The Ergonomics Society is about to embark on a redesign of its website, and earlier this week I posted out the first and second deliverables from the stakeholder kickoff meeting: the user segmentation model and the user profiles. Now, we follow these up with the final deliverable from that session: the user scenarios.
First, a caveat: actually, these aren’t really user scenarios, at least not in the text book sense of being a rich narrative weaving together users, tasks & artefacts into a coherent, goal-oriented context. Instead, these are more like nominal placeholders, representing the key goal-driven activities of each of the segments, ready to be further refined and expanded through user research. These scenarios, generated during a 30-minute breakout session, are listed below (grouped by segment):
As an Information Consumer, I want to:
- Source an interviewee today to talk about <specialism>
- Find a practical solution to a <ergonomics topic> problem in my workplace
- Find diagrams to demonstrate <ergonomics process/service>
- Find current research on <ergonomics topic>
- Find out what ergonomics is
As a Society Member I want to:
- Find out how to join
- Pay my membership fees
- Understand the rules to become registered
- Avoid the conference late fee
- Find an ergonomist in <region> working on <specialism>
- Find out when my CREE accreditation expires
- Understand how to take a career break
As a Society Customer, I want to:
- Register for an event
- Place an advert
- Find out where the ads are placed on the site
As a 3rd Party Service Consumer I want to:
- Find a consultancy service that matches my needs
- Find an educational course that matches my needs
As a Staff Information Consumer I want to:
- Talk an enquirer through finding an ergonomist
- Direct someone to a page on the website
- Check details on awards
- Check details of events
As a group, we then prioritised the scenarios according to business and user value, as shown below. There shouldn’t be too many surprises in this – if we got our segmentation right, and our profiles prioritised appropriately, then what comes out as the high priority scenarios should really be consistent with that. Nonetheless, I’m a but surprised that only one Information Consumer scenario made it into the top right quadrant. They are all pretty high on user value – it’s just that the business value of those scenarios isn’t as high.
Scenario prioritisation
So – what’s next? Well, we now have our basic UX framework / requirements which will form the basis for iteration planning and a reference point for design decision-making. Our next step is to use this and start on all the PM stuff, e.g. clarifying scope, timelines and budgets. I’ll be setting up a meeting shortly to kick this off. If you want to contribute, to either the process or the outputs, just let me know.
Information Interaction 
One thing that is emerging strongly so far from my analysis of the qualitative data from my practitioner survey is this. Respondents’ top suggestion for improved application of ergonomics research increased collaboration between researchers and practitioners and increased contact, networking, and association. This networking and collaboration is something that LinkedIn promotes but not all members use LinkedIn, and fewer still use it actively. I wonder if this is something that could be better assisted via the ES website. The dilemma is that the website discussion board is hardly used currently. There seems to be something wrong with discussion boards as a means of making connections, and I wonder if there is not a smart way for HF/E professionals (particular practitioners and researchers) to find one another to communicate and collaborate. This relates to your point: “Find an ergonomist in working on “. This appears to be important. Other key factors that are emerging in terms of suggestions for better application of research are: 1. better availability/accessibility of research; 2. better practitioner awareness of research; 3. more relevant and applicable research; 4. better buy in and cooperation from decision makers, stakeholders, colleagues and the organisation; and, 5. more practitioner research. My content analysis is ongoing >_< and I'll let you know if anything else comes up that imay be relevant to the website.
Hi Tony
This looks like an excellent start – sorry to have not been able to make the session at the end of create.
A few thoughts
1) There is a category of user who is non-member but needs to submit or review abstracts etc. For non-members this is an important shop window, and one that has causes problems over the last few years eg with create. I appreciate this has improved over the last 12months, but I feel it has some way to go in comparison to the best of other submission / review processes. I cant remember whether the current system requires the user to register with the site first – I think it does. If so this makes it at least medium user value, and probably medium business value. It also has value though to any conference organisers, as a good system would ease peer review, and potentially cut down on the lead time for submissions, reviewing etc. It should, of course, be closely aligned to other types of conference registration etc.
2) Within the information consumer role there is a ‘find out about the ergonomics society’ scenario – not quite the same as ‘find out about ergonomics’. I can imagine (as I did myself once) looking up what the society could offer me, it’s specialisations etc. – I knew broadly what ergonomics was so didnt need that kind of information, but more details about the society (and I dont think this includes too much historical information about ex-president etc, though emphasising the society’s roots in the founding fathers of ergonomics is no bad thing). I think this is both a high user value, and high business value case, as it is success at this level that will encourage associate membership and beyond – I also think this should emphasise the role of the society for students – they are the future etc.
3) I dont see any mention of SIGs and newsgroups in there – is this deliberate? I don’t think the newsgroup facility works well (as there is currently no functionality to do an emial push to tell me a list or thread has been updated). The knock-on is that I think this undermines one of the key functions of the SIG. That said, I havent looked for a while so it may have improved. I almost feel some of the SIG related functionality would be better just handed over to the SIGs to manage as they see fit, but I dont know how that caters for, say, more general ergonomics discussion boards.
4) In terms of the process beyond this stage – what are the plans for the visual design of the site? In the spirit of Create surely this is an opportunity to get someone who has working expertise in visual web design to take whatever branding is planned for the re-named society and integrate it into a smart, business like design. I dont think it has to be complex, but it is important, and definitely high-business value (after all, 80% of people decide to buy the house they are viewing on their way to the front door 🙂 ) I am sure you have it all in hand.
Good luck with it
Best
Dave