1. Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project
GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:
EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
Introduction to User-Centred Analysis (UCA)
Data Gathering Techniques
Selection parameters
Cristina Cachero
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme

2. Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project
GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:
EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
 The technique selection depends on several parameters:
1. Nature of the data that needs to be collected (task flow, features needed,
performance, subjective perceptions, etc.)
2. Number of people from which data must be collected (less than 25/more than 25?)
3. Do we need specific data or exploration data?
4. Do we need to gather data about any complex issue?
5. How quickly are data needed?
6. Which are our budget restrictions?
7. How much data do we need?
8. Do we need information about user errors?
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme
2
User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques

3. Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project
GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:
EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
 Some companies provide cheatsheet to help in the
decision of which technique to use
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme
3
User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques
 E.g. We need to collect data about the features needed for the new application to
better support the customer service of our company.
 This would incline us towards working with a direct method, where you can probe the user. Surveys could be
another option.
 We have 10 people available to work with.
 This would discard surveys, since there are too few subjects to make it cost-worthy.
 This is the beginning of the study, so we are interested in exploratory data
 Again, this situation inclines us towards more conversational-like methods, such as interviews or observation
followed by discussion.
 There are some complex issues involved in the service (complex task flows with
many exceptions)
 This strongly suggests the use of interviews and/or observation, where we can ask for further clarifications when
needed.
 Particularly, data on user errors while using the actual system (which is preventing
customer service workers from giving correct solutions to the users) is needed
 This would make it advisable to use observation, since users are not prone to reporting their own errors... many
times the are not even aware of them!
Source: HFI

4. Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project
GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:
EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme
4
User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques
 Imagine that our software application to support the
customer service is being redesigned in an iterative
manner.The goal of the first increment consists in
fixing the most important complaints about the
current design.
 Data gathering technique?

5. Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project
GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:
EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme
5
User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques
 We want to develop an on-line tool to help people
decide when to go to the emergency room in a
hospital and when to wait for the doctor to fix an
appointment with them.
 Data gathering technique?

6. Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project
GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:
EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme
6
User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques
 There is a lot of people coming to your e-commerce
website, but few of them are buying and turning into
customers.
 Data gathering technique?

7. Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project
GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:
EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme
7
User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques
 We want to design a data entry device for ambulance
workers for them to register what happened in each
call and check the patient’s medical records.
 Data gathering technique?

8. Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project
GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:
EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme
8
User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques
 We have an internal operations application that is so
difficult to use that important company processes are
being ignored, critical data are not being captured, and
so on.
 Data gathering technique?

9. Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project
GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:
EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme
9
User-Centred Data Gathering Techniques
 Solutions (not unique!):
 Customer service: Help desk reports (what information do they need to
gather and in which format?), then interviews and observation
 Emergency room: Interviews for doctors and surveys to get the
correct names for diseases (using medical jargon may confuse
users)
 E-commerce web site: Web analytics, then interviews or user
observation
 Ambulance data-entry device: Interviews (complex process
involved, observation may not be possible)
 Internal operations application: Interviews (complex issues
probably involved)

10. Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project
GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:
EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme
10
Importance of choosing the right technique:
The Wallmart case of study
 Read the following case of study:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/2011/04/ignore-the-customer-e.php

11. Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships Project
GUI USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY:
EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
These slides are made available under the license Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND. More
information about license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/3.0/.
These slides were created under Leonardo daVinci Partnerships
Project 2012-1-PL1-LEO04-28181 GUI USABILITY AND
ACCESSIBILITY: EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES
(http://usability-accessibility.org/).
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme
11
Attributions