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3.2. DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION OF CURRENT AND NEW USER CLASSES

The description of current and new user classes includes the users’ experience with the existing application or similar products/applications and their familiarity with the task at hand (familiar vs. undergoing major changes in terms of business process re-engineering vs. completely new tasks). For example, at the XYZ Finance & Insurance Company a new user class consisted of users who would be conducting a limited range of transactions with customers over the phone. These users were familiar with conducting the transactions face-to-face with a customer, but they were not familiar with conducting them over the phone. The definition of new user classes also includes patterns of staff turnover. This will yield the ratio of experienced to novice users throughout the lifetime of the application. Usability effort and money can then be allocated to learnability vs. efficient use.

The number of users per class with a 1-3-5 year projection and the characteristics of each class are documented in a report and posted on flip charts in the usability engineering room. For fire prevention assignments, a more thorough analysis is conducted to include actual numbers and input from the User Departments, Human Resources, and Training Departments. The user class descriptions are more comprehensive and are matched to employee classifications. For firefighting assignments, user classes are identified in a JAD session with the User and Steering Committees, including estimates for the total number of users in different classes. User class descriptions are in point form, approximately half a page per user class.

3.3. CURRENT TASK DEFINITIONS

Current task definitions describe how users currently perform the tasks, both for manual and computerized systems. The definitions include others participating in the interaction. For example, if the user is a sales representative, others participating in the interaction could be customers or the supervisor. At the XYZ Finance & Insurance Company, the current task definitions included a task to explain financial and insurance instruments to a customer. This task was not supported by computer-based applications. Users relied on brochures for general information and calculated individual rates with a pocket calculator. Sometimes users sketched graphs on paper to illustrate concepts, such as compound interest for a customer. Users expected this task to be supported by appropriate computer-based applications in the redesigned legacy system.

The author’s experience has been that a point form narrative is usually sufficient. Each step in a task is described by one or several lines of text, e.g., “ask customer about assets and the value of each” or “print agreement”. The level of detail required is at the object/function level from the user’s perspective, but not at the keystroke level. The point form narrative identifies branches in the task flow and alternate sequences of steps.

Sometimes the value of describing current user tasks is questioned because the new user tasks will be different. Understanding how tasks are currently performed provides an important part of the foundation for the design process: it allows the user interface designers to:

  Understand the user’s current work environment and the idiosyncrasies of the business processes and policies that are often overlooked in high-level work redesign.
  Maintain those aspects of the current tasks that work well and are, therefore, not changed in the revised application (the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” principle).
  Understand the user’s (mental) model of the current application, i.e., the available objects and actions, the metaphor(s) through which they are expressed, and the sequence in which to use them to accomplish a task (see Section 4.3). This model should be preserved in the revised application to the degree possible in order to minimize learning when migrating to the re-designed version.
  Appreciate how big the leap will be for the users from the old to the new application. This information is very useful for making decisions on the training and documentation strategy (see Section 3.6).

In fire prevention assignments, the current task definitions are documented in a report. In firefighting assignments, the current task definitions are not developed; rather, the User Committee provides this information (with prompting) during the new task definition effort (see Section 4.1).


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