FHTW Berlin
Fachbereich 4
Internationale Medieninformatik
MMA I: Aktuelle Themen multimedialer Anwendungen
Sommersemester 2001
Exercise 3: Cognitive Walkthrough
I have a little odometer for a bicycle with me. We will be doing a cognitive
walkthrough for this little box. First, identify your user population. Who
uses odometers? What knowledge about odometers will users typically have?
Are there any special conditions on the use of an odometer on a bicycle? Unfortunately,
I do not have an instruction booklet for the odometer. It looks like this:
There is a 2-line display and 6 buttons below the display. The buttons are
labelled: Clock, M/Km, Timer, Odo, Dst and Set. What might the buttons mean?
List typical tasks that a member of your user population will want to complete
using the odometer. This will be the first section of your report.
Now develop the correct sequence of actions for one of the tasks, for instance
changing the time display from summer to winter time. This will be the second
section of your report.
Now go through the actions step by step. For each action in the solution
path, construct credible "success'' or "failure''
stories about why a user would or would not select the correct action. This
will be section 3 of your report. Critique your stories to make sure they
are believable, according to four criteria:
Will the user be trying to achieve the right effect? What is the users'
goal - will they want to select this action?
Will the user know that the correct action is available? Is the control
(button, menu, switch, triple-click, etc.) for action apparent (visible)?
Will the user know that the correct action will achieve the desired effect?
Once users find control, will they recognize that it is the correct control
to produce the desired effect?
If the correct action is taken, will the user see that things are going
ok? After correct action, will users realise progress has been made towards
the goal (is there proper feedback)?
If you have time, repeat steps 2 and three for another task, for example
clocking the distance and time one needs from home to school.
Propose design changes to the user interface! This will be the last section
of your report.
Submit the URL of your report and a writen copy to me by the begin
of the next exercise. That means it should be in my mailbox by 9.45 am.
