Sourcemedia Solutions Marketing Web Application

To design a marketing solutions web based application for SourceMedia Sales Representatives and its clients(Advetisers).

The table below lists some of the important characteristics of users of the HFMS possess or will possess. From the design point of view understanding the range of different characteristics is important to understand user’s requirements.

The range of these characteristics are divided into two categories, possible range and commonly observed range. If it is not possible or expensive to design for such wide range, the system should at least be designed for commonly observed range in order to serve its purpose.

Focus Group

Usage Scenarios
In order to narrow the design scope, requirements prioritization was done. Based on user preferences high weightage requirements were chosen. E.g. in the column chart given below top three requirements were picked. Also some of the requirements were taken from subjective feedback of the users such as automatic generation of grocery list.
Design Requirements (MS Word doc)

High level tasks were identified from the Requirements and Preliminary Task Analysis were conducted using these high level tasks. Preliminary Task Analysis

Function Allocation
Functions have been allocated to make best use of the operator's abilities, while allowing human intervention when needed. The Human will be assigned functions that they are solely responsible for are. The Machine is the operator when it is solely responsible for the stage. Human Machine indicates that the human with a machine's assistance is responsible for the stage. Machine Human as operator indicates that the machine with human assistance is responsible for the stage.

Function-Flow Diagrams
In the present scenario, the target user group is highly dependent upon external support, e.g. a caretaker, thus the objective of our design is to make user independent in performing his daily activities. Making all the products, that user interacts with in day-to-day activities, accessible would be a very gargantuan task and hence we have scaled down our design scope. User research helped us in prioritizing goals of our design scope, which are:

Decision Action Diagrams
Decision-Action Diagrams were created for main tasks from the Functional Flow Diagram

Existing System
The existing system, www.bestwhenusedby.com, is a website that helps you keep track of your foods' expiration dates.

Environmental Analysis
The system may be accessed best in the individual's (indoors) on a computer that is near the room where food is typically stored (e.g. kitchen). The room should be large enough to comfortably accommodate the computer. The system is operational 24 hours a day/seven days a week, considering the website is accessible and the user has power and Internet access.

Normal room temperature (60 -80 degrees F) and humidity levels are recommended and lighting ranges from full indoor lighting to very low lighting. Noise levels should not have an effect on the system.

Existing System Workspace Layout

Hierarchical Task Analysis
HTA(present conceptual model) was done for the existing system and it was compared with the desired Preliminary Task Analysis (users' mental model) that we have made earlier to find out the problem issues (as disparities between the two models). For Reference: Hierarchical Task Analysis

Subjective Workload Analysis
A workload analysis was done to identify tasks on the existing system that caused confusion for the user. The workload analysis was done using the SWAT Scale; hence, this workload analysis is a subjective analysis. Also, since this analysis was conducted in an ideal setting it does not captured all aspects of the environment that might affect the user workload; such as, phone ringer, cooking, children playing, and multi-tasking. This analysis still has some validity because any serious bottleneck identify would either still be problems or be exuberated in the real setting. The workload analysis was conducted by asking the user to answer how much mental effort load and psychological stress load they felt at each step in the task on a scale from 1-3. Also, as the user was doing the task the time was recorded. Figure 8 shows the average mental and psychology load the user responded they where experience in doing a task. This analysis aid in designing the HFMS by making sure the areas identify having a high workload would be eliminated/reduced.

Interface Analysis
Heuristic evaluation is used for interface analysis of the existing system. It was done by 4 experts using the heursitics checklists. A severity rating between 1-5(5 being mos severe) was assisgned for each heuristic and using the data overall severity was found.

Workspace layout
In above figure User is in front of the refrigerator with the touch screen (1) right in front of him. He can adjust the height and the angle of the screen to suit his requirements. Also there is a green panel (2) on the left of refrigerator which is the weight gauze instrument. There is a black rectangular panel in the middle of this green panel which is the barcode scanner (3).

User will place the food-item or grocery on this panel. The weight gauze will update the weight and the barcode scanner will identify the item. Now if the identified item is already entered in the application, then that items weight will be updated. And if the item is not already present in the application then system will add this up automatically and will prompt the user to confirm the action which user can do using the touch screen panel.

Application
Our solution is a wearable device for the wrist or hand, depending on context of use and user comfort. User scans the area which he wants to 'read' using his hand and the device converts text in that area to Braille or magnifies it on the opposite side of the device. It also provides auditory feedback depending on user preference. It acts as a converter, translating the user environment into a more easily accessible format.

Screenshots

Salient Features of Design

1. The design fulfills all the set requirements.
2. The functions are automated as much as possible but in every such automation there is an option for manual override. E.g. by default the system sets the grocery shopping on next Sunday but user can change that to any day and system will adjust itself to that time.
3. Assisting: The system is assisting in the sense that it provides up-to-date information on very much need-to-know basis. The details are kept lower while relevant and most important information is presented on the first tier.
4. Structure: Content has been categorized in various categories which are easily understandable by the user since the categorization is intuitive and the terminology is simple and natural.
5. Layout of the design is consistent throughout the application and user is kept in sync with the task flow. User is always aware of his status in the system and moving around and exploration of the system is highly encouraged due to the robustness and the simplicity of the system.
6. Widgets and components are identified and are used so as to provide the right affordance for the user's mental model.
7. The system is scalable. As earlier mentioned it can be used with an embedded internet browser to look for recipes over the internet or it can be used as an audio or video jukebox to provide entertainment while cooking.

Conclusion
There were many traditional Human Factors methods and techniques that we used for the process of improving existing systems.  By conducting surveys, we learned that it is imperative to involve the users before designing, because our requirements may not be the same as what the users perceive.  Our redesigned system makes the original task more reasonable and enjoyable, with hopes that the user will be dedicated to the more useful work.  The analyses conducted helped us to understand the interactions between the user and everything surrounding them.