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Attitude

Iterative process

Methods

WHAT IS USER CENTERED DESIGN?

• Ergonomics

• Usability

• Interaction

• Emotions / values

= Use-experience

= Holistic perspective on potential users

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• Where and When?• Alone or Together?

• Who?• Needs, Values, Lifestyle?

• What people are doing?• Why and How?

APPROACHING THE USE-EXPERIENCE

WHAT KIND OF INFORMATION IS NEEDED?

SAYTHINK

DO USE

KNOWFEEL

DREAM

WHAT PEOPLE:

MAKE

DO

SAY

KNOWLEDGE:

EXPLICIT

OBSERVABLE

TACIT

LATENT

(Sanders & Dandavate, 1999*)

*Sanders, E. B.-N, Dandavate, U (1999). Design for experiencing: New tools. Paper presented to the First International Conference on Design and Emotion. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

Interview

Observation

Generative methods:

Probes, collages, co-design workshops, design games

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Kirsikka Vaajakallio 19.03.2009

Design probes

A) Seeking experiences and design empathy: Why?B) Approaching experiences: How? C) Probing examples; Cultural and Emphatic Probes

*presentation is partly based on Eva Brandt’s and Tuuli Mattelmäki’s material

We need user data from places and situations where researchers or designers presence would be disturbing.

We need to understand emotional and subjective perspectives, attitudes and meanings.

How to document experiences which take place in private contexts?

How to support people to document their everyday experiences, values and needs?

Why?

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• Based on self-documenting.

• Collections of tasks, which are given to people to make them analyze, document and express their experiences and ideas.

• Focus on the users’ subjective world.

• Design oriented. Use your skills!!

• Empower both users’ and designers’interpretations and creativity.

How? Probes

The Bijlmer housing district, Amsterdam:

• Poor reputation

• Unemployment

• Drug abuse

• Crime

Bille Gaver and Tony Dunne

Royal College of Art, London

CHI’99, Pittsburgh. ACM: New YorkCultural Probes

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To find new ideas for using new media in order to support elderly peoples’active presence in local communities.

Characteristics:• Address people’s emotional, aesthetic, and experimental reactions to their environments.

• Look for alternative future.

• Provoking and visual, not for analyses but to inspire creative thinking.

Project goals

.... ”if Bijlmer were a body ...”

...”tell us a piece of advice”

... ”why do we have politicians?”

Probe materials – postcards

• Strong, ambiguous and contradicting images with text.

• To evoke stories from experiences.

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... ”what will you wear today?”

...”something beautiful”

... ”something ugly”

Send us 6-10 pictures that tell us your story!

Probe materials – camera tasks

The main interest has been in gathering empathicversatile subjective user data for concept design.

• Company collaboration.• Following interviews support interpretations.

Mattelmäki & Battarbee 2002Mattelmäki 2003Mattelmäki 2006

Empathy probes

reminder

stickers

camera

postcards

Diary / task book

My weaknesses My strengths

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Reasons for applying probes

(Picture by Tuuli Mattelmäki)

Probing process (Picture by Tuuli Mattelmäki)

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Example: Active@work project

• Was carried out by University of Art and Design Helsinki.• Aim was to develop alternative concept solutions for ageing workers well

being at work.• Focused on individual workers and their motivations, problems and

attitudes. • Alltogether 15 workers, 8 from cleaning maintenance (all female) and 7

from technical maintenance (all male), participated in the probe study.

Planning

Producing the probesProbes are in the field

Interpretation

Interviews

Probing process – example from Active@work project

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• Should be communicative, visual and motivating.

• Illustrations can help in understanding the questions and stimulate emotional responses.

• Appropriate for the topic and the users.

• Can reflect designer’s view about the research and design issues

• Consider the logistics, time and broadness.

• What you want to find out?• Individual / group work.

Probe DesignMap

Timetable

Work book / diary

PostcardsDisposable camera

Stickers or other ’ready made’ materialcan inspire and support filling the probe

Designing the probe kit

• In the brainstorming session the researchers created ideas aboutthemes, open questions, tasks and the form of the probe package.

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Content

• Instructions • A disposable camera • A one week timetable task• 2 postcards, one of which was

addressed to Palmia and the other was addressed to the researchers at the University of Art and Design Helsinki

• A booklet which included questions and tasks grouped into different themes

• A map in which the users were told to keep track of their movements during a working day

selfdocumentation

Rewarding my self

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• Describe your personality.• Continue the sentence: The

best thing when getting older is...

• Continue the clause: The worst thing when getting older is...

The aim:• To get an idea what ageing

means to them and find out about who they are as individuals.

Content: The booklet Who am I?

Content: The booklet

• If you would be a shoe what kind of shoe you would be and why?

The aim:• With an abstract question

something inspirational and unexpected things can be revealed.

Who am I?

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Content: The booklet

• Tell with this picture about your social network. Who do you meet and keep in touch with? Think it both from your work community and leisure point of view.

The aim:• To get an idea of the amount

and importance of their social contacts.

Social connections

Content: The booklet

• Mark with stickers those areas of body which strain during the work day. Tell when and why it happens and how it could be prevented.

The aim:• To get an idea what

physical problems individuals have.

Physical wellbeing

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Content: The booklet

• What elements create a nice work day. What are the main ”ingredients” and what are the small but important ”spices” which crowns the day. Think also what can spoil it?

The aim:• To get insights of the

importance of the atmosphere at workplaces and its meaning for wellbeing.

”recipe of nice work day”

Content: The booklet

• Here are some pictures about old tools. Tell or draw what kind of tool could help you in your work in the future.

The aim:• To get first impression about

the possibilities of developing better tools for them.

Physical environment

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Content: Map + Timetable

The map aim:• To get an overview of

different environments and physical spaces during the week or day.

The timetable aim:• To get an overview of the

weakly tasks and routines.

Wednesday Thursday

• The postcard had an open aim.

Content: The postcard

Translation: “To bow is not bad if you bow in a right place”

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• For visualizing the context

Content – camera tasks

The tool I like most…

Mechanics I confront in my work…

This is hard…

Discussing the returned probes material and the taken photographs.

Interview complements the fragmented probes data.

After receiving the probes researchers go through it and makes structure for the interview.

Interviews

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Collages

• Can reveal values, attitudes and dreams difficult to verbalise.

• Can include words and images.

• How they organise the images, what images they use and what they tell is interesting. (ask people to think aloud)

Data

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Interpreting and making sense

• Applying interpretation models e.g. Affinity diagram.

• Interpretation in the terms of the material.

>> Leave your pre image behind and start with an open mind!!!

• Condensing and combining. • Direct interpretation.

Probe study results

• Combine and condense it into visual and narrative presentations.

• Illustrates your findings in inspiring way.

• Support the overall topic• Poster, booklet, web page ,…>>> think your audience

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• Represent individual characters and interpretations (without revealing the person).

• Not caricature or it looses credibility.

• Summarize characteristics, tasks, attitudes etc.

• Support insights and facilitate collaboration.

• Create base for brainstorming, developing and evaluating concept design solutions.

Combine and condense: User descriptions

What next?

Co-design workshop using persona descriptions

Deciding focus

Environment, tools, mobile technology, individual education

• Idea generation based on persona descriptions.

• Finding focus for concept development.

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What next?

• More user studies, workshops, generative methods…

• Persona descriptions helped to:a) Remember the users; b) Form design drivers according

to different motivations; c) Present the concept ideas

through them.

Probe assignment

• Who are your users?*Define the number and characteristics of users according to the aims of the study.

• What you want to find out?*Plan the content based on that.

• How you can apply differenttasks?

Think: