Practical exercise 1 Object analysis Exercise overview Analyse

Practical exercise 1: Object analysis

Exercise overview • Analyse the content of an email • Analyse structure of email message • Determine purpose that each technical property performs • Consider how email will be used by stakeholders • Identify set of expected behaviours • Classify set of behaviours into functions for recording 2

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Select object type for analysis • High-level object type • Email • Object sub-types • Email in thread, standalone email • Received email that is part of a discussion thread • Object type in specific environment • Object created by artist, object created as business record, Object created in specific business, e. g. TNA 5

Analyse Structure • Analyse object & obtain a complete list of technical properties Information sources • Expert knowledge, characterisation tools, specifications, standards • Emails • Request for Comments (RFC) - memorandum published by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 6

Identify purpose of technical properties Task 1: Split into groups and attempt to classify each one into one more of the following categories (10 -15 mins) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Content: Information content for communication to a stakeholder. Context: Information that contributes to understanding of meaning or help to understand provenance, e. g. names, dates. Rendering: Information that contributes to re-creation of content, e. g. quality of audio playback, visual recreation Structure: Extrinsic/intrinsic relationship between two or more types of content, e. g. email attachments Behaviour: Properties that indicate method of content interaction with other stimuli, e. g. hyperlinks, buttons. Do properties have clear purpose in the object? Do they serve one or more purposes to the object? 7

Determine expected behaviours • What activities would a user – any type of stakeholder – perform when using an email? • Draw upon list of property descriptions performed in the previous step, formal standards and specifications, or other information sources. Task 2: Identify the type of actions that a user would be able to perform using the email (Groups. 15 mins). • E. g. Establish name of person who sent email • E. g. May want to confirm that email originated from stated source. 8

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Classify behaviours into functions • Task 3: Classify behaviours into broad functional groups (10 mins) 10

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Associate structure with each function Structure can now be associated with each function 12

Review and finalise • The End result – spaghetti! • What behaviours did you determine for the object? • What functions did you classify behaviours into? • Review process • Have you missed any properties, behaviours, or functions? 13