GR1 - User and Task Analysis

User Analysis

User sample #1:

• Female, 19 years old, Chinese American, originated from Southern California
• Second year of college at MIT
• Dislikes looking at a small screen for a particularly long time
• Highly experienced with technology, somewhat familiar with mobile devices
• Has a large collection of clothing, and needs a product to organize it
• Often accidentally buys multiples of something due to liking something specific and forgetting it already exists in one's collection
• Currently utilizes an excel spreadsheet to organize
  • PROS: easy and simple to use
  • CONS: can't see everything at once, relies on recall rather than recognition, not easy to see on a mobile interface

User sample #2:

• Female, 22 years old, Chinese American, originated from Northern California
• First year of graduate school at MIT
• Highly computer literate, owns and is familiar with a Samsung Galaxy S
• Is highly addicted to the show Sherlock and collects many paraphernalia surrounding it
• Currently organizes collection with pictures in a computer file folder
  • PROS: visually interesting
  • CONS: not easily indexable and searchable, cannot be transported easily

User sample #3:

• Male, 18 years old, Chinese Canadian, originated from Vancouver. In charge of the props group in a high school theatre production.
• Second year of college at MIT
• Highly computer literate, owns an IPhone, multiple laptops, etc. Does dev/web work. Smartphone access to the group overall is varied.
• Has worked in theatre productions in props, heading the props group dealing in a varied assortment of items, age 16-18 at the time.
• With a group, cataloged props by taking pictures of them and renaming the file names to be more descriptive
  • PROS: better than having no organization at all. cameras of any sort are easily obtainable. One set of physical photos easily accounted for among multiple people, which digital photos can be shared between props members.
  • CONS: not easily indexable and searchable beyond filename/photo organization, requires separate camera and transfer of image files. Adding to an photo inventory is easy, deleting is hard because you have to check for multiple copies of photos, etc.

In short, users range from:

• Collectors of physical items
• Groups managing collections or inventories
• People interested in cataloging physical locations
• People who benefit from visual aid to memory recall and recognition

Users do not include:

• People with no smartphone or computer access
• Collections of non-physical objects, such as digital items, which already have a standardized method of organization that is convenient

Tasks Analysis

Task #1: Catalogue and recall subsets of items for use (for example: cooking)

• Why?
  • To make it easier to keep track of your items, and remember them when you want to use them.
• Requirements? 
  • Items to catalogue!
  • A use/motivation for remembering the items at a later time
• Where/Environments? 
  • Around your house
  • On the move, in between locations
• How Often? 
  • Daily usually.
  • Otherwise whenever you want to perform a recall of items in the collection
• Time/resource constraints? 
  • To catalogue: depends on how many items you have. For a single item, half a minute to a minute. Might get bored of cataloging an entire collection in one go if longer than an hour. Also depends on level of desired detail
  • To recall: < 1 min, but constraint varies depending on what the items will be used for. Can be as long as 5 minutes.
• How to Learn?
  • Very simple - take a photo, tag it (or verify automatic tag?) - intuitive.
• What can go wrong?
  • Accidentally mistag an item
  • Delete an item on accident
  • Take a bad photo
• Social?
  • Can show others your collection - see below.

Task #2: Scrapbook your collections and show them to your friends

• Why?
  • To show physical objects to your friends, to organize visual memories of items, to show off your items
• Requirements?
  • A collection that you build from Task #1
• Where/Environments?
  • Wherever you want!
• How Often?
  • Varies
  • For both scrapbooking and showcasing, not very often
• Time/resource constraints?
  • Valued memories are important: scrapbooking can be as much as 5 minutes per picture. A day in the life scrapbooking, however would be less than 30 seconds.
  • Showcasing a valued collection can take a longer time scale, half an hour. Rifling through a low-commitment collection would be a few minutes.
• How to Learn?
  • By trying to navigate a visual collection of pictures
  • By observing the owner of the phone rifling through pictures
• What can go wrong?
  • Accidentally messing with the collection while showing it off
• Social?
  • Showing a gallery to a friend, where they might want to look through a collection themselves

Task #3: Not only keep track of items, but also locations - (stores/restaurants to visit, location of car, places that you have to be, visual reminders of what you need to do). (Keep track of your trip? Can track your path by photos you take?)

• Why?
  • To remember where things are, and things that you need or want to do.
• Requirements?
  • Somewhere they want to save!
  • Locations, An idea for visual cues of tasks
• Where/Environments?
  • On the road! Walking or otherwise.
• How Often?
  • Daily usually, e.g. a daily wakeup routine
• Time/resource constraints?
  • < 1 minute - maybe save a note.
• How to Learn?
  • Should be intuitive
• What can go wrong?
  • Similar to task #1.
• Social?
  • Can share locations with your friends! (places you want to go out to eat)
  • Also useful for geocaching, etc.

Task #4: Group management of inventory

•  Why?
  •  To share a collection of items, inventory, across multiple people.
• Requirements?
  •  A group of people
  •  Items need to be managed across multiple people.
  • Differentiating privileges of access to inventory for different people.
• Where/Environments?
  •  In jobs, for managing physical inventory
• How Often?
  •  Often daily, once per person, with demand spiking before planned deadlines if deadlines exist.
• Time/resource constraints?
  • Must be faster than physically managing inventory
  • Management takes less time than keeping a binder for notes and organization
  • Inventory has variable sizes, size of objects
• How to Learn?
  • Should be intuitive
  • More advanced, special case features can be hidden and revealed from exploration
• What can go wrong?
  •  Multiple people with conflicting updates, conflicting intentions in inventory management
  • Accidentally deleting an item, or modifying item information
  • Letting inventory that should be secret become public knowledge
• Social?
  •  Everybody in the group