User Analysis

There are two main characteristics of our user population:

1. They access the Internet using a smart phone and/or computer.
2. They are interested in staying up-to-date using information streams with more content than they are willing/able to read.

We noticed several people who do not consider themselves part of the group described by #2 because they don’t feel overwhelmed. They keep things under control by vigorously unsubscribing and unfollowing---or, viewed another way, undersubscribing and underfollowing. We think that they might still benefit from a system that allowed them to review more data with the same amount of effort.

Task Analysis

We consider 6 high-level tasks related to our problem. Three compose the central experience: reading, filtering, and configuring the display. The other three are required for our interface to be used with third-party services: identifying themselves to our service, initial setup, and managing connections to third-party information sources.

Reading

Besides viewing the content, users also need to be able to organize the content (such as with tags or a directory structure), and control the lifetime of the content (marking items as read, marking as “read later,” etc).

• Why is the task being done? The user wants to know what’s going on in their world.
• What does the user need to know or have before doing the task? That what they’re about to read is likely to be interesting/useful
• Where is the task performed? in a smart phone’s web browser, potentially on the go
• What is the environment like? Noisy, dirty, dangerous? potentially
• How often is the task performed? Within a session, repeatedly and rapidly, and they may have several sessions per day
• What are its time resource constraints? As fast as possible (as quickly as a few seconds), but perhaps lasting several minutes for longer content
• How is the task learned? in situ
• What can go wrong? accidentally lose the item they just read and having to find it again
• Who else is involved in the task? no one

Filtering

Users will often be interested in only a subset of information (written by a specific person or persons, or covering a certain topic)* Why is the task being done? The user wants to restrict the given information to that subset.

• What does the user need to know or have before doing the task? They need to be logged in, and know enough about the subset to describe it or pick a filter.
• Where is the task performed? Either on a desktop/laptop, or on a phone browser.
• What is the environment like? Noisy, dirty, dangerous? It could be, if the user is on the go with their smartphone or tablet.
• How often is the task performed? This depends on the user’s profile; some may do it all the time, others only once or twice per session.
• What are its time resource constraints? The feedback loop should ideally be less than a minute so refining the filter is easy.
• How is the task learned? The user can learn it by recognition; we plan to design the interface so its controls are very similar to Google Instant search or other similar mechanisms.
• What can go wrong? The filter could be incorrect (too broad or narrow), or it could have a typo. A fast feedback loop will improve safety by ameliorating these issues.
• Who else is involved in the task? No one else in this case.’
• What subtasks are there? Navigating to the textbox (or other form element used for filtering, entering the author name or topic to keep (or reusing an old filter), scanning the subset displayed, and revising the input if needed. Optionally, users could save the filter for future usage.

Configuring the Display

We anticipate that one interface will not fit all, so we will need controls for display settings like changing the font face and size. This will be more important in the phone interface than on the desktop, where browsers expose convenient settings for the font size.

• Why is the task being done? The user cannot read our interface comfortably
• What does the user need to know or have before doing the task? That they are uncomfortable, and that settings are available
• Where is the task performed? in a web browser on a phone or PC
• What is the environment like? Noisy, dirty, dangerous? potentially
• How often is the task performed? ideally only once
• What are its time resource constraints? none
• How is the task learned? in situ
• What can go wrong? an inappropriate option is chosen that doesn’t improve readability
• Who else is involved in the task? no one

Initial Setup

Users will need to be able to specify what information they want to manage using our interface, preferably as quickly and easily as their existing techniques.

• Why is the task being done? So that we know what they want to read
• What does the user need to know or have before doing the task? What sources they want to add, and their authentication information
• Where is the task performed? in a smart phone’s web browser, potentially on the go
• What is the environment like? Noisy, dirty, dangerous? yes
• How often is the task performed? once per information source
• What are its time resource constraints? fast (less than a minute)
• How is the task learned? in situ
• What can go wrong? forgot password, typo. don’t know what the service is or how to add it (ex: RSS feeds). want to add a source that we don’t support.
• Who else is involved in the task? the 3rd party in question

Identity Creation and Authentication

To store user information remotely, we need users to create an identity for our application and provide authentication information to identify themselves in the future.

• Why is the task being done? So we can identify the user and thus save state in our application for that user’s preferences/updates/etc.
• What does the user need to know or have before doing the task? How they would like to identify themselves and authenticate their identity (like what user name and password they want to use)
• Where is the task performed? in a smart phone or computer web browser, potentially on the go
• What is the environment like? Noisy, dirty, dangerous? The environment could be noisy and have many people around. It could be indoors or out.
• How often is the task performed? Once per user (hopefully)
• What are its time resource constraints? Should be fast, about a minute
• How is the task learned? By doing, but we should be able to rely on affordances
• What can go wrong? The user inputs their desired identity/authentication incorrectly (lik the wrong user name or password)
• Who else is involved in the task? no one.

Managing 3rd-Party Connections

After setup is complete and the app is being used, there are still actions that the user may want to take regarding our connections to the third-party services, such as remove them, pause their use (temporarily stop reading items from them), and configure how often updates are pulled.

• Why is the task being done? The user has a problem with how our software interacts with a third-party service and needs to change its behavior
• What does the user need to know or have before doing the task? that something is wrong, that they can fix it by changing settings, and how to access the settings
• Where is the task performed? in a web browser on a phone or PC
• What is the environment like? Noisy, dirty, dangerous? potentially
• How often is the task performed? infrequently, probably only a handful of times for every few months of use
• What are its time resource constraints? none
• How is the task learned? in situ
• What can go wrong? a service is accidentally disabled, the user forgets that a service is enabled, or some setting is set to an inappropriate value
• Who else is involved in the task? no one