IS214. Needs and Usability Assessment

School of Information Management & Systems, University of California Berkeley


Prof. NANCY VAN HOUSE
vanhouse@sims.berkeley.edu

TuTh 12:30-2:00 PM

202 South Hall
Office Hrs: TBA

ASSIGNMENTS

PROJECTS

RESOURCES

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WEEK BY WEEK

Requirements: Collecting Data from and About Users
Week 2 Ethnographic Methods
Week 3 User and Task Analysis
Week 4 Measurement and Evaluation
Week 4b Interviews and Focus Groups (I)
Week 5a
Interviews and Focus Groups (II)
Week 5b
Qualitative Data Analysis and Presentations
Week 6 Surveys
Week 7a Quantitative Data Analysis and Presentation

Prototype Evaluation
Week 7b Design Guidelines, Heuristics, and Inspection Methods (I)
Week 8 Design Guidelines: Heuristics, and Inspection Methods (II)
Week 9 Usability Testing

Spring Break

Week 10a Updates on Projects
Week 10b Writing Usability Reports

Post-release Evaluation
Week 11 Monitoring, User Satisfaction Surveys, User Feedback
Week 12 Universal Usability
Week 13a Ethics
Week 13b Credibility, Offshore Usability
Week 14 Project Presentations

 

Google News

Team: Mary Hodder, Zhanna Shamis, Diana Stepner

Description of the project

Google News is a beta offering from Google. It "offers a news service compiled solely by computer algorithms without human intervention". As a result in addition to evaluating the site layout, content organization (e.g. automated grouping process), and supporting features (e.g. "sort by date" function), we will consider how well the content satisfies users "need for news". For example, do individuals prefer the contents of news sites which utilize more human interaction when choosing content?

In addition, depending on the methods we decide to undertake and the results we receive, it may be necessary to cover some concepts related to news presentation. For example, how does context influence a person's perception of a news item? Does an individual's understanding of an article on "total information awareness" differ if it is displayed within a Technology or General News section?