Wake Up! Fix it!: Chartacters

So, you are a usability expert. You've been set the task of creating a new usable design for a hotel alarm. What do you do?

You have decided to do a walkthrough analysis. Here are some characters you come up with as the basis for your analysis.

All characters need to wake up at 8:30 tomorrow. None have used a digital radio before but are familiar with traditional radios and use their own FM radio-alarm clock at home. None have stayed in this hotel before.

Renuka: Solicitor

Renuka is a 35-year old partner in a law firm. She is staying at the hotel while visiting a corporate client on a multi-million pound case. She has to wake at 8:30 to meet her clients. In the office she has a PA who does all the trivial tasks that she does not have time for. She uses some technology like a blackberry for email and is constantly on the phone. If something would take her time to work out though she will just pick up the phone and get someone to do it for her - as her charge-out rate is very high - time costs her clients money.

Jordan: Sales Executive

Jordan is a 45-year old sales executive. He is staying in the hotel to attend a conference and has to wake at 8:30 in order to make the first session as he is the first speaker. He likes using new technology but will never read instructions for a new gadget, preferring to just go ahead and use it. He gets quickly bored though, so if he cannot quickly work out how something is done he will stop trying and do it another way. So if he doesn't quickly work the alarm out he will ask reception to set up an alarm call on the way back from the bar.

Sue: retired manager

Sue is a 68-year old retired department store manager. She has been on holiday and now has to wake at 8:30 to catch her train. She is unsure of using new gadgets. She worries about breaking them and is convinced "she just can't use new technology". Once she has worked out how to do something she is then very good at doing it though (even if she still is convinced otherwise) - so, for example, having been taught how to use a computer by her daughter-in-law she is now very confident at sending emails to her grand-children. She also wears glasses.

Back to the walkthrough.

The wake-up. Fix it! series of cs4fn articles is based on a Science Week activity organised by the Department of Computer Science at Queen Mary, University of London, with support from the Research Councils UK.