Collaborative techniques for developing usability requirements

Collaborative techniques for developing usability requirements : E ngaging users and stakeholders in understanding usability goals Karen Bachmann Lead UX Consultant, Perficient @KarenBachmann #UXreqs #UPA2011

Session goals
Learn what usability requirements are and how they fit within the development life cycle, regardless of the development methodology used.
Learn how to guide collaborative requirement definition with users and business stakeholders.
Learn how to select collaboration approach.
Learn how to translate all input into meaningful, measurable, traceable usability requirements.
@KarenBachmann #UXReqs #UPA2011

Requirements in general
Provide a unifying context for a project that defines expectations for the end product
Are focused, measurable, and testable
Provide knowledge communicated to the entire project team throughout the project life cycle
Often address only functional specifications: Does the product work?

Typical usability requirement in the wild
The system shall be easy for users to understand and use.

Usability requirements, specifically
What they are : The expected and desired user reaction to a system
Define how well a product should work for the intended users
Define target user satisfaction goals
What they aren’t : Functional requirements, use cases (strictly speaking), marketing’s product “mission” statements, nebulous user wish lists
Address non-functional requirements and user satisfaction: Does the product work well for the intended users ?

User goals vs. Usability requirements @KarenBachmann #UXReqs #UPA2011 Detailed design requirements High-level business requirements

Expanding the usual practices
User Research
Usability Requirements Functional Requirements Complete System Requirements User Goals & Tasks Functions & Workflow Business Drivers & Goals Business Analysis @KarenBachmann #UXReqs #UPA2011

Why develop usability requirements?
Translate user research into non-functional requirements meaningful to development and QA teams
Provide a common, familiar language to focus on user needs
Include usability into a product foundation rather than add it as an afterthought or fix
Test design and development assumptions
Support usability testing
Serve as a rallying cry for user satisfaction

A concept revisited: FURPS+
Functionality
Usability
Reliability
Performance
Security
Supportability
+…
Grady and Caswell, 1987 @KarenBachmann #UXReqs #UPA2011

F vs. U vs. RPS+
Functional
Core problem is often well-defined (What)
Stakeholders often include subject matter and domain experts
Generally have agreement about the core problem to be solved
Usability
User success metrics are more varied and less understood (How well)
Stakeholders often know less about users than they think they do (Who and Why)
Priorities are not agreed upon: Stakeholders need a common understanding of users
RPS+
Success metrics are usually clear and the costs of failure obvious and measurable
Experts are technical specialists
Need is often driven by regulation or by SLA, eliminating much discussion

Benefits of collaboration
Engages and guides users and stakeholders in identifying non-functional usability requirements
Builds a shared understanding of who users are and how users define success
Guides prioritization of user goals requirements
Creates a partnership with requirements analysts to ensure that complete system requirements include the user perspective

Example collaboration tools
Requirements workshops, incorporating techniques such as affinity diagramming, storyboarding, gamestorming, prioritization exercises
Focus groups with users
Conceptual design workshops (with emphasis on conceptual)

Selecting a collaboration approach
Understand, when in the analysis phase, the effort is taking place.
Understand the nature of the product being developed.
Integrate existing research and communicate ongoing research efforts.
Confer with BAs whose primary responsibilities are requirements specification

Collaborative workshops
Plan to balance the needs of the users and the business and the ultimate goals for the end product, including budget and time constraints.
Set clear goals for the workshop and each activity. Define success concretely.
Set reasonable time frames and other limits for the workshop.
Establish and communicate clear ground rules for participants, even as early as within the invitation to participate.

Collaborative workshops (cont’d)
Prepare research findings in an easily digestible way, generally distributing information before hand.
Make sure the participants do any required homework and are ready to work when the workshop starts.
Make sure the collaboration techniques used fit the organization culture and support the goals of the project.

Collaborative workshops (cont’d)
Ensure that each participant is able to participate freely without pressure from other participants (such as supervisors) or external stakeholders.
Facilitate productive conflict, but be prepared to intervene if the tone becomes argumentative or defensive.
Establish a parking lot and use it consistently as needed.

Collaboration focus changes over time
Early phase – Discovery and definition:
Conduct activities to support open discovery of requirements
Review and analysis of raw user research findings
Review and alignment of business drivers
Prioritization of usability criteria and user types
Later phases – Distillation and prioritization:
Analyzing benchmark test data
Defining specific metrics
Prioritization usability requirements

Writing usability requirements
Convert qualitative wants and needs to quantifiable goals
Absolute: A concrete measure of success
Relative: Compared to another criteria such as a previous release
Write them in terms of user tasks and goals
Prioritize needs of different user groups
Be realistic – success is rarely 100% of users

Writing usability requirements (cont’d)
Define any pre-conditions that must exist for the product to successfully fulfill the requirements
Prioritize the usability requirements against priorities for the usability criteria
Test the requirements and report findings back to the group

Format and “customers”
Usability requirements can be captured in any type of requirements format:
Traditional requirements
Use cases
User stories
Conceptual prototyping with notations
Construct the requirements to support “customers”
Developers
Usability testers
Acceptance test coordinators
System testers
Marketing and sales

Wrapping Up
Know what usability requirements are.
Know ways to guide collaborative requirement definition with users and business stakeholders.
Know how to select collaboration approach.
Know how to translate all input into meaningful, measurable, traceable usability requirements.

References
C. Courage, K. Baxter. Understanding Users: A Practical Guide to User Requirements - Methods, Tools, and Techniques .
E. Gottesdiener. Requirements by Collaboration: Workshops for Defining Needs .
R.B. Grady. Practical Software Metrics for Project Management and Process Improvement.
H. Istance. http://www.cms.dmu.ac.uk/~hoi/mult1003_2001_2002/week8/ lecture8_2.ppt
J. Jubner. http://www.deltamethod.net/hb_WR5_UsabilityReq.htm
NIST. Common Industry Specification for Usability - Requirements . http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/iusr/documents/CISU-R-IR7432.pdf
Nokia. “Design and User Experience Library v2.0.” http://library.forum.nokia.com/index.jsp?topic=/Design_and_User_Experience_Library/GUID-024AF250-B54D-488D-8D54-C2D52E5C07B1.html
E. Smith, A. Siochi. http://www.acm.org/~perlman/hfeshci/Abstracts/88:264-266.html
W. Quesenbery. “5Es of Usability.” http://www.wqusability.com/
Wikipedia. “FURPS.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FURPS
Xerox Corporation. “How to Develop Usability Goals.” Usability SIG website: http://www.stcsig.org/usability/resources/toolkit/toolkit.html

Image credits
Clock front: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/791088
Clock back: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/791089
City model: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/712776
House and plans (licensed): http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-7921798-housing-project.php
Tree swing comic: http://www.businessballs.com/treeswing.htm
Note card: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/956985

Appendix: Quick overview of writing usability requirements While the focus of this main presentation was developing the collaboration, here are a few quick slides showing tips on writing usability requirements and some simple examples.

General usability criteria to consider
Learnability : How quickly do users come up to speed on the product?
Efficiency : How easy is the product to use and be productive?
Memorability : Do users remember how to use the product between uses?
Error tolerance : Do users make few errors? Are errors recoverable?
Relevance : Does the product meet users real needs?
Attitude/satisfaction : Do users enjoy using the product?
Accessibility : Does the product support the usage needs of all potential users including those with special physical requirements?

Meaningful, measurable numbers
Benchmark usability tests of existing versions and competitive products
UCD best practices
Industry standards
Customer feedback and support calls
Sales goals
Business performance goals
Your best professional guess

Constructing usability requirements
Determine what usability criteria to measure and the priority for each.
Determine how the criteria be measured. Create tangible measurements of intangible user satisfaction statements.
Set a realistic percentage of users that must achieve the goals. (100% of users will almost never accomplish 100% of all usability goals.)
Define the conditions that must exist for the product to successfully fulfill the requirements.

Components of a usability requirement
What task should the user accomplish : Clearly define the specific, finite task that a user should perform and the goal to be achieved
Who will accomplish the task : Define which user type (novice? expert?) the requirement addresses
What conditions will the task be performed under : Amount of training, work environment, computer experience, etc.
How well should the task be performed : A concrete measure of success as a percentage of the right users under the right conditions

Examples in traditional format
Relevant (solutions) and Efficient (fast)
The first CSR who interacts with a customer can complete identifying information within 3 actions.
Efficient (fast)
90% of CSRs will find data on the main screen within 10 seconds.
75% of CSRs will find detailed data on secondary screen with <2 actions.
Satisfying (no yelling) and Efficient (fast)
The caller will be asked for identification only by the first CSR spoken to.
The system will pass relevant caller data for the caller to each CSR the caller speaks to.
Functional requirement: The CSR can locate caller information . Usability requirements against main usability criteria @KarenBachmann #UXReqs #UPA2011

Example in Agile user story The CSR can review the complete call history for a caller. Note: Amanda says include the names of CSRs and duration of each interaction. Note: Ty suggested access in one action. @KarenBachmann #UXReqs #UPA2011

About the Presenter
Karen Bachmann, an user experience consultant with Perficient, Inc., designs usable user interfaces, bringing usability into the earliest stage of development to keep the project focused on the user. She also helps companies new to usability implement usability practices. Karen blogs at blogs . perficient .com/spark/ and can be reached at karen . [email_address] .com or @karenbachmann

Collaborative techniques for developing usability requirements

by Karen Bachmann

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Collaborative techniques for developing usability requirements Presentation Transcript