Learning from Users in their Natural HabitatSara Cambridge
@maybanks2015 IA Summit
What is the best way to learn about the experience that people are having with your product?
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Interviews only capture part of the story…
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http://kotaku.com/hong-kong-residents-supposedly-cant-live-without-their-476758731
because people quickly forget the details of what they do, especially if it’s a habit or they’re multitasking.
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Brian Groudan, Mozilla research, 2012 / https://blog.mozilla.org/ux/page/24/
Diary studies are great for capturing those details, but have always been a hassle to carry around and fill out.
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However smartphones are ideal for diary studies since we use them all day long anyway.
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Digital diary studies can be as simple as text or email prompts that people reply to.
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But the platform I’ll be talking about today is dscout, an iOS/Android app.
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http://blogcritics.org/wp-content/uploads/bcimages/2015/02/fuelband-fitbit-jawbone-16-x-9-970-80.jpg
Here is an example of the kind of data that can be collected through dscout.
We recruited 40 people around the country who use fitness trackers. They reported on 5 things they do with their tracker over a week.
They submitted a short video describing what they do and answered a few questions with every entry.
1. Show us (or tell us about) something that you
regularly do with your activity tracker!
2. What did you just do with your activity
tracker?
3. How do you feel about this aspect of your
tracker?
4. Any thoughts on how this experience could be
improved?
5. Does this relate to any specific fitness goals?
6. Tell us more about YOUR specific fitness goals
and how this aspect of your activity tracker
does or does not help you accomplish them.
These are the questions they answered. Here are some stories we collected…
Erica, 33, and her dog Champ “It’s 10:53pm, and I’m only at 7388 steps….we’re about to go take the dog for a walk. Got to make sure we get to our 10,000 steps before the end of the night.”
A strong dedication to the recommended step count was one pattern we saw.
This was one of the more unusual uses of a fitness tracker.
Karen, 26, a grad student “I got drunk with my friend and convinced her to download Snapchat on the contingency that I send her a [Snapchat] everyday. I use my [Jawbone Up] to remind me at 7pm to send her a picture….it vibrates on my wrist.”
But collecting the data is only part of the work; then the analysis begins.
Dscout simplifies analysis by allowing for flexible filtering.
Of those who rated that experience of using their tracker as OK or lower:
• 30% were unhappy with some aspect of the band (too bulky, not water resistant or something had broken)
• 25% were complaining about the charger or battery
• 15% had issues logging their food (either through a secondary app or via their main device)
• The remaining 30% were a random mix of issues
Once the responses were filtered, it was quick to manually categorize what remained.
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Using diary studies to collect in-the-moment feedback from
people can provide a deep level of insight that is hard to get any
other way. (Or you could have a researcher follow them around all day)
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For a short video with tips for conducting your own diary study: www.gotoresearch.com/speaking/sara/
Have questions about diary studies? [email protected] @ maybanks
Thank you for listening!
