Yu Centrik

Greetings one and all!

World Usability Day will take place next November 8 and we would like to organize something for our business community. Nothing pretentious, but inviting enough to allow us to exchange ideas or projects outside of a work context. In this day and age of the Web 2.0, it is quite normal to sound the call and solicit ideas for content regarding the event we are planning. It was our thought to hold a type of “Pecha Kucha” evening here in the office on the 8^th, from 4 o’clock to 8 PM.

But what is “Pecha Kucha?”

Users of portable electronic devices must obviously deal with many constraints due to the characteristics of the devices themselves, such as screen size and limited data storage capacity. These aspects of interface design are relatively known and documented but what about the context in which users are using these devices? This is the question which concerned Akseli Anttila and Younghee Jung, Nokia (Finland), researchers whose work was presented on April 28 at CHI 2006.

The results of two studies were presented: one conducted in 2000 with users aged 16 to 23 from California and the other in 2004 with users aged 20 to 49 from Japan, Korea, and England.

This study is quite unique because of how the data was collected. Researchers combined different techniques borrowed from the field of ethnography. The test subjects were asked to keep a daily Media Journal in which they detailed how they used their portable electronic devices throughout the day. Another technique consisted of having the test subjects take digital photos of their environment in order to put together a visual profile of their personal universe. They were also invited to put together a collage of those photos to illustrate their perception of how their portable electronic devices affect their lives. Interviews and focus groups were then organized to discuss the data collected throughout the study.

These methods enabled the researchers to collect a large amount of data without having to follow each test subject on an individual basis, throughout the duration of the study. This would have been impossible because of budget and logistical constraints.

In addition to the few cultural differences observed during the study, Anttila and Jung identified some basic truths about user contexts that were applicable to all groups observed and that should be taken into account when designing interfaces and developing content for portable electronic devices.

Here are the most important design drivers:

• Participants used the media on their portable electronics to avoid boredom

• The cellphone was the portable electronic device most used by participants

• The mobile telephone was used during mini-breaks between two activities (for example, on the bus to go to school)

• Users want to be able to stay alert to their surroundings (their attention is shared between the device and the world around them)

• Test subjects played different roles within their circle of friends: they acted either as facilitator, distributor or consumer of media.

• Users are frequently interrupted and how to best manage these interruptions is an important consideration.

Other important results of this study: subjects don’t want to have to pay to navigate content but are willing to pay to download a media element, whether it be a ringtone, a specific song or a video.

To someone who is familiar with the portable electronics universe, there’s nothing new or surprising about these design drivers, however, in this case, the findings are supported by a study conducted using the recognized and respected ethnographical method.

Information system developers must find inspiration in these types of studies when they start to develop a new product. The Scandinavians are known for applying these principles to their work and the success of their designs only proves they are justified in doing so.

9:00
In a cold morning in Montreal, we needed nothing more than a hot debate to warm us up. Unfortunately, the presentation and the debate on Mash-ups were rather lukewarm, even with reps from the BBC and Google in attendance.

The main topics of discussion focussed on the concepts and programming techniques for the creation of Mash-ups (Web site or Web application which combines continuously evolving content from different sources).

Usability issues were barely mentioned and the audience was asleep at the wheel.

To know more about the BBC’s approach on this subject, visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk.
This site also provides a link to download this morning’s BBC presentation.

8:00
Here I am at CHI2006. My first impressions?
The student volunteers look a little lost… It’s really hard to get basic information on how to register for the workshops. They also don’t know how to direct a journalist to the press room…But overall, things are running smoothly, the Internet connection is perfect, the people are nice and I’m waiting for the first presentation.

10:20
I finally manage to register for the 4:30 workshop.

The first presentation, titled “Creating Game changing Innovation”, was pretty interesting. It was presented by Scott Cook, co-founder of the company Intuit.

Even if the essence of his presentation on the importance of gathering user information before starting development is obvious to the usability specialists present, Cook proposes taking it further and says we should innovate by drawing on the problems of everyday life.

Cook believes we must take design teams out of their offices. It’s important to meet and observe users within the environment in which they are using the product. Basically, it was a good presentation that set the tone for CHI2006 but had little impact on our lives.

12:00
This year, CHI offers a new element: the “Experience Reports”, real-life experiences and case studies that are shared with us, the lucky CHI2006 participants.

I just attended a presentation by Richard Boardman from Google on the use of Instant Messaging (IM) software to facilitate communication between the moderator and the observer during usability testing.

He told us about his experience in the Google lab and also shared results of a survey where industry professionals were asked about the benefits and drawbacks of this approach.

The conclusion? It’s too distracting! It bothers the moderator and the observer as much as it does the users themselves. If this tool was improved, however, it could turn out to be useful for some types of testing.

12:30
The unexpected. The speaker who was supposed to discuss how personal preferences can influence product use isn’t here yet.

I quickly came up with plan B and ran to the presentation about a voice recognition device.

Not much to say about it right now, but I do want to mention that it’s specifically designed to help programmers with disabilities and it works really well!

A few observations:
- when I got out of the presentation, I saw Jakob Nielsen in person, surrounded by a bunch of people
- I think this is the largest concentration of portable computers ever seen
- we’re surrounded by the largest concentration of HCI experts in the world, Yeah!

2:30
A great debate on research that’s been done on local users at the international level. We’re now faced with this situation more and more because of the global aspect of the Internet and the globalization of consumer markets that expose our products beyond our borders.

“Managing International User Research” brought together a group of professionals from Microsoft, Intel and Yahoo, as well as independent consultants. Points of view differed on various topics like cultural differences and the way these types of studies are conducted.

There’s still a lot of work to be done before an optimal work methodology is put in place.

4:30
“The Goldilocks Content Framework: What Users Want” was presented by Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering. The objective of the presentation was to help us understand the best way to present content on a Website.

In his opinion, the role of content is to bridge the gap between what the user knows when he arrives at the site and what he needs to learn throughout his visit.

Based on his research, Spool gave a few examples of how to search for pertinent information and how to determine what type of content should be posted. An interesting course that we should use to validate proposed concepts for future projects.

6:30
Cocktails, exhibits, software, circus acrobats, networking, wine, usability, Eye-tracking, cheese, books, smoked meat, not necessarily in that order, but remarkably at the same place at the same time. A great mix to end the first day of CHI2006.

9:00
A presentation by David Adhlstroem on an experiment that aims at reducing the selection time of multi-level dropdown menus. He uses the law of Fitts to explain how slow and difficult selection is because of the left to right movement required to reach the dropdown sub-menus.

This study was administered to two test groups, one that used the mouse to navigate the dropdown menus and one that used the touchpad. Instead of the classic mouse hover, clicking on a menu item allowed the user to go directly to the next sub-menu. This improved selection speed by 5% to 20%, depending on the case.

10:00
The author Yelena Nakhimovsky describes how she adapted the card sorting methodology to reorganize the information architecture found in the help section of Google’s AdWords. This section contained more than 500 items and her goal was to reduce it by half.

The reorganization of the information architecture was done in four stages: the first was a qualitative analysis, followed by two card sorting tests “adapted” for the needs of the experiment (the current methods and software were too limiting) and, finally, a comparative study of the old and new architectures.

Results: the number of items was cut in half and there was a 30% improvement in the selection speed of the new information architecture. According to the author, this method could be used to organize a large volume of information.

11:30
Presentation of many accessibility studies. Melissa Dawe presented a touching case study describing the implementation of assisted technologies for youth and young adults with intellectual deficiencies and their families. The abandonment rate of these technologies is more than 35%, even though they can have a major impact on the well-being of these users and their families.

This study demonstrated the importance of analyzing and understanding the different roles of each player in the implementation of these technologies: the teacher, the parents, and the young adults.

Generally, according to the author, studies that aim to develop new assisted technologies rarely consider the user context, environment, perception and efficiency of the current technologies being used in the home or at school.

This presentation concluded with an outline of the hopes and dreams of the young adults and their families who were interviewed. They wish for technologies that can support and stimulate them, that are easy to use and to reconfigure, that are crash-resistant; technologies that provide a lifeline.

1:00
Thumbs up to Pierre-Alexandre who conducted an orchestra with his infra-red baton, and to the chickens who responded to being stroked

After the Spring 2005 usability professionals conference held by UPA, Montréal has continued to play a role as a meeting place for the usability community. Since then, two other significant conferences are taking place here: IHM 2006 and CHI 2006. With these conferences taking place one week after the other, you would be crazy to miss them!

IHM 2006, the 18th Francophone Conference on Human Computer Interaction, will be held at the École Polytechnique de Montréal April 18 to 21 and will be the most significant french language conference. A number of current issues will be discussed, from video game ergonomics to digital television. Yu Centrik will be responsible for a presentation on virtual keyboards for interactive digital television.

CHI 2006 is the premier english-language conference in the field. It promises to attract thousands of participants. Voice interfaces, PDAs and laptops…the program promises lively and constructive discussions. This conference will be held April 22 to 27, 2006 at the Palais des Congrès.

Yu Centrik staff will be attending both conferences. Feel free to come chat with us!