Projects/Okular/User Research Profile

Okular User Research Profile

Okular is a document viewer. It allows people to read documents in the most common formats, and provides some aids to the reading.

Who is the application for?

• List of types (groups) of users
• User groups can be organized based on any type of dimension
• Some groups may be broken down in to sub groups

• "Occasional" users, who just need to read a document (for example, linked in a web page, or received via email)
• Users who read many documents, that want to track what they read either by "bookmarking" the document, or adding notes
• Researchers/reviewers, who may perform many annotations for a document, or perhaps a few related documents.

(Who is the application not for)

• Sometimes it is easy to identify who the application is not for
• This can help keep the scope of the project under control

Sample User Profiles

User Profile 1: For each group of users identified (or primary groups, or particularly special groups if many groups are defined), write a description of that user's characteristics based on a real user you know.

What kinds of tasks will they complete

• List of common tasks users will complete
• This does not have to be a complete functional specification, but major tasks and specialty tasks should be listed
• Include functionality that is planned but not yet implemented to help keep the future in focus

• Read a document
• Fullscreen display of the document (e.g., as presentation)
• Really basic document editing:
  • fill the form fields
  • add annotations on the document
• Print the current document

What kinds of functionality will the application not support

• Document editing:
  • page addition/removals/reordering/permanent rotation/etc
• Better image viewing than a toy image backend (any image viewer will do the job)
• Document collection management (ala digiKam, Amarok, etc)

Sample Use Scenarios and Cases

Use Scenario 1: For each task identified (or major tasks, or particularly special tasks if many tasks are defined), write a description of how that user would accomplish the task independent of how they would complete it within the application.

Use Case 1: If a use scenario has been implemented, include a matching use case which describes how the task use scenario can be completed in the application. There may be branching or multiple ways to complete the task, and this is a good way to document it.

Environment Conditions & Requirements

• List of environmental conditions for the user or the application to consider
• For example, an Internet-capable application would require an Internet connection