Information
Studying
Outcome
| HUT / Communications Laboratory / HFT / S-72.040 Human Factors in Telecommunication / Lectures |  |
|
| Communication incident |
Who was present | The place, where the incident took place | The place, where the incident took place | What problems occurred? |
| In the morning Mary called her college friend, about the information that was given during yesterday's lecture | Mary and her college friend | At home | Telephone, calendar | Her friend did not answer the telephone at her home. |
Instructions for the report:
1. Describe the chosen user group. Describe the users' background
information and try to make a general conclusion of the user group.
Think what similarities and divargences they have among themselves
and what features separates them from other groups.
2. Write a summary about the results: What types of communication
incidents happened to the users (where the incidents occurred, with
who and what types of tools were used). Write down also the similarities
and differences the group had.
3. What are the common problems that the user group has when communicating?
4. Attach copies of the interview tables from all people that were
interviewed. Return DL: Monday
27th Sept. 2004 at 12:00.
Exercise 2. Quality of service and user experience
The second phase of the exercise work is to find
out (according to the instructions) how the technical quality of
a certain communications service influences user experience and
how could the functionality of this service fit to the needs of
the chosen user group.
The service evaluated is the different options to find train schedules
· Time table from TV / begin the task from TV (text)-page (TV1 or TV2) 430
· Www either network or modem. Begin from www.vr.fi/
VR's ( -> State Railways)
· An automatic phone service, number 0307 20906, 24h. Check departing and arriving trains in Helsinki. The fare is the same as a local phone call (with gsm 0,3€/min)
· VR's (State Railways) phone service-timetable service by telephone, number 0600 41 900 (1 €/call+ local net fee)
Begin the task with a phone and the phone number
available for the user. Get someone outside of your group to be
a test user; the same person for each option. Timetable of the train
you picked must be the same for each option. For example, the first
train in the morning from Helsinki to Tampere or the first train
after 15.00 from Riihimäki to Toijala. You might have to do
the testing in two different places for it may be difficult to find
a place that has both TV and Internet connection.
Help the user to get started on each option and ask him to find
out the timetable. Do timing during the task (in seconds); timing
stops when the user repeats the timetable. (advise the user to repeat
the timetable immediately when he hears it; when using the telephone
service).
One of your group members acts as an observer who writes down, using
the table below, how the user carries out each task. Especially
the errors, frustrations and other remarks the users note.
After all the options have been tested, ask the user for his opinion
on different methods: what would be suitable for him? What was easy
and what was difficult to use. How would he/she manage to use these
services in everyday life when considering what kind of tools he/she
normally uses? Ask him to evaluate the best service for him.
Ask also the user's background information: age, sex, place of residence,
whether he uses text-TV or not, how about WWW, GSM-services or phone
services in general, and ask him how often he travels by train.
| Used service | The time that took to complete the assignment | What types of mistakes occurred? | Users comments, frustrations, etc. |
Instructions to write the report
1. Your group's test report depicts informally the observations
of each service's usability and speed, how easy the service is to
use in practise. In addition, evaluate how each service would suit
your "own" user group. Report also the background information
that was collected with the questionnaire. Return
DL: Monday 4.10.2004 at 12:00.
Exercise 3. The user group's needs for quality of service
The third phase of the exercise work is to ponder the general quality needs for a service of the chosen user group (according to instructions). You can divide the task so that each member in the group writes about one service. More than one service/group is not needed to evaluate.
Look from your user interviews what were the different
communication services that your users used. Consider the following:
· What kind of user needs could be found from the phenomena?
· What kind of quality parameters could this service have - what could be the different parts of quality (presented at the lecture) concretely considering these communication services?
· How important is each parameter to your user group?
· Is there a certain limiting value for acceptance (to some parameter)?
Report the quality parameters for each service at a time, the importance of them, the typical level for quality nowadays, lowest accepted level of quality and the goal level of quality. Write down reasons why your estimation is this.
Return DL: Monday 11.10.2004 at 12:00.
An example of analysing a service:
User group: teen-agers
| Service | The user need | Quality parameters in order | Typical level | Lowest accepted level | Goal level |
| TVTV chat | Entertainment, expressing your own opinions in the public | Liability: does the message get through | No, if the message is improper or includes a phone number | Present | Gets through (if not, it'll not be charged and it'll be informed) |
| Correctness of charging | All messages sent will be charged for | Only messages that have gone through will be charged for | Only messages that have gone through will be charged for | ||
| Correctness: the message goes through untouched | Improper language and phone numbers can be censored. | Present | Present | ||
| Speed | 5-25 min. | 10 min. | 1 min. |
The TVTV chat evaluation is based on present user observations and quality comments in the chat.
Exercise 4. An ideal solution
The fourth phase of the exercise work includes creating a solution to the chosen user group based on already existing communication services and services that are maybe being developed. It should also be pondered how this kind of new service could in time change the habits of the user group.
Directions
Examine the problems that have come up in the user interviews considering
the needs of your user group. Think about observations and conclusions
that you got in other phases of your exercise work. What is the
basic problem (one or more) that needs to be solved?
Discuss and create what kind of service would be an ideal solution
for your users. Don't limit your thinking to existing technology
but imagine all that your user would want if everything was possible.
Then return to the real world: what kind of service would be the
best solution to the problems if every service and tool that is
available now would be used? Justify!
How far is the service that you just created from the one that the
user would really like to have? What are the obstacles - lack of
technology, compatibility of different services, level of quality
is not correct, too difficult to use? Or the fact, that no one has
actually invented it? There might be many reasons, of course. Return
DL: Monday 18.10.2004 at 12:00.
This page is maintained by course personnel