Overview

For this assignment, you will observe someone performing a task and analyze the process to answer a few select questions.

Choose a task

You choose the task. It does not need to involve a computer application. Try for a total observation time between 5 and 15 minutes. In any case, the task should consist of several different actions, some of them may be repeated multiple times. Here are some possibilities:

• Washing dishes
• Cleaning out the inbox of an email account
• Buying groceries through a self check-out line

To qualify as a site observation, the following must be true:

• It must be a real task that the subject would be doing even if you were not observing.
• The task must be performed in a location where it is typically performed.
• The task must be performed at a time when it is typically performed.

Your observation should have minimal impact on how the task is performed.

Analysis questions

Before you observe, construct three to five questions that you plan to answer from your observation. Here are some examples:

• What is the environment or context in which the task is performed? Are other tasks being performed simultaneously? What artefacts are involved? Are there any interruptions?
• What actions are performed to complete the task?
• Which actions take the most time?
• Do some actions need to be repeated to effectively accomplish their objectives (i.e. their respective subgoal)?
• For frequent actions, what is the mean time and variance?
• Which actions give people difficulty?
• How could the process for doing the task be improved?

When constructing your analysis goals, develop questions that address aspects of the bold-faced questions.

Conducting the observation

You are encouraged to video-record the task, but it is not required to successfully complete this project. For actions on a computer, consider using interaction-recording software such as Camtasia. If you do not record the task, you will find it easier to observe and take notes for a longer task whose actions have a larger granularity (i.e. over a minute per action).

Unless you observe a task in public without video-recording, you must obtain informed consent. Furthermore, you must document the informed consent if you record the task.

Analysis and Report

Your report should contain the following:

• Answers to your analysis questions
• Explanations of how your observation supports your answers
• Your procedure for conducting the observation
• Informed consent process, or justification if not needed

Answers to the analysis questions should be immediately accessible to the report's reader. Make sure that this information is prominent. The additional contents should be easy to find.

Submission

Please place all contents in one document using a common format (e.g. Word, PDF, RTF, HTML). Submit this document through the DL Web submission site.

Grading

Generally, any project that closely adheres to the above instructions will receive at least 16 (out of 20) points. Projects that are thoughtful, well-edited, systematic and concise will generally receive 18 or 19 points. A truly outstanding report will receive 20 points. Note that a long report is not necessarily a good report!

I will consider the following issues when grading the reports:

• Clarity of the analysis questions and answers
• Report usability and readability (good formatting and writing are essential!)
• Reproducible procedure for observation
• Clear description of results and how they support answers
• How informed consent was addressed