Usability and UI Design

GUIDELINES - How to use this forum!

ModernAnalyst.com — 2007-10-31T23:10:52Z

Use this forum for discussions of topics and issues related to: - software usability, - user experience, and - user interface design.

Which is the best UI mockup tool?

Aman — 2017-04-11T21:40:25Z

Hi all, Just wondering which is the best UI tool for mockups. I currently work in home loans environment and we are building a new system. Hoping someone can advise which is the best tool for new and experienced BAs which lets us put together some lo-fi screens so that the developers can understand what is required in the user story? Thanks

Question UI controls.

Pilfro — 2017-12-18T20:35:50Z

I'm looking for the best way to spec a a UI when a menu selection changes the available fields on the UI. For example choose a state menu with 20 states. Each state may load its own set of control and text fields. I know I can show the change when creating multiple mockups in balsamiq in a presentation/PDF but I'm wondering if there is an cleaner way especially since this is going right a developer. I'm very new and don't have a lot of guidance on this. I'm just wondering if there is a standard way of showing changes to the UI.

Prototyping - experience and tools

Svarrogh — 2009-01-11T21:13:28Z

Hello everyone I would like to ask about experience with using prototype as a leverage for mutual understanding of specific requirements by client side and programmers. Is it helpful in Your oppinion ?What tools are You using ? I experienced 2 approches : one where prototype was supported by programmers and it was fine enough till there was time to support it. It was made in JSF and started up in explorer using virtual machine. Anyway this approach collapsed due to lack of motivation to continue proto building by programmers. Second approach - when BA is making full process proto in prototype composer - this is best i experienced. I was using Serena Prototype composer and can suggest it as great and freeware tool. Please share experience and vote for tools :) Gregory

great UX sites

Craig Brown — 2007-11-27T09:24:36Z

here is a good one with plenty of great downloadable docs. Chekc out the PDF on form design. 'http://www.lukew.com/resources/index.asp'>http://www.lukew.com/resources/index.asp

From Business Analyst to User Experience Analyst/Designer

Meta BA — 2018-12-24T19:13:49Z

A lot of business analysts especially new business analysts wonder what their options are for the future. It is not always clear is because there are many ways to go depending on your passions and education/training. The straightforward path is Junior Business Analyst to Senior Business Analyst to Business Analyst Manager, however, you don't always have to move completely straightforward. One lateral option is a becoming a User Experience Analyst or Designer

In practice, a user experience analyst is somewhere between a business analyst and a graphic/interface designer. You are typically expected to perform very similar task to what we traditionally call a business analysis tasks, in terms of discovering business needs and documenting requirements; however you take it a few steps further by using what you know about the business to build out a design that would be most effective for the users usually in the form of wireframes. An experienced business analyst could get some training around usability testing, information architecture, and design principles and easily become and superb user experience analyst or designer. For a look at exactly what a UX designer does and how closely it compares to business analysis check out 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN26KKru7jM'>User Experience Designer Job Description Deliverables (YouTube Video)

Confused to choose a job profile between a Business Analyst and a Software Tester?

Sagar Pilare — 2017-04-13T08:56:24Z

I am working as BA in start up company.But I think that Java developer and tester doing more hard work than me.Now I have more than 1 year of experience but I am still confuse about my profile.

BAs will HAVE TO learn about User Experience

Rahul — 2015-09-25T02:51:02Z

'User Experience' is the new paradigm that is about to change the way business is being done. The future of business is 'User Experience'. Brian Solis talks at length about this phenomenon in his book 'What's the Future?'. Recently I did a research on what's the future of business analysis. One of the interesting finding is that be it business processes, business solutions, or IT solutions, the success of the solution will depend on User Experience. It's not just in the consumer market, but also at the work-place that people demand better user experience. Those bare-looking software or solutions that just do the job are facing hard competition from feature packed, convenient, and aesthetic solutions. University of Berkeley also published an article on how UX and BA skills are so overlapping and converging. This certainly means that to become future-proof, we BAs MUST learn about User Experience. Probably 'BABOK' and 'BA for Practitioners' should include sections dedicated to User Experience? My research is summarized here: 'http://www.modernanalyst.com/LinkClick.aspx?link=https%3a%2f%2fwww.linkedin.com%2fpulse%2ffar-future-business-analysis-rahul-ajani tabid=76 portalid=0 mid=403' target='_self' title='The Far Future of Business Analysis | Rahul Ajani | LinkedIn' rel='nofollow'>The Far Future of Business Analysis. Please feel free to share your thoughts on convergence of BA and UX roles and future of business analysis in general!

Need HELP (UI Requirements)

Mohammad — 2014-12-08T16:34:54Z

I have been assigned to gather requirements for a UI, document them, and provide it to the developers to build using those requirements. I am totally lost and literally have no guidance at my current job. I work for a marketing company, which sells products for ATT, Dish Network, Verizon and more. It is a call center. I've side-jacked with the agents and learned the programs they are using. I understand the program and the functionalities they need. But I am totally lost how to document requirements for a UI! My development team is waiting for me to provide them with requirements which they will use to build the application. Help-> what are some examples of requirements for a UI. How are they worded? Has anyone ever document requirements for a UI which they can share, will be much appreciated (email: mabba002@gmail.com). Any guidance will be much much appreciated!!! Thanks a million.

User interfaces & usability specs

kr_BA — 2008-02-25T05:42:37Z

Hi All,

Very often I find user interface sections in SRS/BRD templates,

I feel these sections are for user interface prototyping, but one

questions always haunt me that , just specifying the requirement

model in my SRS by Use case and activity diagrams should I go for

user interface prototyping or not? (by considering user inputs)

Kumar Rohit

Canonical Abstract Prototypes

Łukasz Pasek — 2014-05-26T12:02:07Z

There is a great technique (not a tool but rather an aproach) called Canonical Abstract Prototyping. When you need to design user interface this is a method to quickly get nice results. You just have to think what information shall be present on what screens. Visio is great for drawing this type of Prototype. For more check Larry Constantines web page: http://www.foruse.com/publications/index.htm Here are some examples I did: http://requirementsexample.weebly.com/user-interface-prototype.html

Performance related requirements for UI interatctions

Phil Arnold — 2013-12-11T10:26:22Z

Hi there, I am looking for some advice and guidance please. I have been developing some performance related requirements for user interfaces. An example requirement to aid this discussion could be: 'A user shall be presented with a search result within 5 seconds of the search being initiated' Obviously, 5 seconds was an arbitrary figure provided by the business based on some averaged user expectations of what would be an acceptable performance timescale. Now, testers have raised some clarifications with regard to this requirement based on their test approach. For instance, if testing this requirement on a system containing no or few records then the requirement will be met, probably exceeded. However, if testing this requirement on a considerably larger system, it may be that this requirement is not met, all of the time. From the business perspective, 5 seconds is the absolute maximum time for a seach to be completed and results presented to a user. From a requirements perspective, is there anything else that I could have done? Is this requirement lacking any way? Or is it the case that this is a design/development issue where ultimately, the solution that they come up with should be able to meet this performance requirment?

Business Analysis Cloud Tools: Elicitation, Requirements Analysis, and Requirements Management

Meta BA — 2013-11-12T02:17:18Z

My Top Tools For Business Analysis That Live Out In the Cloud!

Elicitation: Note Taking

'http://evernote.com/'>Evernote

For me, elicitaiton involves a lot of note taking and Evernote is fantastic because you can access all you stuff from a browser, mobile phones , as well as desktop. Evernote is built for notes, so it has a ton of features that make it perfect for note taking on the go!

Requirements Analysis: Modeling and Diagramming

'https://www.lucidchart.com/'>LucidCharts, 'http://www.gliffy.com/index-d.php'>Gliffy, and 'http://creately.com/'>Creatly

To Me, these three are basically the same. The all have everything you would need for business analysis modeling including wireframing, process modelling, data flow diagrams, data models, you name it. All of these have limited free versions, usually restricting sharing and exportable. If you want to get the full package deal they range from $5-$10 per month.

Requirements Management: Communication and Collaboration

'https://drive.google.com/'>Google Docs

I like Google Docs because you can work with other people at the same time on the same document, and easily share. Very easy to access all of your stuff on any device, and you can export to most of the popular office suite templates (like .doc, .ppt, etc)

Got Any Other Great Tools? Please share. I discovered all of these tools via recommendations from other BA's. Certainly you guys have heard of other great tools.

Angelo @ 'http://www.metabusinessanalyst.com/business-analysis-tools-life-in-the-clouds/' rel='nofollow'>MetaBA In the Clouds

New Axure Book - Reviewers Needed

Anna Roosen — 2013-06-24T09:56:43Z

Hi all, I have recently co-authored a book on learning Axure ('A Beginner's Guide to Axure 6.5') and would be like to hear from BAs/UXers/Designers who would be interested in writing an independent Amazon review in exchange for a complimentary copy of the kindle book (which can be read on the iPad using the Kindle Reader app). Please contact me at annaroosen@gmail.com. Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Axure-6-5-ebook/dp/B00DK8YZ3W/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8 qid=1372070434 sr=8-9 keywords=axure Blurb:

“A Beginner’s Guide to Axure 6.5” is written for anyone involved in software design who needs to learn how to use Axure RP 6.5 in a minimal amount of time. Axure is a leading prototyping tool used to create rapid 'drag and drop' designs for web, desktop and mobile applications, without the need for code.

No previous knowledge of the tool is required to use this book, and the two expert-level authors take you right from the basics and cut through to the essential skills you really need to create rich interactive designs. Many examples and practical real-world tips are included to help improve the quality of your designs and make your prototyping more efficient.

Concepts and techniques covered include: Getting started, the Axure interface, file management, the main menu, managing panels, the sitemap, page notes, the canvas, guidelines, widgets, annotations, designing using only images, modifying widgets (widget-by-widget formatting, global formatting and widget libraries), page formatting, masters, how to create consistent designs, simple widget interactions, simple page interactions, dynamic panels, simple and complex interactions, shortcuts, generating prototypes, generating page images, creating flowcharts, generating specification documents, providing prototypes to clients, and designing mobile applications.

Modeling Mainframe Systems

JBIT83 — 2012-12-20T19:26:15Z

I am trying to model an IBM z/OS mainframe transaction processing system application because there is no existing documentatation from when this system was designed. I'm not quite sure what to visually depict on the context and then start breaking it down from there, such as the major batch processes that are run, system actors, dataset stores, and so on. Does anyone have any suggestions or examples of mainframe application system models.

Document Management - Indexing Search Tool

John — 2012-09-01T04:47:23Z

Hello, My area is responsible for imaging mortgage related documents to a central repository. Each document is indexed to a unique doc type for future accessibility (e.g. processing, servicing, etc). My team maintains the standards for the referenced doc types. We support operations by updating/editing doc type descriptions, tips, AKA's, sample images, etc. These classification standards are housed within our access database which is interconnected with other related databases (privacy, quality, doc type search tool, etc). Currently, we are in the process of reevaluating our administration tool. Has anyone went through a similar process within their company? If so, what kind of technology transition did you see and how well did it work? We are also reevaluating our doc type search tool. Our doc type search tool gives processors the ability to search various descriptions, AKA's, tips, etc. An image library is also connected to each unique doc type, which allows processors to view various sample images. These tools and functionality have all been created as a means to increase indexing quality. However, we are searching for something more powerful and user friendly. We would like to make sample images more accessible. Currently, you have to search by keyword(s), which pulls up associated doc types, then you have to double-click on the doc type you wish to view, which finally opens the connected image library folder. I have pondered the idea of making each sample image OCR eligible, which would give processors the ability to search portions of sentences and pull up matching example images. However, there is no way to collect the endless amount of mortgage related documents found within the industry today. Also, many images get scanned in are not of the best quality, which hinders the effectiveness of applying OCR. Basically, I'm wondering if anyone has experience with these types of issues and what type of software/online services did you use in order to solve the underlying problems? Can this type of doc type metadata be housed in an environment that is powerful enough to be interconnected with other systems and have advanced functionality built within it? Any feedback would be very much appreciated. Thanks,

What to do after prototyping?

Javad — 2012-08-26T11:36:57Z

Hi all, We are working in an educational organization which has a development team to develop the software inside organization. Due to abstract and vague requirements we (the development team) decided to develop a prototype. After working on the prototype it became mature and quite functional. Now managers decided to launch an experimental web site using our prototype to figure out missing requirements or any new need directly from users. Here is my question: how can we evaluate the prototype to see if it covers the needs of our managers and users in addition to efficiency of the prototype itself. In other words we face two issues: We want to find any missing requirement We want to assess prototype against usability guidelines Are there any guidelines to help us in this process? Can we use usability measurement techniques? What else should we use? P.s. If we use usability measument techniques per se we cannot figure out the missing requirements. Regards.

When to use what technique?

Tim G. — 2011-11-09T19:49:08Z

As a business analyst there are plenty of techniques to use for post-requirement-elicitation clarification: use cases, prototyping (software applications such as iRise, UPerform, etc - or excel/visio), swim-lane as-is/to-be process flow diagrams, wireframes, etc. How do you know when it is appropriate to use which technique? Is it based on the type of project? Is it based on cost and/or schedule limitations of that project? If the business wants the best result, the more techniques and straight forward documentation used the better, although that is never the case based on lack of budget. What is your go to technique, and what are the pros and cons of each?

When do i need to collect UI requirement

Neu — 2010-07-13T01:24:11Z

I'm new to UML and analysis and design. I'm trying to apply UML to a small web site. I've a few questions. 1. Is it different UI requirement and UI sketch. 2. I'm not sure exactly when to collect/draw UI requirement or sketches. (I tried to draw sketches from Use case description and then tried to expand it from Sequence diagram, but still not sure) 3. One of my users has offered me some UI sketches. I can't agree with the offered one, which was too bad. We discussed much with no success :(. So do i need to get the users UI design as USER REQUIREment?

Requirements elicitation for user interface vs application

Priyanka_BA — 2008-10-31T18:51:54Z

Hi, I am always very confused that how are the requirements for the user interface different from the requirements for the whole application. User interface is a part of the applicationd esign, right ? And also how the use case design different for User interface than the one designed for a partular functionality. My understanding is that when we are designing use cases is it not that we are keeping in our mind that there will be a screen infront of us on and navigating through that will enable us to perform certain desired functions. Any thoughts would be highly appreciated on this. Thanks Priyanka