[DG: Teaching & Learning] [DG: User Experience] User Goals

[Robin Hill]

Since I take this seriously, having spent years teaching computer 
science students to separate design from implementaion, maybe I can 
illustrate the process and the difficulty with a spreadsheet entry of my 
own.

========
 From the point of view of an instructor (of a logic course):

1.  I want an Example Bank.
Bad-- no functional description.

2.  I want a set of tagged text records in an associative array.
Bad-- assumes a particular mechanism.

3.  I want to maintain my examples in a personal blog that allows labels 
on postings.
Bad-- assumes a particular tool.

4.  I want examples that I can look up and use.
Bad-- too general and vague.

5.  I want to save example of statements and reasoning when encountered 
in daily life, and I want to retrieve them based on their properties 
when composing course materials.
Good!
========

Clay is welcome to comment, especially if this is NOT what he has in mind.


Clay Fenlason wrote:
>  On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 1:15 PM, Luke Fernandez
>  <luke.fernandez at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I guess the question is whether there is a point where we should
> > take the technological needs which our faculty articulate at face
> > value.
>
>  My experience is that this is most often counterproductive. I think
>  this is why UCD starts with user *research* as opposed to simply
>  asking the users what they want. The important considerations are
>  very often the ones we are not conscious of, let alone those we're
>  able to articulate well, not to mention articulate a solution that
>  will also work for other people and fit well with other technical
>  solutions in the same space, and so forth. It takes talent to
>  synthesize sets of needs and come up with good answers, and that
>  talent is not aided by leaping into implementation details too
>  quickly.
>
>  My underlying aim is to see us build something helpful and useful,
>  not do a product comparison (and maybe that's why you are coming at
>  this from a different angle). We've got designers ready to do work,
>  and they're the ones with the sort of talent I indicated above. We
>  need to help them cut through to what's essential, not get distracted
>  by incidental detail.
>
>  I think we're all familiar with conversations where someone confronts
>  us with their issue, we start to raise possibilities or workarounds
>  and press on details of what they're asking for, until they finally
>  throw up their hands and say, "Look, I just want something that will
>  <insert simple thing here> and not be a PITA, and if you can give me
>  that I'll be happy." When they get to the point of putting it that
>  way, then I think we're getting somewhere.
>
>  ~Clay _______________________________________________ pedagogy
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-- 
  Robin Hill, Ph.D.       hill at uwyo.edu       307-766-5499
  Instructional Computing Services            http://www.uwyo.edu/ctl
  Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning   University of Wyoming