By Yuil Tripathee (650 7050 3480)

• Activity Overview for Week 3:

PACT Analysis was the topic of discussion for Week 3, CPE123 User Experience/User Interface Course. The class was organized in a hybrid paradigm (both on-site and on Zoom meetings), so we could join the class either way.

PACT is an acronym for People, Activities, Contexts, and Technologies. PACT Analysis is a framework to realize with whom (people), what (technology), and where (contexts) an end user interacts with our deliverables (say a Flutter app). This system was developed to that the applications we build will be as user-centric as possible. The result of the PACT analysis certainly helps UX designers to realize the overall technical, contextual, and psychological requirements of the design creation eventually leading the development team to build meaningful and productive interactive systems.

It might be better for us to understand more about PACT analysis if we break out the topic into smaller parts.

Components of PACT analysis

Elements of PACT Analysis

People

Consideration factors in this domain:

• Digital literacy
• Cognitive Abilities
• Physical Abilities (for accessibility)
  • color blindness
  • physical ergonomics (designing products for mass users)
  • age constraints
• Language differences (localization)

Activities

We consider the following factors when we analyze activities:

• frequency of activity
• response time or acceptable latency limit
• visually appealing design (not hard on the eye)
  • the color chosen based on eye comfort limits
• Safety measures

Contexts

We have to consider the following metrics in terms of contextual analysis:

• physical environment upon which our users have to interact with the system
• privacy issues
  • physical shielding
  • password masking with (*)
• organizational contexts
  • access levels in the office
• field of work (healthcare, tourism, workshop, others…)
• Social and cultural nuances and the adaptation. This affects decisions on:
  • color preferences
  • typography
  • …

Technologies

In terms of technical analysis for user-centric design, the following factors are generally considered:

• Input system (QWERTY, Braille, Morse Code, others…)
• Output reception (TTS, CC)
• Communication (Internet, Radios).
  • speed, bandwidth
  • connection range
• Data (used or generated using the interaction system)
  • transactional data
  • time series data
  • communication/interaction data
  • real-time rendering

The process

The PACT analysis procedure may vary depending on the region you’re working on or the limiting factors you might encounter. Here are the general steps we can go through in order to perform PACT analysis:

1. Prepare a basic wireframe (fairly universal ones)
2. Work on each element/category of PACT and improvise the design based on constructive design inputs.
3. Consider the user first, and constraints later in mind whenever you’re designing. Constraints may include but are not limited to technical feasibility, user acceptance, financial accountability to develop certain features, and so on.
4. Use the distilled analysis when starting a new project from step 1 (for your next interaction design project).
5. Dig even deeper, and analyze the individual inputs to gain deeper insights into the issue