CHI 97 Electronic Publications: Organizational Overviews
Human Interface Design at Fidelity Investments
Thomas S. Tullis
Vice President, Human Interface Design
Fidelity Investments
82 Devonshire St., V9C
Boston, MA 02109 USA
+1 617-563-8795
TomTullis@aol.com
ABSTRACT
This presentation describes the Human Interface Design department at
Fidelity Investments.
Although not in the computer hardware or software
business, Fidelity develops an amazingly wide variety of systems in
support of our business. The Human Interface Design department,
which is composed of people from a variety of backgrounds, provides
several key services to systems development projects throughout the
company, including user interface design and prototyping,
usability testing, and online help development.
We are also responsible for the corporate Graphical User Interface
Style Guide and Web Design Guide. Examples of the development
projects we assist with are described, as well as strategic projects
that address more general human interface issues.
Keywords
Financial services, usability testing, online help,
user interface design, style guides, prototyping.
© 1997 Copyright on this material is held by the authors.
INTRODUCTION
Fidelity Investments is one of the largest financial services companies
in the world. Fidelity is, by far, the largest provider of mutual funds,
both in number of investors and assets under management. Other major lines
of business include retirement plan administration for corporations
(401K plans) and discount stock brokerage. Fidelity employs over 20,000
people world-wide.
Computer systems are the backbone of almost all of our operations at Fidelity.
Without them we could not function. Consequently, developing and maintaining
state-of-the-art systems is a top priority. Fidelity is organized around
business units, each of which functions very much like its own company,
each offering a different service. Some of these business units have their
own systems development groups, while others rely upon the central Fidelity
Investments Systems Company for their software development and maintenance.
The Human Interface Design (HID) department is a part of that Systems Company.
HUMAN INTERFACE DESIGN (HID) DEPARTMENT
The HID department is currently composed of sixteen
people with backgrounds in human factors, software
engineering, technical writing, graphic design, and the
financial industry. Levels of experience range from one
to over twenty years in the field.
This department evolved out of what used to be a
documentation department. About five years ago, the
writers in the department began pushing for more
involvement in the design of the applications that they
were documenting, the argument being that a well-
designed interface is easier to document. This coincided
with a heightening awareness within management of the
need to improve the usability and consistency of the
applications being developed within the company.
Consequently, over a period of one to two years the
department went through a transition to the multi-disciplinary
organization that it is today. This included
recruiting new personnel as well as building a Usability
Lab.
HID SERVICES
The HID department functions as an internal consulting
group for development projects throughout the company.
At any one time we are typically involved in 15-20
different projects. The services that we provide to those
projects fall into three broad categories: (1) User Interface
Design and Prototyping, (2) Usability Testing, and (3)
Online Help and Documentation.
User Interface Design and Prototyping
Many of the projects that we get involved in need
assistance in designing the user interface to their
application or in building a prototype of that user
interface. This is at least partly due to the fact that some
of the developers are just now starting to make the
transition from mainframe development. The assistance
that we provide ranges from spending an hour giving
feedback about a team�s design ideas to multiple people
from HID working full-time on the project for several
months. As requested, we assist with facilitation of JAD
(Joint Application Design) sessions with users,
construction of the prototype, or creation of a user
interface specification document.
As an adjunct to our design services, we are also
responsible for two corporate "style guides:" the Fidelity
Graphical User Interface Style Guide and the Fidelity
Web User Interface Design Guide. Both documents are
electronic and are accessed through an HID home page on
our Intranet.
Usability Testing
We provide usability testing services both for projects
where we have been involved in the UI design as well as
those where we have not. Our fully equipped Usability
Lab includes one-way mirrors, remote-control video
cameras, scan converters, and video editing equipment.
(See Figure 1.) Usability tests are done in various phases
of development, including tests of paper prototypes, semi-functional
prototypes, and "alpha" or "beta" versions of
applications. We work with a project team in developing
a test plan and we encourage their participation in the
execution of the test. Our normal deliverable from a
usability test is a report that outlines the usability issues
uncovered, along with recommended design changes.
Figure 1. Usability Lab at Fidelity Investments.
Online Help and Documentation
We help to "bridge the gap" between the user and an
application by developing online help systems and user
documentation. Primarily, we provide this service for the
development groups within Fidelity that are not large
enough to have their own dedicated writers. Our typical
approach is to build a context-sensitive online help
system for the application and then to generate a printed
user�s guide from the same source. We have found that
many users have strong preferences for one delivery
mechanism vs. the other, and we try to accommodate
both.
DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AT FIDELITY
The systems that we get involved in are surprisingly
varied. Almost all are Windows-based. In general, they
may be divided into three major categories:
- Applications for internal use. This tends to be the
largest group, in terms of number of applications. It
includes a variety of applications for use by the
Fidelity telephone representatives, who handle
thousands of customer calls every day. But it also
includes less obvious applications such as a system
for use in managing the various buildings that
Fidelity leases or owns throughout the world.
- Applications for use by third parties. Fidelity
develops a variety of applications for use by outside
individuals, such as independent investment advisors,
or by other companies, such as banks that sell
Fidelity funds or corporations for which we
administer a 401(K). The purpose of these systems is
to provide these individuals and companies with the
tools they need to provide effective service to their
clients or employees.
- Applications for use by individual investors.
Although this group has the largest number of users,
the number of different applications tends to be
smaller. Some examples include phone-based voice
response systems, applications for personal portfolio
management, and Web interfaces.
STRATEGIC PROJECTS
In addition to supporting development projects, we have
on-going projects within the department to address human
interface design issues that cut across multiple
applications. For example, a need to know more about
the readability of various fonts in the Windows
environment led to a study which we presented at CHI �95
(Tullis, Boynton, & Hersh, 1995).
Examples of other
strategic efforts include surveys of commercially
available custom UI controls, a study of how to designate
required vs. optional input fields, and a study of
alternative approaches to online help.
LOGISTICS
There is no requirement for any development project
within Fidelity to use the services of HID. All of our
work for projects is done on the basis of internal charge-backs,
so there is a very real need to be a "justifiable"
expense. Consequently, we must be viewed by project
teams and sponsors as adding value in order to be
successful. We must be doing something right, since
we�ve grown from a staff of eight to sixteen in two years.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Fidelity is currently going through a process to improve
our software development practices and make them more
repeatable. As a part of this, we are formally identifying
the phases in the development process where HID
services should be used (e.g., usability tests). It will be
interesting to see what impact this has on the demand for
and impact of our services.
REFERENCES
-
Tullis, T. S., Boynton, J. L., & Hersh, H. (1995)
Readability of fonts in the Windows environment.
Interactive poster session at CHI 95.
CHI 97 Electronic Publications: Organizational Overviews
