Sounds like Allison's suggestion of the 3 approaches jives with what
Paul and Jonathon have said. I also think this is a good approach.
I also think it is an important point that you do not need to have
created personas to do a cognitive walkthrough. You need to
understand who the users are so you can put yourself in their shoes as
you walk through the system (which should be the case even when doing
a heuristic evaluation). And you need to understand the tasks they
will complete in the system so you can step through through those
activities and get a feel for what their experience should be. If
we've made it sound like user studies and personas are a prerequisite
than we should probably make some changes. They make it easier to "be
the user" for all the reasons we use them in design.
-Daphne
On Feb 6, 2009, at 2:42 PM, Allison Bloodworth wrote:
Hi Paul,
I think you can perform a modified version of a cognitive walk-
through without "official" personas...perhaps using something more
like provisional personas and scenarios. The key point I think we'd
like to preserve is that you are trying to walk through the
interface from the perspective of a user as they complete tasks that
they'd often be performing. So maybe the answer is provide three
methods: 1) heuristic eval, 2) cognitive walkthrough, and 3)
combined heuristic eval & cognitive walkthrough--what we were
originally calling the "Fluid UX Walkthrough."
Thanks much for your help in making sure we present these things in
a way all potential users will be able to use! Feel free to ping me
if you need any help or advice.
Cheers,
Allison
On Feb 6, 2009, at 2:21 PM, Paul Zablosky wrote:
I've been struggling with this since I started working on the
pages. In reviewing the text I found that we wrote a lot about the
Fluid approach of combining the two techniques and I didn't want to
lose it. Having read Daphne's, Allison's and Jonathan's messages,
I think we must preserve the idea, but find a way to present the
techniques separately for beginners, or those who are not ready to
step up to persona creation. At the same time we could talk about
how the Fluid project employed and recommended this way of doing
things.
Paul
Allison Bloodworth wrote:
Hi there,
I had the same thoughts I read Paul's email. I feel like one of
the things we were doing that was a bit unique in Fluid was
recommending that we combine the two: the heuristic evaluation was
performed by reviewing the interface using a cognitive walk-
though. I feel like that's often what happens in practice (at
least good practice) in a heuristic evaluation. I am a big fan of
performing the techniques together myself. Would it help to
explain the two separately first, then talk about how we combine
them?
Cheers,
Allison
On Feb 5, 2009, at 3:23 PM, Daphne Ogle wrote:
I think this sounds right. The one aspect I'm not sure about is
seperating out the Heuristics from the cognitive walkthroughs. I
hadn't looked at these in quite some time and it looks like the
change has already been made so I'm not sure what it looked like
before. As I recall, we did some good work to combine these 2
activities in a way we thought would allow users to get a lot out
of them efficiently.
-Daphne
On Feb 4, 2009, at 2:08 PM, Paul Zablosky wrote:
Hello everyone,
Before starting on our renovation of the UX Walkthrough pages in
the wiki, Jonathan and I reviewed the existing content. At the
time it was written, there was a lot of emphasis on how
walkthroughs were being done in the Fluid project, and the
associated benefits to Fluid deliverables. There is also
material on how heuristic evaluations and cognitive walkthroughs
can be combined and performed in the same pass.
To make the material more approachable to people outside the
Fluid project, we have decided to partition the content so that
each technique is discussed separately, and not recommend the
combined approach. We also intend to remove some of the text
that focuses on Fluid goals, intentions, and activities, since
these aren't properly part of a toolkit or handbook. Reference
to Fluid examples which add to understanding will of course
remain.
I think what I'm suggesting is consistent with what is intended
for the whole Design Handbook. I'm bringing it up because it is
somewhat of a change from what is now there, and we'd like to
know if anyone has concerns about our approach. Please let us
know (Jonathan and me) if you have any reservations, concerns,
or suggestions.
Thanks,
Paul
Jonathan Hung wrote:
Hi everyone,
Work is commencing on the UX Walkthrough documents on the wiki
(http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/User+Experience+Walkthroughs
).
Specifically Paul Zablosky and I will be re-examining these
documents
and reorganizing them to be more approachable by individuals/
groups
who are task-oriented.
For the most part, all the content will remain the same, but
restructured into appropriate child pages for easier
navigation, and
new text to help guide users who are looking to execute their
own UX
evaluation.
This task is filed under FLUID-2196.
It will probably take a few iterations before we settle on
something
satisfactory, so in the meantime, make sure to wear hardhats and
regulation-approved footwear when treading through those
pages. ;-)
If you have time to help with this, feel free to contact either
Paul
or I for details.
- Jonathan.
---
Jonathan Hung / [email protected]
Fluid Project - ATRC at University of Toronto
Tel: (416) 946-3002
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Daphne Ogle
Senior Interaction Designer
University of California, Berkeley
Educational Technology Services
[email protected]
cell (510)847-0308
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Allison Bloodworth
Senior User Interaction Designer
Educational Technology Services
University of California, Berkeley
(415) 377-8243
[email protected]
Allison Bloodworth
Senior User Interaction Designer
Educational Technology Services
University of California, Berkeley
(415) 377-8243
[email protected]
Daphne Ogle
Senior Interaction Designer
University of California, Berkeley
Educational Technology Services
[email protected]
cell (510)847-0308
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