Slides for plenary talk on "Focussing On Users: Gathering Users' Requirements" given by Sarah Agarwal at the IWMW 2003 event held at the University of Kent on 11-13 June 2003. See http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2003/sessions/#talk-4

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Focusing on users:
Gathering users’ requirements
Sarah Agarwal
Consultant Web development Project Manager
and Usability Engineer
Internet Development group
Institute for Learning and Research Technology
University of Bristol
sarah.agarwal@bristol.ac.uk

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$120m

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$1m

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Portal-mania…

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JISC funded national Portal Requirements Analysis
project - http://www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/
“Both the news and the weather… form popular
- near-ubiquitous in the case of the weather – portal features,
yet they formed the lowest rated features over all….
…Laughter was a frequent response to the inclusion of a
weather channel in the portal”
Liz Pearce, Ariadne, March/April 2003

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Meets
requirements
Plan the human
centred process
Specify the
context of use
Specify user and
organisational
requirements
Produce design
solutions
Evaluate against
requirements
© Crown copyright 1998
ISO 13407 – User-centred design

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How to do the work?
• Unmeasurable objectives for the portal
• Project length – 2-3 months
• Literature review – virtually nothing!
• Visits and/or discussions with three universities in UK
• Analysing the LSE offering

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Start of analysis
• Identify (define) target audience
– Staff – primarily teaching
– Students – postgrads and under-grads
• Key potential content areas identified from
– LSE list of content
– List of content from an existing internal specification
– Any other suggested by people
– No duplication with Blackboard

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Content areas – staff:
Room booking
Personal data
Calendaring / timetabling
Programme / Unit information
Staff info
Financial data
Personal web page
Research (IRIS)
Past exam papers
Message boards
Student info
Programme admin
Information services / libraries
+ 8 more
Content areas – students:
Contact students / staff
Personal details
Programme / Unit information
Student info
Timetabling
Online document store
Staff info
Information services / libraries
Past exam papers
Financial data
Assessment (student view)
Find accommodation
Students Union channel
+ 6 more

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Content areas: issues
• Staff vs students
• Was the content identified what was actually required?
• Definition of individual bits of content
• Too much of it

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Interviews
Aim
- to find out any additional content requirements
(qualitative)
- to prioritise requirements (quantitative)
- to discover major issues and themes that could
significantly affect the portal development (qualitative)

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Interviews
Interview subjects
Staff x 13
- 45-60 minute interviews
Students x 12
- Postgrads and undergrads
- 25 minute interviews

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Interview method
1. Task analysis
2. Open questions and carefully meandering discussions
3. Card sorting (prioritisation)
4. Content identification
… all in 25 – 60 minutes!

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Did it work?
probably!
Good signs:
• 4 of the 10 most highly ranked content areas were
originally identified by interviewees
• catalyst for clearer definition of business drivers
• technical development has started on implementing 4
of the top ten content areas identified
• issues raised are being taken seriously
• development more practical than aspirational

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Ranked in Top 5 by:
Content area Staff Postgraduates Undergrads
Online document store  
Access email via portal  
Contact staff / students  
Calendaring / timetabling  
Programme information  
Information services / libraries 
Notify 
Past exam papers 
Personal data 
Student information 
Top ten content areas

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Ranked in Top 5 by:
Content area Staff Postgraduates Undergrads
Online document store  
Access email via portal  
Contact staff / students  
Calendaring / timetabling  
Programme information  
Information services / libraries 
Notify 
Past exam papers 
Personal data 
Student information 
Top ten content areas

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JISC funded national Portal Requirements Analysis project -
http://www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/

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Internet Development (ID)
• 6 web developers
• 1 graphic designer
• 1.5 usability engineers
• 1.5 project managers
• 22 current projects, including…

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http://www.234car.com/

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References
• ID: www.ilrt.bristol.ac.uk
• CROS: www.cros.ac.uk
• 234car: http://www.234car.com/
• RED www.bristol.ac.uk/research
• “University of Michigan cancels a closely watched portal project.
Chronicle of Higher Education. April 11th
, 2002.
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/04/2002041101t.htm
• University of Hull PORTAL project - http://www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/
• "Apart from the weather, I think it’s a good idea“ by Liz Pearce, in
Ariadne April 2003. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue35/pearce/
• Full Bristol portal requirements report at
http://www.bris.ac.uk/is/projects/portal
• “Planning and implementing user-centred design”. Nigel Bevan and
Ian Curson. http://www.usability.serco.com/papers/ucdtut97.pdf