Using human factors standards to support user experience and agile design

The ISO 9241-210 standard provides a framework for human-centred design (HCD) activities comprising the four stages: context of use, specification of user and organisational requirements, design solutions, and evaluation against requirements. Other parts of the 9241 standard cover user interface design and usability. This paper uses the HCD framework to emphasise user experience (UX) design and methods used to help create good user experiences. It also relates the framework to an agile software development environment. It is concluded that the flexible and iterative nature of ISO 9241-210 makes it a good basis for both user experience design and an agile development process

A Set of Prescribed Activities for Enhancing Requirements Engineering in the Development of Usable E-Government Applications

Over the last years, e-Government applications have become indispensable in every country as they help stakeholders carry out tasks with the administration. However, and despite their growing usage, most of these applications are created through a developercentered approach instead of a user-centered one, using traditional development processes that do not fit well with the diversity of stakeholders and existing legislation that involve e-Government applications today. Besides, usability is an important clue in the development of such solutions, so a user-centered approach, combined with a successful stakeholder and legislation analysis, should be considered overall. This paper is focused on addressing these concerns, and it provides a set of prescribed activities, tasks and products to be carried through a user-centered process in order to design usable web-based e-Government solutions. Specifically, our approach considers requirements engineering activities enhancing usability by analyzing the diversity and interests of the stakeholders involved, as well as the specific legislation as a source of organizational requirements. In addition, a validation is provided through a case study, showing the feasibility of the approach presentedThis work has been partially supported by the funding projects «Flexor» (grant number TIN2014-52129-R) granted by the Spanish Government and «eMadrid» (grant number S2013/ICE-2715) granted by the Madrid Research Council

Modelling Agile Requirements using Context-based Persona Stories

In recent years hybrid approaches focusing on user needs by integrating Agile methodologies (e.g. Scrum, Kanban or Extreme Programming) with Human-Centered Design (HCD) have proven to be particularly suitable for the development of Web systems. On the one hand, HCD techniques are used for requirements elicitation and, on the other hand, they can be utilized to elicit navigation relationships in Web projects. Navigation is one of the basic pillars of Web systems and also a fundamental element for the methodologies within the Model-Driven Web Engineering (MDWE) field. This paper presents an approach to model Agile requirements by means of integrating HCD techniques into Agile software development. We contribute to the software development body of knowledge by creating the concept of a Context-based Persona Story (CBPS) and formalizing it through a metamodel. Our approach covers the modelling of users and stakeholders by personas as well as the visualization of the context of use by storyboards. The attributes of the context of use enable us to elicit acceptance criteria for describing the scope of an Agile requirement.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

User Experience for Model-Driven Engineering : Challenges and Future Directions

Since its infancy, Model Driven Engineering (MDE) research has primarily focused on technical issues. Although it is becoming increasingly common for MDE research papers to evaluate their theoretical and practical solutions, extensive usability studies are still uncommon. We observe a scarcity of User eXperience (UX)-related research in the MDE community, and posit that many existing tools and languages have room for improvement with respect to UX [26], [44], [37], where UX is a key focus area in the software development industry. We consider this gap a fundamental problem that needs to be addressed by the community if MDE is to gain widespread use. In this vision paper, we explore how and where UX fits into MDE by considering motivating use cases that revolve around different dimensions of integration: model integration, tool integration, and integration between process and tool support. Based on the literature and our collective experience in research and industrial collaborations, we propose future directions for addressing these challenges

Käyttäjäymmärryksen kasvattaminen suunnittelukäytännöillä ketterissä sovelluskehitysprojekteissa

Modern software development aims to produce valuable digital solutions by benefiting from customer- and user-centred agility. These can be supported by design practices, with which user understanding can be deepened. The goal of this thesis was to study how design practices can help small companies to increase their user understanding in agile software development projects. The empirical study was conducted as an insider action research. In this study, four design practices were tested: semi-structured interviews, user stories, scenarios, and prototyping. The four design practices helped to increase user understanding, by explaining who the users are, why they use the product, and how they use it. Semi-structured interviews helped to discover users’ values and motivations to use the current and future versions of the product. User stories allowed for creative thinking and writing of perceived user needs in a clear sentence. Scenarios described realistic stories of users. The stories gave details of the user, their interactions, circumstances, goals, and environment. Prototyping was used alongside the other three design practices to help the users feel and test the product. Testing the product in real context allowed for spontaneous idea creation for system improvement. The results of this thesis indicate that a small company could use semi-structured interviews, user stories, scenarios, and prototyping to increase user understanding in agile software development projects. Increasing user understanding requires careful selection of design practices. The design practices should provide detailed information about who the users are, what their needs and motivations are, and how they would use a product.Nykyaikainen ohjelmistokehitys pyrkii tuottamaan arvokkaita digitaalisia ratkaisuja hyödyntäen asiakas- ja käyttäjäkeskeistä ketteryyttä. Näitä tukevat suunnittelukäytännöt, joilla syvennetään käyttäjäymmärrystä. Tämän työn tavoitteena oli tutkia, kuinka suunnittelukäytännöt voivat auttaa pieniä yrityksiä kasvattamaan käyttäjäymmärrystä ketterissä ohjelmistokehityksen projekteissa. Empiirinen tutkimus toteutettiin toimintatutkimuksena, jonka toteuttaja oli diplomityön tekijä. Tutkimuksessa testattiin neljää suunnittelukäytäntöä: puolistrukturoituja haastatteluja, käyttäjätarinoita, skenaarioita ja prototypointia. Nämä suunnittelukäytännöt auttoivat käyttäjäymmärryksen kasvattamisessa. Käyttäjäymmärryksellä selitetään tuotteen käyttäjäryhmät, syyt tuotteen käytölle ja kuinka tuotetta käytetään. Puolistrukturoidut haastattelut auttoivat löytämään käyttäjien arvoja ja motivaatioita tuotteen nyky- ja tulevien versioiden käytölle. Käyttäjätarinat sallivat luovaa ajattelua ja havaittujen käyttäjätarpeiden kirjoittamista selkeinä lauseina. Skenaarioilla kuvattiin realistisia tarinoita käyttäjistä. Tarinoissa kuvattiin yksityiskohtaisesti käyttäjät, heidän vuorovaikutukset, olosuhteet, tavoitteet ja ympäristö. Prototypointia käytettiin kolmen muun suunnittelukäytäntöjen ohessa testauksen ja kokeilun tukena. Tuotteen testaus oikeassa kontekstissa mahdollisti spontaanin tuotekehitysideoinnin. Tämän työn tulokset viittaavat siihen, että pienet yritykset voisivat käyttää puolistrukturoituja haastatteluja, käyttäjätarinoita, skenaarioita ja prototypointia käyttäjäymmärryksen kasvattamiseen ketterissä ohjelmistokehitysprojekteissa. Käyttäjäymmärryksen kasvattaminen vaatii käytettävien suunnittelukäytäntöjen huolellista valintaa. Niiden tulee vastata yksityiskohtaisesti siihen, keitä käyttäjät ovat, mitkä ovat heidän tarpeensa ja motivaationsa sekä kuinka he käyttävät tuotetta

A human-centered design methodology to enhance the usability, human factors, and user experience of connected health systems: a three-phase methodology.

peer-reviewedDesign processes such as human-centered design, which involve the end user throughout the product development and testing process, can be crucial in ensuring that the product meets the needs and capabilities of the user, particularly in terms of safety and user experience. The structured and iterative nature of human-centered design can often present a challenge when design teams are faced with the necessary, rapid, product development life cycles associated with the competitive connected health industry. We wanted to derive a structured methodology that followed the principles of human-centered design that would allow designers and developers to ensure that the needs of the user are taken into account throughout the design process, while maintaining a rapid pace of development. In this paper, we present the methodology and its rationale before outlining how it was applied to assess and enhance the usability, human factors, and user experience of a connected health system known as the Wireless Insole for Independent and Safe Elderly Living (WIISEL) system, a system designed to continuously assess fall risk by measuring gait and balance parameters associated with fall risk. We derived a three-phase methodology. In Phase 1 we emphasized the construction of a use case document. This document can be used to detail the context of use of the system by utilizing storyboarding, paper prototypes, and mock-ups in conjunction with user interviews to gather insightful user feedback on different proposed concepts. In Phase 2 we emphasized the use of expert usability inspections such as heuristic evaluations and cognitive walkthroughs with small multidisciplinary groups to review the prototypes born out of the Phase 1 feedback. Finally, in Phase 3 we emphasized classical user testing with target end users, using various metrics to measure the user experience and improve the final prototypes. We report a successful implementation of the methodology for the design and development of a system for detecting and predicting falls in older adults. We describe in detail what testing and evaluation activities we carried out to effectively test the system and overcome usability and human factors problems. We feel this methodology can be applied to a wide variety of connected health devices and systems. We consider this a methodology that can be scaled to different-sized projects accordingly.PUBLISHEDpeer-reviewe

Heuristic usability evaluation on games: a modular approach

Heuristic evaluation is the preferred method to assess usability in games when experts conduct this evaluation. Many heuristics guidelines have been proposed attending to specificities of games but they only focus on specific subsets of games or platforms. In fact, to date the most used guideline to evaluate games usability is still Nielsen’s proposal, which is focused on generic software. As a result, most evaluations do not cover important aspects in games such as mobility, multiplayer interactions, enjoyability and playability, etc. To promote the usage of new heuristics adapted to different game and platform aspects we propose a modular approach based on the classification of existing game heuristics using metadata and a tool, MUSE (Meta-heUristics uSability Evaluation tool) for games, which allows a rebuild of heuristic guidelines based on metadata selection in order to obtain a customized list for every real evaluation case. The usage of these new rebuilt heuristic guidelines allows an explicit attendance to a wide range of usability aspects in games and a better detection of usability issues. We preliminarily evaluate MUSE with an analysis of two different games, using both the Nielsen’s heuristics and the customized heuristic lists generated by our tool.Unión Europea PI055-15/E0

DATUS: Dashboard Assessment Usability Model: A case study with student dashboards

The software market sees the appearance of new companies and products every day. This growth translates into the competition, and the survival of companies is reduced to investment in their products. Universities are also interested in improving their product, education. This improvement can be achieved by investing in the learning experience of students. Usability and user experience play an important role and have been a competitive advantage worth investing. Consequently, new methods have emerged to improve the process of evaluating the usability of products. Despite this growth, there is no direct model for assessing the usability of a dashboard. This gap led to the investigation of this dissertation, a proposal for a new model, Dashboard Assessment Usability Model (DATUS), accompanied by an evaluation method, which can be applied to the evaluation of the usability of dashboards. Eight usability dimensions are included in DATUS, each corresponding to a specific usability facet that has been identified in an existing standard or model and decomposed into a total of 20 metrics. In this sense, to verify if the model created is feasible, and as a contribution to Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, a prototype dashboard was designed for the Fénix platform, to which the DATUS model was applied. To test the usability of the dashboards, a behavioural study was conducted with 30 Iscte students. After analysing the results, not only was the feasibility of the proposed model and method confirmed, but positive conclusions were also reached regarding the usability of the prototype.O mercado de software observa o aparecimento de novas empresas e produtos todos os dias. Este crescimento traduz-se em competição e a sobrevivência das empresas resume-se ao investimento nos seus produtos. Também as universidades têm interesse em melhorar o seu produto, o ensino. Esta melhoria pode ser alcançada através de investimento na experiência de aprendizagem dos estudantes. A usabilidade e a experiência do utilizador desempenham um papel importante e demonstram ser uma vantagem competitiva em que vale a pena investir. Consequentemente, têm surgido novos métodos para melhorar o processo de avaliação de usabilidade. Apesar deste crescimento, não existe um modelo claro para avaliar a usabilidade de um dashboard. Esta lacuna levou à investigação desta dissertação, uma proposta de um novo modelo, Dashboard Assessment Usability Model (DATUS), acompanhado por um método de avaliação, que pode ser aplicado à avaliação da usabilidade de dashboards. Estão incluídas no DATUS oito dimensões de usabilidade, cada uma corresponde a uma faceta específica de usabilidade que foi identificada numa normalização ou modelo existente, e decompõem-se num total de 20 métricas. Para verificar se o modelo é viável, e como contribuição para o Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, foi desenhado um protótipo de dashboard para a plataforma Fénix, à qual o modelo DATUS foi aplicado. Para testar a usabilidade dos dashboards, foi realizado um estudo comportamental com 30 alunos do Iscte. Após a análise dos resultados, foi confirmada a viabilidade do modelo e do método propostos e retiraram-se conclusões positivas em relação à usabilidade do protótipo

The usefulness of Usability and User Experience evaluation methods on an e-Learning platform development from a developer's perspective: A case study

The development of a web platform is a complex and interdisciplinary task, where people with different roles such as project manager, designer or developer participate. Different usability and User Experience evaluation methods can be used in each stage of the development life cycle, but not all of them have the same influence in the software development and in the final product or system. This article presents the study of the impact of these methods applied in the context of an e-Learning platform development. The results show that the impact has been strong from a developer's perspective. Developer team members considered that usability and User Experience evaluation allowed them mainly to identify design mistakes, improve the platform's usability and understand the end users and their needs in a better way. Interviews with potential users, clickmaps and scrollmaps were rated as the most useful methods. Finally, these methods were considered unanimously very useful in the context of the entire software development, only comparable to SCRUM meetings and overcoming the rest of involved factors