Virtual University - Human Computer Interaction 1 © Imran Hussain | UMT Imran Hussain University of Management and Technology (UMT) Lecture 20 User Research.

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


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


In Today’s Lecture

• Qualitative Research Techniques– Ethnographic field studies


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”


The Solution: Ethnographic Field Studies

• One-on-one interviews– Directed ethnographic interview techniques

• Observing users (Work/lifestyle observation)– Immersive observation


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


User-Centered Design Approaches

– A.k.a. Naturalistic Observation


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


Ethnography Framework

• Structures presentation of ethnographies

• Enables designers to use efficiently use ethnographic data


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


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)


Contextual Inquiry

• An ethnographic interviewing technique

• Based on observing and asking user questions

• Based on master-apprentice model of learning

• Based 4 principles


Principles of Contextual Inquiry

• Context

• Partnership

• Interpretation

• Focus


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


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


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


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?


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


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


Demographic Variables

• Make use of demographic data (from market research data)– Age, location, gender, income

• Identified through user data


Domain Expertise vs. Technical Expertise

• Domain expertise– Knowledge of a specialized subject pertaining to a product

• Technical expertise– Knowledge of digital technology


Environmental Variables

• Company size (small – multinational)

• IT presence (ad hoc – draconian)

• Security level (lax – tight)


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.)

Virtual University - Human Computer Interaction 1 © Imran Hussain | UMT Imran Hussain University of Management and Technology (UMT) Lecture 20 User Research.

Documents

imran hussain umt roles

pain slide

ethnographic data slide

consumer domains slide

consumer users

technology umt lecture

naturalistic observation

ethnographic interviews