Tasks

Last week you made a resolution to get your finances organized and just began to try a free software called “KMyMoney”. It’s 3:00 in the afternoon of a Sunday. You picked up your mail and sat down to do some of your pending paper work and manage your finances for the week.  

You have learnt from the marketing material that KMyMoney:

1.       Strives to be easy to use,

2.       Provides all important features commercial systems provide and

3.       Uses double entry accounting principles to ensure accounts are kept in correct order.

Last week you have set up KMyMoney to suit your requirements. The following is the description of the settings you applied:

-          Created your KMyMoney file

-          Added accounts with starting balances

-          Entered few expenses

-          Choose basic categories to track expenses

So, as you come back today you have few tasks lined that you want to do in KMyMoney that are as follows:

Task 1

“You have paid your monthly apartment rent today by check, now please create a reminder to enter it every month, and enter this month’s rent payment and verify to see it is entered in the system.”

Use the following data:

1.       Rent = $800

2.       Paid from your checking account BoA1

3.       Check was written to Woodland Apartments.

	·         Create a reminder to pay your rent monthly ·         Enter this month’s rent that you have paid today in the system ·         Verify that it has been entered in the system

 

Task 2

“You got your cash back for a new laptop you bought recently from Staples. You have deposited that cheque yesterday, entered it into the system. Earlier today you found from your online bank statement that the cheque you deposited got cleared. Please change the entry appropriately.”

Use the following data:

1.       Refund amount: $100

2.       Account to which you posted the money was : BoA1-Checking

	·         Change the cheque details appropriately.

 

Task 3

“In your mail today, you got your bank statements. Using them now, in order to make sure you have done you book keeping right, you want to confirm/correct the entries for your checking account BoA1.”

Use the following data:

The Bank statement is as follows:

BoA1 Checking - 12345678 From: 11/21/09 Through: 11/28/09     Starting Balance: $382.62     -13 Withdrawals: -$1,534.00     +2 Deposits: $1,374.74     Ending Balance: $223.36

1. 

2. 

Date	Description	Withdrawal	Deposit	Balance
11/27/09	CHECK 1321	-$120.00		$223.36
11/26/09	ONLINE BANKING TRNSFR TO SAVINGS 12345678	-$700.00		$343.36
11/25/09	REG SALARY ABC Corp.98765432		$687.37	$1,043.36
11/24/09	CHECK 1335	-$30.00		$355.99
11/23/09	KEEP THE CHANGE TRANSFER TO ACCT 5678 FOR 11/22	-$0.78		$385.99
11/22/09	PURCHASE 90631029011479844262401 ON 10/29 AT BARNS AND NOBEL SEATTLE WA	-$11.22		$386.77
10/22/09	ONLINE BANKING TRNSFR TO SAVINGS 12345678	-$600.00		$397.99
10/21/09	REG SALARY XYZ Corp.98765662 CHECK 1378		$687.37	$997.99
10/21/09	KEEP THE CHANGE TRANSFER TO ACCT 5678 FOR 10/21	-$0.19		$310.62

	·         Confirm/correct the entries for your checking account BoA1 based on your bank statement.

 

Task 4

“As you are trying to have a full control on your finances, you are excited and created a budget plan you would like to stick with for the coming year 2010. You planned your next year’s budget as given below, please enter that budget plan into your system for the next year and view the allocated budget as a pie chart.”

Use the following data:

Here is your budget plan for 2010:

1.       Monthly income from ABC corp: $5000

2.       Monthly income from XYZ corp: $1000

3.       Monthly apt rent: $800 until June

4.       Monthly food: $300

5.       Vacation/trips: $3000

6.       Auto Insurance twice a year: $300

·         Enter the budget plan for next year (2010). ·         View this budget as a pie chart.

 

Admin Script

1.       Welcome and Introduction

a.       Welcome participant to usability study.

b.      Introduce yourself and observer.

Hello, I’m Pallavi (Grace) and I’ll be walking you through today’s session. Let me also introduce my colleague. She will be taking some notes.

You’ll notice that I’ll be reading from this paper most of the time. We do this to ensure that we give the same information to all the people who are participating in this study.

We are working on improving ease of use of an open source personal finance management software. By taking part in this usability study, you will be helping us to improve this product.

c.       Tour the room, show the control console, cameras, offer water..

This is a usability lab facility here at University. This room (main room) is for discussion. This room (control room) is for audio and video control as we record the studies. And this room (study room) is the study room, as participants sit here and do the task, this camera records the activity from here and the screen interactions are also recorded and fed to the control unit.

d.      Have participant sit at their station. Join them at the table and

e.      Explain format of the study, following is the outline:

Thank you again for coming. Let me explain a little about what we are going to do here today, so you know what to expect. This is a usability study, the purpose of which is to evaluate the “ease of use” of a product.  We have asked you to come here to observe how you interact with and use the product. Since we are evaluating a product I want to assure you that we are in no way evaluating or testing you. Every action you take or question you ask is THE RIGHT ONE and merely highlights a feature of the product that is not clear to a potential customer such as yourself.

I will begin by having you fill out a brief questionnaire. Then I will explain how the study will be conducted using something called a Think-aloud protocol. After the study, I will have some follow-up questions for you and then another brief questionnaire. Then we will be done. Do you have any questions so far?

2.       Pre-study Questionnaire

a.       Give participant Pre-study Questionnaire and a pen. Pre-fill out participant number on the questionnaire.

b.      When finished, take questionnaire and pen from participant.

3.       Demonstrate Think-Aloud protocol

a.       Explain Think-Aloud protocol

As I mentioned, this study will be done with something called a think-aloud protocol. It simply means that I will give you a task to do and you will say out loud everything that you are thinking as you go. This helps me to understand your experience as you use the product to do some tasks. Note that this is not the same as offering how the product might be improved. These comments are important but we will address them after all the tasks have been completed.

Let me give you an example of thinking aloud while trying to accomplish the task of changing the time on my watch…

b.      Give example of think aloud protocol using setting the time on your watch.

c.       Have participant practice using think aloud protocol to load staples into a stapler.

d.      If first attempt is not sufficient, explain how to improve then repeat c.

4.       Introduce tasks

This study consists of you performing several tasks with a personal finance management software. I will give you a packet with one task per page. Please read through the entire page and then attempt the task that is asked. Do not move onto the next page until you feel you have fully completed the task. When you feel you have completed the task, say “I’m done” and I will instruct you to turn the page. Remember to say aloud anything that you are thinking as you do the task. If you feel stuck or have questions, try to work them through – I will not be available to answer questions. Also remember, there are no right or wrong answers here – our goal is to understand how this product is used by you. Do you have any questions before we begin?

5.       Give Tasks

a.       Give participant the packet of tasks and the box of supplies.

6.       Post-Study Questionnaire

a.       If there are any actions to get further detail (look for follow-up questions in the Data collection form), ask the participant to explain what he or she was thinking or trying to do at this time. Try: “I noticed you did x during task y, can you explain in more detail your thought process at that time?”

b.      Write responses on the data collection form next to the question.

7.       Post-Study questionnaire

a.       Give participant Post-Study Questionnaire and a pen. Pre-fill out participant number on the questionnaire.

b.      When finished, take questionnaire and pen from participant.

8.       Conclusion

a.       Thank participant for coming.

b.      Give participant gratuity.