UX Report & Evaluation plan

UX report on the design approach in User centred design (UCD) for the design of an educational mathematical tool to support children age 8-12.
An evaluation plan for assessment of the mathematical tool after development.

INTRODUCTION

The term ‘User-centred design’ (UCD) is used to define design processes of a product which is completely influenced by the end users (Abras, Maloney-Krichmar and Preece, 2004). I will be discussing various sections that would guide the user-centred design process and how the mathematical learning tool can be designed putting the target demography in front and centre.

CHAPTER 1 - THE REQUIREMENT AND TASK ANALYSIS

Stakeholder analysis

A vital and preliminary part of the project should be gathering requirements and understanding the user needs (Lane, O’Raghallaigh and Sammon, 2016). This is carried out to put the user in front and centre at all stages of the design and only possible if you know the stakeholders.

The Stakeholders are the people who have the power either to affect or be affected by the maths application. These are the kids using the application, their parents/guardians, teachers and mathematicians.

Understanding the stakeholders will help you empathise with them. Thorough primary (interviews, questionnaires etc) and secondary (articles, journals etc) research should be carried out for this.

Several researchers (Druin et al, 1999; Bruckman et al, 2007; Read, 2011) have highlighted importance of understanding children's needs as their interaction with technology are often unlike that of adults, such as level of inquisitiveness and inclination to explore.

(Druin et al, 1999) for instance, found out that children typically want control, creative tools and that they also pay a considerate amount of attention to the looks and ease of learning.

An example of an effective research by Nousiainen and Kankaanranta (2008) on designing for a learning environment had evaluation carried out by kids to give feedback on the websites about features they like or dislike. It was vital to the kids how the site looked and a lot of empty space on the site appeared undesirable to the kids, they wanted variety of content on a single-page-level and navigation to have straight-forward access to as much sections of the site as possible.

User personas

Personas are descriptions of the typical user demography of the product (Cooper, 1999). They don’t define exact people though they are demonstrative. Any one persona signifies a combination of some real user’s facts gotten from your research.

For illustration purposes, below is an example of a user persona for the 8-12 years old age demography.

Figure 1. A user persona for a 10-year-old.

This example persona of Samantha jones represents several users in the demography. You will then use collected information to create scenarios and draft out users’ needs and requirements of an application. Because you cannot know exactly who will use the application, you must include everyone from a wide range of cultural, economic and educational backgrounds. From your research, around 2 unrelated user personas should be created for the children (the end users) and then a third one should be created for another stakeholder such as parents or teachers of the children. From the needs and wants of Samantha Jones, we can analyse tasks that the application designed for her must perform and turn her user frustrations into solutions. E.g., the application should have text-to-speech feature, visually pleasing and easy to learn.

Scenarios

These are short portrayal of the user personas using your product to finish a specific task, providing a good way to empathize with end-users and deliver insightful solutions (Salazar, 2021). For instance, Samantha Jones wants to catch up on a topic she barely understood in her maths class. She opens the application, searches for the topic at a primary 6 level, and check steps on how to solve them. A task requirement for the application can be derived such as dividing topics into different educational stages.

Use cases

According to Sharp, Rogers and Preece (2019, p. 415), usecases define a precise process because they are a stepwise description. They can be used to think of details about what the user needs to see, to know about, or to react to and describe the interaction between the application and the user. It captures the functional requirements and interaction with the user and will also help you clarify areas where the system may be limited (system constraints).

An example of a usecase for a mathematics tool is shown below:

Figure 2. Use case diagram of a mathematical tool (extracted from chegg.com)

After gathering requirements, constraints and goals (task analysis), the project can be taken to another stage of the UCD lifecycle.

CHAPTER 2 - DESIGN

Design rules and guidelines

Design guidelines are considerations that designers apply with discretion based on who they are designing for. Ben Shneiderman detailed eight golden rules of designing interfaces (Shneiderman et al, 2016). In applying some of these rules to the demography, the children should be constantly given informative feedback on actions, so they are always informed and engaged. Information should also be grouped into chunks so that it reduces short-term memory load.

Figure 3. Ben Shneiderman’s eight golden rules of interface design (extracted from slideshare.net)

Also, errors should be prevented where possible (such as providing a calendar display to input dates accurately) and the overall design should be simple and consistent so that it is straightforward and easy to use. As a learning tool, the children should not be distracted with irrelevant features on the learning screens and the interface design should accommodate both novice and experienced technology users. For instance, ‘Samantha jones’ persona in fig 1 is frustrated by complex interfaces. The interface should be easy to use for any user.

Design principles

Jakob Nielsen created 10 universal principles for interaction design. These are heuristics that can guide design (Molich and Nielsen, 1990). In application to the demography, these heuristics adds that the design must be familiar to the kids, using real world elements that the children are already accustomed to. The design should also lessen the children’s memory load by ensuring appropriate elements are visible and navigation (e.g., menu items) ought to be effortlessly retrievable when needed.

Figure 4. A mobile application usability checklist based on Jakob Nielsen heuristics evaluation. (extracted from mobilelive.ca)

There are some other specific design principles for children that can also be used to guide the design.

Figure 5. Design principle for children (extracted from childrensdesignguide.org)

Figure 6. Design principle for children (extracted from childrensdesignguide.org).

UX Design patterns

Design patterns details a design problem, problem solution, and example of where the solution worked (Sharp, Rogers and Preece, 2019). They are interaction models that provides easier understanding of interfaces for users to accomplish tasks. Existing design patterns should be applied to the project where they are supported by design guidelines to understand what designs are appropriate to use in line with the demography.

Examples of design patterns that can be used are walkthroughs and guided tours. The walkthroughs and guided tours will help the children get familiar with the learning environment. Although some children may be very knowledgeable in the technology of learning environments, it is crucial to consider children that may be novice to this technology. Also, as the application is designed for children from different educational stages, it will be essential to include search filters to enable them search and filter out mathematical lessons not relevant to them (Design patterns, no date).

The design patterns used should also be derived from the persona’s needs or pain points. E.g., ‘Samantha jones’ persona in fig 1 wants to be motivated to study and a good design pattern is to integrate gamification or praises and rewards in the application.

Figure 7. Example of walkthrough design pattern is onboarding process commonly seen when using an application for the first time. (extracted from uxdesign.cc)

Figure 8. Example of search filters on mobile application (extracted from higherlogic.com)

CHAPTER 3 - USABILITY

Usability goals

Usability of a product refers to when it is easy to learn, enjoyable and effective from the user’s standpoint (Quesenbery, 2004). It includes improving the interactions users have with interactive products to ensure a good user experience.

The main usability goals as described by Quesenbery (2004) are:

Effectiveness - it will address whether the product is useful and supports the users to accomplish their goals correctly.
Efficiency- It addresses the rapidity (with accuracy) with which a task can be carried out.
Engaging- It addresses the satisfaction, how good-looking or exciting the product interface is to use.
Error tolerance- It addresses how good the application evades errors and assist users recover from any errors that happen.
Ease of use- It addresses how well the application supports both initial onboarding and further learning.

According to Sharp, Rogers and Preece (2019, p. 20-22) and in connection to the mathematics tool designed for the 8–12-year-old demography, the application can be said have fulfilled the usability goals if it answers ‘yes’ to the following questions:

For effectiveness, Is the application capable of allowing the children to learn, successfully go through a user journey and carry out any required task?
For efficiency, is the application capable of allowing the children to learn, successfully go through a user journey and carry out any required task?
For engagement, do the children enjoy using the application to carry out their tasks?
For error tolerance, does the application have minimal range of errors that are possible when using the application, and are there measures to permit users easily recover from them?
For ease of use, is it likely that the children will understand how to operate the application by exploring the UI and trying out features, and how difficult will it be to learn everything this way?

By answering the questions in respect to the usability goals, these are turned into usability criteria. These are specific objectives that allows the usability of the application to be evaluated based on how it can enhance (or fail to enhance) a user’s performance (Sharp, Rogers and Preece, 2019). Some of the usability criteria are largely task-centred, where specific tasks are singularized and measured in usability testing. For example, efficiency can be quantified by time it takes to complete a specific task or the ease of use can be quantified by time it takes a user to learn a task or how to navigate the application interface. These criteria can deliver measurable indicators of productivity improvement.

User experience goals

Engagement as a usability criterion would be difficult to measure in a quantitative manner, as it is subjective (Punchoojit and Hongwarittorrn, 2017). Users can be engaged and enjoy using the application because of desirable qualities the application processes such as how visually appealing, exciting, entertaining, motivating fun, provocative or rewarding the user may perceive the application to be.

There are also some undesirable qualities that may make users not to like the application such as how dull, unpleasant, gimmicky, boring or frustrating the user may perceive the application to be. These desirable and non-desirable qualities are what makes up the user experience. They are not objective and would impact the users differently which is why it is essential to have an inclusive design (Sharp, Rogers and Preece, 2019).

Figure 9. User experience goals (extracted from Interaction Design: beyond human-computer interaction 5th edition).

CHAPTER 4 - ACCESSIBILITY

Accessibility and inclusivity

Accessibility addresses inequitable features related to equal user experience for individuals with disabilities. A design cannot be considered inclusive if accessibility is not factored in. An inclusive design ensures everybody is involved to the greatest extent possible as explained by an article on accessibility, usability and inclusion (2016). It is important to understand the type of disabilities detailed by Sharp, Rogers and Preece (2019, p. 17) that the children may have such as;

- Sensory (Vision or hearing loss, colour blindness etc)
- Motor impairment (loss of limb etc)
- Cognitive (dyslexia etc)

For instance, Samantha jones persona in fig 1.0 has;

Dyslexia – Difficulty which affects writing, reading and spelling skills (About dyslexia, no date).

Tritanopia colour-blindness - Unable to differentiate between purple and red, yellow and pink and blue and green. It also makes colours look dimmer than normal (Types of Colour Blindness, 2019).

To include Samantha, the application should have a lot of visuals representations, have text-to-speech feature and use colours with good contrast (Van et al, 2005).

Figure 10. Example of different colour-blindness (extracted from boredpanda.com).

Accessibility principles

Success criteria and guidelines for designing for people with disabilities are categorized around four principles of accessibility (Introduction to understanding WCAG, 2018), any content provided for the children must be:

Perceivable – The UI components and information must be shown in a way users can perceive.
Operable – The navigation and UI components must be operable by the user.
Understandable – The information and UI components must be comprehensible.
Robust – Information must be adequately dynamic to be understood by extensive range of users and supports integrating assistive technology.

If any principle is not followed, the kids with disabilities would be incapable of using the application.

For each of the principles, success criteria exist that supports to inform on these principles for people with disabilities, see on (Introduction to understanding WCAG, 2018).

Some design principles on inclusivity for children can also be used to guide the design.

Figure 11. Inclusivity design principles for children (extracted from childrensdesignguide.org).

Figure 12. Inclusivity design principles for children (extracted from childrensdesignguide.org).

Accessibility and inclusivity design patterns

As design patterns have been discussed earlier (see design section), There are also some design patterns that can be considered when designing for inclusivity and the children with disabilities (Joyce, 2022).

Voice search- Voice search should be integrated and with a clear icon so all users can search by talking rather than typing.
Separating image from text- Screen readers cannot read images so texts describing images should be written separately.
Format Inputs for Worldwide users- Different countries have different input format e.g., date and name writing format. All input formats should be represented or labelled.
Diverse illustrations- Ensure diverse races and individuals are included in any illustrations.

Figure 13. voice search feature on google map.

CHAPTER 5 - HUMAN FACTORS

Human cognition processing

The cognitive skills of children are not fully developed yet and so have weaker reasoning abilities than adults (Liu, 2018). To design the application in a way they can understand and use successfully, there are areas of cognition that should be considered which are;

1. Attention

This involves user’s concentration from the options available to focus on. The extent to which a task is easy or difficult depends on clarity of the goals and information presentation. When the children know what they want to achieve, they try to match this with information available which should be properly presented. Essential information should be made salient, some techniques can be used like animated gifs to highlight it. It’s also imperative to understand psychology principles in design that can aid attention such as principle of proximity and hicks’ law which states that the more options presented, the longer it takes to decide (Liu, 2018). The kids should be given precise instructions by stating the goal of their tasks and how to accomplish it.

Figure 14. Example of a design with clear instructions that keeps the focused on the goal (extracted from appinventiv.com).

2. Memory and learning

Memory refers to the ability to recognise or recall information in the application and is associated with learning since learnt information is stored in the memory. One of the most common ways to assist the children to memorise elements in the UI is application of miller’s law. It states that short-term memory holds 7 (plus or minus) chunks of information (Garhwal, 2021). Grouping elements in smaller chunks will help the children memorize easily. The Gestures and icons should also be familiar to enable recognition as people recognise better than they recall (Budiu, 2014). Since children are inquisitive (Druin et al, 1999), design the interface to encourage exploration and common patterns that can be learnt easily. This can be done through application of Jakob’s law as users prefer applications, they are already familiar with (Nielsen, 2000).

Figure 15. Miller’s law applied in design which makes memorizing easier (extracted from uxdesign.cc).

3. Problem solving and decision making

These involves conscious choice on what to do, what options are available, and consequence of carrying out a task or action (Sharp, Rogers and Preece, 2019). We commonly disregard most of the available information and rely only on a few significant cues. This recommends creation of significant and actionable cues to be salient. Understanding the mental models of the kids (their thought process to make decisions) will be impactful to guide their decision-making process and help them solve problems. Help and support features should be available so they can seek any required assistance. Also, simple and memorable functions should be used to support quick decision making.

Figure 16. Log out dialog box that ensures users actually want to log out of the application. (extracted from uigarage.net).

Human error

Error is an unavoidable circumstance in life whereby human error is majorly responsible (Rouse and Rouse, 1983). Norman (1986) explains that the level of intention is where the division occurs. An intention to act is established by a person and if it’s not suitable, then it is a mistake. If the action was not intended, then it is an action slip. That is, a mistake is a wrong method the user makes to achieve a goal while an action slip is when the method is right, but an error is made in carrying it out. The chances of errors by the kids should be designed to be minimal as discussed in the usability section under error-tolerance. A way to reduce mistake chances is to ensure all elements are labelled clearly and feedback is given throughout the user journey. An example of action slip avoidance is allowing the kids to view an entire calendar when selecting a date so that they don’t wrongly pick a date or select it in an incorrect format.

Figure 17. Types of action slips (extracted from Benyon, 2014).

CONCLUSION

User centred design approach should be utilised when designing products to keep the user front and center of the project so as to provide optimal user experience. It is important to consider different elements of design, such as gathering requirements, analyzing tasks, applying design principles, taking cognitive factors into account, ensuring usability, and promoting inclusion, when creating products. The user-centered design (UCD) process can be used to design products for any user group. It is important to note that the design process is always iterative in nature. The ultimate objective should be to develop products that provide for great user experience and always meet the changing needs of users over time.

EVALUATION PLAN

The evaluation plan is a guide approach for the evaluation of the mathematical tool after it's development.

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