Note: This is a two-person team assignment. Find a person to do this with, and submit one report with both your names on it. Collaboration is expected between the two of you. See below for the report format.

The purpose of this assignment is to get you out observing how other people interact with an everyday device, trying to perform a well-defined task, and to reflect on why some devices are simple to use, and others are hard to use.

For this assignment, observe another classmate (or at least a willing person) using a gasoline pump, from walk up to walk away. Write down the steps involved (this is a preview of a task analysis), and then inspect the interface and the interaction for anything that would pose a problem for the user in completing the two tasks.

You should focus on the human capabilities of the user such as perceptual abilities (or disabilities); cognitive or mental processing, including memory; and physical movements or responses. How does the physical device, the screen, the buttons, the interface, the flow of the transaction, etc., support or fail to support the user in completing these "simple" tasks? Also, don't forget social considerations like privacy, comfort, preferences, etc. These concepts should tie in with the lectures on human abilities and task analysis. Ask yourself question like, Were the buttons too small (user's finger size was not considered appropriately by designer)? Was the display too hard to see for the older users, but no problem for the younger ones (design does not support what we know about aging vision)? Did the button-to-action mapping make sense (stimulus-response mappings, cognition issues)? How many times would it take to learn the steps required to complete a task (learning aspects of cognition)?

You are to write a brief report on your observations. In this report, include a clear description (aided by pictures, perhaps) of the gas pump (and its location) you chose and the specific task you wanted to observe people performing. Then you are to summarize the observations you made of other people trying to use the object to perform that task. Finally, try to come up with some sort of story about what, if anything, about the design of this gas pump failed. You should try to use the principles from the DFAB book or the heuristics that Norman describes to back up your story, and support your observations and conclusions with some of the things we know about human abilities.

Here is a sample outline of the report you should prepare: