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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Participants will learn modern techniques for familiarizing themselves with user's work situations, task patterns and needs for computer-based support. A number of these techniques and the principles on which they are based will be investigated and illustrated through real and simulated examples, involving hands-on practical exercises. Participants will learn how to manage the transition from understanding user needs to the proposal of useful applications and usable designs.
Objective
This is a one-day course to introduce participants to specific techniques that are useful in the analysis of user needs. In addition, participants will leave armed with arguments to convince both management of the need to perform analyses of this kind in order to produce truly useful and usable products; and development engineers of the need to evaluate the real usefulness of proposed features in the user's environment.
Topics
Introduction and overview of course.
Work contexts and situated action.
Naturalistic observation of work taking place with and without computer support.
Semi-structured ethnographic interviews.
Scenario-based design and storyboarding workshops.
Focus groups.
Contextual inquiry and design.
Outcomes (skills learned)
Construct an audience analysis statement
Apply techniques for identifying and analyzing user needs
Apply methods to evaluate user requirements and environments
Select between different kinds of interviewing techniques
Construct a questionnaire for collecting audience data
