Usage Centered Design 408204

Project: AUT DIY Furniture Website

Lecture: Student:

Dr. Phil Carter

Date: 23/05/2010

Executive Summary
The system is designed for AUT Furniture, which is able to handle the processes of furniture browsing, online payment and furniture design. Our design is based on the acquired user usage and requirement to achieve the efficiency and effectiveness of the system and the user satisfaction. There are still some limitations in our design, so we list down the shortcomings which need to be addressed and the features that can possibly be implemented in the future.

1. Introduction
AUT Furniture is the store which accepts the furniture sketch done by the clients, and the associated manufacturers will build the customized furniture for the clients once the order is placed. AUT Furniture is currently planning to develop the online shopping market to gain the overall market share; and therefore AUT Furniture requires an online system which is able to handle the furniture-selling related transaction processes. The system design of AUT Furniture is not only focusing on the basic online store functions, for instance, online payment and item browsing, but also concentrating on the online furniture design function so that the clients are able to make the mock up of the furniture design online.

In order to build a user friendly online system for AUT Furniture, we believe that it is significant that the system achieves the user requirements and the usability metrics which includes efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction. To meet the user requirements, we need to make up the scenario or interview the users who would actually use the online websites when they are considering purchasing the furniture. For system effectiveness, the users should be able to complete the tasks without difficulties,
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and they do not need to remember where they are in the system to continue the task. For system efficiency, the system ought to allow the users to complete the tasks in a short period of time with the minimized mistake occurrence, and the function descriptions appear on the system should not mislead the users. For achieving the user satisfaction, the system needs to be easy to use to the clients, and they are satisfied with the functions and information provided on the system.

2. Steps Taken and Why

1. Browsed some related online furniture shopping website. Before starting our design phase of the system, we firstly browsed the online furniture websites to gain the ideas of what the common required functions are for the system. Also on the other hand, we were able to find out some special features which we could consider to improve and implement them in our system design.

2. Interviewed the representative users who are the actual users of the system. Since we are not the actual users of the system, we might easily miss some features that are wanted by the clients in the system design phase. Therefore, by interviewing the actual users, it allowed us to acquire the information of what the users want and need from the system.

3. Use of personas and scenario. Even we interviewed the representative users to acquire the user requirements of the system; somehow, some of the representative user backgrounds were similar or even overlapping, for instance, students and housewives. So we decided to make up some personas and scenarios to help us to realize other key features that we should implement in the system.

4. Defined and documented the required functions of the system.

In order to achieve the user requirements, we summarized the information that we collected from the previous steps, and then defined what functions are necessary to be provided or to be ignored when designing the system.

5. Built the prototype of the system. We built the prototype which the system design is based on the user requirements and the usability metrics mentioned in the previous section, so that we were able to develop a user friendly system for AUT Furniture.

6. Representative users had the usability testing on the prototype. We had the representative users to have the usability testing on the prototype. This enables us to find out if there is any shortcoming in the system.

7. The design of the prototype is revised. For meeting the user requirements and improving the usability, we revised the system design to fix the shortcomings of the system, so that we could provide the system which is satisfied by the users. Methodology of User Group Research Five respondents were chosen for this user group research. We use face to face interview to investigate the feedback of DIY furniture website form each respondent. At first, we collect general profile such as age, gender, family status and personal habit. Second, we have a brief idea of the usage of internet for each user. Third, we introduce the concept of DIY furniture website and ask them two questions: 1. What kind of custom designed further do you desire? 2. What are the most desired functions when you custom design a furniture on a website? These two questions may provide an outline of user groups usage preferences and help us to implement idiomatical function into our website to target different user groups.
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3. User description
User1 General profile: User1 Name: Gender: Age: Marriage status: Child1: Child2: Occupation: General profile: Linda female 32 Married 3 years old boy 5 years old girl House wife (no job)

Description: This respondent is a house wife who is handling all the family expenses. There are two children in her family and she has to do house work every day. She has abundance of time and likes to browse through TradeMe when she is free. She can expertly use Internet and do online shopping on Trademe. Because of the pressure of handling family expenses, she is always seeking cheaper commodities on the Internet or other channels. What kind of custom designed further do you desire? 1. I want to have a pink little chair for my daughter with some cartoon picture on it. 2. I want some cheap and solid quality furniture for my family. What are the most desired functions when you custom design a furniture on a website? I want a clear introduction or guide to walk me through the design process, because I have no knowledge of how to design furniture. I want to be able to put custom picture into surface of furniture, this is for my little children.
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I want to know about the cost, which will be great if there are different cost options. Functions may satisfy this user 1. Design Guide Module 2. Custom Pattern Import Module 3. Cost Options Module

User 2 User2 Name: Gender: Age: Marriage status: Child: Occupation: General profile: Gary Male 28 Never Married N/A Professional

Description: This respondent is an IT professional who works full time in the CBD area. He rents a flat in the North Shore and takes a bus to the CBD every morning. He is a smoker, and his weight and height are average. He likes to use internet resources such as Google map, online banking, online payment and online shopping. What kind of custom designed further do you desire? When I work from home, I need a comfort chair. Because I almost work in front of a computer almost 9 hours a day, so I really want to have a comfort chair with a laptop holder or a keyboard/ mouse holder.

What are the most desired functions when you custom design a furniture on a website? I want to have some ideas about what a comfort chair looks like. I like to look at previous peoples work and may pick something I like from there. I need some references on the comfortability of finished design such as rating system or comments by the previous buyers. Because I am busy, I hope the system can handle the process from manufacturing to delivering to home as well. Functions may satisfy this user: 1. Design Gallery Show Case 2. Ranking System Comfortability 3. Comments System 4. Process indicator

User 3 User3 Name: Gender: Age: Marriage status: Child: Occupation: General profile: Nina Female 28 Married N/A N/A

Description: Nina is a 28 years old female, who is currently studying graduate Diploma of Education. She just got married last year to a man who is three years old younger than her. Her
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husband just graduated from the medical school end of last year and still seeking for a job. They are now living with the parents but consider moving out and building their own family and Nina wants to have the unique furniture to be placed in their house. However, since they spend most of money on the wedding, they do not really have much budget on purchasing the furniture. Therefore, Nina normally checks out the sale section to see if there is anything she likes first when she enters to a furniture store or website. If there is not any item she is interested in, she will then look at the nondiscounted sections. What kind of custom designed further do you desire? I would like to buy custom designed furniture that is cheaper than other retail stores. What are the most desired functions when you custom design a furniture on a website? I would like to have some suggestions of fashionable ideas. Although I required cheap price for my customized furniture, I also care about the shape, colour and model. I want to search keywords: fashionable and cheap in the website. Functions may satisfy this user: 1. In site search module 2. Cost Options Module 3. Ranking System Fashionable

User 4 General profile: User4 Name: Gender: Age: Marriage status: Child: Occupation: General profile: Stefanie Female 25 Married N/A N/A

Description: Stefanie is a 25 years old female university student who is going to flat with other classmates in the city in the next semester. Stefanie is a full-time student and does not have a part-time job to pay the rent; she lives on the student loan which is given by the Study Link. She is looking for the furniture for the new apartment, but because she does not have much saving on her account, so she is thinking to buy the second-hand furniture or really cheap items. What kind of custom designed further do you desire? I have some ideas to make customized furniture which is easier to install and move. Especially, I want to have a wooden storage which is reclaimable into a really small box. What are the most desired functions when you custom design a furniture on a website? I want to have information about cost, material and shipping time. I would like to use other peoples design if it is fashionable and not expensive.

Functions may satisfy this user: 1. Cost Options Module 2. Ranking System Fashionable 3. Ranking System Price

User 5 General profile: User4 Name: Gender: Age: Marriage status: Children: Occupation: General profile: Mr Yoshi Male 52 Married 2 Business owner

Description: Mr Yoshi is a fifty two years old gentleman who owns a business and earns great profit. He got two children and both of them are university students and live separately with family. Yoshi enjoys his life as he doesnt need to work every day and he is wealthy enough to support his living style. Yoshi likes high quality living product and furniture, and likes to pursue fashion trends. Yoshi normally browses news on the Internet but he does not shop online. What kind of custom designed further do you desire? I like fashionable stuff; some of furniture design ideas are not bad. Currently, I am looking for a book-shelf, since I have heaps of books at home; I want to design the big
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enough shelf to put about 500 books. I also want to make the size of the book-shelf with short length of the height and wide length of the width. I require hard solid wood for the material. What are the most desired functions when you custom design a furniture on a website? I need some ideas of fashionable book-shelf. I need the specification of materials and guide of design processes. I like a builder selection function because I want my furniture to be made by a professional and well-known builder. Functions may satisfy this user: 1. Ranking System Fashionable 2. Material Specification Module 3. Design Gallery Show Case 4. Design Guide Module 5. Builder (Manufacturer) Selection

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Summary of user description User Groups House wife Desired functions 1.Design Guide Module 2.Custom Pattern Import Module 3.Cost Options Module Probability of usage Medium

Professional

1.Design Gallery Show Case 2.Ranking System Comfortability 4.Comments System 5.Progress indicator

Medium to High

Graduates/ University Student

1.In site search module 2. Cost Options Module 3.Ranking System Fashionable 4.Ranking System Price

Medium to High

High Income Group

1.Ranking System Fashionable 2.Material Specification Module 3.Design Gallery Show Case 4.Design Guide Module 5.Builder (Manufacturer) Selection

Low

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4. Commentary of AUT DIY Furniture Website

I.

Main web pages AUT Furniture DIY Website

II. Furniture Design Guide Module and Progress Indicator III. Design show case IV. Ranking System a. Fashionable b. Price c. Comfortability V. Search Function VI. Custom Pattern Import Function VII. Cost Options VIII. Builder Selection

IX. Users Comment Function X. Online Payment XI. Special Required Function XII. Delivery Tracking System

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I. General Pages of AUT DIY furniture website. Home Page: The Home Page gives user an image of professional furniture website. The Navigations are both located at the top and bottom of home page. The login boxes are also available on the top right hand corner.

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I. General Pages of AUT DIY furniture website.

Home>>Furniture There are two main entrances in the furniture page, which are Go To Design Your Own Furniture and Go To List Of AUT Furniture. If the user clicks on the Go To Design Your Own Furniture, then it will access to the page of the furniture design, If the user clicks on the Go To List Of AUT Furniture, then it will access to the page displaying the existing furniture designs that AUT Furniture has.

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I. General Pages of AUT DIY furniture website. Home>>Furniture>>Design Room Design Room is the page for users to design their own furniture. On the left hand side of the page, there is a furniture category organiser to assist the users to design on their own. It is used to specify which kind of furniture the users want to design, and it is necessary because the system loads the different design guides based on furniture type selected by the users. In the design window, there are several controls and modules in this page: guide information and progress bar (refer to II), working area, show case gallery (refer to III), material selection (refer to II), cost options (refer to VII), and builder selection (refer to VIII).

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I. General Pages of AUT DIY furniture website. Home>>Furniture>>Check Out Check out page will be brought out at the last stage of the progress. The check out page only displays when user wants their design to be manufactured. The users can fill in the shipping and billing details, and also the detail of the credit card for the online payment.

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II. Furniture Design Guide Module website. In our system, there is a Furniture Design Guide Module to assist user who is not familiar with furniture design.

The progress bar is placed on the top of the design window. It indicates how many steps that are required to implement a furniture design. There are seven steps in the furniture design process and the highlighted blue indicates the current step. The progress bar is hyperlinked so that user can click on the step description and go back to the previous steps. Another function in the progress bar is the pop-up dialogue box which contains the guide description. Whenever the users mouse hovers on a node of progress bar and stay for 5 seconds, the help information will show up as a little box above page content and the dialogue box will be hidden as long as the cursor move out the node.

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III. Design Show Case

Design Gallery show case is placed at the bottom of design window. It is showing the furniture designs which are recommended by system. The way to use the design in the show case: user can import all prefer design into design window by clicking on the hyperlinked image in the show case. User may want to modify the specific parts, paint colour or material to quickly create their custom design. The show case is generated dynamically based on the furniture category selected by the user.

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IV. Ranking System

Our system allows the members to publish their design works, and share with other users. The users can choose the design which published by other users, and the system also provide the feedback which made by the members on the selected design. Basically, there are three areas to evaluate a design work: comfortability, price and fashionable. Price attribute is estimated automatically by our system; comfortability and fashionable are based on members feedback. There is a ranking system in our website to help users to quickly spot what are the best designs in comfortability, price and fashionable. Regarding to our user investigation, four out of five users want to quickly obtain design works by their interest, and this function may satisfy this group of users. The links top4, top10, and top20 can generate different length of the list by users preference.

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V. Search Function

Search function is very important for a website; it provides a quick method to spot the information by users requirement. The search function in our website is different from other website. As long as user clicks on the textbox, the scroll-down check box will show up.

Search options are listed on scroll-down check box. By Designer: By Material: By function: Search keywords from the name of designers. Search keywords from the material used by design work. Search keywords from the function of furniture of the design work. By Colour: By Furniture Type: All: Search keywords from furniture colour of the design work. Search keywords from furniture types of the design work. Search keywords from entire system, include text content, image source, and everything above.
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VI. Custom Pattern Import Function

As we mentioned in the users description, Linda wants to design a chair with custom picture printed. The system provides the function that allows the user to import a picture from their local computer and attach to furniture surface in the painting stage. How to use: 1. Choose a part that you want to attach the custom pattern. (The part will automatically show in the design window.) 2. Upload the picture by using upload control at the bottom of design window. (Click browse button to find the image file then click upload button to import.) 3. Choose surface from the part by system visual assistant. 4. Adjust the size of pattern. 5. Click on Save button which shows after importing image.
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VII. Cost Options In the material selection stage, our system provides material selection based on cost rates. The materials list box is showing all available materials by price rating (default at low to high). The link button Low to High and High to Low can sort the material list by users preference. By clicking on the material in the list, the estimated cost is calculated by system and it shows on the top of design window. Meanwhile, the design drawing is illustrated by this kind of material in the design window. Refer to users description; there are some user groups which prefer to purchase cheapest furniture. This function can help them to quickly find out the cheapest option.
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VIII.

Builder Selection

To meet the user requirements and improve the usability, this page consists of two sub-options which are builder selection function and comment placement of users extra requirements to the selected builder after the user designing the furniture. After the users designing their own furniture, this function is provided to him/her in order to select a builder on their choice. The users can select one of builders from combo-box, and then the details of selected builder will be displayed. By giving details such as name, e-mail, work phone, office location and office hours, users can contact to the builder personally. More descriptions about builders are followed by: Experience: It shows the working period of each builder that how long they have been working. Awards & Qualification: It presents how many and what kind of awards each builder acquired, and also their qualifications are listed.

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As mentioned in the user description, Mr. Yoshi always emphasized the quality of the product, so he wants to design his furniture by professional builders. In this case, he can select a wide range of builders with different qualifications. If he still considers selecting a builder, he can personally contact each builder by phoning them in office hour or sending the e-mail.

After the user clicks on Next Step button without selecting a builder, the pop-up window (in Fig.1) will be shown. If the user clicks on Yes button, it will randomly select a builder, and if the No button is clicked, it will leaves in current page.

After the user clicks on Next Step button with selecting a specific builder, the pop-up window (in Fig.2) will be shown. If the user clicks onYes button, it will process to the next step, and if the No button is clicked, it will stop continue the progress and return to the builder selection page.

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IX. Users Comment Function

After the user selects an appropriate builder, he/she can leave their comments to builder. This is not a compulsory step, so it can leave it as blank. At the top of the function, it shows the item that user designed in the previous steps, and in the middle of the window, it provides the description of how this function will operate. At the bottom of the function, there is a big blank box to let user fill up their comments. There might be some fastidious clients who require some additional services which do not contain in the furniture design page, and then this function would be suitable to them. The representative user, JaeWon Bang, he requires that the furniture he designed would be well manufactured in hard material in order to maintain the heavy weight stuff, he can then leaves this comment to his selected builder. He can also bargains for the price with his builder by leaving comments if he is currently concerned about price.

Another representative user, Mr. Yoshi, he also requires hard materials for his item, so he can leave those comments to his builder. The major concern he has is the use of toxic paint on his furniture because it will be harmful to his two lovely young daughters and therefore he prefers to use the nontoxic paint on the furniture he designed before. Since the comment text box does not need to be filled, and there is no pop-up window will be showed up for this function, so the pop-up window is displayed depends on whether the user selects a builder or not.

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X. Online Payment

The major concern of the online payment is the security issue, and this is one of the main reasons that some customers are refusing to shop online. So we have decided to associate with the companies who handle the online transactions with secured mechanisms. By placing the icons of Master Card, Visa and American Express allows the users of the system easily to know the types of credits cards that are accepted on the AUT Furniture online system. The secured shopping stamp appears on the system is used to convince the clients that the process of the online transaction on the system is secured without the privacy leakage concern. For the clients who still doubt with the security level of the system, they can choose to use PayPal for their payments. PayPal is a global well-known company which handles with online transaction securely, and therefore, it might be easier to gain the trust from the clients to shop on AUT Furniture online system.

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XI. Special Required Functions

Height for table As mentioned in the user description before, Mr. Shin wanted to design a lower dining table for his babies. The system enables the users to design furniture by themselves; Mr. Shin said that there is no company offers this service. So, I tried the system and it is able to adjust the height of table. User can click on the leg of table and drag up or down, and then the length of leg can be longer or shorter. User also can change the width of table, if user expands the table wider, it can become a big table that many people can use at a time. User is also able to change the color of table, type of wood, style of table, shape of table and other customization functions. The user can see the prices of table if user uses any additional materials. Comparison to other table is also possible, user can view other peoples design and choose which design is better and adjust it to own design.

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XII. Delivery Tracking Service

When order and payment is completed, Customer of AUT furniture does not need to worry about random delivery dates. AUT furniture provides real time furniture tracking services. Customers can check delivery status in AUT website through simple login process. Normally, people cannot predict the exact delivery date, so they received parcel randomly. AUT furniture administrator checks delivery status in NZ post webpage by serial code and then updates delivery time and location on AUT furniture website to inform to customers. Accordingly, customers can check furniture making process and delivery process in one page. Customers can save their waiting time for parcel by checking through the real-time delivery tracking service; customers anxiousness about online shopping will be eased.

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5. Limitation and Future Work

1. Sample Size of the Representative Users The number of representative users that we interviewed with and the number of scenarios we came up with were relatively small to demonstrate the actual usage of the online furniture shopping system. The information that we collected from the small sample size of the users may have a bias result. User requirements and satisfaction could also vary. Therefore, our next step is that we need to have the more accurate user group analysis to enhance the system design for AUT Furniture. For instance, we should gather the information of system usage and requirements from a larger sample size of the users who have the wider range of backgrounds. The possibility of having the bias in the gathered information can be decreased by increasing the user sample size, and we are able to understand the different needs and requirements from the users who have various backgrounds.

2. Improvement of Usability Testing The usability tests were done by the representative users who were interviewees after the prototype was built. However, the system design for AUT Furniture was based on the needs and wants of the representative users, so they would easily satisfy with the features and services offered by the system. Then it would be difficult for us to notice if there are any shortcomings or drawbacks in the system. Therefore, in the future, after revising the system design or implementing the new features, we should also have the representative users who are not involved in the acquirement of the user usage and requirement to do the usability tests. So, the feedback of the usability testing may contain some information that is not mentioned before and we will be able to improve the user satisfaction.

3. Use of Flash In the current system, the furniture designing and displaying functions were coded rather than implementing the functions by using the Flash. This may increase the difficulty and work load when the clients are trying to use those functions. The related online systems we had browsed were generally using Flash to present the furniture designs. Using Flash can help us to
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implement more features easier and also have a better presentation of the system. Therefore in the future, we are going to use Flash to implement the furniture designing and displaying processes. Because the use of flash can reduce the work load that is required from the users, it is able to increase the system efficiency and easier for the clients to use the system, and then achieve the better system effectiveness.

4. Changeability of Showroom Background The clients of AUT Furniture can see the pictures of their favorite items when purchasing them from the online system, but maybe it will be hard for the clients to imagine if the purchased item goes with the decoration of the house. For helping the clients to select the perfect furniture easier, we are going to develop the function that allows the clients to upload the photos of their houses or offices as the background of the showroom, and the clients can drag the furniture into the showroom and see if the furniture matches with the decoration.

5. Promotion Section Generally, the physical stores would have the sale section for the promotion or clearance item, and this might also be necessary to the AUT Furniture online shopping system. As mentioned in the user description, some of the users wanted to purchase the furniture with cheap prices and it may be able to attract more potential clients if the sale section exists. Therefore, the feature of the furniture sale section is possibly to be implemented in the system in the future.

6. Comparison of the Furniture Prices and Details In order to easier the clients to find out the differences and select the suitable furniture between the similar items, the function of the prices and descriptions comparison between different furniture should be implemented in the future. With this function, the clients are not required to memories the detail of the items for making the decision of the furniture selection, and it can reduce the work and memory load and then improve the effectiveness of the system.

7. Web-based Instant Messenger Adoption If the clients have any queries and want to contact with AUT Furniture, they need to go the Contact Us section for the contact detail and then make contact by calling or mailing.
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However, mailing may not be suitable for the clients who want the quick response for their queries, and calling may not be suitable for the clients who cannot speak English well. Therefore, an online quick response platform needs to be considered into the system design for offering better customer services. Since the popularity and usage of the online instant messenger has increased nowadays, the adoption of the web-based instant messenger is a good choice for providing the platform of the quick response for the clients, for instant, MSN Windows Live Messenger. For using the web-based instant messenger, the clients do not need to install the application, and are able to reach to the staff quickly. For the clients who have challenges in speaking English, they may feel relieved when communicating with the staff through instant messenger.

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6. Reflection
Lillian Ho (ID: 0952722) This group project becomes one of the great learning experiences to me. With my perspective, the teamwork and respecting are the most important factors for us to complete this project rather than how good we are at studying. The members in our group have different backgrounds and thinking, and all of us are not native English speaker, so communication becomes important for us to share our ideas and viewpoints.

There were some arguments when we were having the different point of views on how to complete the tasks, but we learnt to respect each other and tried to listen and understand the different voices because we believed that the opinions from every member is important if we want to cooperate with each other. We kindly pointed out if any mistakes were made, and we also admitted what we had done wrong when working on the project. We supported each other mutually to ensure that everyone was on the right track and was able to complete the tasks without too much stress on.

I did some similar tasks when I was doing my undergraduate degree, but I did not consider about the usage and requirements of the users when I was on the system designing phase. After this project, I understood the importance of the user usage and requirements for designing a user friendly system. As the system developers, we need to listen to the actual users and understand their expectation from the system, and then we are able to create the system which the users will be satisfied with.

When I was going to acquire the user usage and description, I decided to interview two of my friends and document the recorded information as the scenarios. Before the interview, I prepared some questions which I thought it might be good enough to gather the information that I needed, however, after the first interview, I realized I could not collect the information as detail and significant as I expected, so I searched some information on the strategies of how to have a success interview. I then revised the questions and created an interview agenda which
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contains the flow of the interview that I could stick with. This helped me to gather the information related to user usage and requirements efficiently.

In the system design phase, I thought it would be difficult to gather everyones opinion and put it together, however, we listed down all the functions that we thought it was necessary to be maintained first, and then discussed if they were all required based on our user description and usage. Personally I think it was organized and efficient way to listen to the opinion of each member and to define the features that should be implemented in our system.

When the finalized design of the system was out, we believed that our system should be user friendly and could work perfectly fine because we had the representative users to do the usability testing on the system. When I began to find any limitation or any future work that can be done on the system, we found it hard to find any shortcomings because we were too confident with our system design. I reviewed the work we had done and discussed with the members, and found out that we had some limitations on the strategy that was used to acquire the user usage and description, and also on the usability testing, for instance, the small sample size of user, this would cause that even there is any limitation is our system design, it is difficult for us to notice it if we only focus on the system design only. For enhancing the system, I browsed some online shopping websites which are not furniture related, and I realized that there are some more features that we can implement to increase the system efficiency and achieve the higher user satisfaction, for instance, the web-based instant messenger. So I referred some key features which were implemented in other online shopping websites for the future work of our system design, and I believe it can attract more potential clients who are willing to try and use the system.

Overall, I enjoyed this project and working with other classmates as a team. It was the great experience of how we completing each task of this project. I enjoyed seeing when our system design was finalized and the representative users were satisfied with it, it made me feel that all the arguments and the hard works were actually worth it. It was a good teamwork experience to me and I believe it would help me for the team-oriented projects in the future.
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Gary Wang (ID: 0289175) This project is a great learning experience for me. During the project, all of us contributed to this system design task. The significant about this project is not only about the quality of finished work; it is an experience of practically work as a part of a team and try to achieve a common goal. From this project, I gained lots of knowledge from business/ management aspect and Information Technology aspect. The first thing I learnt is that project should be well planned, and communication is crucial to achieve the project timeline. Before the project gets started, the timeline of project progress should be formulated, such as which date we should start the design and date should we finish it. Somehow we should have a systematic plan for the project which includes goal setting, user research, system design, evaluation and modification, and these processes should be in a logical sequence. After we defined what should we do, then we should find out how we are going to do it. Because the group members are come from different backgrounds, we have different understandings for a tasks and this made the project progress extremely inefficiency. So, before the task been delegated to members, we should discuss key objects and methods to have a same expectations and common understanding. Is the system we are going to design an ideal system or practical system? It is a question we have to think about. Before we start to put capital and time into a project, we should think about its feasibility and return. We should consider the technologies to implement this system, motivation of usage, size of potential users and return on investment. In the real business environment, they are very important for an investor to think about. The usage centred design is more about detail. By doing this project, I felt user centred design have to extremely focus on users preferences, so user research is very important for interface design. We have to investigate users from their demographics details to their living styles. For example, we supposed that Linda is our potential user; we get her information in detail and think about what is those information means to our system design. Linda loves her children a lot that means her children could be the motivation factor to use our website to design furniture. Another concern is the accuracy of target user definition. Today we spent a lot of time to collect users information and it could be useless if this is not a typical user.
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Kangwook Byeon (ID: 0968751) Different people, Different understanding (week 5-7) Our group is organized at assignment realized date and consists of five colleagues from three different countries. Unfortunately, we had all different ideas and concepts for system design assignment. Also, as English is not our first languages, communication was not well flowed. Accordingly, we got into many arguments about which system should be chosen and how to progress our system design and we have not made great progress than planned till two three week time. After the organized schedule is continuously delayed, we recognized that respect for each other and real co-operations are really needed. Consequently, DIY furniture website and framework of simple operation are selected for system design without restrictions by other members. I realized the most important factor below to decide one topic and do efficient team working. For efficient progress of group work, feedbacks from other members should be used as hint for enhancement of my idea. I strongly believed that my idea was an ideal model and it is perfectly matched to do this assignment, so I kept asserted my opinion without hearing to other`s feedbacks. After feedbacks from members are implemented, my suggested idea is selected. Indeed, it was much nicer than initial model. If I have been open mind to listen and implement other member`s feedbacks, we could save the time and our energies which were wasted on arguments. Crucial comments from lecturer (week 8) We have not considered usability of our designed website before meeting with lecturer. It was critical mistake. We only have focused on interface of website, how to make website looking good and particular functions of website. Before meet lecturer, we thought our designed website is well made and even expected get praised. Lecturer`s harsh criticism was extremely helpful to us to know our problems. So, all members had interviewed with random people about usability and evaluation of our website. User`s comments were unpredictable, contributable and fresh. Once again, we recognized that we have been built the website totally without implementation of user`s wants and needs from furniture website. we have promptly
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implemented user`s fresh ideas to our furniture design website. And then I found another important factor below of system design. Periodic review is essential step to build an ideal system design We had to have do modify many aspects of our website design; because of we missed critical point which is usability. We were just busy to make and finish assignment as soon as possible. So, periodic meeting for review is skipped. Consequently, we have spent more time on redesign and modify aspects of website. If we had meeting for review of website periodically, we could save the time and it would be leaded us on right track for design process. The final report with awesome group members (week 9 -11) when we finalizing the report, members often suffered pressures from other paper`s works and their own works, and It could be leaded lost of concentration. However, members were actively participated meeting and we shared many various ideas for a long while yet. Even most parts of final report are almost finished; members did not lose their concentration for this report. Personally, I think it is really surprising happen. When I was studying as group in University of Auckland, most of members did not keep to a rigid schedule and members have made ridiculous excuses to miss the group meetings. So, sometimes I even submitted unfinished assignment. It was painful memory for me. However, our group members are all hard workers or even workaholic and completed distributed task on time. Indeed, my first impression of members was just not bad. Now, our members produced everlasting impression on me. When we distributed tasks, all members are actively participated to take more tasks. It was really nice to work with members who care each other. It was my first group project for 6 weeks long in AUT and I learnt various aspects of group projects. I learnt how hard to get various inputs to make one opinion. System design seems like easier than literature review or essay. However, it was a great mistake. Finding user`s exact wants and needs was difficult, and design website that has high user satisfaction level was extremely difficult. Group members have discussed and analyzed for a long while to make dedicated functions that satisfy user`s wants and needs. Finally, we invented various usercentered DIY Furniture website and I believe that designed DIY furniture will be useful to
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various users. Overall, it was really valuable group project experience and it would be much helpful to next group project.

ByungInn Ann (ID: 1094306) Summary of collaboration Our group began to design the system when the assessment sheet of group project was handed out to each group. Our group members were interested in design the furniture online in the users perspective. Because the each person in my group has all different point of views of thinking and ideas, the teamwork could be the most important key factor for our group project. So we respected each others opinion and pointed out if one of our group members made mistakes during the project. We never blamed any group member if the opinion was wrong because the opinions from every member cannot be wrong entirely, sometimes partially possible to pick out some valuable ideas from the opinions so no one hesitated to give out the opinions. We also organized a group meeting at least once in a week to ensure all of group members were in the right track. In my point of view, our teamwork for the group project was fine and we didnt get too much stresses on collaborating work with each other.

Summary of learnt from the design Before I participating this group project, I didnt realize how the users usage and requirement can affect to the website. In order to make user friendly system, the developer should understand the users usage and requirement of the system but at the first of our design phase, we didnt make user profiling and just designed a system based on our ideas. It was a wrong way and we recognized that our ideas were out of the projects objective after we organized a meeting with our lecturer. A meeting with our lecturer was quite helpful for our design and we re-planned the way for system development. To gather the actual users usage and requirements, I interviewed 2 actual users who one of them is my friend and rest of them is
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next-door man. For the effective interview, I prepared some questions in the survey note and let them contacted to me if they had some more ideas for the system design after the interview. After all of our group members made users usage and description, we integrated it altogether then we listed down all the necessary functions. Even though, there were heaps of each users usage and requirements for the system, we removed some duplicated factors and focused on the common factor. After we all finished for designing the system, we reviewed our system and compared with other websites to find anymore key functions that we missed. By took a usability testing from representative users, we ensured that our system were much closed to the usability. After the project, I understood that the users usage and requirements for designing a user friendly system are important. It was a good teamwork experience and I enjoyed this project. If I design the website in the future, I expect that this experience would be helpful for design the system based on the main key which is a user centered system.

Sang Yeoun Lee (ID: 0642245) 1. Group Work Five people in a group have a separated work each, however, we needed to divide and gather work. We should meet every Saturday even there is nothing we need to discuss on some people. For example, early stage of purpose of meeting was all about system design. People who are not on design part are needed to check the design for the group, they were able to check it on online. However, they came out to city and had a discussion, and gave very efficient and nice ideas to people who are on design part. Sometimes, we might have a misunderstanding, but my group members do not seems having any dissatisfaction. When one of my group members might have a less ability to do a project like me, other group member successfully make up the members shortage. My group met so earlier than other group, try to be friendly. One of the advantage for my group was we knew each other before the project started. So, we could have a plenty of time to do a project, did not need to be stuck or shy to

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each other. My group did not rush, separated a work with a plenty time, we also had online meeting using an online messenger, and told what we need to make, fix and remove.

2. Design I have worked on design part, I had no idea how a system design is made. I made a simple website for my personal use, I did not care what features are needed and how design will be. My group member taught me how it is designed, and how we collect ideas and data. I also felt the location of my group members place is one of the important factor, because if someone live in far place to city, then the frequency we meet in the city would be reduced. Offline meeting would be much better than online meeting for making a design, fortunately, my group members did not have any repulsion to come out to city. So, we could meet any time that all of my design team members were comfortable.

3. User I always have been a user to many website like AUT online, but I did not recognize how users can be one of important factor for system design. I was busy to put all functions into a system, how it looked ok to me. After having a meeting with Phillip Carter who is my lecturer in User Centered Design, I recognized that I did not care and think about user. I should have thought about the interaction between system designer and user. So, my group member tried to make up what users can think if they saw my groups system.

4. Time When my group started designing, I was wondered why we started so earlier. We had got more than 2 months at that time. We divided small work to each work, so we did not spend much time on that, and we can also do other assessments at a time. We felt less stress than other groups because we have done some works already, and also had a plenty time to do rest of works. So, I recognize time is the one of important factor for project.

5. Place
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The place we can design was quiet limited, however, we had a nice place to design which is Room402 in WT building. That room was opened anytime for postgraduate students, we can meet and design anytime. We used to design in there very late time, supermarket is just nearby the room, we could eat when we are hungry, and play after design. So, I felt place can be one of factor for a project.

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