STC Usability SIG Newsletter
Usability Interface

Usable Tours: Transforming the Usability Lab into an IT Learning Zone

By Davis Marasco

The Product Usability Design Group (PUDG) at IBM (IBM UK, Ltd., Hursley Park) was faced with a problem; we were constantly requested to run events for school children who visit the site and yet had nothing prepared to offer. The Usable Tour was our creative solution to this challenge. This was a series of user-centered design flavored activities which put a different spin on IT and taught the students something about usability techniques all while giving them hands-on experience with the Usability Lab and its equipment. The event was a success—the kids "learned new things to do with computers", and the PUDG team had successfully developed an off-the-shelf tour that can be used the next time they're requested to run an activity.

The Driving Force

Originally, the PUDG team developed a tour for the UL Open Day in celebration of our lab’s refurbishment. The tour entailed a set of three concise hands-on activities aimed at giving internal employees a taste of user-centered design (UCD) and the services our team offered.

The feedback received was positive; participants had fun brainstorming, prototyping and testing their ‘kitchen-based interface’! The event’s success, coupled with our frequent requests to run on-site activities for school kids, prompted the development of a formal set of activities. The notion was to design an ‘off the shelf’ tour that any member of the team could easily run, even with little notice.

As a part of the IBM® Mentorplace® initiative, the PUDG team offered to run the tour as an event for a group of schoolgirls aged 12 to 14. In addition to the Mentorplace® requirements (e.g. time limits), we brainstormed other requirements for the tour activities:

• Interactive and hands-on

Participants should get their hands dirty with the various pieces of equipment available in the UL---it’s the best way to learn, and much more fun than watching someone else!

• Showcase the UL and the UCD process

Few people in the lab and the ‘real world’ have heard of UCD, let alone know what it’s all about. Using the UL, the activities should give participants a basic understanding of UCD and its inherent benefit in the design process.

• Enable participants to leave with a sense of achievement

The activities should give a new spin to the "heads down" developer image of IT; technology, technical processes and related equipment can be used productively by anyone with the desire to learn.

• Flexible to accommodate a variety of audiences and timescales

The tour should be a series of packaged activities, which can easily be adapted to the requirements of a particular session, without affecting the value of the tour.

Logistics

One aim of the tour was to showcase the UL, so Stations 1-3 were staged in the UL itself. Due to size restraints, Station 4 had to be held in a room outside the UL in Hursley House.

Thirty-six school children were split into three teams (Team A, B, and C) and each team was assigned two chaperones: one from IBM®, and one from the participating school. Since there were only three PUDG people available on that particular day, we decided to assign one to each team. This meant that the PUDG representative ran each of the Tour activities, moving from station to station with their assigned team.

Activity Details

To begin, students were told that Smart Toys Inc. had just hired them to work on the FridgePlus project, a fictitious company that advocated UCD principles. The FridgePlus was to use Internet connectivity to create an intelligent refrigerator and their job for the day was to design the user interface for a LCD that would be mounted on the fridge. Each of the first three stations represented a different phase in the design process; requirements gathering, prototyping and usability testing (Stations 1-3).

Station 4 was a mini-design workshop that, although was not directly related to the FridgePlus, tied the activities of the previous three stations together.

Students were given a brief explanation of the theory behind the task and how it fit into the UCD process at the beginning of each activity.

Station 1: Requirements Gathering

Brainstorm FridgePlus requirements and prioritize the list for one of the user groups using GroupSystems™ software.

Staged in the Decision Support Centre (DSC), Station 1 required participants to brainstorm requirements for the FridgePlus. Each student was each assigned a ThinkPad® equipped with the GroupSystems™ software and instructed to spend 10 minutes typing in features he or she thought would be good to have on the FridgePlus. The facilitator started with a few example ideas appropriate to their age group such as a ‘Justin Timberlake Alert’, an alarm that indicated the fridge was low on Justin’s top three favorite foods. The second step in this activity was to assign and prioritize each of the features to one or more (time dependent) of the profiled 5 user groups; mom, dad, grandparent, sibling, you.

Station 2: Prototyping

Prototype the task flow to assign a name to a glass of chocolate milk in the fridge using the SMART Board and Denim© prototyping software. 

Students sat in a circle around the SMART Board and the PUDG rep explained the task. They were told to imagine they had just bought some chocolate milk at the grocery store.

A UCD team member watches on as students brainstorm design requirements during the Mini-Design Challenge.

Before putting it in the fridge:

1. Label it with a name
2. Set the expiry date alarm

Since no one had ever used a SMART Board or Denim© before, the PUDG representative gave a quick little demonstration. Students were encouraged to collectively design the task flow and were called up individually to each have a turn using the technology.

Station 3: Usability Testing

Run, observe and participate in a usability test using a PowerPoint prototype of the FridgePlus

Each student was assigned a specific role and given a task sheet that gave more detail about their specific role and instructions. There were 6 tasks (Interviewer, Test Administrator, Recorder, Observer, Equipment Controller, and Test participant) so students were required to pair up. Once the activity was explained, students went off into the appropriate room (observation room or test cell) to begin the activity. The students in the Test Administrator role were given a Session Scenario sheet to be read aloud explaining the basis for the FridgePlus test and the two tasks to for Test participants to perform. A PowerPoint prototype was provided to simulate the FridgePlus interface.

Station 4: Mini-Design Challenge

Design and present a costume for a superhero, Zapper.

This activity was originally developed for another school even run by IBM®. At an accelerated pace, students are required to brainstorm and prioritize requirements, design, draw and pitch a superhero’s costume. In light of this, we thought it would be a perfect way to tie together the principles learned through the other three stations. The group was divided into two equal teams and each given a design pack which contained markers, glue sticks, and colored and poster paper. They were instructed to follow the printed instructions and at the end of the 20 minutes they were to present their costume to the other team. Both chaperones and the PUDG representative judged the presentations and deemed one team the Design Challenge winner based on a set of criteria (e.g. number of features). Small cakes were given as prizes.

At the end of the tour all Teams met in the auditorium room for a 5-minute debriefing session facilitated by the PUDG representatives. Due to miscommunication, this was not planned and so the PUDG team has to run it Ad hoc. As a group, we quickly reviewed each of the stations and then asked the students for their thoughts, impressions on the afternoon overall. Students voiced their opinions on what they did and did not like and what new things they learned. The students had a great time learning about this new face of IT.

Activity Quick view

Looking Back

Overall, the event was a success as evidenced by comments from the students and chaperons. The students had a great time playing with the various bits of equipment and at the same time learned something new either about UCD, IT or themselves. The PUDG team was pleased with the afternoon as well; the UL got some publicity with the news items surrounding the event, the department finally had a canned UL tour the team could run with and it was a great way to spend an afternoon. It was rewarding to be a part of something where students get excited about IT!

At the end of the session, we combined the feedback from the students and the chaperons with our own observations to rundown what worked and what could be improved for next time. These "lessons learned" are summarized below.

Lessons Learned

• Add in a 5 minute ‘Introduction’ session

Once students were escorted down to the UL, they were immediately divided up into groups and sent off to the appropriate activity room. In hindsight, a group spiel was needed to introduce the PUDG team, explain a little about what we do and what the students will be doing.

• Laminate usability testing task sheets and fix them to the relevant pieces of equipment

It was soon apparent the 12 students was too large a group to run the usability testing activity; there seemed to be confusion over where they were to stand and perform their individual roles. Afterwards, we thought that fixing the task sheets to the appropriate positions (rather than handing them out) in both the observation room and test cell would help space the students. Additionally by having them laminated it would make the task sheets more durable and reusable.

• Include a wrap-up session

Although the PUDG facilitated an impromptu wrap-up session, it was a great way to close out the afternoon. It brought everyone together to share their afternoon’s experiences and gave the PUDG team an opportunity to get feedback on what did and did not work.

• Provide participants with information sheets about each activity

It would have been helpful to give participants something tangible to take away from the event. An informational hand out offering quick educational bites about each of the activities with space to add their own comments may help to remind them what they did while on site. It could also include links to follow-up sites, just in case some students were interested in IBM®, the Hursley Lab, UCD or IT in general. These information brochures could be tailored to the specific audience (i.e. internal website links for IBM® employees versus links to external site for visitors).

• Try to incorporate current classroom lesson themes with the activities

The challenge is always to make the topic relevant to the target audience. As the activities need to be flexible to accommodate a range of user groups (students, IBM® employees, customers etc.) it may prove difficult to find a universal topic that’s engaging for all. One suggestion was to get in touch with the school/group/department in advance to get a feel for their current topics. This buzz item could then be somehow incorporated into one of the activities. For example, if a class is currently studying India, one option might be design a travel website for India as the subject of the mini design challenge activity.

Next Steps

At the time of this article, the PUDG has not yet run another tour; however, modifications have been made for next time taking into account the previously stated Lessons Learned.

The success of the event has got the PUDG team thinking about the possibility of an Ease of Use course for internal Hursley employees based on a similar set-up. This would serve two purposes; further increase the awareness of the UL, the PUDG team and their services, as well as educate the Lab on the UCD process and its benefit to the development cycle. Hopefully, this would in turn, increase the buy-in from teams not sold on UCD or simply not understanding what UCD is all about.