1. Web Usability: Session 5
Defining and Specifying
Functional and Content Requirements
Dr. Victor Manuel González y González
Centro de Innovación, Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería y Tecnología (CIIDIT)
Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León
victor.gonzalezgz@uanl.edu.mx
http://it.ciidit.uanl.mx/~victor/

2. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Agenda
Hands on practice: working with Personas and Scenarios
Contextual Design Interpreting and Modeling Techniques
Hands on practice: working with Affinity Diagramming
Functional and Content Requirements ( Scope Plan)
Hands on practice: working on requirements documents

3. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Contextual Design

4. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Personas
Personas are archetypes of actual users,
defined by the user’s goals and attributes. –
Alan Cooper
“Personas are derived from patterns
observed during interviews with and
observations of users and potential user (and
sometimes customers) of a product”
(Cooper & Reimann, 2003, 67)

5. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Personas
A persona is created by identifying the primary
stakeholder and creating an identity based on the
stakeholder profiles and other collection activities such as
interviews and surveys.
A persona is a detailed description complete with as many
personally identifying attributes as necessary to make it
come to life.

6. 1-6
Source: Molly Stevens http://www.mollystevens.com/

7. 1-7
Source: Patrizia Nanni http://www.vhml.org/theses/nannip/HCI_final.htm

8. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Personas
Advantages of personas:
They are quick and easy to create.
They provide a consistent model for all team members.
They are easy to use with other design methods.
They make the user real in the mind of the designer.
Disadvantages of personas:
They can be difficult to create if the target audience is international.
Having too many personas will make the work difficult.
There is a risk of incorporating unsupported designer assumptions.

9. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Scenarios
A description of a typical task
It describes
• The basic goal
• The conditions that exist at the beginning of the task
• The activities in which the persona will engage
• The outcomes of those activities
Scenarios afford a rich picture of the user’s tasks

10. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Scenarios
Example of Scenario
A four member family lives in a 3 bedroom semi detached house in North
Manchester, UK. They enjoy doing activities as a family and like to be
organised within the household. The children enjoy watching TV after they
have finished their homework, which is a rule set by their parents Sharon
and Alan. They are allowed to watch a set amount of TV each evening, with
a maximum of two hours. After the 2 hours is over the children, Ben and
Lucy go to their bedrooms to get ready for bed. They leave the lounge
where they were watching TV without switching the TV off and leaving the
lights on in this room also. Sharon goes to the lounge the next morning and
realises that both the TV and lights have been left on in the lounge all night,
she is a annoyed with this and tells both Lucy and Ben that they should
switch all appliances off once they have finished with them.

11. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Practical session / Personas and Scenarios
• Work with other student
• Identify a information based web site: public, serving a
specific community, focused on attending particular
needs.
• Prepare a Persona Profile including the following:
• general socio-demo information
• computer/web usage
• family/social context
• needs

12. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Practical session / Personas and Scenarios
• Based on your Persona, prepare a Scenario for the
following context:
• The owners of the information based web site want
to implement a version that makes sense within the
context of the new Apple iPad.
• They ‘d like to think on situations where users are
away from their desks, mobile, and at public spaces.
• Your Scenario must address the following aspects:
• Include your Persona
• Describe the context
• Describe the use of the web site for the iPad

13. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Contextual Design
Interpretation and Modeling Techniques
•Contextual Inquiry
• Interpretation Sessions
• Notes and Affinity diagram
• Work modelling

14. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Contextual Design
Contextual Inquiry is based on four principles:
context: go to the customers’ workplace and watch them
do their own work.
partnership: talk to them about their work and engage
them in uncovering unarticulated aspects of
work.
interpretation: develop a shared understanding with the
customer about the aspects of work that
matter.
focus: direct the inquiry from a clear understanding of your
own purpose.

15. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Contextual Design
Interpretation and Modeling Techniques
• Notes: interview - sales rep – sample cards and equipment
U4 18 Copies of sample cards kept in shoeboxes; has to keep them two years (regulation)
U4 19 Home office lost sample cards she had sent in; she had to make photocopies of her
copies and send them again.
U4 20 Keeps last 6 months of sample cards in her home office; then puts them in shoebox
and moves them to garage.
U4 21 Question: Is there any defined procedure for storing and disposing of sample cards?
U4 22 Has a video screen to do presentations that she has never used; was given it
automatically.
U4 23 Has to rent a slide projector; wasn’t given that
U4 24 Design Idea: give sales reps a budget they can see to buy the things they really need.
U4 25 Insight: Home office thinks they know the equipment the sales reps need, but it
doesn’t match their needs.

16. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Contextual Design - Interpretation and Modeling Techniques
Affinity Diagrams
Third group level
identifiying an area of
concern
Second group label
summarizing the set
of groups.
First group label First group label First group label
summarizing the summarizing the summarizing the
points below points below points below
Individual point Individual point
Individual point
captured during captured during
captured during
interpretation interpretation
interpretation
Individual point Individual point
captured during captured during
interpretation interpretation
Individual point
captured during
interpretation

17. Third group level
identifiying an area of
concern
Second group label
summarizing the set
of groups.
First group label First group label First group label
summarizing the summarizing the summarizing the
points below points below points below
Individual point Individual point
Individual point
captured during captured during
captured during
interpretation interpretation
interpretation
Individual point Individual point
captured during captured during
interpretation interpretation
Individual point
captured during
interpretation
Structure of an Affinity Diagram

18. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Affinity Diagram: Definitions
• Affinity diagramming is used to sort large amounts of data
into logical groups.
• Existing items and/or new items identified by individuals are
written on sticky notes which are sorted into categories as a
workshop activity.
• Affinity diagramming can be used to:
– analyze findings from field studies
– identify and group user functions as part of design
– analyze findings from a usability evaluation
• The technique is used in HCI, TQM, HRM
Source: Usability.net

19. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
When is affinity diagramming appropriate?
Use affinity diagramming in a workshop
environment when you want participants
to work together identifying, grouping and
discussing issues
When you have a large amount of
information—for example, at the end of a
contextual enquiry, when you may have
hundreds of individual notes.
Source: Gerry Gaffney © 1999 Information & Design

20. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
How is Affinity Diagramming conducted?
1. State the problem or issue of interest in one full sentence
2. Brainstorm ideas or sub-issues that can contribute to the understanding
and resolution of the problem at hand and write each input on a sticky
note; post each sticky note on a board.
3. Sort the ideas from the brainstorming into related groupings by silently
moving the sticky notes around; very large groupings may be further
broken down into smaller subgroups, as long as each subgroup
represents a common idea;
4. Capture the central thought or theme that each grouping of ideas
represents and write this on a bigger sticky note (of different color, if
possible), which will serve as the header card of the grouping;
Source: SiliconFarEast.com

21. Customer service is sub-standard
Source: MindMap

22. Source: MindMap

23. Source: MindMap

24. Source: MindMap

25. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Contextual Design
Modeling Techniques
The Flow Model
This model reveals how the individuals divide their work among different roles
and how they coordinate and communicate.
Elements:
Individals who do the work
Responsabilities of each one (roles) – what is expected from them.
Groups: set of people who have common goals or take action together.
Flow: the communication between people to get work done.
Artifacts the things of the “work”, which are thought of and manipulated.
Topic representing the detail of the talk or coordination represented by a flow.
Breakdowns: or problems in communication or coordination.

26. Source: Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems
Beyer & Holtzblatt. Morgan Kaufmann 1998.

27. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Contextual Design
Modeling Techniques
The Sequence Model
This model helps to describe the order of the task, way to initiate it, steps to
follow, and their final aims of them. The model is based on the fact that
people’s actions reveal the strategies and what is important for them.
Elements:
Intent: what the sequence intents to achieve.
Triggers causing the sequence of actions.
Steps: the action or thought preceeding an action.
Order: loops, and branches indicated by arrows connecting the steps.
Breakdowns: problems in doing the steps.

28. Intent: Plug in – start Trigger: Return to the office
Daily activities.
Scan message list for important messages
Use sender, subject
Intent: Handle emergencies Choose urgent message
Read message about unhappy user
Decide more info needed
Call the user
Had to put off issue
of unhappy user
Leave phone message
Intent: Get back to File in phone folder
people easily.
See list of messages
Choose message 9: subject indicates university news
relevant to department
Read message
Delete message
Source: Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems
Beyer & Holtzblatt. Morgan Kaufmann 1998.

29. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Practical session / Affinity Diagrams
• Work with four other students
• Watch the video (Living in a Train)
• Use the affinity diagramming technique to work on the
following problem:
• How information technologies can help commuters
to reach others and make good use of their idle time?
• Prepare a scenario where a specific information
technology is used by train commuters

30. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Functional and Content Requirements ( Scope Plan)
•Funcionality and content
•Functional specifications
•Defining priorities

31. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Functional and Content Requirements
Defining the Scope
Reason 1: So you know what you are building
Reason 2: So you know what you are not building

32. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Functional and Content Requirements
Functionality and Content
•Functional Requirements – web as software interface
•Content Requirements – web as hypertext system

33. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Functional and Content Requirements
Gathering Requirements
•Group meetings with diverse people
•Group meetings to discuss requirements
•Competitive analysis

34. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Functional and Content Requirements
Functional Specifications
•Be positive: describe what the system will do to prevent a bad thing
•Be specific: leaving as little as possible open to interpretation
•Avoid subjective language: refer to establish guidelines – company
branding guidelines. Say the system will support 1000 simultaneous
users.
Content Requirements
•Your content requirements should provide rough estimates of the
size of each feature: word count for text features, pixel dimensions
for images, and file sizes for downloadable, stand-alone content
elements like PDF documents, or for features like audio or video.
•Identify who will be responsible for each content element: creating
and maintaining it.
•For every content feature, identify how frequently it will be updated.

35. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Functional and Content Requirements
Prioritizing Requirements
•Evaluate possible requirements based on whether they
fulfill our strategic goals (both site objectives and user
needs)
•How feasible will it be to actually make this stuff?
•Conflicts between features: serving different types of
users

36. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Practical session / Requirements
• Work with four other students
• Based on your Scenario for commuters
•Define a list of a minimum of 12 functional related
requirements for the application
•Define a list of a minimum of 12 content related
requirements for the application
• Discuss and define priorities for each requirement

37. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Open Discussion

38. Web Usability / / User Needs and Goals
Contact Information
Digital Addresses
E-mail: vmgonz (at) acm (dot) org
Skype ID: vmgonz
IM: vmgyg (at) hotmail (dot) com
Web sites:
http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/vmgonz
http://it.ciidit.uanl.mx/~victor/