User Analysis:

User Personas

Single-use participants

These users will probably only use the site once; they care about the issue and want to be heard, but only if it doesn't interfere with their day-to-day activities.  Their time is valued highly, so if your interface gives them an error, asks for too much information, or requires them to scroll through a page to find what they want, they will close the tab and never look back.

[Potential] Activists

These users are passionate about the issue; they need something to do (a protest to go to, a representative to call or write to, some code to write, some posters to design, etc.), and after that, they need the next thing to do.  If you give them a place to start, a good estimate for the time commitment of each task, and the motivation to continue working at every step, these users will be very effective.  They are willing to put up with more frustration than the single-use crowd, but don't let them get discouraged.

User Characteristics

Single-use participants

Threshold for giving up:  Low

Percentage of users:  Large

Likely to become a frequent user:  No

Would create an account:  No

Activists

Threshold for giving up:  High

Percentage of users:  Small

Likely to become a frequent user:  Yes

Would create an account:  Maybe

Task Analysis:

The overall goal in our program is to allow interested activists to contact their congressman by phone. This can be broken down into three main tasks:

Look up the representatives for your area

            Goal: Create an easy, intuitive way to select congress-people relevant to your location and interests

Subtask: Allow search by location

            Precondition: Provide a zip-code or street address

Subtask: Filter representatives by categories such as level of government and hours of availability

Schedule a phone call between you and a congressperson

            Goal: Allow the user to plan a call to their representative (either now or in the future)

            Subtask: Select one of the representative's offices to contact

                        Precondition: Selected representative must have more than one office

            Subtask: Send a confirmation e-mail to the user containing a unique code they can use to modify or cancel their call

Record a voicemail to be sent to the congressperson's office

            Goal: Enable the user to leave a voicemail directly, rather than go through the phone   system

                Subtask: Select a representative to receive your voicemail

                                Precondition: That representative needs to have a compatible voice mail system

                Subtask: User records their message

                Subtask: User can review their own message

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1 Comment

  1. Unknown User (juhokim@mit.edu)

    Problem Statement
    I think you picked a very interesting problem domain that certainly can benefit from a better designed interactive system. I was worried that this might turn into yet another event management tool, but the feedback meeting convinced me that this domain bears many unique traits that could turn into novel interaction innovations.

    User Analysis
    It's too broad: the purpose of doing this analysis is not to think about any potential users.
    I recommend choosing the characteristics that differ between user groups. Also, 'ANY' is not what we want to see in the analysis. What you learn from the exercise is also limited that way.

    Task Analysis
    As mentioned in the feedback meeting, the task analysis should focus more on high-level user goals. Now it looks more like a functional document for specific pages and features. But there were interesting insights that reflect the uniqueness of this domain, and I enjoyed learning them in the analysis.