In-Class Activity #6:
Representing Tasks and UIs

Overview and Learning Objectives

This in-class activity is intended to give you practice with precisely representing the tasks and human-computer interaction supported by user interfaces. In this in-class activity, you will be focusing on user interfaces that have already been designed and implemented; however, the skills you will practice will be directly applicable to the creation of your project group's design document. The specific learning objectives of this in-class collaborative activity are:

• to practice performing a hierarchical task analysis;
• to practice building state-transition networks to illustrate the way in which a user interacts with a system to complete a task.
• to practice using the User Action Notation (UAN) to specify the detailed way in which a user interacts with a system to complete a task.

Notes

• Because of the detailed nature of this in-class activity, the maximum size of a group is three students. If I allowed larger groups, I would be concerned that students would not have enough opportunities to practice the techniques.
• At least one member of your group must have a laptop computer with the ALVIS Live! software (version 2.1) and WOZ Pro (version 1.1) installed. You are strongly encouraged to download and install the software prior to the in-class activity. (You can download the software from http://eecs.wsu.edu/~veupl/soft.)

Steps

1. Perform a hierarchical task analysis. Using ALVIS Live!, perform a hierarchical task analysis of the following "Find Max" task: Write an algorithm that creates an array populated with six random integers between 1 and 100. The algorithm should then find the largest value in the array, and print that value. Use this document as a starting point; it contains a Microsoft Org chart, which makes it easy to document a hierarchical task analysis. Note that if you have difficulty figuring out how to do this task, you can consult the ALVIS tutorial, which provides step-by-step instructions for performing the task. Note: Do not spend more than 15 minutes on this step.
   

2. Create a state-transition network that describes how a user might accomplish the "Populate array" subtask of the "Find Max" task. In Tuesday's lecture, you learned about state-transition networks (STNs), which use system screen shots to illustrate the way in which a user interacts with a system to complete a task. Using the lecture example as a guide, develop an STN that describes the "Populate array" subtask of the "Find Max" task. Use this document as a starting point. Note: Do not spend more than 20 minutes on this step

3. Develop a User Action Notation description of how a user might accomplish five "Find Max" subtasks. In Tuesday's lecture, we developed UAN descriptions for the create variable and create array subtasks of the "Find Max" programming task. Using those descriptions for inspiration, create UAN descriptions for up to five additional subtasks that are part of the "Find Max" programming task.
   • Populate array
   • Create index
   • Create loop
   • Create if statement
   • Create set statement

   Use this document as a starting point for your UAN analysis; it contains five blank UAN tables—one for each subtask. Remember that the UAN is an extensible notation. You will likely need to develop custom functions in order to document each task sequence. Note: Do not spend more than 30 minutes on this step.

4. Roughly 20 minutes before the end of the class period, the instructor will randomly pick groups to come up to the front of the class to present their results for feedback and discussion. Be sure to complete the starting point documents to the fullest extent possible prior to this time.

Assignment Option #6

Note: As stated in the course syllabus, you are required to hand in at least four assignment options, one from each of the three major sections of the course (Background and Theory, Designing Interactive Systems, Evaluating Interactive Systems). In other words you need to hand in

1. assignment option #1, 2, 3, or 4;
2. assignment option #5, 6, or 7;
3. assignment option #8, 9, or 10; and
4. one additional assignment option of your choice.

 

Assignment Tasks

1. Pick a software application that you consider to be a competitor to your group project. In a paragraph or two describe the application, and give a web address where one can find more information on the application and/or download the application.
2. Within that application, pick a core task that includes at least five sub-steps, and perform a hierarchical task analysis of that task. Make sure to specify at least two alternative plans, each of which starts at a different node. Feel free to use the same template document for this step as you used in the in-class studio activity.
3. Using the same core task that you picked in step 1, create a state-transition diagram, complete with screen shots. Your state-transition network should not only illustrate the correct sequence of steps to complete the tasks; it should also indicate ways to terminate the task, as well as any "traps" the software has that anticipate erroneous user actions. Feel free to use the same template document you used in the in-class activity.
4. Develop a UAN description of the task. Feel free to use the same template document you used in the in-class studio activity. Be sure to document any custom functions that you need to define.
5. Finally, in two paragraphs, compare and contrast the three notations that you explored in this assignment. What are their advantages and disadvantages relative to each other?

Additional Research Task for Graduate Students

Read the paper entitled "Development and Evaluation of a Taxonomical Model of Behavioral Representation Techniques" by J. Chase, R. Schulman, H. H. Hartson, and D. Hix. It is available on-line at http://www.acm.org/pubs/articles/proceedings/chi/191666/p159-chase/p159-chase.pdf. (Make sure you're inside the WSU firewall before accessing this document; otherwise, you will not have access to the full PDF of the article.) This article proposes a taxonomy of user behavior representation techniques, including the user action notation you've been learning about in class.

Prepare a two page (double-spaced, 1" margins) critical review of the article. Your critical review should not only identify the key points of the material, but also analyze and critique its underlying perspective. The following list of questions provides a useful starting point for your critical review:

• Who are the authors? What is their academic history? From what intellectual perspective are they coming? What are their biases?
• What are the key points of the article?
• Are there any gaps in logic or presentation? How could the presentation or argument of the article be improved?
• How does the article compare, and fit in, to others you've read on this topic (if any)?
• What do you like about the article? What do you not like? Why?

Deliverables and Grading

By the deadline, hand in a hardcopy written report that includes a section that addresses each of the assignment tasks described above. Your report must have a title page with "Assignment Option #3" displayed prominently in bold at the center of the page; your name, the name of this course, and the date should appear in smaller type below the title.

We will use this assessment form to evaluate your work. The critical review required of graduate students will be evaluated according to this assessment form. Be sure you that carefully read these forms ahead of time, so that you can take the assessment framework into account as you write your report.