Introduction In 2014, Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio and others behind Google succeeded in combining neural networks, large quantities of data, and powerful computers to make breakthroughs in the field of AI. AI or Artificial intelligence is the ability of machines to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent humans. . In practice, AI is not one thing but a set of techniques that can automate tasks such as forecasting, recognizing images, recognizing speech, understanding text, detecting anomalies and other tasks previously reserved for human intelligence. In real life though, human work is complex. It combines multiple tasks at different levels. A medical doctor making a diagnosis will gather information using multiple senses and techniques. He may talk with the patient, touch ...
Continue Reading
1) Gathering Information Designing is like making decisions. To make good decisions, you need the right information. The collection and analysis of information is called “user research”. If the information gathered is not good, the analysis will not be good. Information gathering methods: Good: Observation, think aloud and talk back Valid: Analytical, socio-demographic data, documentation Poor: workshops, focus groups and opinion polls 2) Who is the application for? Ease of use doesn’t mean anything. Those who will use the app once in their lifetime versus those who work 7 hours a day 5 days a week do not have the same definition of ease of use. For the first, the interface must be intuitive, for the second, speed and control ...
Continue Reading
Cognitive engineering combines system engineering and cognitive ergonomics. Ergonomics means the study of work. Cognitive ergonomics means studying mental work. Unlike design thinking where people are in the office trying to imagine human work and problems in committee, the cognitive engineer first makes a cognitive analysis of the task. Cognitive analysis of the task (Cognitive Task Analysis) is to observe one by one the users, ideally in the work environment, doing their work and asking them to think aloud. Observations are recorded and verbatim analyzed. The cognitive analysis includes the analysis of goals and subgoals, information consulted, knowledge, decisions and actions performed. The problems that are encountered and effective strategies are analyzed. Following the cognitive analysis of the task, ...
Continue Reading
Card sorting is a technique that was originally used in libraries to organize large quantities of information. Card sorting uses physical cards with words (or pictures or physical objects). The cards are put on a big table and users are asked to group these cards into categories that make sense to them. This technique allows to understand how users group information but is a wrong approach to organize information in a user interface because: When users interact with computers, the optimal information organization is not necessarily logical. Information can be organized along: 1) frequency /importance of use; 2) sequence of task 3) logical group; 4) standards (ex: month of the years), 5) numerical or alphabetical order. When doing card ...
Continue Reading
Cognitive Group’s user experience (UX) team publishes each year the list of the ten most useful applications. Useful things save time, save energy, increases safety and provide better quality results. Google Search. Google is the ultimate gateway to the Internet. Google search engine provides all the world’s information at the tip of your finger. Coursea and iTunes University. Anyone, anywhere, can now attend classes with the best instructors in the world for free. The possibilities are endless.
Continue Reading
Change management People won’t agree with a solution if they don’t agree with the problem. Trying to bring change with the same people using the same processes is like hoping for rain in the desert. How can you transform a business if you cannot solve currents problems? Can you describe the three key problems of your business?
Continue Reading
The practice of user experience is already widespread in the Silicon Valley and is growing across the world. This is due, for a good part to the incredible success of Steve Jobs and Apple. While context of use and platform varies, the fundamentals of user experience remain the same. The following topics are important to consider:
Continue Reading
Introduction IT projects tend to be executed in distinct phases. 1. determining the business needs, 2. setting system specifications for those needs, 3. programming and then 4. testing. The first two phases usually represent 50%[1] of a project’s cost. The traditional way of determining the business needs is to ask users or subject matter experts to express the needs verbally. Analysts then transcribe them and define the system requirements that will meet the needs. System requirement’s documents are finally reviewed and approved.
Continue Reading
The catch-22 The levels at which impacts of change are major are not understood while the levels at which impacts are minor are easily understood. Why? Most managers believe people resist change because humans have a natural desire to keep the status quo. They believe that resistance to change is a defense mechanism caused by frustration and anxiety. With this diagnostic, executives belief that good change leadership comes with a strong message from the top, effective communication plan, mandatory training and sometimes, removing undesirable parties that are labeled as strong change resistant.
Continue Reading
it would be wrong to rate user interface solely, and compliance to set of heuristic since the impact of each one of them depend of the context of use. For example, it is wrong to say that the CNN web complies at 75% while the New York Times web site complies at 88%.
Prior to applying heuristics, it is essential to have a good grasp of the user profile and task. User Profile comprises a description of the user frequency of use (once in a lifetime or everyday), familiarity with technology, gender age, and training, etc. The task description comprises: what are the user Goal, Sub goal and Methods and Frequency (looking for flight arrival 95% of the time, booking a flight 5% of the time)
Get three to five independent evaluators that share the list of heuristics, user profile and task. Each one of them evaluate the user interface during one or two hours separately
Share the findings together and rate each problems in term of high medium and low impact. High impact problems prevent user from performing their tasks while low impact might be an aesthetic aspect or a nice-to-have feature.
Continue Reading
