Objective:
Practice basic comparative analysis of user interfaces.
Instructions:
Identify 2 different tasks related to finding information about movies, such as:
- Find a convenient playing time and location of <insert a current movie name here>. To be realistic, the playing time should be a time and location when you actually would want to go see the movie, perhaps on this Friday night.
- Find out what is playing on <insert date here> at your favorite nearby theater.
Recruit some friends to perform these tasks using each of these 3 different systems (or substitute your favorite system):
- 1-800-555-TELL
- www.moviefone.com
- www.hollywood.com/showtimes/
For each system and task, write down the total time (in seconds) it takes to perform the task. You should repeat the trials with several different people so that you have several timings for each system-task pair. Try randomizing the order that your subjects perform the systems and tasks to mitigate learning effects. Collect all the data into a spreadsheet.
Analyze the data and make conclusions about the user interfaces of the systems. How do the different user interfaces affect user performance on different types of tasks? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the systems? As a result, what might you do as a user interface designer for a movie info system?
Hand in:
Hard-copy of 1-2 page report that lists:
- the types of data analyses you performed.
- the conclusions you make from the analyses.
- your reaction to this type of analytic process.
Include a print-out of your spreadsheet as an additional page.