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

[David Goodrum]

Hi Robin,

I think that is a really fine example and I appreciate you sharing and can relate to the struggle it can take to evolve to the right level and kind of description. 

Of course, a goal doesn't have to be that perfect to get a row started on the document; and others can then help by putting suggested wording or alternate wording in the same cell in the matrix. 

This early on in trying to build this document up, it's most important to get the ideas out. A structured brainstorming exercise, one might say.
 
We can revise and refine, sift and sort, clump and cluster, and summarize and synthesize in the next phase.   

Best Regards - David

On Nov 4, 2009, at 2:47 PM, Robin Hill <hill at uwyo.edu> wrote:

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  


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