virtual university - human computer interaction 1 © imran hussain | umt imran hussain university of...
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Virtual University - Human Computer Interaction1 © Imran Hussain | UMT
Imran Hussain
University of Management and Technology (UMT)
Lecture 20
User Research – Part II
Virtual University
Human-Computer Interaction
Virtual University - Human Computer Interaction2 © Imran Hussain | UMT
In the Last Lecture
• Qualitative Research vs. Quantitative Research
• Qualitative Research Techniques– Stakeholder Interviews
– Subject matter expert (SME) interviews
– User and customer interviews
– Literature reviews
– Product/prototype and competitive audits
Virtual University - Human Computer Interaction3 © Imran Hussain | UMT
In Today’s Lecture
• Qualitative Research Techniques– Ethnographic field studies
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Common Issues in Software Engineering
• Users cannot articulate their needs
• Software engineers complain of changing requirements
• Software engineers don’t respect users– “users are a pain”
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The Solution: Ethnographic Field Studies
• One-on-one interviews– Directed ethnographic interview techniques
• Observing users (Work/lifestyle observation)– Immersive observation
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User-Centered Design (UCD) Approaches
• User-centered design approaches (a philosophy)– Involves finding out about users, their goals and tasks
– Involves users in development process
• Principles of UCD– Early focus on users and tasks
– Empirical measurement
– Iterative design
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User-Centered Design Approaches
– A.k.a. Naturalistic Observation
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Ethnography
• Branch of anthropology (a social science)
• Literally means “writing the culture”
• Deals with scientific description of individual human societies
• In anthropology– Ethnography understands behaviors and social rituals of entire culture
• In human-computer interaction– Ethnography understands behaviors and rituals of people interacting
with individual computer-based products
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Ethnography Framework
• Structures presentation of ethnographies
• Enables designers to use efficiently use ethnographic data
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Dimensions of Ethnography Framework
• Distributed Coordination– Focuses on distributed nature of work
• Plans and Procedures– Focuses on organizational support for work
• Awareness of Work– Focuses on how people keep themselves aware of other people’s work
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Ethnographic Field Study Methods
• These provide notational and procedural mechanisms that allow designers to gain first-hand information
• 2 methods– Coherence (Viller and Sommerville, 1999)
– Contextual Design (Beyer and Holtzblatt, 1996)
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Contextual Inquiry
• An ethnographic interviewing technique
• Based on observing and asking user questions
• Based on master-apprentice model of learning
• Based 4 principles
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Principles of Contextual Inquiry
• Context
• Partnership
• Interpretation
• Focus
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Principles of Contextual Inquiry
• Context– Observe in normal working environments
• Partnership– Adopt collaborative tone
• Interpretation– Analyze and interpret data, but verify assumptions
• Focus– Subtle direction of interviews
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Improving Contextual Inquiry
• Shorten the interview process– 1 hr-long instead 1-day long interviews
• Use smaller design teams– Perform sequential interviews with same team
• Identify goals first– Identify and prioritize goals, then relate tasks
• Look beyond business contexts– Use in consumer domains
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Preparing for Ethnographic Interviews
• Need to capture entire range of user behaviors
• Identify diverse sample of users
• Create a hypothesis that identifies users to interview
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The Persona Hypothesis
• Primarily based on behaviors
• Also considers target markets and demographics
• Product domain also considered– Business user behavior different then that of consumer users
• Addresses at a high level:– Who might use this product?
– How would their needs and behaviors might vary?
– Ranges of behavior and types of environments?
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Roles in Business and Consumer Domains
• User types vary based on needs and behaviors in different domains (business, technical, consumer)
• Roles– Common sets of tasks and information needs related to distinct classes
of users
• Business and technical contexts– Roles often map to job descriptions
• Consumer contexts– Roles map to lifestyle choices
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Behavioral Variables
• Distinguish users based on their needs and behaviors (e.g., e-commerce)– Frequency of shopping (frequent—infrequent)
– Desire to shop (love—hate)
– Motivation to shop (bargain hunting—searching for just the right item)
• User types defined by combination of behavioral variables
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Demographic Variables
• Make use of demographic data (from market research data)– Age, location, gender, income
• Identified through user data
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Domain Expertise vs. Technical Expertise
• Domain expertise– Knowledge of a specialized subject pertaining to a product
• Technical expertise– Knowledge of digital technology
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Environmental Variables
• Company size (small – multinational)
• IT presence (ad hoc – draconian)
• Security level (lax – tight)
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Creating an Interview Plan
• Create an interview plan based on persona hypothesis
• Explore all possible variables in 4-6 interviews
• Map variables to interview screening profiles– An interviewee might cover a number of variables
• E.g., young female office worker, 20 years old, university educated, loves to shop (this covers variables of age, gender, education, designation, desire to shop, etc.)