Task-Centered User Interface Design
A Practical Introduction
by Clayton Lewis and John Rieman
Copyright ©1993, 1994: Please see the "shareware notice" at the front of the book.
Contents | Foreword | ProcessUsers&Tasks |Design | Inspections | User-testing | Tools | Documentation |

1.1 Figure Out Who's Going to Use the System to Do What
1.2 Choose Representative Tasks for Task-Centered Design
1.3 Plagiarize
1.4 Rough Out the Design
1.5 Think About It
1.6 Create a Mock-Up or Prototype
1.7 Test the Design With Users
1.8 Iterate
1.9 Build the Design
1.10 Track the Design
1.11 Change the Design

Prev 1.6 Create a Mock-Up or Prototype Next 1.8 Iterate


1.7 Test the Design With Users




No matter how much analysis has been done in designing an interface, experience has shown that there will be problems that only appear when the design is tested with users. The testing should be done with people whose background knowledge and expectations approximate those of the system's real users. The users should be asked to perform one or more of the representative tasks that the system has been designed to support. They should be asked to "think aloud," a technique described in more detail in Chapter 5.




Videotape the tests, then analyze the videotapes for time to complete the task, actual errors, and problems or surprises that the user commented on even if they didn't lead to errors. The user's thinking-aloud statements will provide important clues to why the errors were made.











Copyright © 1993,1994 Lewis & Rieman







Contents | Foreword | ProcessUsers&Tasks |Design | Inspections | User-testing | Tools | Documentation |