across various systems within the power plant.
If the focus of your task analysis is on supporting decisions with a checklist, which task summary approach would you use and why: task hierarchy, task flow, or task sequence?
Task hierarchy to list out goals, tasks to complete and to decompose this. This would be similar to the checklist form but broken down and specified.
What is a benefit of defining a persona compared to simply listing user characteristics?
The extensive build into creating personas allows you to influence the design more.
How does a task analysis help designers develop a deeper empathy for those they design for?
The iterative and very detailed and specific techniques that accompany task analysis lead to a deeper empathy. You focus on the activity details that matter to the user and understand what helps them succeed.
Why are observations and interviews of users important for designers and engineers?
To see through the eyes of the person that the system is designed for and to develop empathy for the challenges, demands, and responsibilities they face.
Describe the role of the 5 Whys in understanding the role of human error in system performance.
Tracing back five times allows you to go beyond human error and see if design was a root cause of an issue.
How do scenarios differ from use cases in the context of moving from task analysis to system design?
Use cases are user centered description of what technology is meant to do. Scenarios support conceptual design where human activity is independent of technology.
Describe the difference between user-centered system design and the user designing the system.
User centered design means finding a system that supports user needs, rather than having user adapt to the system. User designing the system would be the user giving insight and design ideas.
What is the difference between user interface design and user experience design?
User interface design focuses on the visible design elements while user experience designs go beyond to include all aspects of users' interactions with a system (tasks, interaction, organization of people/technology and the overall experience). Designing user interface alone can be ineffective ('painting the corpse')
Is it possible to create prototypes based on use cases and scenarios? Explain.
Usually scenarios support conceptual design or used to create the sequence of screens that will be used. Use cases help move from conceptual design to prototypes by showing the sequencing of tasks that produce a meaningful outcome.
What type of product or system might be suited to Vee, PDCA, and Scrum development cycles?
Vee process - use for large, high risk systems where sequential development is possible and verification, validation, and documentation is required. PCDA - used for enhancing workplace efficiency and production quality starting with target improvement Scrum process - used for typical consumer products where iterative and incremental approach can resolve uncertainty in design requirements
You are designing a website for a local real estate agent, describe how you would use wire frames, mockups, and prototypes. Describe the primary audience and purpose of each.
Wireframes- communicate and document ideas for the design team. tend to lack details for the look and feel of product interface Mockups- make ideas concrete to stakeholders and sponsors while focusing on the look and feel of the product. Prototypes- support evaluation with team by giving users something to use and react to. also allow for team members to complete a heuristic evaluation.
Describe a specific analysis that goes beyond the development of personas and use cases to address a particular issue.
Workload analysis considers if system places excessive mental or physical demands on the user. Functional allocation analysis considers how to distribute tasks between operator and technology.
Explain why create, understand, and evaluate activities are described as a cycle.
You start with understanding the needs of the people and tasks performed, and then create a prototype. You then evaluate it to see if it meets or violates any needs. If a new need comes up that was then violated, you cycle back and adapt or recreate and reevaluate.
Identify two elements of a system beyond the obvious focus of a prototype that often merit attention in design.
support material and help systems, team and organization design
