CSc 238 Human Computer Interface Design Chapter 2 Understanding The Problem: Design Research. ABOUT FACE The Essentials of Interaction Design

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1 BBuckley - 1 CSc 238 Human Computer Interface Design Chapter 2 Understanding The Problem: Design Research ABOUT FACE The Essentials of Interaction Design Cooper, Reimann, Cronin, and Noessel

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10 10 The Goal Directed Design Process Six Phases Chapter 2 Ch.2 Ch.3 Ch.4 Ch.5 Ch.5 Research Modelling Requirements Framework Refinement Support users and of users and definition of user, definition of of behaviors, development the domain use context business, and design structure form, and needs technical needs and flow content

11 Why research? 11 Good quote: If she (the designer) does not have clear and detailed knowledge of the users she is designing for, the constraints of the problem and the business or organizational goals that are driving the design activities, she will have little chance of success.

12 Qualitative Research 12 Qualitative versus Quantitative Research What do you get? Understanding! Behaviors, attitudes & aptitudes Technical, business & environmental contexts Vocabulary & other social aspects of the domain How existing products are used

13 Qualitative Research there is more Helps the progress of design: Provides credibility & authority to the design team with design decisions can be traced to results Team has common understanding of domain issues & user concerns Management makes more informed decisions instead of relying on anecdote, guesses, biases, etc. 13

14 Qualitative Research 14 Why wouldn t you want to know: How the product fits into the broader context of people s lives The goals that motivate people to use the product & the basic tasks help people accomplish these goals The experiences that people find compelling & how these relate to the product being designed The problems people encounter with the current ways of doing things Spending the time to deeply understand the user population can provide valuable business insights that are not revealed through traditional market research.

15 Strengths & Limitations of Quantitative methods Strengths: Determine what motivates people to buy Segmenting market to get at types of buyers by age, gender, education, zip code Data that executives need to convince executives Remembering that a successful product must be desirable, buildable and also viable 15 Understanding whether somebody wants to buy something is not the same thing as understanding what he or she might want to do with it after buying it.

16 Quantitative research is needed! 16 Forecasting market acceptance if you know X people might buy a product or service for Y dollars, it helps in evaluating ROI. Usage analytics If users are lingering in an area of your website or are not visiting any other areas, that is critical information to have before a redesign. Note: the problem with User Centered Design!

17 Fig 2-1 The relationship between quantitative and qualitative, Goal Directed Research 17 Market Research (Quantitative) Can inform Analytics (Qualitative) Qualitative research Tool of choice for characterizing user behaviors and needs Goal Directed Design Research (Qualitative) Drives Behavioral Models (Personas) Can be used to generate Market Sizing Studies (Quantitative)

18 What is Goal-Directed Research 18 Qualitative research activities: 1. Kickoff meeting 2. Literature review 3. Product / prototype & competitive audits 4. Stakeholder interviews 5. Subject Matter Expert (SME) interviews 6. User and customer interviews/observation

19 1. Kickoff Meeting Fig 2-2 An overview of the Goal-Directed design research process Literature Review 3. Product / Prototype and Competitive Audits 4. Stakeholder Interviews 5. SME Interviews Consumer Products 6. User and Customer Interviews / Observation

20 1. Kickoff Meeting First, Identify the key stakeholders A stakeholder is anyone with authority and/or responsibility for the product being deigned. 20 Typically: Executive Managers and Representative contributors from: Development Sales Product management Marketing Customer support Design & Usability

21 Kickoff Meeting 21 Questions for key stakeholders: What is the product? Who will/does use it? What do your users need most? Which customers and users are the most important to the business? What challenges do the design team and the business face moving forward? Who do you see as your biggest competitors? Why? What internal and external literature should we look at to familiarize ourselves with the product and/or business and technical domain?

22 2. Homework Literature Review 22 Review any references to the proposed product or its domain of use. References such as: Internal documents Industry reports Web searches Use the information in developing questions to ask stakeholders and SME in order to acquire domain knowledge, and vocabulary.

23 23 3. Product/Prototypes and Competitive Audits Provides a sense of the state of the art Familiarizes the team with the strengths and limitations of what is currently available Provides general idea of the product s current functional scope Note interaction design good and bad Strengths and weaknesses in current products

24 4. Stakeholder interviews 24 Who? Anyone with authority/responsibility for the product being designed. What information is needed from them? Preliminary Product Vision perspective on what is being designed Budget / schedule Technical constraints & opportunities for new approaches Business drivers what is to be accomplished Stakeholders perceptions of the user important in developing buy-in and a common language and understanding about the design, management, and engineering teams.

25 5. Subject Matter Expert (SME) interviews 25 Expert on the domain in which the product will operate. May or may NOT be expert users If they are, beware of invested in existing designs! They are not designers Suggestions: SMEs are necessary/mandatory for complex/specialized domains SMEs should be consulted throughout the design process

26 6a. Customer interviews 26 Customers will make the purchase decision, so What you need to learn from these interviews: Their Goals for purchasing product Their Current frustrations Their decision process Their role in installation, maintenance & managing of the product Other domain related issues & vocabulary

27 6b. User Interviews 27 Main focus of the Design work! What you might learn the effect that experience with the current version of a product on how the user behaves and thinks about its use. What you need to know: When, why & how the product will be used Domain knowledge user s perspective Current tasks and activities Goals & motivations for using the product Mental Model: how they think about their job and expectation about the product Problems & frustrations with current products

28 User observation 28 Users omit much when merely describing their behaviors to avoid seeming to be dumb, incompetent, or impolite. You can talk to users about how they think they behave, or you can observe their behavior first-hand. The latter provides superior results. But, do both if you can.

29 Interviewing & Observing Users 29 Contextual inquiry Context, Partnership, Interpretation, Focus Improving on contextual inquiry Shorten the interview process, Use smaller design teams, Identify goals first, Look beyond business contexts Preparing for ethnographic interviews Identifying candidates, putting together a plan Conducting ethnographic interviews Interview teams & timing, Phases of ethnographic interviews, Basic methods, After the interviews

30 Contextual Inquiry 30 Asking questions of the user as if they are the master craftsman and you are the new apprentice. Context: Observe the user in their normal work environment Partnership: as a collaborative exploration alternating between observing work and discussion of its structure and details Interpretation: Analyze results to uncover design implications Focus: Let the interview wander with subtle direction to capture data relevant to design issues.

31 Improving this Contextual Inquiry 31 Shorten the interview process Shoot for one hour, max, for each interview About 6 well-selected users for each hypothesized role or type Use smaller design teams The same 2 to 3 designers in each interview Identify goals first Do this before determining the tasks that relate to the goals Look beyond business contexts Typically assumes a business product and a corporate environment, although Ethnographic interviews are possible in consumer domains

32 Ethnographic Interviews - Summary What do you do? Intense observation Directed interviews What technique? Contextual inquiry 4 Principles: 1. Context 2. Collaborative tone 3. Interpretation of users behaviors, environs & what they say 4. Interview is focused knowing what is needed Suggestions: Short interview process Use smaller teams Identify goals first Look beyond business concepts 32

33 Preparing for ethnographic interviews 33 The Goal To understand the behaviors and rituals of people interacting with individual products Determine the sorts of users & potential user to interview Create a an initial hypothesis to ID who to interview Persona Hypothesis Roles in business & consumer domains Behavioral & demographic variables Domain expertise versus technical expertise Degree of understanding/knowledge may vary Environmental considerations Putting together a plan

34 Preparing for ethnographic interviews Identifying Candidates 34 Persona Hypothesis First, try defining the different kinds of users/customers Hypothetical Persona (see handout) Addresses the following questions: 1. What different sorts of people might use this product? 2. How might their needs & behaviors vary? 3. What ranges of behavior & types of environments need to be explored?

35 Identifying candidates - Roles 35 Roles in business and consumer domains For business products: Roles are common sets of tasks & information needs related to the different classes of users Roles often map to job descriptions For consumer products: Look for patterns from users attitudes & aptitudes, lifestyle choices, stage of life whatever can influence their behaviors

36 Behavioral and Demographic Variables To differentiate different types of users Example: behaviors of shoppers using an online store: Frequency of shopping Desire to shop (from loves to shop to hates to shop) Motivation to shop (from bargain hunting to searching for just the right item) Demographic variables from user market research ages, locations, gender, income of target markets for the product Domain expertise versus technical expertise Subject area knowledge pertaining to a product versus digital technology Naïve users will use only a small subset of a product s functions care must be taken to support domain-naïve behaviors! 36

37 Environmental considerations 37 in the case of business products Small companies: workers have broader set of responsibilities & more interpersonal contact Large companies have layers of bureaucracy, workers tend to be specialized Examples of environmental variables Company size (small to multinational) Company location (Asia, North America, Europe, etc.) Industry sector (electronics manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, etc.) IT presence (ad to draconian) Security level (lax to tight)

38 Putting an interview plan together each identified role, behavioral variable, demographic variable, and environmental variable identified in the persona hypothesis should be explored in 4 to 6 interviews 38 Consumer products typically have much more variation in behavior, so more interviews typically are required to really delineate the differences.

39 Conducting ethnographic interviews 39 Designers work with stakeholders who have access to users the best way to make interviews happen! Interview teams and timing Authors favor 2 designers per interview switching roles Moderator drives the interview and facilitator takes notes Phases of ethnographic interviews Early interviews: open-ended questioning, not into the details Middle interviews: questions more focused Late interviews: confirm what was learned, tying up loose ends Basic methods After the interviews

40 Conducting ethnographic interviews 40 Basic methods: Interview where the interaction happens Avoid a fixed set of questions Assume the role of an apprentice, not an expert! Use open- and closed-ended questions to direct discussion Focus on goals first, tasks second Avoid making the user a designer Avoid discussions of technology Encourage storytelling Ask for a show and tell Avoid leading questions

41 What kinds of questions to ask? (avoid a fixed set of questions) 41 Goal-oriented What makes a good day? bad day? What activities waste your time? What is most important? What helps you make decisions? System-oriented What are the most common things you do with the product? What parts do you use the most? What are your favorite parts? What drives you crazy? How do you work around problems? What shortcuts do you use? Workflow-oriented What did you do when you first came in today? After that? How often do you do this? What things do you do weekly or monthly, but not every day? What s a typical day? What would be an unusual event? Attitude-oriented What do you see yourself dong five years from now? What would you prefer not to do? What do you procrastinate on? What do you enjoy most about your job? What do you always do first?

42 Important reminders Assume the role of an apprentice! Use open-ended (encouraging detailed responses) and closed-ended (encouraging brief responses) questions to direct the discussion Focus on goals first and task afterwards Note user are not designers! Do not discuss technology (functionality)! Encourage story telling ( day in the life) Ask for show and tell Avoid leading questions Would feature X help you? You like X, don t you? Do you think you d use feature X if it were available Does X seem like a good idea to you? 42

43 After the interview 43 Immediately After each interview, teams compare notes and discuss any particularly interesting trends observed or specific point brought up Create a binder of notes, review any recordings and print artifact images. Access and visibility of the information that has been gathered is essential.

44 Other types of research 44 The Goal-Directed approach helps answer questions about the product at both the big-picture and functional-detail level with relatively small amount of effort and expense. 1. Focus groups 2. Usability & user testing (to validate product design) 3. Card sorting (exploring the user s mental model) 4. Task analysis

45 Focus Groups 45 Representative users (segments of larger market) Asked a structured set of questions with a structured set of choices Useful in gauging reactions to a product s form Good at identifying products users own or are willing to purchase, but Not so good at identifying what users actually do with the products.

46 Usability & User Testing 46 What is tested? Production software, clickable prototypes, or paper prototypes Why? To validate the design When? Late in the design cycle. Focus? Assessing first-time use. Effective in determining: Naming of all the stuff Organization First-time use and discoverability Effectiveness Lots of good references and some examples on YouTube.

47 Card Sorting 47 Objective: To better understand how users organize information and concepts Tool to uncover this aspect of the users mental model Users sort a deck of cards containing a piece of functionality or information related to the product Tricky analyzing the results Assumes that user s sorting correlate with the way in which they want to end up using the product.

48 Task Analysis Details on how users currently perform specific tasks. to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. Note. The way people do things today is often merely the product of the obsolete systems and organizations they are forced to interact with, and typically bear little resemblance to the way they would like to do things or the way they would be most effective. 48

49 Task Analysis Study 49 The Study should be focus on the following: Why the user is performing the task (the underlying goal) Frequency & importance of task Cues what initiates or prompts execution of the task Dependencies what must be in place to perform the task, as well as what is dependent on the completion of the task. People who are involved (roles & responsibilities) Specific actions that are performed Decisions made Information that is used to support decisions What goes wrong error and exception cases How errors and exceptions are corrected

50 50 JARED M. SPOOL Founding principal of User Interface Engineering Leading research, training, and consulting firm specializing in website and product usability Journey to the Center of Design Pt. 1 Journey to the Center of Design Pt. 2 =0ABEEA4DEAFF1E9D