1 Design, Prototyping, and Evaluation in Developing Countries Jen Mankoff, Assistant Professor EECS

2 What is human computer interaction about?  Creating applications that provide needed services to clients in acceptable ways  Supporting specific goals – Efficiency – Fun – …  A design process that leads to successful adoption of designs

3 What is human computer interaction about?  Understanding interaction of – Tasks – Customers – Technology – Environment  Techniques for cycle of – Design – Prototyping – Evaluation Tasks Customers Technology Environment

4 Case Study: Computers for Rural Healthcare  Handheld support for rural healthcare providers  Tasks supported – Rapid access to medical records – Addition of a new case – Specific modules for pregnant women, young children, etc.  Employed a user-centered methodology (includes customers/technology/Tasks/environment and iterative design)

5 – Norman – Value Sensitive (informed by rural health example)

6 Design: Norman paper  Even designing for engineers from MIT is difficult to get right  Solution: Use a discoverable conceptual model – Familiar affordances – Visibility of functionality – Natural mappings – Include feedback – Avoid creeping featurism  Solution: Need to iterate on designs (6-8 times!)

7 What does Norman’s model leave out?  Differing context of developing countries – We don’t necessarily know what’s familiar – Conceptual Models may be different Affordances differ Natural mappings differ Other thoughts?…. – Iteration even more key  Differing values in developing countries

8 Value Sensitive Design  Values “depend on the interests and desires of humans within a cultural milieu”  Explicitly considers both direct and indirect stakeholders (important for adoption)  Tripartite methodology -- shared with usability – Conceptual investigations – Empirical investigations – Technological investigations … all support design

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10 Prototyping  Rapid prototyping is crucial  Goal of prototyping is to support further evaluation and design (iteration)

11 Prototyping Techniques  Paper Prototyping  Build it  Wizard of Oz  None are perfect -- research lies in creating tools & techniques that will support rapid development and evaluation

12 Paper Prototyping  Sketch it out on paper – Fast, simple, effective – Simulate “computer”, get feedback about real use  Problems – Only really effective in well-constrained environments – Limited to desktop-like applications

13 Build it  “sketch” it out on a computer – Existing prototyping tools & UI builders – Easy to create familiar look and feel  Problems – Existing tools limited to the desktop Lack support for small, mobile devices Lack support for variety of input and output – Familiar look and feel limited to our culture

14 Wizard of Oz  Fake it – Only “prototype” the surface – Use a human “behind the curtain” to fake the rest – Particularly good for recognition  Problems – Easiest to do in a constrained environment – How does one “fake” rapid sensor input, etc? – Wizard must understand dialect, culture, etc.

15 – Conceptual – Empirical – Technological (informed by rural health example)

16 Many Different Evaluation Technqies  Different strengths and weaknesses  Appropriate at different stages of iteration  Samples presented today categorized under tripartite methodology – Conceptual investigations – Empirical investigations – Technological investigations

17 Conceptual Investigations  Usability: Task analysis: – What task? – Who are the stakeholders? – Where will it take place? (e.g. need for rugged design) – When will it take place? – Why is it being done?  Values – Value identification; – Stakeholder analysis (who are they, benefits & harms for each group, connection to values); – Informed comparison of fundamental issues (are there conflicts, etc)

18 Empirical Investigations  Usability & Values both incorporate – Ethnographic inquiries – Surveys – Interviews However, the questions asked differ

19 Empirical Investigations: Questions to Ask  Usability – Who/Where/When/What/Why (task analysis) – What is the conceptual model work? – What are appropriate forms of feedback, mappings, etc?  Values – How are different values prioritized by stakeholders? – How does what is said differ from what is done? – What is the impact of larger structures such as organizations and governments on what is possible?

20 Technical Investigations  Usability & Values both incorporate: – Toolkits supporting good practice – “Probes” (technology, culture, value,…) – Experiments with prototypes – Field studies Again, the questions asked differ

21 Technical Investigations: Questions to Ask  Usability – Does a system meet specific goals (such as usability, learnability, fun, etc) – Does the conceptual model work?  Values – Does a given technology allow values to be expressed in certain ways? – Does a given technology imply values or impose values that were not the designer’s intent? – What benefits and harms does a technology imply? How does this map onto corresponding values?

22 As it happens…  Major research goal for me is developing tools and techniques for evaluation – Ubiquitous computing (mobile devices, unconstrained environments) – Universal access (disability, literacy, etc)  Applications in developing countries are a perfect testbed for these ideas

23 Contributions to date  Tools & Techniques for simulating different user experiences – Motor impairments – Visual impairments (relates to literacy)  Technique for handling different values (modified heuristic evaluation)  Comparison of field & lab techniques for dealing with a subset of ubicomp applications

24 Plans for the future  Tool for supporting combination of paper prototyping & Wizard of Oz in unconstrained, mobile applications  Modifications to Ubicomp prototyping tools specific to supporting different evaluation techniques  Additional modifications to evaluation techniques