University of Washington HCDE 518 User Research 1 HCDE 518 Autumn 2011 With credit to Jake Wobbrock, Dave Hendry, Andy Ko, Jennifer Turns, & Mark Zachry

University of Washington HCDE 518 Agenda  Announcements, Hand in assignments  Sketching Critiques  Design Activity  Break – 5 mins  Lecture – User Research  Design Activity  Break – 10 mins  Lecture – Ethnography & Contextual Inquiry  Design Activity  Next Class  Group Project Work Time

University of Washington HCDE 518 Announcements, Questions  R2 & P0 due now (via CollectIt dropbox)  R1 grades posted  A1 still in progress (sorry  )  A2 due next week (described shortly)  Questions?

University of Washington HCDE 518 Sketching Critiques – 20 minutes  Break into groups of 3 people  Take turns showing and explaining your 3 sketches with each other  Critics should offer advice and feedback about the idea  Strengths, Weaknesses, Originality, Feasibility  Sketcher: take notes about what feedback was offered  Critic: be critical, but constructive and courteous!  Each critic should sign and date the page after the sketches

University of Washington HCDE 518 Design Activity - Designing Under Constraints  UW has asked you to redesign a new Husky card that must satisfy the following constraints:  It must be 3.370” × 2.125” in size  It can only use 3 colors (but can use fewer)  It must include a 1” x 1.5” photo area  It must include the ownerʼs name and status (e.g., undergraduate, graduate, faculty, staff, etc.)  It must have an ID # somewhere  It must use a UW icon or label  It must have space for a transit sticker of any size  It cannot use the existing Husky ID layout and design  Work in small groups on your design, then we will re-group and compare (15 minutes)

University of Washington HCDE 518 LECTURE – USER RESEARCH

University of Washington HCDE 518 Observing People  What do we “see”?  Opportunities for new designs  Breakdowns  Workarounds  Mismatches between what users say and do

University of Washington HCDE 518

Relying on what users say  Can we rely on what users say about what they want in a new design?  Very carefully  Henry Ford: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse."  It is better to watch what they do than to go only on what they say  Mismatches may hold keys to new designs

University of Washington HCDE 518 Users’ words are unreliable  People are notoriously bad at predicting what they would use or would prefer when it is only hypothetical  They can much better respond to actual, concrete things, or make comparisons  This highlights the importance of observation and of prototypes

University of Washington HCDE 518 Users can however…  Tell you what they are doing right now  Tell you how they are feeling right now  Tell you what their goal is right now

University of Washington HCDE 518 Observation  In the user's own environment  Observation of everyday tasks  Why are work-arounds opportunities for new designs?  Why are breakdowns opportunities for new designs?  Why are unexpected uses opportunities for new designs? User customization?

University of Washington HCDE 518 IDEO Method Cards  Available from William Stout publishers ($49)William Stout

University of Washington HCDE 518 LEARN from the facts you gather

University of Washington HCDE 518 LOOK at what users really do

University of Washington HCDE 518 ASK users to help

University of Washington HCDE 518 TRY it yourself

University of Washington HCDE 518 Design Activity – 20 minutes  Using the Method Cards, come up with two methods that could be useful in each of the following contexts, and two that would not be useful for each of the two design scenarios  Helping air traffic controllers communicate with pilots  Helping older adults communicate with their young grandchildren over a distance  Cards:  

University of Washington HCDE 518 What did you come up with?  Helping air traffic controllers communicate with pilots  Helping older adults communicate with their young grandchildren over a distance

University of Washington HCDE 518 A2 – Look, Learn, Ask, Try  Similar to what you just did!  You’ll be given 3 design scenarios and you’ll be asked to come up with 4 methods that would be appropriate and 1 that would not  How can a new system support communication for emergency room nurses?  How can a mobile system help long-distance bicyclists to find restaurants and amenities?  How can a video game help educate kids in Grades 1-5 on healthy eating  You’ll be asked to explain your choices  Due next Wednesday (October 19th)

University of Washington HCDE 518 BREAK – 10 MINUTES

University of Washington HCDE 518 Ethnography  Observational science attempts to understand a group or individual objectively.  Understand the subject of study from the outside in a way that can be explained to “anyone.”  Generate “thick description” painting a vivid holistic picture.  Ethnography attempts to understand a group or individual phenomenologically.  Understand the subject of study as the subject of study understands himself/herself.

University of Washington HCDE 518 Design Ethnography  Quicker than traditional ethnography  Usually days, weeks, or months, not years.  Sometimes called “concurrent ethnography”  The ethnography is being done at the same time that design is under way.  Goal is to generate insights for informing inspiring design.  Translating from raw field data to design ideas can be difficult.

University of Washington HCDE 518 Four Ethnographic Principles

University of Washington HCDE 518 Natural Settings  Conducted in the setting of the participant.  Focus on naturally occurring, everyday talk and action.  Cannot use laboratory or experimental settings to gather this type of data.

University of Washington HCDE 518 Holism  Behavior can only be understood in its larger social context; that is, holistically.

University of Washington HCDE 518 Descriptive  Study how people actually behave, not how they ought to behave.  Defer judgment.  Data is not usually quantitative, but qualitative.

University of Washington HCDE 518 Subjects’ Point-of-View  See through participants’ eyes in order to grasp how they interpret and act in their world.  Phenomenological.

University of Washington HCDE 518 How to do this?  Observations – Next week  Interviews – Next week  Contextual Inquiry – Next!

University of Washington HCDE 518 Contextual Inquiry  What does context refer to?

University of Washington HCDE 518 Key Quote  “The users cannot describe what they really do because they are not conscious of it and do not reflect on it. The defined policy for an organization is no longer representative because it no longer reflects what is really going on.”

University of Washington HCDE 518 Contextual Design  Contextual inquiry  Master/apprentice  Affinity diagramming

University of Washington HCDE 518 Contextual Inquiry  Observation method for Contextual Design  Applied ethnography  Design ethnography made easy :)  “The core premise of Contextual Inquiry is very simple: go where the customer works, observe the customer as he or she works, and talk to the customer about the work. Do that, and you can’t help but gain a better understanding of your customer.”

University of Washington HCDE 518 Principles of Contextual Inquiry  Context  Must be done in the setting of the participant.  Partnership  Master/apprentice model; investigator is humble.  Interpretation  Observed facts must be regarded for their design implications. Raw facts without interpretation aren’t very useful.  Focus  Themes that emerge during the inquiry. You can’t pay attention to all facets of someone’s work at all times!

University of Washington HCDE 518 Master/Apprentice  You are the apprentice  The informant is your master  What does this relationship imply?  Keen observation  Unafraid to ask questions  Eager to learn  Admire the master  Aspire to see the world as they do  Adopting the master/apprentice model during your CI will mean you don’t have to prepare a set of interview questions beforehand.  Reduces pressure to “get it right.” Key Concept!

University of Washington HCDE 518 Interviewing in CI  Go for concrete details obtained in-context, not abstract generalities.  Don’t ask participants to summarize about their work. Ask them specific details about real, concrete, observable things.  Have them “think aloud” as they work through their tasks. Pepper them with short, easily answerable questions.  Avoid high-level philosophical questions that will just cause them to “talk” instead of “do.”

University of Washington HCDE 518 Withdraw and Return  The researcher observes something in the pattern of action that indicates there’s something meaningful going on.  The researcher asks about this, and the pair withdraw momentarily from the task at hand.  The pair discuss the researcher’s question.  Afterwards, the participant returns to the task at hand.

University of Washington HCDE 518 Interpretation Checking  It is good to regularly check your interpretations.  “I saw you just do X. Is that because of Y?”  “I believe X. Is that correct?”  “If you had a technology that did X, would that solve the problem we just encountered?”  As long as you check your interpretations in context, participants will respond accurately.  Outside of context, they may be more inclined to agree or answer in generalities rather than specifics.

University of Washington HCDE 518 Stages of CI

University of Washington HCDE 518 Ways to Mess Up a CI  Not being inquisitive/nosy enough  If you have the impulse to ask, do it right away!  Overly disrupting the task  Questions are great, but don’t ask so many so fast that the participant stops doing their tasks.  Turning it into a regular interview  If you could have done it in a coffee shop, you didn’t do a contextual inquiry.  Failing to be discrete  Participants must feel safe, free, and anonymous.  Failing to respect your participants  Failing to observe closely and take good notes  Over-focusing on the wrong details  Slipping into abstraction  Keep it concrete, in the work, in the details.

University of Washington HCDE 518 Design Activity: CI Practice – 20 minutes  Pair up with someone else in class. Make sure one of you has a laptop, cell phone, tablet, or other technical device  Spend about 5 minutes doing a “contextual inquiry” while your partner uses the device naturally (e.g., surf the web, check , send a text message, play a game, etc.)  Be sure to “withdraw and return” to ask relevant questions while they do their tasks  After ~5-10 minutes, we will swap partners and roles

University of Washington HCDE 518 Contextual Inquiry Discussion  How did it go?  What did you learn?  What was easy about it?  What was hard about it?  How do you think it would compare to just an interview without the device?  How do you think it would compare to just watching them use the device without asking questions?

University of Washington HCDE 518 Next Class  Wednesday, October 19th  User Research, Part 2  Upcoming Work  Reflection 3  Sketching, Week 3  Sketch 3 on reusing mobile phones  Use Huang & Truong reading as user research  Assignment 2: Look, Learn, Ask, Try

University of Washington HCDE 518 GROUP PROJECT MEET TIME