Notes 



For Thursday

Hand in written doc - ground rules 3-5 pages. Need people who can be articulate about what the results were. Doesn't care if it was the best but being succinct is extremely important. Worst thing you could do is be very verbose. 

Log is mostly to see who you tested - age and computer background. Very good to have quantifiable data in the . Can go through interface - iteration by iteration. Show what problems were found. Changes that were tried and new results. Avoid passive voice. Keep words simple as possible. Being critical of your design is not a detriment.

Talks - got to have undo, women over the age of 50 are more hesitant as test subjects, ...

Make talk very directed - intro with main points - supporting info - conclusion

Do not give anecdontal info unless it is representative of larger patterns that you see.

Goal is to convince Randy to hire me to test a yet unknown device. 

It is fine to use images of interface to illustrate points. Do not run device.

PowerPoint rules : Images good - words bad - if there are more than 5 words on the page its too many

Use the visual medium to convey the visual information

Use a stick to point

Do not dwell on the image of the screen.

How efficiently can you draw my eyes and brain to the screen.  - If you want to make a point about the area - draw a circle around it. 

do not memorize the speech.  Randy doens't like notecards because people put nose in cards - but if you wnat to use them 3x5 cards but just a few words (3) so that you can read them from a distance. They can sit on a table you can see at a quick glance.

Try out your speech several times. (missed exact number he gave) More if you are scared of public speaking


Larry King - good interviewer says that he doesnt "prepare" - he does some background research, but he never prepares a list of questoins so that he has to really listen and ask good questions based on the conversation. 

CIA operative story - Larry King was being overviewed, he made up a story about being tied in to the CIA and using the information to get his guests to do what he wanted - she said "Hum that is interesting" and moved up 

What was the more surprising thing you learned.... This is a great question 

We will be randomly called on to ask the presenter question - and that will be graded.

Scott Adams of Dilbert (pacific bell was his employer before and he did have a boss with spiky hair). He became popular with user testeing. Put his email on the strip - noticed email spike when about bad bosses than when about techy stuff. Started trolling for material...

Butterfly ballot - did not user test. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Design was done to make type larger - oops.. clearly no user testing. 

Randy's wife's grandparents - in 80s. He photographed their telephone. They used tape to indicate the play and delete buttons. These are the only two buttons they need. The only other button that they used was the talk button which just has a piece of tape on it. It isnt' even labled. The number for dialing aren't marked since they are familiar - so those 3 plus the dialing is all tha tis needed. ONe thing that is really bad about this phone is that there are lots of similar buttons . The delete particuarlly isn't given its due. 

POS example - with big drawn arrow to a button at the bottom. with marker and tape  - okay. The text is bad too - asks if amount is okay. Then offers Yes and No option to Okay question. The cashier has clearly done their own informal testing a made a fix. The idea of no itself is odd - wouldn't you handle no by talking to the cashier. 

ATM discussion. people often forget their card. Also if you leave the card - the bank now has the card - someone could actually take money out of your account. Randy thinks machine should make you take your card before it gives you any money. You are less likely to forget the card than the money. Look at what you are optimizing for and what is the cost of mistakes. This is a good short story about what interaction design is for anyone who asks.

Good Elevator speech - you should have one

Gestalt theory - we see the whole... tend to see things are their organic whole 

Grouping of items - many of these mistakes on the copiers

Dialog box can use spacing a alignment to understand grouping for example of radio buttons. 











