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What is a PACT Analysis?

Design Process
D R. ANN NOSSEIR

People: relevant user characteristics and skills Activities: how is the activity currently carried out? Why?

What can be improved?

Context: the environment of the activity Technologies: what tools are used now, and how might

new developments be used?

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People, Activities, Context, Technology (PACT)

People undertake activities, in contexts using

What is a PACT Analysis?

technologies.

A student uses a phone to send a text message

whilst sitting on a bus

Air traffic controllers work together using

computers and flight strips to ensure smooth running of an airport in the air traffic control centre. A 70-year-old woman presses various buttons to set the intruder alarm in her house. It is the variety in each of the PACT elements - and their combination - that makes interactive systems design so fascinating

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People
Cognitive characteristics - level and duration of attention,

People
Special needs - blindness, colour blindness, deafness, wheel chair

perception, memory, learning abilities, cognitive capabilities, fears, personality characteristics Physical characteristics - age differences, physical abilities, What motivates, pleases and engages - affect Experience & expectations - novice v's expert Language Culture - For example, in Microsoft Excel there are two buttons, one labeled with a cross and the other a tick. In the US a tick is used for acceptance and the cross rejection, but in Ireland a tick or a cross can be used to show acceptance (e.g. a cross on a ballot paper).

user
Homogenous vs heterogeneous user groups - website site users

are (normally) heterogeneous - many different types of people; users of a company's intranet are (generally) homogenous Discretionary vs committed users - does the user have a choice? if yes, then you need to encourage them to return Infrequent vs frequent users - if users are normally infrequent, then interface must be particularly 'helpful' as users will forget how to complete complicated tasks.

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People
Physical differences:-Height, weight, different

Activities
Goals, tasks and actions Regular or unusual, weekly? Yearly? - frequent tasks should

capabilities in sight, hearing, touch,

Psychological differences: -Different ways of

working; different memory abilities, spatial ability; different amounts of attention at different times; ability to recognize things or remember things. Different mental models

Usage differences:-Experts versus novices,

discretionary users of technologies, differences in designing for a heterogeneous group or a homogeneous group

be easy to do; infrequent tasks should be easy to learn or remember Well-defined or vague Continuous or interrupted - user may need to 'find their place' again Current task practices Individual vs co-operative work Multi-tasking vs serial tasks Passive vs active,

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Activities
Quality vs quantity trade-off Data input requirements Length of time on tasks - peaks and troughs of working,

Activities
Well-defined or vague Continuous or interrupted - user may need to 'find

need for fast response Coping with errors - presentation of error messages, how to deal with them, how the system accommodates them, significance of errors, safety critical errors Goals, tasks and actions Regular or unusual, weekly? Yearly? - frequent tasks should be easy to do; infrequent tasks should be easy to learn or remember
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their place' again

Current task practices

Individual vs co-operative work

Multi-tasking vs serial tasks Passive vs active,

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Activities
Quality vs quantity trade-off Data input requirements Length of time on tasks - peaks and troughs of

Context
Physical environments - noisy, cold, wet, dirty, stressful, uses dangerous materials, sunny Social environments - channels of communication, structure, centralisation vs decentralisation, home, mobile, training materials

working, need for fast response

Coping with errors - presentation of error

messages, how to deal with them, how the system accommodates them, significance of errors, safety critical errors

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Context
Organisational context - relationships with customers,

Technologies
Input - Getting data in; getting commands; security Output - Characteristics of different displays (e.g. video vs.

other staff, effect on work practices and job content, role, deskilling, job loss, shift in power Circumstances under which activities happen (time, place, pressure of work/time) Amount and type of support for activities - tuition, manuals, demonstrations, new knowledge, new skills

photographs; speech vs. screen)

Communications - Between people, between devices, speed,

etc. - What is connected to what?

Size of screen GUI or not? Sound?

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Technologies
Networked or stand alone. Always on or dial in? Real-time systems; Safety critical systems; Walk-up-and-use systems (e.g. kiosks) / Office

Designing a ticket machine

Ramses station is introducing a new system of

automatic barriers. Now everyone will have to buy a ticket before they travel. Write down the characteristics of this activity

systems/ Palm pilot application / Web site.

Regular/infrequent? Peaks and troughs; interruptible? Response time; co-operation? Vague/well-defined? Safety critical? Errors? Data requirements; media

What mental model would you want to engender in

people. How would you design for this?

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Different Contexts of Use

Activities always take place in some context Context sometimes means things that surround an

Different Technologies
Hardware and software to consider Input How to enter data and commands into the system. Suitability of medium for different contexts/activities Output Characteristics of displays - streamy media versus chunky media. Characteristics of the content. Also feedback is important Communication Between person and technology. Bandwidth, speed. communication between devices Content Functional systems versus systems more focused on content
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activity and sometimes what glues an activity together

Physical environment is one sort of context ATM or ticket machine versus computer at home Social context is important

Help from others, acceptability of certain designs

Organizational context Power structure, changes in life style, de-skilling, etc.

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Ticket Machine
So, taking into consideration the contexts of use,

Ticket Machine ideas

Input - need to specify destination, need to provide

the activities and the people. What technology will you design for the new ticket machines? Consider Input Output Communication Content

payment, need to specify ticket type

Press button (depending how many stations). Have touch screen (gets greasy). Pay by mobile phone?

Output - need to specify options, need to provide a ticket,

need to say when complete.

Ticket could be electronic or paper. Printing facility needed. Options as buttons, or menu items? Need to provide change?

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Ticket Machine ideas

Communication - must be simple. Could be

Design Process
Challenge:
Think of decorating your house, flat or bedroom. When could you start with requirements,

Bluetooth. Probably button presses are easiest Content - need to specify stations, but it could have lots of local information. Help with travel planning?

conceptual design a physical design or a prototype/ envisionment? What processes would you go through after you start?

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Re-decorating your flat

Start with requirements - e.g. I need a space to work

Re-decorating your flat

Start with a physical design - we could put a

in. I want to get rid of some clutter. I want the room to be lighter, fresher, cleaner Start with conceptual design - need to create an area for working in; need to build a cupboard to store things in; paint the walls a lighter colour.

partition up in the corner of the bedroom; that cupboard I saw in Ikea could be used to store things in my flat; I am going to paint the walls apple-white

Start with envisionment - look at this

persons flat in this magazine with a neat working area; heres a sketch of my ideas for a cupboard; you know the colour of Rods bedroom Then evaluate - that partition would be too expensive, that cupboard would get in the way; that colour would get dirty very quickly
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Classic Life Cycle for Software Development

Classic Life Cycle for Software Development

Traditionally, software developers have treated each

The Classic Life Cycle for Software Development (Waterfall model) Sommerville, 1995.
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phase of the software design life cycle as an independent part of software development, which must be completely satisfied before moving on to the next phase. It is linear, sequential, systematic. This view is simplistic. In practice, however, the development stages overlap and feed information to each other. Moreover, there are many iterations up and down between stages.
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User-Centered Iterative Design

User-Centered Iterative Design

The essential difference between the classic life cycle and

user-centered interface design is that user interface design and development is based on the premise that users should be involved throughout the design life cycle. Additionally, the process should be highly iterative, so that the design can be tested (or evaluated) with users to make sure it meets the users requirements. Unlike this iterative design process, the waterfall life cycle generally leaves evaluation to the end.

Interface Design and Evaluation Process Greenberg, 1996.

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Star Life Cycle

Star Life Cycle - Key features

Evaluation is central to designing interactive

systems. Everything gets evaluated at every step of the process The process can start at any point sometimes there is a conceptual design in place, sometimes we start with a prototype, sometimes we start with requirements The activities can happen in any order, for example, requirements might be evaluated and a prototype built and evaluated and some aspect of a physical design might then be identified
Star Life Cycle (Evaluation-centered) Hix and Hartson, 1993.
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Star Life Cycle

the star life cycle is intended to be equally

supportive of both top-down and bottom-up development, plus inside-out and outside in development

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