Fluid UX Walkthrough: documentation restructuring and review.
Daphne Ogle
daphne at media.berkeley.edu
Mon Feb 9 21:51:52 UTC 2009
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 / jhung.utoronto at gmail.com
>>>>>> Fluid Project - ATRC at University of Toronto
>>>>>> Tel: (416) 946-3002
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________________
>>>>> fluid-work mailing list - fluid-work at fluidproject.org
>>>>> To unsubscribe, change settings or access archives,
>>>>> see http://fluidproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-work
>>>>
>>>> Daphne Ogle
>>>> Senior Interaction Designer
>>>> University of California, Berkeley
>>>> Educational Technology Services
>>>> daphne at media.berkeley.edu
>>>> cell (510)847-0308
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________________
>>>> fluid-work mailing list - fluid-work at fluidproject.org
>>>> To unsubscribe, change settings or access archives,
>>>> see http://fluidproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-work
>>>
>>> Allison Bloodworth
>>> Senior User Interaction Designer
>>> Educational Technology Services
>>> University of California, Berkeley
>>> (415) 377-8243
>>> abloodworth at berkeley.edu
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> Allison Bloodworth
> Senior User Interaction Designer
> Educational Technology Services
> University of California, Berkeley
> (415) 377-8243
> abloodworth at berkeley.edu
>
>
>
>
Daphne Ogle
Senior Interaction Designer
University of California, Berkeley
Educational Technology Services
daphne at media.berkeley.edu
cell (510)847-0308
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