Fluid UX Walkthrough: documentation restructuring and review.

[Jonathan Hung]

Hi Daphne.

The problem I observed in watching our UX walkthrough being performed
is that they were unable to perform the cognitive walkthrough because
they did not have personas developed. In this case, I advised them to
just perform the heuristic evaluation.

Also, it's conceivable that people out there will want to do just an
heuristic evaluation due to resource constraints preventing them from
doing the necessary work to do user studies and create personas.

If we want our walkthrough to be done using Heuristic Evaluation +
Cognitive Walkthrough, then this expectation should be communicated
clearly to someone who has been tasked to do the evaluations.

The group I observed were a bit confused as to how to execute our
walkthrough and they weren't sure what the requirements were to
perform them. This is one of the reasons I started the UX Walkthrough
FAQ so that individuals can get important questions answered before
they begin.

http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/UX+Walkthrough+FAQ

The consequences of not performing parts of the walkthrough (i.e. not
doing a cognitive walkthrough) would be a good addition to the FAQ.

- Jonathan.

---
Jonathan Hung / jhung.utoronto at gmail.com
Fluid Project - ATRC at University of Toronto
Tel: (416) 946-3002



On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 6:23 PM, Daphne Ogle <daphne at media.berkeley.edu> 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 / jhung.utoronto at gmail.com
>>> 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
> daphne at media.berkeley.edu
> cell (510)847-0308
>
>
>
>