I believe that any hypothesis statement can be cultivated from the bare-bones model of causeand effect being rendered as a formalized statement of ” if …. then” or ” when … then”kind of format. At least this gives a more practical approach to build a real-world Hypothesis-Driven Design based system which is technically feasible and is the essence of any DesOps system .
Typically any lean methodologies are based two basic goals:
Helping the organization understanding customer value
Using the key processes of the organization to continuously increase it and work towards delivering a perfect value to the customer through a perfect value creation process with zero waste.
In the context of Design and User Experience(UX), in the seminal book Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf, provides some lean methodologies break the stalemate between the speed of Agile and the need for design in product development lifecycle” [Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seidenjeff, The Lean UX]. If we observe closely, the basic foundations of Lean UX prescribed are common to the core Lean philosophies, namely:
Remove Wastage from Design Process — Moving away from heavy documentation to a process that creates artefacts which can be directly used in the design and development lifecycle itself.
Cross-functional Collaboration — All the stakeholders from any parts of the product lifecycle including the designer, developers, quality experts, analysts, marketers and end-users all collaborate in a transparent and productive way.
Experimentation Based Iterative Execution — So fundamentally it alludes to the UCD core principles, that assumes that the designer (or the team) learns from the execution of the prototypes in an iterative cycle that starts early in the product lifecycle, from which the learning is used as an input to improve the product along the way. If you notice this is the very basis of what we talked about the continuous and integrated feedback loop.
The use of Agile and Design Thinking practices can be seen alluding to the philosophies above. However, regarding the third philosophy — to ensure that the designer has the right approach to conduct the experimentation so that the feedback can be used in a productive way to take informative decision making along the way across the design process requires some non-ambiguous methodologies that can help the designer making some assumption and validate that through experimentation. This is the basis of one of the core foundations of Lean UX and related lean methodologies, which is popularly known as Hypothesis-Driven Design (HDD). As any design that we produce is based on certain assumption and HDD provides the non-ambiguous approach to the same, that follows the third philosophy i.e. Experimentation Based Iterative Execution.
“Declaring assumptions is the first step, in Lean UX process” [Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seidenjeff, The Lean UX] . This statement reflects how the assumptions or the hypothesis is the core the Lean UX principles. Basically, the four steps in the Lean UX approach is the same blocks that appear while in HDD, and can be mapped to the following blocks:
Making Assumption / Formation of Hypothesis
Build a Prototype / Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Execute / Run the Prototype
Get Feedback / Observation
Now step 4 is the feedback loop that connects to step 1 making a cycle, thereby using the feedback from current iteration as the input to form the assumption for the next iteration.
Interestingly this means the HDD process always depends on outcomes rather than traditional outputs of any traditional process. The outcomes are kind of hints from the segment that can give direction to the design along the way and help in getting incremental validation of the vision by acting as “evidence” or the and more precisely they are the factors that help in “course correction” for the design. As the outcomes of the assumption act as pieces of evidence, it helps in making data-driven decisions.
You may ask, does that mean the design is reduced to quantitative factors which will act as evidence to support some of the designs? Now, here is the interesting aspect that helps to understand the approach — the feedback or the evidence can be either quantitative or qualitative in nature. And to avoid the risk of being limited to measurement-driven design, the qualitative perspective is provided equal footing in HDD approach. This makes a fit case for DesOps that can help in converging the technology with this philosophy to form required service design solution powered by machine learning, artificial intelligence and automation. The aspect of the actual implementation using technology is what we will be exploring in coming articles of this series, mostly while discussing the third dimension i.e. technology.
The very first step in HDD, i.e. “Making Assumption / Formation of Hypothesis” involves articulation of the assumption or the hypothesis. And this is the most important aspect of HDD, as the other steps depend on this. Typical hypothesis statement can be framed as per the following simplest form —
I think doing [this] will result in [that ].
There multiple variations to this that many professionals use in their area for HDD based research and design /development activities. Some add the factors such as the segment or the persona or the end user of the product, something like the following —
For [user / him/her ] I think doing [this] will result in [that ].
If you see the above keeps segment in a context that helps it keep focused on to specific persona, which thereby can lead to the user-centred design process. This is essentially labelled by many as a design hypothesis.
Some use additional factors of forming negation of the hypothesis by adding an attribute like whether this hypothesis is believed by him as true or false. To formulate a null hypothesis and thereby move on to define an alternate hypothesis (which is essentially a negation to the null hypothesis one craves to validate, but due to nature and structure or any metrics associated with that, it may not practically be possible to achieve that. So in such kind of cases the implicitly the state of belief is presented as another factor to take part in the validation process —
Because I think [this] is true, I think doing [this] will result in [that ].
I believe that any hypothesis statement can be cultivated from the bare-bones model of cause and effect being rendered as a formalized statement of “if …. then” or “when … then” kind of format. At least this gives a more practical approach to build a real-world HDD based system which is technically feasible and is the essence of any DesOps system.
The next important aspect in this regard is how to ensure that we are considering the qualitative aspect of the evidence, as discussed above. If we look at irrespective of the fact that there is a crowd of applications out there which claims to support the business through a data-informed approached, they are primarily a set of some variation between the extremes like A/B testing tools and data-driven analytics and data modelling based prediction systems. But if we notice with care at the core of HDD we found that the essence of HDD lies in making sense of the data and treat it as evidence so as to inject it to a UCD based process to fuel design or business decisions. Though coming up with a real-world HDD system would require similar tools and technologies of data-driven systems, but they will be supporting components to HDD based system. In this regard, the real HDD based full fledged system is literally non-existent as of today, while I am writing this article. In regards to DesOps, this makes a lot of difference, as most of the HDD frameworks out there are not 100% autonomous. Most of the implementation of HDD is mostly based on the work practices and methodologies, which is implemented depending on the need and feasibility. However, these are good enough when we use these, in context to the tools we gain from UCD, Lean models and the Design Thinking principles. But, it is interesting that the philosophies of DesOps, take it to the next level, making it autonomous and integrated with the over-arching feedback loop we have been referring many times.
To understand where a DesignSystem of an organisation stands in context of implementing a DesOps, first step is to evaluate the existing DesignSystem that is in place and contributes to the organisation’s design process. (We will explore the process aspect in details, in later articles in this series.) To evaluate any DesignSystems in a broadway we can easily form a metrics that takes care of the following two perspectives on the system.
Designer System Types
Typically the Design Systems can be broadly categorised into 3 types, namely: Static, Dynamic and Generative :
Static: Most of the attributes and elements that make this system is mostly static in nature. For example in a Static type Design System, the style guide may be pre-defined print ready reference, defining basic color standards and typography etc. The user has to read through and manually refer it to decide those related attributes in his work. This kind of System mainly prescribes guidelines, rules, principles which does not automatically change or created in a dynamic way either in the stages of creation or implementation by the developers etc. Typical organisational style guides, or UI pattern documentations where the system describes how and where to use the patterns with some sample code to refer are falling under this kind of categories.
Dynamic: This kind of DesignSystem have the content as well as the principles of implementations are designed and developed in a way that can be directly used in the code. The creation and implementation of the content are dynamic and mostly geared towards the actual elements that can directly be used in the code. This kind of DesignSystem is more than a reference system for the developer, rather as a part of the actual build of the actual products developed as a part of it. Most easily noticeable traits of this kind of DesignSystem is that some special purpose frameworks, code libraries are part of it, which integrate into the actual builds of the products.
Generative: Generative DesignSystem are the ones, which generate the actual build ready outputs that can directly go into the build of the product. For example, instead of a static style guide, a generative DesignSystem can have the tool that will generate dev-ready HTML, CSS and Java Script based output from the designer/developer inputs. The output of such system, take care of the context for which the design outputs is needed. Let’s say if the developer needs to build a cross platform hybrid app, hen such system can generate the code that will take care of the scenarios for the interaction and behaviour for all target device resolutions, screen density as well as the behaviour for native wrappers as well as in-browser functionalities and restrictions. We will again journey into the details of the Generative Design Systems shortly.
Designer System Maturity
The other angle to look at the Design Systems is to scale the maturity to measure how much the system has evolved. One of most important aspect of any Design System is to understand the maturity of it, as this helps to understand where it is in the overall DesOpsroadmap. Irrespective of the varied and complex categorisation of the same, we can still name the maturity as Low , Medium and High to get a quick and easy comprehension. And when we try to map the maturity, it takes care of the categorisation aspect.
Low Maturity: When the Design System has a low maturity, it mostly depends on the static attributes that we discussed above. The creation and maintenance of different attributes are mostly the result of manual effort and the most interesting point about this is that the designer and developers have the cognitive load to refer and comprehend and take decisions on what to use and not use in specific context of their work or product. It is also important, there may be some attributes which might have dynamic attributes , but most of them are out of the transition that the design system is having due to its evolution,
Medium Maturity: In the Design Systems with medium maturity, the most elements and attributes are mainly dynamic in nature. These systems mostly depend on the frameworks, libraries etc. There may be some overlaps in static and well as generative attributes.
High Maturity: Similarly in Higher maturity, apart from the fact that it mostly contains generative attributes, it involves the aspects of automation, computer-vision and may deploy artificial intelligence (AI) to provide continuous pipelines that aspires to remove the human intervention form the process blocks. On ground reality it might require the human intervention to feed in the creative juices or decision power that impacts critical human needs or contexts.
When we map these 2 perspectives horizontally and vertically, we get the the right insight into theDesignSystem’s position in the graph that allows us to clearly understand where the gaps are for the DesignSystem to evolve on which dimensions.
Note that the metrics that govern the success of a DesOps implementation is almost synonymous to this metrics we explored about Design Systems. The factors that adds to this metric on Design Systems, includes aspect where we measure how impactful the Design System is in touching the different design process lifecycle blocks where each role like an Information Architect or an Interaction Designer , Visual Designer or even the Developer are attached to, in the delivery track. This aspect is more figuratively termed as a Living Design System.
The Living Design System
The scaling of design is a classic issue. Moreover in recent times the explosive growth of technology across different devices, platforms and ecosystems, it became an ever-growing monster that every designer faces sooner or later. Native (Windows, Android, iOS, Linux etc. ) Web (HTML, HTML5, CSS, CSS3, JavaScript and frameworks etc. ) Along with the combination – the Hybrid – make the scaling of the design language an unending challenge.
The Salesforce design team tried to solve the challenges of applying similar designs across cross-platform product families by introducing a dynamically configurable design asset system which viewed the individual entities of any design system as design tokens.
Technically it was a single JSON file that was the “Single Source of Truth” that contained a set of name-value pairs that defined the properties and their relationships under different categories like text colours, backgrounds, border sizes, font sizes, etc. This JSON was consumed by the framework (i.e. The Lightning Designing System link: https://www.lightningdesignsystem.com/downloads/) developed and templatized for different target platforms, devices, Operating Systems etc. The Lightning Designing System framework generated different formatted outputs for CSS via common CSS preprocessors like Sass, Less and Stylus. Also there was an output in XML format that is supported in Android and JSON for iOS specific development. The Salesforce Design Tokens open-sourced at https://github.com/salesforce-ux/design-system.
The second interesting aspect of this was the use of GitHub to host the design system. Unlike the design system of traditional organisation, where the design system was hosted as downloadable form (even in the cases where the version control like Git is used) these have to be either translated into desired formats for the target platform or hosted especially along with the code. But here the design tokens representing the styles definition and the properties, as hosted on GitHub, were directly integrated into the build process contributing to the Continuous IntegrationandDevelopment approach of development. In this sense, it was more as a Living System acting a single source of truth, from which the required branch is pulled and be made as a part of the build.
Many other pattern library and/design systems like RedHat’s PatternFlyhttp://www.patternfly.org is also available in similar approach at GitHub (i.e. at https://github.com/patternfly )as that of this second aspect we discussed now. But the idea of making the style guide being available as a SingleSource of truth in combination of this second aspect is what makes the case of the Salesforce design system unique among similar attempts for an approach to deliver a consistent design across different platforms.
This is a rediscovery of “Accessibility” in the world of touch-screens and other natural interfaces. With new technology innovation the lines between accessibility technology and Technology for Mass are getting blurred. What used to be a special need is becoming a general need for mass use.Situational Disabilities Use-cases are defining the new age devices, wearable & smart interfaces.
High time we need to rediscover on “accessibility” what we think we have already discovered!
My recent title is available on Kindle for download. This book covers basic models and methodologies that are revolved around User Experience (UX). The discussed topics include User Experience, Information Architecture, User Interface, Usability models, User Centered Design (UCD), User Centered Software Design (UCSD), different Software Lifecycles (SDLC) and how usability models fit into SDLC models.
The details of the book are as follows:
UX Simplified: Models & Methodologies: Digital Edition
by Samir Dash
ISBN: 978-1-3115-9110-4
ASIN: B00LPQ22O0
Kindle Price (US$):$1.87 Kindle Price (INR):Rs. 119.00 includes free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
UX Simplified: Models & Methodologies: Digital Edition [Kindle Edition] ISBN: 978-1-3115-9110-4Major topics included in this book are :
• Why “UX: Simplified”?
o The Diverse Disciplines: The ABCs of UX
o User Experience(UX)
o Information Architecture(IA)
o Interaction Design (IxD)
o User Interface Design (UI)
• Usability and Mental Models: Foundations of UX
o What is Usability?
o System Models
o What is a “Mental Model” exactly?
o Most-likely Mental Model
o Conceptual Model
o Challenges in Usability Measurement and Metrics
o A List of Factors for Generic and Consolidated Usability Model
o Heuristics:Measuring Usability
• Engineering and Design Processes: Usability and User Centric Approach
o Usability Engineering
o User-Centered Systems Design (UCSD)
o Usability Design
o User-Centered Design (UCD)
o Don’t get Confused: UCD vs UCSD
o UCD Models and Process
• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC): Where and How User Experience Models fit in?
o Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
o Waterfall model
o Spiral model
o Iterative Development Model
o Agile development
o Challenges in UX Integration to Different SDLC Models
o Usability Designing Process
o How Usability Design Process Fits in Different Phases of SDLC?
o How UX Fits in Different Models of SDLC?
o Challenges with Agile model of SDLC to implement UX
o Lean UX and Agile Model
• Agile in Usability Design:Without Reference to SDLC
o Usability Designing Process
• Lean UX: Another Agile UX?
o The Beauty of Lean UX: Everything is familiar
o Foundation Stones of Lean UX:
o Lean Startup method: The concept of “Build-Measure-Learn”
o Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – Prototyping at it’s best in Lean Startup Method
o Principles of Lean UX
Agile is the most popular and successful SDLC model as of today as it allows better scope in providing continuous and iterative refinement to the product. Historically when developers out of their frustrations with waterfall model turned to the growing Agile Movement to regain their control over the process, they found that “like its ancestors, Agile also didn’t take UX into account. Several of the Agile methods, such as Scrum and XP, recommended users sitting with the team during the development process, but that isn’t the same as design. Everyone who figured out how to get what they wanted from plugging UX into a phased waterfall approach was now struggling to work inside the Agile methods. The Agile principles, that focus more on communication and less on contracts, didn’t fit the status quo UX processes”.So efforts were made again to implement UX into Agile methods just like the way it was implemented into waterfall model . But it was not easy as , in waterfall model there are 2 things which helped implemented UX :
The objectives of the project stays same from kickoff to the point where the finished product is launched.
The designers created the set of design specifications as a contract which the developers had to implement into the final product.
And above two cannot be expected from Agile model as it is based on iterations and gradual exploration of what is best fit for the final product . On ejust simply cannot predict the final design from the start of the project. So many attempts were made to get the best agile SDLC practices that can incorporate the UX , before “Lean UX” was born.
As the above figure shows the documentation and guidelines are stripped to their bare minimum components, providing the minimum amount of information necessary to get started on implementation. Also Long detailed design cycles are discarded in favor of very short, iterative, low-fidelity cycles, with feedback coming from all members of the implementation team early and often.
Challenges with Agile model of SDLC to implement UX
There are several challenges in implementing UX in Agile model effectively and these challenges include:
Different approaches. Usability methodologies are centered on the user and holistic view of the user needs whereas agile methodologies take a broader view and focus on the stakeholder. Agile methods primarily focus on delivering working software early.
Different goals: Software engineers focus on the technical design, implementation the system where as UX practitioners focus on “developing systems so end-users can use them effectively”.
Organizational challenges: The agile methodologies focus on strategy where teams are self-organizing whereas UX focuses on a centralized UX groups within some organizations so that the needed practices, tools, and standards can be provided.
UX practitioners struggle to be heard: Many UX practitioners often complain that the results of their work are not considered in the design decisions and even if it is heard, there seems to be focus more on engineering decisions over the usability decisions.
Lean UX and Agile Model
Many of UX practitioners see “Lean UX” as the answers to the challenge we see in implementing UX into an Agile SDLC where it uses “taking the best parts of our current UX practices and redesigning them specifically for use in an agile world”. Lean UX, is about reducing waste in a process by removing it from the value chain of the usability process..
The proactive measures for border engagement in Agile model has paved path to a new and more practical implementation of UX discipline and methods called “Lean UX” Lean UX once blended with any exiting Agile SDLC, helps to “create a more productive team and a more collaborative process” .
The basic principles Lean UX uses to provide positive refinements to SDLC are through the following 3 foundation stones for it:
Design Thinking:This foundation upholds the concept that “every aspect of a business can be approached with design methods” and gives “designers permission and precedent to work beyond their typical boundaries”.
Agile Software Development: Core values of Agile are the key to Lean UX.
Lean Startup method:Lean Startup uses a feedback loop called “build-measure-learn” to minimize project risk and gets teams building quickly and learning quickly
Lean UX and UX in Agile SDLC
“Lean UX” is seen as the answers to the challenge we see in implementing UX into an Agile SDLC. As discussed in the earlier chapters, Lean UX principles use “taking the best parts of our current UX practices and redesigning them specifically for use in an agile world”.
Lean UX solved many issues were even there with the practices and usability process used in waterfall and different derivative iterative models. In Lean UX practices, there is no more requirements for the “objectives will stay the same and that you can design for a single solution throughout the project”. Also there no more need for the designers to create bulky guidelines and documentations for the developers to be used as a contract. Rather the Lean UX practice upholding agile approach, only focuses on each independent design iteration as a “hypothesis” which has to be validated from a “customer perspective” and from a “business perspective” . The beauty here is because of the Agile process being followed, fast iterations can happen to quickly test hypotheses and get to a great design in the end of the project.
In context of a real world situation the Lean UX is something like:
“The traditional paper work is discarded, while the focus is turned to making sketches of the idea. Then the sketch is presented and discussed with the team. The initial prototype effort is very small comparing to detailed documents, so it’s easy to make changes. After it’s agreed internally, rough prototype is made and tested with users. The learning from users help refine the idea and iteration starts over again”
And this makes case for “collaboration with the entire team” as it becomes critical to the success of the product and the whole project.
The Beauty of Lean UX: Everything is familiar
No practice used in Lean UX is something new. Rather it is “built from well-understood UX practices”. Many of the techniques used over the time in various UX process and have the practical usability even today, have been packaged properly in Lean UX.
Lean UX is not Same as Agile UX
Lean UX is a totally different term than Agile UX.Lean UX details methods and their practical application in dynamic environment of a Lean StartupIt is the converging point for product development and business, through constant measurement and so called “learning loops” (build – measure – learn).
Agile UX defines update of Agile Software Methodology with UX Design methods. It aims to unify developers and designers in the Agile process of product development.
However Lean UX uses Agile UX methodologies, tools to coordinate their software development.
Foundation Stones of Lean UX:
The key ingredients of Lean UX which act as foundation stones for it are:
Design Thinking: This foundation upholds the concept that “every aspect of a business can be approached with design methods” and gives “designers permission and precedent to work beyond their typical boundaries”.
Agile Software Development: Core values of Agile are the key to Lean UX. It forces on 4 major principles of Agile development to product design:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools: This principle louds the concept of exchange of ideas freely and frequently in a team. “The constraints of current processes and production tools are eschewed in favor of conversation with colleagues”
Working Software over Documentation:This focuses on bringing out solution quickly so that it can be “accessed for market and viability”.
Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation:Collaboration with teammates and customers builds consensus behind decisions which results in faster iterations and lessens heavy documentations.
Responding to change over following a plan: “The assumption in Lean UX is that the initial product designs will be wrong, so the goal should be to find out what’s wrong with them as soon as possible” and this helps in finding the right direction quickly.
Lean Startup method: Lean Startup uses a feedback loop called “build-measure-learn” to minimize project risk and gets teams building quickly and learning quickly. Typically startups are “free to build products in a manner which differentiate on quality”. Also startups can focus on “intrinsic value and usefulness of the product, rather than on a long list of mostly irrelevant features”. Startups have a distinguishable feature of reducing long product cycles into smaller, shorter chunks and validating these iterations with people that will use the products, actually opens the gate for important information needed to avoid expensive development cycles that come withsome kind of risk. ”The secret sauce of lean startup people is that they advocate for user experience research and design as one of the primary solutions to their business problems, and they do it using plain language”.
Lean Startup method: The concept of “Build-Measure-Learn”
The fundamental activity of a startup is to “turn ideas into products” at the first step. Next it has the aim to measure how customers respond and then to learn whether to pivot or persevere. So basically a startup’s success depends on this feedback loop. To be successful a startup has to accelerate that feedback loop. The feedback loop being employed here includes three primary activities: build the product, measure data and learn new ideas.
However the Lean Startup method employed in Lean UX , is slightly different – it’s basically about “Think-Make-Check”. The difference lies in the fact that in latter case the “feedback loop incorporates your own thoughts as a designer, not just ideas learned through measurement”.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – Prototyping at it’s best in Lean Startup Method
Minimum viable product is a version of the product that enables a full turn of the Build-Measure-Learn loop with a minimum amount of effort and the least amount of development time. The MVP is, in fact, an early prototype that serves as a tool to learn and test the team’s assumptions.
Lean UX is where prototyping is best promoted, focusing the prototype on major components of the experience. Once created, it will be immediately testable by any and all users to start the feedback loop. In most of the case the fidelity of the prototype is not a road block, rather the only mission is to get a quick prototype that can be tested quickly. However where the need for better visualization has priority, the best practices and tools are used to develop high fidelity prototypes in shortest time possible.
Principles of Lean UX
There are some guiding principles behind Lean UX which can be used to make sure the methodologies used in a Lean process is on track.
Cross-Functional Teams: Specialists from various disciplines come together to form a cross functional team to create the product. Such a team typically consists of Software engineering, product management, interaction design, visual design, content strategy, marketing, and quality assurance (QA).
Small, Dedicated, Collocated: Keep your teams small—no more than 10 total core people as keeping small team has the benefit of small teams comes down to three words: communication,focus, and camaraderie. It is easier to manage smaller team as keeping track of status report , change management and learning.
Progress = Outcomes, Not Output: The focus should be on business goals which are typically are the “outcomes”, rather than the output product/system or service.
Problem-Focused Teams:“A problem-focused team is one that has been assigned a business problem to solve, as opposed to a set of features to implement”.
Removing Waste: This is one of the key ingredients of Lean UX which is focused on “removal of anything that doesn’t lead to the ultimate goal” so that the team resource can be utilized properly.
Small Batch Size: Lean UX focuses on “notion to keep inventory low and quality high”.
Continuous Discovery: “Regular customer conversations provide frequent opportunities for validating new product ideas”
GOOB: The New User-Centricity: GOOB stands for “getting out of the building” — meeting-room debates about user needs won’t be settled conclusively within your office. Instead, the answers lie out in the marketplace, outside of your building.
Shared Understanding: The more a team collectively understands what it’s doing and why, the less it has to depend on secondhand reports and detailed documents to continue its work.
Anti-Pattern: Rock-stars, Gurus, and Ninjas:Team cohesion breaks down when you add individuals with large egos who are determined to stand out and be stars. So more efforts should on team collaboration.
Externalizing Your Work:“Externalizing gets ideas out of teammates’ heads and on to the wall, allowing everyone to see where the team stands”.
Making over Analysis: “There is more value in creating the first version of an idea than spending half a day debating its merits in a conference room”.
Learning over Growth: “Lean UX favors a focus on learning first and scaling second”.
Permission to Fail: “Lean UX teams need to experiment with ideas. Most of these ideas will fail.The team must be safe to fail if they are to be successful”.
Getting Out of the Deliverables Business: “The team’s focus should be on learning which features have the biggest impact on the their customers. The artifacts the team uses to gain that knowledge are irrelevant.”
he pre-agile era saw many attempts of UX getting fitted into the waterfall and it’s derivative models of SDLCs. Such attempts by the many developers were natural outcome of the post-projects disasters, where ‘design’ was never the personality of “software product engineering” and the lack of usability doomed the products even after the initial set of requirements check list was fulfilled.
More demands for Graphic User Interfaces (GUI) in software application (due to GUI’s power to offer better visibility and power to the end users) tempted the developers to follow emerging UX practices which included a task to add “design phase” to existing SDLCs. Waterfall model was good enough to accommodate a notion of design in its phases and become popular despite its limitations (which later pave paths for Agile era). Most of the design approaches and techniques created during this era were having mostly a goal “to eliminate any deviation during the development process, by telling the developers exactly what we expect of them”.
Let’s see how different models of SDLC accommodated UX differently in the following:
Waterfall model
In this process the developers follow the different phases described in the previous section in order.
UCD components in Waterfall model:
Historically the waterfall model of SDLC can use the UCD components in its engineering process and the product to translate the “set of requirements into something beautiful”. It is relatively simpler and easy to spot the to spot the areas within different phases where UX can be easily fits in as each phases are clearly
In this model once one phase is finished, it proceeds to the next one. Reviews may occur before moving to the next phase which allows for the possibility of changes. Reviews may also be employed to ensure that the phase is indeed complete; the phase completion criteria are often referred to as a “gate” that the project must pass through to move to the next phase. Waterfall discourages revisiting and revising any prior phase once it’s complete.
Spiral model:
In this model deliberate iterative risk analysis, particularly suited to large-scale complex systems happens at a predefined frequency. It emphasizes risk analysis, and thereby requires customers to accept this analysis and act on it. So the developers typically spend more to fix the issues and are therefore often used for large-scale internal software development.
The Spiral is visualized as a process passing through some number of iterations, with the four quadrant diagram representative of the following activities:
Formulate plans to: identify software targets, implement the program, clarify the project development restrictions
Risk analysis: an analytical assessment of selected programs, to consider how to identify and eliminate risk
Implementation of the project: the implementation of software development and verification
Because of frequent risk analysis and more effort spent by the developer to analyze the risks accurately, the cost factor goes up in the project.
UCD components in Spiral model:
In Spiral model, the UCD design can work across different quadrants of activities. The first quadrant where the objectives are determined, the usability and user research can happen as this is where requirements are planned. In the second quadrant the activities involving risk identification can best use UX activities involving IA and prototyping. The third quadrant of development and testing can utilize consultation and usability testing. The final fourth quadrant of activities can be used for feasibility evaluation and setting up usability metrics and bench marking for the next release.
..
Iterative development model
This method helps to develop a system through repeated cycles and in smaller chunks at a time, allowing software developers to take advantage of what was learned during development of earlier parts or versions of the system.
Incremental development divides the system functionality into increments (portions). In each increment, a portion of functionality is delivered through cross-discipline work, from the requirements to the deployment. The unified process groups increments/iterations into phases: inception, elaboration, construction, and transition. It identifies scope, functional and non-functional requirements and risks at a high level which can be estimated.
Applying this model to multidisciplinary complex project with large volume can come with a risk as inability in the developers part to uncover important issues early before problems can spoil the project.
UCD components in Iterative development model
In this model each iteration cycle can be divided into different activities phases to incorporate UCD methodologies for UX integration. Each iteration activities block that are mostly split across concept, design, build and test phases can be used for different UCD activities.
Agile development
This is perhaps today’s the most widely used SDLC model. It uses iterative development as a basis ,but uses people-centric viewpoint through user feedbacks rather than planning as the primary control mechanism. The feedback is driven by regular tests and releases of the evolving software.
There are many variations of agile processes “:
Agile Data (AD)
Agile Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF)
Agile Modeling (AM)
Agile Unified Process (AUP)
Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM)
Extreme Programming (XP)
Feature Driven Development (FDD)
Scrum
Usage-Centered Design (UCD)
UCD components in Agile development
This is the most popular and successful SDLC model as of today as it allows better scope in providing continuous and iterative refinement to the product.
Historically when developers out of their frustrations with waterfall model turned to the growing Agile Movement to regain their control over the process, they found that “like its ancestors, Agile also didn’t take UX into account. Several of the Agile methods, such as Scrum and XP, recommended users sitting with the team during the development process, but that isn’t the same as design. Everyone who figured out how to get what they wanted from plugging UX into a phased waterfall approach was now struggling to work inside the Agile methods. The Agile principles, that focus more on communication and less on contracts, didn’t fit the status quo UX processes”. So efforts were made again to implement UX into Agile methods just like the way it was implemented into waterfall model . But it was not easy as , in waterfall model there are 2 things which helped implemented UX :
The objectives of the project stays same from kickoff to the point where the finished product is launched.
The designers created the set of design specifications as a contract which the developers had to implement into the final product.
And above two cannot be expected from Agile model as it is based on iterations and gradual exploration of what is best fit for the final product . On ejust simply cannot predict the final design from the start of the project. So many attempts were made to get the best agile SDLC practices that can incorporate the UX , before “Lean UX” was born.
As the above figure shows the documentation and guidelines are stripped to their bare minimum components, providing the minimum amount of information necessary to get started on implementation. Also Long detailed design cycles are discarded in favor of very short, iterative, low-fidelity cycles, with feedback coming from all members of the implementation team early and often.
“To understand what the user is looking for in the things he is looking at.”
The current post is the first one in the series of 3 posts, where I would like to clarify the definitions and concepts that are core to our context covering User Experience (UX),Information Architecture(IA) and Interaction Design (IxD).
User Experience (UX)
User experience (UX) is a convergence of several disciplines. There is no final fool-proof list of disciplines which come together to form it. But yes, there are many popular explanations by social scientists, industrial designers and information architects which describe it as a combination of a verity of disciplines.
Fig: 1
The most popular and accepted compilation of disciplines is shown in Fig 1 where it is represented as a combination of :
Information Architecture (IA)
Visual Design
Industrial Design
Human Factors
Interaction Design (IxD)
Human – Computer Interaction (HCI)
Architecture
There are variations available to this where commercial aspects are added to it . Fig 2 represents such a case.
Fig: 2
In Fig:2, you can see the UX definition has been seen as all those disciplines which can work together to provide a solution that can deliver “customer with a harmonious and consistent experience”.
If you notice all the aspects such as “branding” and “customer service” are related with emotional aspect of human behavior. So user experience is also about emotions and psychological dimensions of customer’s perceptions about the product. Wikipedia also defines “User Experience” as :
User experience (UX or UE) involves a person’s emotions about using a particular product, system or service. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership. Additionally, it includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency of the system. User experience is subjective in nature because it is about individual perception and thought with respect to the system. User experience is dynamic as it is constantly modified over time due to changing circumstances and new innovations.”
Similarly ISO 9241-210 defines user experience as:
a person’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service”. According to the ISO definition user experience includes all the users’ emotions, beliefs, preferences, perceptions, physical and psychological responses, behaviors and accomplishments that occur before, during and after use. The ISO also list three factors that influence user experience: system, user and the context of use.
So basically, “User Experience” deals with the “How” factor of the product or system rather than it’s “What” factor. Most of the customers buy the product not because simply “what it does”, rather the “how” factor takes priority when it comes to choose from a several similar products.
We will dive deep throughout this series, but before that let’s see clear similar jargons.
Information Architecture (IA)
While exploring UX in previous section, we saw that Information Architecture (IA) is one of the contributing disciplines which form the total User Experience. During 1960’s ,Richard Saul Wurman, an architect by profession having skills of a graphic designer, author and an editor of numerous fine graphics related books, coined the term “Information Architecture”. He mostly developed concepts “ in the ways in which information about urban environments could be gathered, organized, and presented in meaningful ways to architects, to urban planners, to utility and transport engineers, and especially to people living in or visiting cities”. Later these impacted a set of disciplines such as library- and information-science (LIS) , graphic design and in recent years the world wide web (www). During 1990’s , with the evolution of the Web, there rose the need to rethink the presentation of library-catalog information as this information has been moved into online public-access catalogs, and in part to the proliferation of information on the Web itself. So during 90’s IA has taken on something of a connotation of applying especially to the organization of information on the World-Wide Web.
Basically Information Architecture (IA), all about organizing information in a meaningful way so that the user can easily find it when needed through proper organization, navigation,labeling, andsearchingsystems.IA also takes care of the process that ensures that there is no information breakdown or explosion with the scaling of information overtime.
Fig: 3
Fig:3 represents the 3 basic ingredients of IA, namely:
Users: This represents those who will use the product or system, their “information seeking behaviour” and their needs. Any of the following roles/skills/features can be applied to them:
Personas
Ethnography
Usability Testing
Expressing User Needs
Content: This is what is presented to the users through the product or system. This includes the data or information that is offered, along with its aspects such as volume, metadata, structure and organization. Sample skills/roles/features/concepts revolving around content are:
Indexing
Cataloguing
Site Architecture
Writing
Content management
Navigation
Labeling
Search mechanism
Context: This is what gives meaning to the content that is being served to the user. This can have the attributes like business model, business value, resource, resource constraints, culture etc. The following features/roles/skills are associated with context:
This is one of my proof of concept application demo on how to prepare an eco-system for delivering protected digital content specially related to e-learning and m-learning context.
SIMPLE is an eco-system that allows tools such as
SimpleAuthor : That allows content authoring from common formats such as MS Office documents , PDFs and CBRs along with the options to author contents using cloud based WYSIWYG editor .
SimplePublisher: This allows you to import contents such as set of HTML files, ePubs, PDFs, text files, set of images, CBR files and the output from SimpleAuthor
SimplePlayer: This is a native course packaged with the required run-time that the end user will be using to view the content . This allows content activation and offline content tracking . In this current demo the Player is an EXE file that is being generated from the SimplePublisher. In the POC of the Publisher, each course is generated as an EXE file containing the content and the required runtime in it.
SimpleStore: In this POC you can see it as an online store that show cases different titles published using SimplePublisher. Basically it manages the catalog, and tracks activation of each offline course.
Note: the SIMPLE eco-system can be seen as an experiment based on the CUPID (Common Unified Programs for Instruction Delivery) guidelines. Check CUPID related info here:
This paper introduces the ‘socio-cultural’ dimension of User Experience (UX) and Interaction Design (IxD) with reference to emerging devices and related eco-systems.
Background
With the emergence of Google Glass, the topics related to devices infringing with personal privacy became hot cakes for tech-debates. Many social scientists, human rights activists have started to see the ‘Glass’ as the evil that reminds them with George Orwell’s ‘1984’. The fear of a ‘Google Big Brother’ controlling the major shares of the information world is seen as the intruder to private aspects of ‘the public’.
It is not the case that Google has not spent money on user research and usability aspects before going ahead with the concept of persons using glass that may change the way we interact with systems in our daily life. Usability wise, it is definitely a super gadget that has the potential to catapult the device industry into next century. But the new features and interaction methods implemented in the device in a manner that is actually a decade old approach that is only fit for human-computer-interaction (HCI) in case of smart phones and tablets which have less tendency to hurt sentiments of those who do not directly interact with the device when the user might be performing some actions in a certain socio-cultural context. These sentiments could result in the fear of losing privacy , cultural distrust and humiliation among the second-hand users of the device who are impacted indirectly in some way by the device actions in the context.
Therefore it is high time to rethink in UX domain to discover the missing pieces which we think we have already discovered.
Socio-Cultural User Experience (SX) – the missing piece in UX
I have coined the term ‘SX’ aka ‘Socio-Cultural User Experience’ to represent the aspect of Usability Design or User Experience (UX) that deals with usability aspect of products/ software in a social context.
Fig2: The UX model is incomplete without its ‘social’ context.
To make usability design meaningful the model must follow the social context
Social and Cultural aspect of UX can be interpreted as a new component of UX – it is the missing piece that makes UX meaningful in social context.
Traditional UX model is centered around human user. But the critical factor that makes human being differentiated from other beings is his ability to ‘evolve and follow social standards’. The history of human growth is actually more clearly represented in the “history of human civilization”. So any product design must adhere to the social factor of design and this is what SX is all about.
Considering the ‘Others’ in the User’s Social circle
The existing UX model does not analyze the need beyond the current user and his ‘type’ to do a usability test — it never considers how it is impacting the other members of the society while the target user set is using the app/system.
For example, using car horn is a safety measure, but using it near a hospital or school is considered as unsocial and disturbing. There are many social check points that bar users of any system from using it in special socio logical context.
Fig3 : The no horn , camera, mobile phones and similar sign posts can be seen as a few of the social guidelines represented graphically on the use of different systems.
So implementing social context related restrictive design is even though new , is actually a age old tradition.
Criteria of a Good ‘SX’ Compatible System
Criteria of a sound usability design of an app on socio-cultural context:
Universal—has design elements that are universal.
Ethical – follows principles and approach that has positive ethical value
Non-racial – non biased and non-provocative attitude to user’s race and beliefs.
Respectful – towards user’s culture, social beliefs and ethnicity
Safety – has it’s social impact that is safe for the User.
Non-abusive – must not exploit the user and the environment he is in .
Common Sense – has geared towards common sense – behaves and reacts to the user in a sensible way
Protect Privacy – App’s feature and interaction must protect user’s privacy and other humans in the social circle.
Example of a Possible Enhancements to a Real Life Product via ‘SX’ :
Fig4 : Google Glass has an inbuilt camera that can take pictures.
Let’s take the case of Google Glass.
Google Glass is designed in a way that can act as more personal than a mobile handset, as it is a spectacle and can be indispensable accessory for the user once he gets addicted to it by replacing his conventional glass with it.
But the support for camera to take picture can pose a problem for the user to enter private areas, industrial areas, secure zones and offices where cameras are not allowed. In some places of earth, the cultural restrictions are in practice to ban cameras in certain places — most of the temples in India do not allow cameras inside. Now imagine, if the user has replaced his traditional spectacle for it , then he may find it difficult to manage without it in these scenarios.
So by following SX approach in usability design, the glass will require to have a “detachable set of camera” used in the glass so that the user can detach the camera and which would power it off and at the same time allow the user to keep on using the glass as a conventional spectacle.
This example may be just one of many features that Google glass might have, but it is enough to illustrate the approach in thought.
Social Interaction Design (SxD) – Helping IxD to Focus on Context and Environment of the User
I am using the term ‘SxD’ aka ‘Social Interaction Design’ that deals with the ‘social aspect’ of Human – Computer – Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design (IxD) that focuses on usability design in context of how the user is interactive with the app in specific socio-cultural context.
Points to Focus on while designing a SxD Compatible System
Provide multiple alternatives to the interaction methods to control the same functionalities in different socio-cultural context.
User should have total control over enable/disable of interaction methods for different scenarios.
The default interaction method must follow ‘SX’ approach.
Provide options to the user to switch between interaction methods with the system as and when needed.
Alternative mechanisms should be provided for physically challenged users. Rethink on the use of gestures and other interaction methods in the Article 508 context as everyday the new devices with unpredictable (not necessarily negative!) interaction methods and features.
Gesture and other Interaction Medium of SxD:
The ‘Social Interaction Design’ approach has the following major facets in the system interaction towards the user in socio-usability context:
Facial Gestures—The selection of Human triggered facial gestures (e.g. wink, smile etc.) to activate the system or trigger any action in the system must be judged based on the canonical meaning of those gestures in social and cultural context of the user where he is going to use it. For example, in case of Google Glass , the feature of “winking” (the gesture developed by Google Glass developer Mike DiGiovanni http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57582500-93/google-glass-code-lets-you-snap-a-photo-with-a-wink/ ) at someone to take a photo can pose a problem if the user is in India or Middle East countries. Even in western world winking at a lady or group of ladies (even though it is unintentional for any kind of abasement) can be taken as a negative action (e.g. weakness in character) and evoke anger and misunderstanding. So even if the winking to take a feature is a ‘cool feature’, in social context SxD will suggest the usability/interaction engineer to rethink on it to implement some options to ‘keep it disabled’ by default and allow the user the total freedom to use his judgment to enable and use the feature in any given socio-cultural context.Fig5: The ‘wink’ gesture developed by Google Glass developer Mike DiGiovann allows user to take a snap of the surrounding with just a wink of an eye.
Sound Gestures — The selection of sound gestures – the use of voice or sound pattern to control the system should be examined for different user environments. For example blowing a whistle to activate a play functionality on a portable music player, or to open an SMS on the cell phone can be an interesting feature, but on the other hand if it becomes useless in a busy street or in a meeting room where a discussion is going on.
Touch based Gestures – Touch, swipe and pinch are popular now a days as most of the tablets and smartphones offer this as a user friendly interaction method for the user. More devices are coming up which do not have any physical button rather a few multi-touch gestures are enough to fully control them. However ‘SxD’ stresses that the devices must be designed and developed with the interaction method that can allow alternative to the available touch triggered interaction mechanism. For example , while developing a digital medical instrument with touch sensitive display, the interaction methods should be carefully planned so that the surgeon can use the system without touching to avoid infections through contact with it while conducting any mission critical surgery.
Hand/Finger based 3D gestures – ‘SxD’ approach encourages to conduct a social analysis of the hand/finger based gestures that are planned to be used in a system – the gestures should selected / innovated by carefully studying the cultural context avoiding common gestures used in daily life that are considered abusive to others. In addition to this practical usage resulting out of user’s environment and work culture must be given consideration. For example the middle finger gesture commonly used by youths to represent the crack humiliating pun on the other should not be used for any app that is expected to be popular among the users from the similar demography. But note that only considering the demography is not enough to decide the gestures.
Mouse /Keyboard Control – Similar to the gesture , voice and the related interaction method with system, mouse, keyboard, joystick and other typical input device based methods should be considered with in the context in which they are going to be used. As this group of interaction method are very old, many standard guidelines are already in there in practice. They However we need to rethink on them and make sure they are upto date with the ever changing human –computer-interaction domain.
Going Forward
Understanding usability is the first step in developing a successful system/software. However we need to understand the social and cultural implications of the UX implementations of the definitions of usability which we think is good for the user in order to make our software truly complete and meaningful in all aspect. ‘SX’ and ‘SxD’ are the two missing pieces of this whole puzzle, which we need to discover in order to rediscover UX.
CUPID (Common Unified Programs for Instruction Delivery) framework stands for a framework for a new way of instruction delivery for self-paced learning modules/courses.
The importance of “self paced learning ” even in today’s new age of MOOCs and social networking based “learning for life ” concepts, is still applicable. “In remote areas and villages, the self paced learning is the standard when it comes to digital delivery of content. Mostly CBTs (Computer Based Training), downloadable learning materials on CDs/DVDs get most attention. We can’t expect good bandwidth in such a places where the user can take part in online interactive classes. So
after ILTs, the next nig thing is self paced learning through books, magazines, newspapers etc. When it comes to digital part
of such an approach, downloadable standalone digital learning materials win the case.So the fact is “self-paced learning” is a reality even in the age of social networking based MOOCs.” So one of the focus area of CUPID team is explore possibilities in the education sectors in developing countries, through exploration of new ways to improve the “self paced learning” domain.
And this is one of many reasons why CUPID focuses on “self paced learning”. In addition to that the focus areas in finding new ways to provide richer “meaningful experience” is what differentiates CUPID from existing approaches through conventional CBTs/WBTs.
We are not talking about replacing CBTs/WBTs with something new, rather improving the existing “self paced learning” approaches with new ways to improve user engagement and bring some reliability to it so that it can open new possibilities for certification courses to include “self paced learning” as a part of their certifications.
So it’s all about the “new and meaningful experience” that we are planning to bring into “self paced learning” through CUPID.
Overview
The proposed learning environment/framework has the major goals such as :
New ways to improve the self learning experience.
Explore the possibility to get the user engaged with the course in the self paced learning in a way so that the training
experience is not just a one way learning. And of course we need to think beyond the basic interactivity that typical CBT/WBT
courses provide though multiple choice or drag and drop quizzes.
Find a solution to make a self assessment certificates reliable source to meet some organisational goal (where the
organisation has directed the employee to take the self paced learning to improve some skill sets. ).
The basic aspects of CUPID is given below:
**For a clear view of the mind map please follow this link :
The aim of this project CUPID is to conceptualize a new framework-cum-instructional design approach to define the best
possible solution for self paced e-learning experience.
The major goals of the framework are:
To find new ways to improve the self learning experience.
Add built in navigational components to support for physically challenged / disabled persons.
Explore the possibility to get the user engaged with the course in the self paced learning in a way so that the training experience is not just a one way learning. And of course we need to think beyond the basic interactivity that typical CBT/WBT courses provide though multiple choice or drag and drop quizzes.
Find a solution to make a self assessment certificates reliable source to meet some organisational goal (where the organisation has directed the employee to take the self paced learning to improve some skill sets.)
Based on the above said goals , there are 14 focus points which makes CUPID framework unique and helps in defining the
components of it. These focuses are defined in the section in the following.
Major Focus Points that makes CUPID unique
The proposed learning environment/framework focuses on:
Focus #1.Improving usability of the content and the interaction delivered through it.
Focus #2.Add built in navigational components to support for physically challenged / disabled persons.
Focus #3.Provide the user the ability to go through the course in both online and offline modes so that “any where any time learning” and be made possible to achieve.
Focus #4.Provide DRM to the course content so that it can be used for Intellectual Property (IP) protection and can be useful in commercial e-learning channels and related business models.
Focus #5.Provide features to make the two – way communication happen between the course and the user even in off-line mode.
Focus #6.Add a reliable way to make sure that the user has actually gone through the course.
Focus #7.Add a reliable simple certificate generator that will print the certificate to make the off line certification related course possible.
Focus #8.Make sure the content is compatible with well know e-learning specifications like SCORM / AICC etc.
Focus #9.Optional support for delivery of well known content package formats such as ePub, pdf, SCROM packages.
Focus #10. Support custom Markup language/ XML with custom DTD for building of content.
Focus #11.Provide components that can support the course content compatibility with Bloom’s taxonomy.
Focus #12.Introduce new age assessment engine that will help the user self assess and review the level of skill he has obtained.
Focus #13.Provide easy interaction between the course and the user for other features like bookmarking, highlighting, annotation, free hand annotations, text size and font type customization based on the user preferences.
Focus #14. Component based framework so different components/sub-components can be plug and play mode or can be enabled/disabled.
The Design
The basic design of the CUPID framework is based on component architecture. Different functionalities of the frameworks comes
from it’s different components. New feature can be introduced through extending the framework by creating a new plug-in and
adding that to the framework.
So basically the different plugins function in sync and provide the whole user experience and features.
These details are discussed in the next section while detailing the innovative framework components.
Framework Components
To fulfil this focus the concept learning framework has been designed in a component driven architecture.
The different components of the framework (based on the functionalities/feature) are:
Human Approach for Device Specific Navigation Approaches (HADSNA):
This is in line with Focus #1 we have discussed. The purpose of HADSNA component is to provide user friendly and simple
approach to course/content level navigation and interaction maps. For different devices, the device specific gesture s for
multi-touch support for touch enabled devices and mouse driven UI level approaches for PCs and desktops.
The unique features which give CUPID navigational system a fresh approach are :
Automatic event binding depending on the environment:
All inbuilt components of the framework uses common event driven APIs for navigation and UI level interaction. e.g. content author can add simple API call such as onClick() and CUPID will ato matically sniff the environment to assign the correct event handler such as Mouse.click() or Touch events such as onTouchstart() and onTouchend()
Multiple ways to trigger the same navigational event: The navigation of the UI is super simple and can be addressed using TAB Indexing g based navigation in an environment supporting only keyboard. Where as in the multi-touch gestured environments basic gestures will be used for navigation of the same content. Mouse driven environments anyway will support UI buttons and links for such needs. Example is shown in the diagram below:
Contextual help: Contextual help will be available in each state/page and sections of different UI of the content displayed in CUPID which can be accessed through single gesture, mouse click or key hit. The contextual help will provide context specific information along with what is applicable in general including the hint on the navigational options available . This will help even the first-timers to find their position in the whole system.
Built in navigational feature for visually challenged and persons having hard of hearing: Another most important aspect of the CUPID’s navigational system is the built in Offline Text to Speech Engine (OTTSE) along with Media Caption Manager (MCM). These help the disabled persons easily navigate through the content of the learning material. More information on this has been provided in the next focus point related solution in the following section.
Built in Pseudo Inference Engine (PIE): This is another innovative approach through which the course interacts with the user to hep him set his learning path and based on which the navigation happens in the course. In simple words PIE acts as a guide for the user who helps in deciding which chapter of the course or content section to move next and which media to play in order to quickly meet the learning objectives and complete the learning path successfully . More details of this has been detailed in the coming section dedicated to the solution prescribed for Focus#5.
Built in Offline Text to Speech Engine (OTTSE) along with Media Caption Manager (MCM):
This is in line with Focus #2 we have discussed These components will allow built in audio captions displays for media elements like video, audio, Podcast and Flash items.
The basic flow for enabling features for disabled learners are given below:
The basic structure of this component is shown below:
The Offline Text To Speech Engine (OTTSE) will be helpful for the person having visual disabilities. Whenever the learner tries to run the course on a system that does not have the screen readers installed or enabled, he can easily use this OTTSE feature to navigate through the course as well as can listen to the TTS generated voice-overs to the provided text materials.
The OTTSE has 2 subcomponents:
Offline real time text to speech generator for the navigational needs along with predefined audio clips. These will help in providing navigational hints to the end user on mouse clicks or tab key press, and multi touch gestures on tablets or mobile devices.
Offline real time text to speech generator for course content having text . In case of any interactive media components like interactive Flash/HTML5 simulation, game or interactive, it will extract the text content from labels and process them for text audio generation.
The Media Caption Manager (MCM) has two sub components –
1. Authoring side sub-component: This will allow content authors to add textual captions for their media elements. Plus it will have an optional component for auto generation of caption from interactive Flash files, video and audio components.
2. User facing sub-component and rendering engine: this will be part of different media players in the framework such as video , flash items, HTML5 interactive objects, audio & podcast players.
The MCM will be helpful for the person having hearing disabilities. While they can watch the video , they can at the same time read the captions. Similarly, in case of the audio and podcasts , they can read the caption when they run those media components.
Offline Content Sync Manager (OCSM):
This is in line with Focus #3 we have discussed. This will have sub-components like
Content Downloader & Reader and
Content Sync Manager.
This will help the content to sync the online store and catalogue of the courses and sync the titles available for the user as per their profile level access. Thecontent downloader component will download the offline content or course packages from the store and copy it to the local drive of the user’s machine. The reader sub-component will allow the content to render on the screen and provide the content level navigation. When the user becomes online, thecontent sync manager will check if any update is available and will sync the local storage/drive of the user with the user’s profile assigned online content store/catalogue. The first time content is accessed is used online; it will be automatically cached and will be used for future offline access.
DRM Manager:
This is in line with Focus #4 we have discussed. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is one of the important aspect of the
framework. The DRM Manager component will ensure the proper encryption and decryption of the content at the both server and client level. The component will also take care of prevention of unauthorized copying or printing of the content. It will also provide the content level control for limited printing and copying of the course content.
There are various stages where the content is protected through different DRM methodologies:
At the point of downloading content: the user when downloads the CUPID course the course content are downloaded separately into it from the server in an AES encrypted form. That content is decrypted on demand when the user wants to run the course and wishes to go through any lesson.
At the point of user interaction with the content: the user can not copy paste the content from the course , neither he can not print the content except for those lessons or sections that the content author has enabled for copying and printing. Along with this the user will not be able to view every options such as “view source” etc. as the right click will be disabled.
Course life time: Course content can be made to expire based on some time stamp and or number of uses.
Pseudo Inference Engine (PIE):
This is in line with Focus #5 we have discussed. The purpose of PIE component is to provide interaction based navigation, content searching and learning path decision making. This will be the component that will work on both offline and online mode. In the former mode, it will depend on a XML tree structured interaction map, to determine what kind of response it will give to the end-user to continue the two way interaction between the user and the course.
In the UI PIE is represented as a simple terminal like BOT or a guide or an assistant to help the user. Also it is more like an wizard type component that can show textual information, links, can trigger other CUPID components and events and do the search the content and enable or disable course settings for the user depending on the interaction.
PIE is actually one of the most innovative and unique component that is shipped with CUPID through which the course interacts with the user to help him set his learning path and based on which the navigation happens in the course. In simple words PIE acts as a guide for the user who helps in deciding which chapter of the course or content section to move next and which media to play in order to quickly meet the learning objectives and complete the learning path successfully.
An example interaction detailing the user interaction with PIE in a cooking related course developed in CUPID:
CUPID PIE (Asks questions and infers) : Hi How can I help you?
User (Gives Answers and gets help and info):Not sure which lesson to start with.
CUPID PIE (Asks questions and infers) : Ok. Are you looking for a quick solution for any particular problem or are you looking for understanding the whole concept and get a certificate?
User (Gives Answers and gets help and info):Quick solution only
CUPID PIE (Asks questions and infers) : Hmm.. please type your problem
User (Gives Answers and gets help and info):Really?
CUPID PIE (Asks questions and infers) : Yes. Please type your problem
User (Gives Answers and gets help and info): Hmm..ok. I want to know how to create a cake for my cooking class.Searching…please wait.
CUPID PIE (Asks questions and infers) : Found 2 results ..please see if you got the answer..I am waiting ..will try to help you if you are not satisfied…Search results: Link 1: Make plum cake..Link 2: Make chocolate cake
User (Gives Answers and gets help and info):** No I want vanilla cake recipe
CUPID PIE (Asks questions and infers) : Searching for Vanilla related recipe …it seems there is some some video you might be interested. Video1: How to add Vanilla to your cakes? .. Video2: Without vanilla make pies…Video3: Indian Vanilla flavors. Seems like video 2 is more similar .
User (Gives Answers and gets help and info): Hmm..right thank you. Please play this.
CUPID PIE (Asks questions and infers) : Sure. [PLAYS the video]
This is just a very basic simple interaction shown in the example. PIE can gather learner’s history and this personal details
to understand what can be most probable need of the user and based on that can determine the sequence of results/options it shows to him .
Creating PIE for the very basic and focused needs can be developed with the XML tree structured interaction map so that the
offline version can work without the need the user to be connected to the net. A sample XML based interaction map can be as follows:
<cupid-xml-pie>
<welcome>
<q=”hi”/>
< q=”good morning[USERNAME]”/>
< q=”hi [USERNAME]”/>
</welcome>
<post-welcome>
< q=”how can I help you?” />
< q=”You need some help?” />
< q=”Welcome back!” />
</post-welcome>
<cupid-xml-pie>
The interaction maps can be developed uing CUPID authoring modules.
Learning Path Status (LPS) and Progress Indicator (PI):
This is in line with Focus #6 we have discussed. This component will provide reliable ways to ensure the actual progress of
the user in his learning path
LPS is made as an important feature of CUPID, looking at varying scenario of the user’s learning needs. Typically some users
just want to refer the course. Some just want to study the theory part to attend some exam. Some may want to have in-depth
study and generate a certificate. As all of these needs are different a single predefined sequence of lesson is not useful in
all these different scenarios. In such cases LPS actually helps in finding out what learning path is best fit for the user.
It will track how much the user has actually gone through both static as well as interactive and media contents. Based on the
progress of the user the component will ask in-between-questions to the user to keep the user engaged. This will also provide
optional controls and APIs to the content authors to determine if progress status based navigation locking will be enabled
for the target content in any course.
Learning Paths are one of the most important aspect of CUPID. The “learning path” is actually is the sequence of lessons or
sections the user needs to go through from any CUPID enabled course that is most effective for his needs/learning
requirements.
LPS actually is the component that interacts with the user (on his first run of the course by default and on subsequent run
of the course on demand) to help him determine the best fit “learning path” for his requirement. It helps customising the way
contents are to be presented to him.
Typically the PI will be having some pre defined instruction/criteria to determine the progress of the user in each type of
the course content/sections/media etc. For example one sample instruction can be if the user has at least viewed the 80% of
the video and has spent playing the video more than 5 minutes (dynamically calculated based on the video length), then it
should be marked as “complete” status. This kind of instructions help PI to determine intellectually if the user has really
viewed the video .
Now for the above example if the user has completed 80% of the viedo but has really spent 2 minutes in watching it then CUPID
can know that the user has actually skipped the video and can post some alert through PI and mark that video as “incomplete”
plus this information can be used in the learning path to give the score or points to the user based on some calculation,
where the time spent by user are taken into account. Even some assessment section can be disabled till the user completely
watches the videos , textual or any interactive content.
This way PI will actually help in :
improving the reliability of the self –learning modules in e-learning domain – so that in organisations self learnimng
modules can be trusted for providing trainings.
makes sure that the user actually go through each and every recommended lessons of the course before taking the self
assessment and generate the certificate.
There will be some additional sub components such as a face tracking camera which can be enabled (if available in user’s
system as a web cam ) that will keep an eye on the user to check if he is actually present to view the running course content
media/video. If the user is not present while a media / video is running, it can pause it and stop all activities of the
course in progress till the user returns to his seat and take some action to resume the course.
However this special sub component should be made mandatory only in case the user needs a certification from the current self
learning course. More details of this aspect is discussed in the next section.
Offline Self-certification Manager (OSM):
This is in line with Focus #7 we have discussed. This component will have 2 subcomponents.
a. Self-certificate Assessment Mode Manager: The course will have a “Self Certificate Assessment Mode” which will
enable the learner to take the self assessment for generating a certificate from the learning framework for a target score.
By using this mode the user has to use a minimum set of pre-defined hardware such as a webcam , etc. This sub-component will
monitor all activities and user interaction of the user with the course and will take random photographs when needed to make
sure that the user has actually gone through the course and has himself attended the assessment.
b. Certificate Key Encryption: This component will take care of generating reliable “self learning completion”
certificates from the offline /online course. This component uses well known encryption alogorithms like SHA, Blowfish etc.
to encrypt the data to generate certificate information string and print in the certificate document, which the learner can
use as a reliable certificate of his learning status.
c. Online central Certificate Tracking : Whenever the user comes online, the certificate data is synced to a central
server of the home server of the framework and a key is assigned so that at any point of time the certificate can be tracked
This is in line with Focus #8 we have discussed. To make sure that Make sure the content is compatible with well know e-
learning specifications like SCORM / AICC etc. the framework will have reader components which will allow to run SCORM 1.2
/2004 and AICC packages in offline mode. These components will provide related adaptors and APIs to track the user scores ,
learning status from the target learning framework.
There are 2 ways of implementation , depending on the need:
Make SCORM / AICC packages compatible with CUPID to run them as a standalone offline course in offline.
Package CUPID packages as SCORM/ AICC packages so that they can be run in side an LMS compatible with SCORM / AICC
The CPRC component helps in communicating with the CUPID reader APIs through a wrapper layer that helps integrating the SCORM
component with the framework so that other non-SCORM features of CUPID are also available in the same course.
The CPRC also uses SCORM/AICC APIs to track all the user features and saves them locally so that if needed at a later point
of time those data can be exported to other standard LMS which are compatible with SCORM / AICC.
e-Pub and PDF Reader components:
This is in line with Focus #9 we have discussed. These will allow rendering of well know content package and file formats
such as ePub (2 and 3) and PDFs. The offline player will extract the epubs etc and by validating it’s spine will render the
pages. Similarly, the course will have independent PDF reader to render the PDF documents and integrate them to the whole
learning framework system. This will allow easy import/ migration of such content to this framework and will be a boon for
the content authors.
Custom Course Authoring Markup Language Rendering Engine:
This is in line with Focus #10 we have discussed. Apart from the importing content course from PDFs, EPubs, the framework supports a custom markup language named as “Cupid ML” ( with a file extension“.cml”) . Using this the authors can easily create content poages with built in features such as video players, media renderers, too tips, assessments, tabbed and simple pages etc. The CML language tags are self explanatory and content-author’s friendly to allow them to master it with in a few hours effort . By using the language the authors do not need to learn complex Java Script and/or any other programming skills to enable complex interactivity within the course. At a later point of time the course authoring tools can be developed that
will use this language to develop the courses. The CupidML markup language tags are simple meaning ful for content authors.
The .cml document starts and ends with the and inside this node the cml specific tags meant for pages, tabs, menus, media components etc. are added to easily create the new pages, chapters, sections in the course and add centralized event listeners without the content authors requiring the knowledge of complex programming languages. The only thing the content author needs to know is which tag is needed for what kind of element of the course. There is a tag for everything the
content author needs.
For example the individual pages can be created with a just adding simple tag like
Now to add a heading in the page
To add complex items like a podcast 1 will add a full fledged podcast component with all the
captioning etc. and “1” represents the URL index number in the podcast array defined in the data file / configuration file.
A typical page in .cml will be much simple than the actual code that is generated in the runtime by CUPID to make things happen and provide qall the interaction and event propagations and API calls.
This is in line with Focus #11 we have discussed. There will be built in components that can support the course content compatibility with Bloom’s taxonomy. For example there will be default learning path creation components which will allow content authors to add “surprise” elements, in-between questions and “case studies” and scenario based task. The content authors can select predefined “Instructional Design” templates and then can fill up the place holders to quickly create the courses which will be compatible with Bloom’s taxonomy.
Different Instructional models fulfilling “creation”,” discovery”, “analysis”, “remembering”, “understanding” and “applying” phases in various degrees.
IDCC provides options for :
Scenario based training: where different scenarios are combined together with the assessment, guided tasks to the user, so that the user can actually.
Case studies : In this model the sample case is presented through real life scenes, and based on that case, related video, audio, interactive, media along with assessments can be grouped together.
Guided Tasks: In a guided task, the major focus is on providing the user a task to complete where the user assisted by some character/bot /or simple alert based instructions. Whenever the user makes any mistakes the system alerts the user and provides hints on how to solve or proceed with the task.
Now combining these sub-types, most of the course can be built to fit the need of any type of self learning modules including soft skills training, software simulation trainings to educational course materials.
So all lessons in side the course is grouped into 2 categories:
Textual Study Mode: In this mode the content types like text, hyperlinks, internal anchors, popup tool tips, quiz, assessments etc. will be available for the target course.
Interactive Media Mode: In this mode the content types like video, audio, podcasts, animations, interactive , game, simulation, guided task etc. will be available for the target course.
These two modes are inter switchable and the user can toggle between any these modes at any point of time of his learning. For any particular section/lesson these two modes will be available to the user so that user can him self decide which one he
needs to use for his learning at any point of the time.
Innovative Assessment Engines (IAE):
This is in line with Focus #12 we have discussed. The aim of this new age assessment engine is to help the user self assess
and review the level of skill he has obtained. This will include new kinds of interactive assessment types along with the
typically used “multiple choice”, “true-false”, “drag-n-drop” and “hot-spot” ones. The new kinds will include
(1) Guided tasks
(2) Interactive Scenario based question sets
(3) Basic simulators for software related trainings
(4) The “in-between” hit and click type question with special scoring.
The Guided Task is a kind of assessment, where the user can self assess if needed in a BOT/Wizard assisted simulated environment. This kind gives the hands on kind of experience when combined with simulation. Basically there will be a wizard or guide or assistant who will first assign a task to the learner based on the things he has learned and then help him on the way to complete his task by providing hints and task related tips to the users.
The Interactive Scenario based question sets are provided as a part of any lesson / logical learning chunk where the user is provided with a case scenario through a interactive/video/animation/slides. Then the user is asked to view some screen-cast or interactive simulated environments and then is provided with some interactive questions.
The Basic simulators for software related trainings are the sets where the user faces some software training related UI screens / simulated environment to hit and click different UI elements and provide input to complete the tasks. This will help the user in giving a first hand kind of feel of the target software on which he is getting his training.
The “in-between” hit and click type question with special scoring is a kind where the user is asked with some questions in random in the middle of any lesson. And these questions are related to the lesson the learner is going through. This makes sure that the user is actually going through the lesson with attention. Plus as these questions are having special scoring which will be calculated and be added to the final certification generated, this makes sure that the user can not ignore
these.
User Frequent Course Interaction Manager (UFCIM):
This is in line with Focus #13 where the user needs to make bookmark any point of the course (a page or a tab), make some content selection and highlighting it in addition to adding a note or annotations. Plus free hand whiteboard type annotation of the course and customization of font size, font type and theme are taken care of by this component.
User is provided with standard UI with controls in the lesson area so that the user can avail any these functionalities with in single clicks.
Component Based Architecture and Plug n’ Play Rendering Engine (PnPRE):
This is in line with Focus #14 we have discussed. This is related to the technical aspect of the framework. The whole framework is a combination of multiple “Plug n’ Play” capable components. This component is responsible of allowing integration of new components with the core framework engine. This is also responsible for opening APIs that can be used by the developers to create and add new Plug an Play components for the framework.
The diagram above, clearly details the process flow and how the core APIs are related to the different plugin or extension components. Any code chunk or package that is compiled as a component or plugin of the CUPID framework is consumed by PnPRE and then it process that code of the component to add that to the core CUPID framework in real time to provide the new plugin related functionalities /feature. This makes easy for any developer to extend the CUPID framework and / or customise it.
The Usability and UI Aspect
The CUPID framework basically targets all the standard digital devices from personal computers, desktops to net-books, small screen mobile devices and stand multi-touch tablets and the related hybrids.
That is the reason, the usability focus is always on device specific and based on the context and environment the user is interacting.
The major flow that the CUPID follows to determine the kind of usability experience to provide are:
Determine the host environment through browser and OS sniffing.Also sniffing made for available real eastet on the screen and resolution, color depth etc. to provide suitable UI layout.
Also sniff for available hardwares like camera, speaker, mic etc. in the device so that the usability aspect can be determined.
Sniff for input devices like multi-touch screen or mouse or keyboards, so that the user interaction types can be determined.
Determine if the user/learner needs special assistance due to any visual or hearing disabilities. This will help in deciding if the built in offline voice-over features enabled or the captioning system to be enabled.
Depending on the above factors suitable user navigation, context menus, navigational links, meida types, layouts and the
customisation thresholds are determined and the best possible experience is delivered to the learner.
The Technology Used
The technology stack used in CUPID are based mostly on open technologies so that the framework can be easily maintained using open source (MIT licensed only) code , plugins.
will be economical /cheap to develop and maintain and extend in future
will be easy and economical to get the support on open technologies related online communities/ forums.
Will be low on budget
get more contributors from the community.
Based on these the key technology stack used in CUPID are:
Client Side:
Flash Action Script (Using Flasm/Ming/and Free Adobe Flash Builder SDK which is free)
HTML5 / CSS3/ JavaScript Frameworks – includes open source frameworks like jQuery, Dojo, YUI, Twitter Boot starp, Adobe’s
Edge Runtime (it’s free unlike the builder), Sencha SDK , Coffee Script, JSON
HTML4/CSS2 – for older browsers and low end systems
XML, XSLT – data and style rendering.
Java Script – Also CoffeeScript
Host browser specific (e.g. Safari specific, or google Play widget specific, Windows 8 app specific)
Platform /native specific: Objective C, Android, C, C++, Phonegap SDK, Sencha SDKs etc.
Server Side:
PHP (Scripting)
MySQL (Database)
XML and JSON (API format)
Specifications :
SCORM API
AICC API
TinCan API
Video Demos
LINKS TO BE ADDED
License and Business Models
The decision on the business model of CUPID has been taken into account the following goals:
The project should sustain in the currently competing commercial and open source worlds.The framework should available FREE of cost to the content authors from the under privileged or having financial challenges.
It should be available as an open source initiative while at the same time it should allow scope of the framework to be used commercially.
Any commercial firm can use the framework for custom development to develop or enhance it for commercial purpose by paying some licensing fees.
To make sure that all of the above applies to CUPID project, the project licensing is decided as follows:
The project will be MIT licensed so that the commercial versions are not bound to open source any modifications made on the framework unlike the GPL one. Any company/organisation can pay a license fee based on the volume of usage their commercial version will have, in order to develop/extend it for a commercial version.The content authors/teachers/developers/organisations/NGOs doing social service on education and would like to extend and use the framework non-commercially are free to do so without paying any fees. And their extensions will not be open sources if they wish.
For getting support on technical or behavioral aspect of CUPID, there will be an annual support fee to be paid, which needs to be renewed each year till the time the support is needed.
How this framework “re-innovates” the Self Learning e-learning domain
CUPID is the framework that actually attempts to rediscover in the “self-learning” domain of e-learning , which we think we have already discovered! CUPID, implements some fresh concepts and unique ways to improve the learning experience for the user and at the same time makes it easy for the content authors to quickly develop and deliver highly interactive and rich content without the content author to be worried about the technicalities.
CUPID also address the needs of the continuously changing world which is on a fast track pace in moving through the digital revolutions e.g from PC to laptops to mobiles and tablets. It provides unique way to create once and deploy in many platform.
Also CUPID goes beyond the standard limits of the Instructional Designs and provide new blends that can provide fresh way to keep user engaged with the course.
CUPID also mends the gaps between the MOOC based elearning trend and the “self paced ones” by adding ground breaking “course-user interactions” through the assistants, BOTS and the PIE component, so that always the user will feel like the being assisted and guided through his learning curve.
CUPID helps the user in finding the correct learning path to make his learning curve more effective and short.
Last but not te least, CUPID has built in features that supports visually challenged and persons with the challenges in hard of hearing by providing feature that work even in a case of screen reader is not present. Also it provides unique way of voice assisting navigation plus caption based (interactive text labels ) navigation and content media guidance for people with hard of hearing.
In a single line CUPID is all about re-innovating the “self-learning modules” for the next decade.
How CUPID can change the world
The approach of CUPID follows a vision that focuses on every aspect that a learning environment depends on.
It focuses on:
User, his taste, his learning requirements and assists him in all though the way of his learning curve for the self learning period on the topic from the target module.
Author and his needs on making it easy for integrating content, providing support for quick super-easy way to add content media, making content compatible with standard Instructional Design needs (The Bloom Factors), Also helps in protecting content (e.g. DRM)
Certification needs: so that the user can go through self –learning and at the same time generate the certificate which is reliable and meaningful for authorities/organisation requiring certificates from the learner (an employee).
Commercial aspect/developers: provides options for extending the learning framework for a successful commercial product as well as for content producer companies who can reliably protect their premium content on the self learning modules through DRM feature implemented.
Open source communities: CUPID is a great contribution to the open source communities, as it SDK is MIT licensed. Plus it
uses open technologies to support the “open source movement”
Financially backward sections in the world: CUPID is FREE for financially backward sections/organisations/authors to develop and extend it for their use non-commercially.
Free Institutions: All NGOs, educational institutions, universities, non-profit institutions are free to extend it and allowed for keeping their extensions non-open sourced if they want . So that they can use it in exam needs etc. as long as they are not using it for commercial purpose, they can enjoy this freedom.
Physically challenged: Visually challenged and persons with hard of hearing can use CUPID without any extra screen reader or hardware/ software installed in their system.
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Fig5: The ‘wink’ gesture developed by Google Glass developer Mike DiGiovann allows user to take a snap of the surrounding with just a wink of an eye.
SAMIR 