Chapter 9 User-centered approaches to interaction design By: Sarah Obenhaus Ray Evans Nate Lynch

Introduction  Some advantages of involving users  Main principles of user-centered approach  Ethnographic-based methods to understand user’s work  Design techniques that help users take active part in design

Why involve users?  Best way to ensure that users’ activities taken into account  Expectation management – Process that makes sure what user expects is realistic – Users will know what to expect-no surprises – Users less likely to be disappointed  Ownership – Users involved in design have a sense of “ownership” and will be more receptive

Degrees of Involvement  Co-opted full time – Consistent input – Could lose touch with user group  Co-opted part time – Consistent input with careful management – Remain in touch with user group  Newsletters, Workshops – Good solution for large amount of users

What if short on time?  Some argue that if the project is large scale and the time is short, users will be a waste of valuable time  Braiterman conducted 2 studies that prove otherwise: – 3-week web shopping application Use paper prototypes – 3-month gaming website Observed 32 teenagers to gain insight

“Too much of a good thing?”  Heinbokel (1996) – Users could make project have less flexibility and lower team effectiveness  Communication problems: 1. Users want more sophisticated designs later in project 2. Users’ fears lead to less constructive participation 3. Users unpredictable and unsympathetic 4. Higher stress levels from higher aspirations

What is user-centered approach?  Real users and their goals should be the driving force behind design  Three principles: 1. Early focus on user and their tasks 2. Empirical measurements 3. Iterative design

Early focus on user  Five principles that expand on this: 1. User’s goals are driving force 2. System designed to support users’ behavior 3. System designed for user’s characteristics 4. Users consulted from beginning to end, with their input taken seriously 5. Design decisions taken within context of users, their work, and environment

What is Ethnography?  “writing the culture” (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1983)  Used to understand work  Observers sit in on user’s work environment and participate in daily activities  Experience is collected and documented

Ethnography and design  Three ways it is associated with design: 1. “Ethnography of” –Studies of developers and workplace 2. “Ethnography for” –Studies of organizational work 3. “Ethnography within” –Integrated into methods for development

Ethnography continued  Design deals with abstraction, and ethnography deals with detail  Framework of ethnography for designers: – Distributed co-ordination – Plans and procedures – Awareness of work  Could train developers to do studies

Coherence  Intended for integration of social analysis and object-oriented analysis  Present data from ethnographic studies through – “viewpoints” – “concerns”

“Viewpoints”  Focus question for each that guide observer through users’ workplace – Distributed coordination – Plans and procedures – Awareness of work  See figure 9.1 for some questions

Concerns 1.Paperwork and computer work  Plans and procedures; awareness of work 2.Skill and use of local knowledge  “workarounds” 3.Spatial and temporal organization  Physical layout 4.Organization memory  Records and formal documents

Contextual Design  Structural approach to gathering info from field  Seven parts: – Contextual Inquiry, Work Modeling, Consolidation, Work Redesign, User Environment Design, Mockup and Test with Customers, Putting into Practice

Contextual Inquiry  Approach to ethnographic study that follows apprenticeship model – designer works as apprentice to user  Typical format includes interview, observation, discussion, reconstruction  4 main principles

4 principles of Inquiry 1.Context – Importance of going to workplace 2.Partnership – Developer and user should collaborate 3.Interpretation – Observations must be interpreted together by developer and user 4.Focus – What do you look for?

Contextual Inquiry v. Ethnography 1.Contextual Inquiry shorter (2-3 hours) 2.Inquiry interview more intense and focused 3.Designer inquiring, not observing 4.Inquiry has intention of designing a system, ethnography has no intent

Working Model  Five aspects of “work” modeled: – Work flow model – Sequence model – Artifact model – Cultural model – Physical model

Interpretation Session  Session occurs after inquiry, work models produced at this time as team composes view of users’ work  Roles of team: – Interviewer – Work modelers – Recorder – Moderator – Participants – Rat-hole watcher

Consolidate Models  Affinity diagram-organizes notes taken during session into hierarchy – Work flow – identify key roles – Sequence – structure of tasks/strategies – Artifact – how people organize – Physical – physical structure commonality – Cultural – what matters to workers

Work Flow Model

Sequence Model

Artifact Model

Physical Model

Cultural Model

Design Room  Where all work models kept  All known about customers found here  Key element to contextual design

Participatory Design  Users actively involved in design as equal to design team  Cultural differences has been a problem  UTOPIA project  PICTIVE  CARD

PICTIVE  Plastic Interface for Collaborative Technology Initiatives through Video Exploration  Uses typical office supplies to design screen and window layouts  Group or one-on-one sessions of design

CARD  Collaborative Analysis of Requirements and Design  Uses playing cards with pictures of computers’ screens to study work flow options  Form of storyboarding

Review of techniques  Ethnography  Coherence  Contextual design  Participatory design

Key Points  Pros and cons of user involvement  User-centered approach requires much info about users  Ethnography good method for studying users in natural surroundings  Coherence-method that provides focus questions  Contextual design-method that provides models for gathering data  PICTIVE and CARD-participatory design techniques that empower user