1. Imran Hussain University of Management and Technology (UMT)
Virtual University Human-Computer Interaction
Lecture 19 User Research
Imran Hussain
University of Management and Technology (UMT) 1

2. In the Last Lecture Goal directed design process
Software development process
Detail of design process
Types of users 2

3. In Today’s Lecture Research techniques Qualitative Research techniques1

4. Qualitative vs Quantative Research
People, associate the word research with science and objectivity and the current notion or prevailing concept of valid research only that yields quantitative data.

5. Qualitative Research
Understand Existing products, and how they are used
Technical, business and environmental contexts
Constraints, Vocabulary and other social aspects of the domain in question

6. Help in design projects
Helps to identify the patterns of behaviour.
Helps the progress of design team
Providing credibility and authority to design team
Uniting the team with a common understanding of domain issues and user concerns
Empowering management to make more informed decisions about product design issues that would otherwise be based on guesswork or personal preference

7. Other benefits of Qualitative Research
Faster
Less expensive
More flexible

8. Question that leads to superior design
What problems are people encountering with their current was of doing what the product hopes to do?
Into what broader context in people’s lives does the product fit and how?
What are the basic goals people have in using the product, and what basic tasks help people accomplish them?

9. Types of qualitative research
Stakeholder interviews
Subject matter expert (SME) interviews
User and customer interviews
User observation/ethnographic field studies
Literature review
Product/ prototype and competitive audits

10. Stakeholder Interviews
Start by understanding the business and technical context
Common vocabulary and understanding among the design team, management and engineering teams.

11. Definition
Any one affected by the outcome of the project or actual product itself is known as the stakeholder

12. Stakeholder Interview
Managers
Engineers
Sales people
Marketing people
Design people

13. How to conduct interview?
Interviews of stakeholders should be held before user research.
Interviews should be one-on-one
Optimum duration should be of an hour.

14. Stakeholder Interviews
What is the primary vision of the product from each stakeholder perspective?
What is the budget and schedule?
What are the technical constraints?
What are the business drivers?
What are the stakeholders’ perceptions of the user?

15. Understanding these issues help you to better serve your customer, as well as the user of the product.
build consensus internally for decision making, and build credibility for design team.

16. Subject Matter Expert (SME) Interviews
SME are also known as domain experts
SMEs are expert users: they have management perspective.
SMEs are knowledgeable, but they are not designers
You will want access to SMEs throughout the design process

17. User and Customer Interviews
User and customer are two different groups
User
People who use the product and try to accomplish something with it.
Customer
Who make the decision to purchase the product.

18. User and Customer Consumer domain Enterprise/Business domain
Customer are same as user
Enterprise/Business domain
Customer and user represent different groups of people

19. It’s important to understand customers and their goals in order to make a product viable.

20. Interviewing customers
Their goals in purchasing the product
Their frustrations with current solutions
Their decision process for purchasing a product of the type you are designing
Their role in installation, maintenance, and management of the product
Domain-related issues and vocabulary
Reasons and problems behind product suggestions and ideas

21. Interviewing User Different type of users Current users
Potential users

22. Interviewing User Problems and frustrations with the product
The context of how the product fits into their lives or workflow
Domain knowledge from a user perspective
A basic understanding of the users current tasks
A clear understanding of user goals

23. Literature Review
Studying documentation which is relevant or pertains to the product or domain
Business strategies document
Business plans
Various policies, processes and procedures
Product marketing plans
Data coming from market research
Technology specification
White papers
Business and technical journals articles
Competitive studies
Usability study results
Customer support data

24. Product and Competitive Audits
Examine existing products and prototype
Examine competitive products
Design team gets a feel for things
Source of information for question
To understand the audit based upon heuristics
Expert review of product interfaces and to make comparisons.

25. Enthographic Interviews

26. Contextual Inquiry
Context
Partnership
interpretation
Focus

27. Improving contextual inquiry
Shortening the interview process
Using smaller design teams
Identifying goals first
Looking beyond business contexts