Human-Computer Interaction in eCommerce, Summer, 2002

Homeworks

Summary

Homework 1: User & competitive analysis; Contextual Inquiry; Wed, June 26 - Wed, July 3. Group, 5% of grade.

Homework 2: Contextual Design, Wed, July 3 - Fri, July 12. Group, 15% of grade.

Homework 3: Create a prototype Web site; Fri, July 12 - Fri, July 19. Group, 10% of grade.

Homework 4: Heuristic Evaluation of each other's sites; Fri, July 19 - Fri, July 26. Individual, 15% of grade.

Homework 5: Revise sites based on evaluations, User study of implementation of site with at least one user, Write Final Report; Fri, July 26 - Wed, Aug 7. Group, 30% of grade.

Homework 1: User & Competitive Analysis

Start: Wednesday, June 26
Hand in: Wednesday, July 3

Group Project
Counts for 5% of final grade

Each group will be creating a simulated electronic commerce web site throughout the term for this course.

• Form groups of three (3) people. Each group should have at least one person who can implement web pages using a page editor such as FrontPage. It will not be necessary to implement a database server behind your site. Be sure to write your names on the report.
• The site can either be aimed at conventional desktop computer browsers, or else for Internet wireless devices. In either case, describe the expected target hardware the users will have.
• As a group, decide on what your site will sell. Describe the project and the goals for your site from a business and user point of view. Come up with a top-level name for your site.
• Describe the user characteristics of your expected users.
• Carry out competitive analysis of at least two real sites on the WWW that are related to your proposed site. Turn in analysis. Be sure to list the URLs.

Reports should be authored using Microsoft Word or HTML. If you use HTML, please create a zip file including the source and all images. Turn in one report for each group.

Please turn in a hardcopy printout of the report, and email a copy to the TA.

Homework 2: Contextual Inquiry

Start: Wednesday, July 3
Hand in: Friday, July 12

Homework 2 is in another file.

Homework 3: Create a Prototype Web Site

Start: Friday, July 12 
Hand in: Friday, July 19

Group Project
Counts for 10% of final grade.

Create a prototype of your web site containing at least 10 pages. It is OK to use pretend data and no database.

You can author your website using Microsoft Frontpage or other authoring tool, or using raw HTML. Pictures and images for your site can be "sloppily" drawn by hand or scanned in. You can put your pages up on the server for the class, or your own machine if you have a web server.

Turn in:

• The URL where we can find your pages.

• A hardcopy printout of all your pages (black and white is OK if you don't have a color printer)

• A one-page scenario in which you follow an example user through a single example goal and task using your site.

Please turn in a hardcopy printout of the report, and email a copy to the TA.

Homework 4: Heuristic Evaluation of each other's sites

Start: Friday, July 19
Hand in: Friday, July 26

Individual Project
Counts for 15% of final grade.

Each person in the class will be assigned to evaluate the site of a different a group. Individually, you should write a heuristic evaluation of the site using principles from the lecture and readings, especially Neilsen's Ten Usability Heuristics. Although multiple people are assigned to evaluate each group. you should do the evaluation separately. See the assignments of people to groups. That page also contains the URLs for each group's page.

For the system you have been assigned perform a heuristic evaluation. Your report should discuss both problems and things done well. You should include pictures of the original site that illustrate each of your points. Each point should be annotated with the particular guidelines that are being violated or being followed. If violated, you might suggest a fix. You should try to come up at least 10 points that illustrate at least 5 different guidelines. I am looking for insight, subtlety and depth (thus saying "the system doesn't have good color choices because it doesn't use color" is pretty trivial and won't count for much).

Please turn in a hardcopy printout of the report, and email a copy to the TA, and also email a copy to the group you evaluated.

Homework 5: Final Report

Start: Friday, July 26
Hand in: Wednesday, Aug 7

Group Project
Counts for 30% of final grade.

• Revise your sites based on the heuristic evaluations of others. In your report, discuss what you changed and didn't change as a result of the heuristic analysis.
• Each group must find one user who is not in class to be their test user. (If you don't know someone to ask, the TA will help you find someone).
• Perform a user test of your site. This will be a "think aloud" test. Plan for your users to perform three tasks each. Write down your “script”— what you will tell the users about what you are doing and what you would like them to do. While your user goes through the tasks, you should observe and make detailed records of what he or she did and said, step by step. With his or her permission, you can tape record the session.
• Note any usability problems discovered. Rate the problems by scope and severity.
• It would be good to update your system as a result of the user tests. Describe what changes were made a result, and what changes should be made in the future.
• Turn in a report which includes:
  1. The changes made and not made as a result of the heuristic analysis.
  2. The instructions to users for the usability test (the script).
  3. Your notes from the user testing session.
  4. A list of the usability problems discovered, along with the scope and severity of each problem.
  5. Changes that were made as a result of the user tests, and what changes that should be made in the future.
  6. Pictures from your final version of your site.
     
• Prepare a 5-minute presentation about your site and what you learned from the user tests to be presented in class on Wed, August 7.
• For your presentation in class, you can display your site using my laptop.
• You can make overheads or have slides on the web somewhere to discuss: what changes were made as a result of the user tests.
• Remember it must only last 5 minutes! (You should Practice!)

Please turn in a hardcopy printout of the report, and email a copy to the TA.