Project Description
Team Project: 2-4 members
Proposal One page: project title, list of team members (3-4 people), paragraph or two
describing your project, list of independent variables (and treatments for each) and
dependent variables (usually performance variables such as time or errors, plus subjective
ratings), your hypotheses, and number plus source of subjects.
Materials The first draft of the full set of materials you will need to run your experiment.
These may include instructions to the participants, background surveys, questionnaires,
task lists, programs, etc. If possible provide me a disk of your experiment or do a demo at
my office.
References Hand in a one page list of 5-12 references to the literature related to your
experimental project with a sentence or two of how each relates to your project. These
should be as specific as possible and include previous experimental studies.
Pilot results One page: report how many pilot subjects you tested (should be at least 1-2
per experimental treatment), list the changes you made to your materials, and give the
planned times for each phase of your experiment (beware of too short or too long).
Statistics Create fake data that you would like to get from your experiment and format it
properly for processing by a statistics package, spreadsheet, or programs you create.
Generate the statistical analysis, produce the tables (means, standard deviations, ranges,
etc.) and figures (plots, bar charts, etc.) that you will use for your final report. When you
have your actual data it should be easy to simply re-run your analysis programs to
generate your actual final report. You are welcome to use whatever statistical package
you like (SAS, SPSS, MyStat, PCStat, etc.) and get whatever statistical assistance you can
find on campus or elsewhere.
You can find the useful information at Mike
Stark's Statistics Page
Raw Data Should be a small number of pages, preferably one, with the raw data from
your experiment.
Draft Intro Your chance to get my feedback. I'll provide comments within a week.
Final Project This is it! No excuses, no delays. Everyone prepares their project on the
class website. Class presentations - 10 minutes per project using PowerPoint or good
slides.
Comments Students sign up to read one other project and send an email note (to me and
the project team) with one paragraph of supportive comments and one paragraph of
suggested improvements. The project team uses this feedback plus the my comments to
revise their web presentation.
Revision Revise your paper based on comments. You may send me an email explaining
significant changes.
Guidelines
for Project Writeup
FORMAT FOR HUMAN FACTORS REPORTS
Title page: Title, Authors, Addresses, Electronic
Mail, Addresses, and Date
Abstract: 100-150 word overview of experiment, results
and discussion
Credits: Indicate who did what
1. Introduction (3-6 single spaced
pages)
Overview of the problem,
possibly including:
Review of commercial systems
Discussion of extracts from relevant textbooks
Personal encounters with the problem
Review of previous
experiments
Relevant psychological or
other theories
2. Experiment (3-6 pages)
2.1 Introduction and
Hypotheses
Independent and dependent variables
2.2 Pilot study results
2.3 Subjects
2.4 Materials
Training, tasks, questionnaires
2.5 Procedures and problems
Administration
Grading
3. Results (2-5 pages)
Objective report on what the
numbers show
Refer to Raw Data in Appendix
Refer to statistics programs
in Appendix
Report Means and Standard
deviations in neat tables
Include graphs, plots,
histograms, etc.
4. Discussion (1-4 pages)
Interpret the results,
Explain statistics, Account for anomalies,
Describe subjects' comments
5. Conclusions (1-4 pages)
5.1 Impact for practitioners
5.2 Suggestions for future
researchers
5.3 Refine the theory or
develop a new one
Other suggestions
Acknowledgements (a few
sentences)
Thanks to teachers, bosses,
organizations, or friends who helped you conduct your
experiment
References (5-20
references):Citations in a neat standard form
Appendices (5-200 pages)
A. Experimental materials
Programs, Instructions, Questionnaires, Test
materials, Transcripts of sessions
B. Raw Data
C. Statistics runs from
computer
D. Experimental consent forms
(one copy of form used)
Photos of screen
presentations
Duration : 10 minutes
Questions: 2 minutes
Software: Powerpoint
Basic Outline
Slide 1) Title with names of group members
Slide 2) Independent and dependent variables,
hypotheses, subjects
Show the experiment if
possible, or use screen prints or videos
Slide 3) Results (table, bar chart, or graph)
Slide 4) Conclusions
Note: If you want to use another slide or
two or need two slides for you results or conclusions
that is fine.
Additional Suggestion: Please rehearse your
talk.
Tentative Schedule
Monday (May 7):
Wednesday(May 9):
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Universal
Usability Project : 838S Students
The graduate students will work on the issue of
universal usability, which is defined and discussed in
my article at www.universalusability.org
(published in the May 2000, Communications of the
ACM). You may also read materials on the ACM
Conference on Universal Usability www.acm.org/sigchi/cuu/
Read my article and then the one below written
with graduate student Harry Hochheiser (hsh@cs.umd.edu).
Each student will write a UU Policy statement http://www.universalusability.org/about/uupolicy.html
for a website you know such as the Dept of Computer
Science, HCIL, CNN, Google, a company you know, an
organization you belong to, etc. I would be
especially happy if you could arrange for the UU
Policy statement to be installed on the website...
we'll talk about making the right contacts. This
should be done and sent to me by email by March 14.
(your UU policy statement is 15% of your PhD or MS
comp exam.)
The second step is to write a guide for web
site developers about how to accommodate diverse
users.
Each of you will pick one topic such as:
- blind
- color blind
+ elderly
- retirement age (65-80)
- active seniors (80+ )
+ children
- pre-readers 3-5 year old
- beginning readers 5-8 year
olds
- 8-12 year olds
- teen agers
- deaf
+ mobility impaired
- movement constrained
(wheelchair, or bed-ridden)
- incapacitated hand
movements
- cognitively disabled (dyslexia, memory
limited, Alzheimers)
+ users with small screens
- down to 640 x 480
- less than 640 x 480
- users with slow connections
- users with text only
- telephone based access to the web
- textual representations of audio/video
+ users of other languages than English
- left-to-right languages
- right-to-left languages
- ideographic languages
- cross language information retrieval
- user from other cultures than the US
- users with low education, low motivation
+ novice computer users and newcomers to a
topic
- design rules to help
novices
- tutorial methods
- online help design
- email help methods and
customer service guidelines
- easing migration from old versions of
software
(backward & forward compatibility)
I would like to ensure that all these topics are
covered somewhere. We'll discuss these and other
ideas that you may have in class.
You can use the www.otal.umd.edu/UUGuide
page as a start, but we will discuss a more
practitioner oriented format for giving instructions
for what to do. You should expand the section
called 'Guidelines and Recommendations' into a full
1500-2500 word article, with a few references and
links to related info. My proposed format for
each article is:
- Introduction to the Issue (definitions,
extent of the problem)
- General recommendations (Goals of improved
design)
- Specific guidelines (strategies, software,
content rules)
- Examples of successful websites (with links
and your analysis)
- Resources (web links, organizations, and
papers)
- Future progress needed (for researchers and
practitioners)
Drafts of these reports will due on the web no later
than April 18 (for grad students this will REPLACE the
expert review), then we will have a review period to
comment on each others work (your review is 10% of
your PhD or MS comp exam.) The final version is
due online on April 25. This will be 75% of your
PhD or MS comp exam.
I am asking for an editorial board of 2-3
people to volunteer to help organize the website,
develop the screen design, and refine the article
format.
Your suggestions about how to make this project
most useful and interesting for you and for future
readers are appreciated.
Ben Shneiderman
www.cs.umd.edu/~ben
Dept of Computer Science 301-405-2680
University of Maryland 301-405-6707
fax
College Park, MD 20742 www.cs.umd.edu/hcil
Universal Usability statements:
Marking the trail for all users
Harry Hochheiser and Ben Shneiderman
To appear: March/April 2001 issue of ACM
interactions
Draft: December 31, 2000 -- do not
circulate --
Introduction
Signposts at ski areas help skiers to choose slopes
that match their skills and equipment. They describe easy,
intermediate
and expert trails, indicate which ones are groomed, and give their length or
vertical drop. Skiers use this information to make informed decisions, avoiding
routes that may be too difficult or too long. They may choose different
skis or waxes depending on the conditions.
For web surfers, good guidance and safe visits are
still too rare. Despite extensive research and improved products, the primary
experience of many users is frustration and anxiety. Common
problems include long download times, incompatible browser versions, and unavailable
plug-ins. Too often users find that their screen size does not match the
designer's screen size, needed fonts are not installed, or media players just
don't work on their machine. These problems are troubling to
experienced users as well as novices and even more problematic to users with
disabilities.
However, web site designers can take immediate
measures to help web surfers find safe trails and have more
successful web
experiences. Just as park rangers provide information that describes the terrain
and the obstacles
that may be lurking around the corner, web site
designers can provide web versions of this information. When it becomes
apparent that too many trails are marked as 'extremely difficult', thoughtful park
rangers will recognize
the need to cut some more 'moderate' and 'easy' trails
to enable more visitors to enjoy the scenery.
Rationale
Universal usability statements are declarations by web
site designers of the usability measures and concerns associated with a
given web site. The statements describe the contents of a site, browser
requirements, network requirements, and other characteristics that may
influence its usability.
For users, these declarations will enable them to
avoid the frustration of dealing with sites that require new plug-ins, fresh
browser versions, or media capabilities that are not installed. By
knowing what is needed for a successful web site visit, they will be more likely to
have a satisfying and successful experience. For users with
disabilities, these benefits can be even more significant. For users with visual
impairments, knowing that a given site has been tested with their screen reader
software will ease fears of difficulty and encourage them to explore the site.
For web site operators, these statements offer a
powerful means of building user confidence. The presence of a
universal usability
statement on a site tells users that the developers of the site are
concerned about more than just showing off their prowess with the latest
technology: they are concerned about the quality of the user experience.
Eventually, the presence of a "Universal Usability" graphic on the
site might provide a visible reminder of the availability of information about the
usability of the site, just as "works best with Foo browser, version
7.9" icons currently tell
users what they need to be successful site visitors.
Concerned developers can also use these statements to guide
revisions that
will increase usability - entries in the statement that present
potential usability problems can be used to build "to-do" lists
for future site updates.
Universal Usability Statement Template
Like well-written web site privacy policies, usability
statements should be designed to provide as much information as possible as
quickly as possible. This goal can be accomplished through the use of
common phrasing and organization that will make the content of these
statements easy to understand.
The universal usability template can be used to
generate statements that share a common style. Starting from the basic
template, web site developers can provide the information needed and trim items that
do not apply. The template can be found at the universalusability.org
web site. (http:/www.universalusability.org/template.html).
To demonstrate usage, an example universal usability statement for that site is
available at http://www.universalusability.org/about/uupolicy.html.
The template is divided into several categories, with
examples of specific entries under each category:
Basic System Requirements: Which systems has the site
been tested on?
Browser Requirements: Which browsers, including
version numbers? Does
the site
use frames? Java? Cascading Style Sheets? ActiveX
Component?
Which plug-ins are necessary?
Input devices: Does the site require any particular
mice? Can the site
be
navigated with keyboard only? Which (if any) speech
recognition
products can be used with the site?
Display: What are the recommended and minimum screen
resolutions? Was
the site
designed for a fixed width? What screen sizes have
been
tested? Mobile devices? Hand-held devices? Which font
sizes have
been used and tested? Do non-text messages have
text
equivalents?
Audio-Video: What sorts of audio and video (if any)
are used? Are
alternative
descriptions provided?
Network Connection: What is the maximum download size
for a page? What
is the
minimal bandwidth needed? Recommended? Which
bandwidths
have been
tested?
Access for users with disabilities: Is there a
text-only version of
the site?
Which alternate browsers have been tested? Which
screen
readers? Has the site accessibility been validated? If
so, to what
level?
Diverse Users: Which languages are supported? Has the
site been tested
on
left-right and right-left languages? What education
level
is required
for the site? Has novice user testing been
conducted?
Are there any other assumptions of user background?
User Support: What is the availability and response
rate of online
(Email)
assistance? Phone assistance? Are there any online
communities
on the site? Is there a site FAQ?
Contact Information: How can the webmaster be
contacted? When was the
statement
last updated?
These categories and questions are designed to provide
users with information needed to plan their route - if the
statement indicates obstacles such as an inappropriate font size or
language, the user may decide to move on to another site, or - at the very
least - she will be aware of the potential difficulties that lay ahead.
Other users might use the statement to plan activities: upon learning that a
site requires a 640x480 screen, a mobile user browsing on a handheld
device might decide to wait until returning to his 21-inch display at the
office before proceeding further.
Some developers will find that many of these items do
not apply to their sites. Others may find that they do not have the
resources to conduct all of the testing that would be needed to address all of the
items in the template. This is to be expected - universal usability
is a goal to be achieved gradually. The World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) provides a useful guide to designers for prioritizing improvements in
its Checklist for Web Content Accessibility (http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist).
However, the lack of completely universal
accessibility should not stop developers from providing usability statements, as any
information provided may help improve the experience of site visitors. The
universal usability statements can also be used as starting points to
guide improvements in usability and elimination of obstacles.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has
organized an industry group that has developed a Common Industry Format (http://www.nist.gov/iusr) for reporting usability study results to companies
procuring software that could possibly form the basis of reporting on testing
with users for the universal usability template.
The Future
Web site operators interested in promoting universal
usability can (and should) use the template to develop usability
statements and place them prominently on their sites. Eventually, we hope to see
usability statements as a standard component of site design, just as
privacy policies are currently found on commercial and non-commercial
sites.
To make this happen, we need your help.
Publishing universal usability statements for web sites is the obvious first step.
Feedback and input regarding the template is also very helpful: what's
missing? What should change? What should the format be? Of course we
recognize the limitations and difficulties in having a compact yet comprehensive
universal usability template. It places some additional pressure on
web site operators, but the payoff may come from increased user satisfaction.
Finally, and most importantly, we need champions and
evangelists, individual and institutional, who will promote the idea of the
universal usability statement in particular, and universal usability in
general.
Responsible ski area managers prepare accurate and
up-to-date ski trail information so that visitors have successful
experiences. They take into consideration the needs of novices, elderly, and even
disabled users. Web site developers and managers will also produce more
successful and satisfying visits if they mark the trail for web
users, making sure that every visitor can have a safe visit.
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