User-Centred Designa challenge for the future (lecture-1)

Prof. dr. Matthias Rauterberg

Faculty Industrial DesignTechnical University Eindhoven

g.w.m.rauterberg@tue.nl

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Course overview• Part 1: What is user centred design?

• real humans

• models of humans

• Part 2: How to investigate users?• observation (physical traces, environmental behavior)

• interview, questionniare

• archive analysis (newsletter, book, internet, museum)

• Part 3: How to design a product?• product development stages

• user involvement

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Questions:

- What is going wrong?

- Why is it wrong?

- What can be done to prevent these kinds of mismatches?

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Three Aspects of Mental Models

• The design model– what the designer has in

mind about the system

• the user’s model– what the user think about

the system might work

• the system image– how the system actually

works

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The user-needs gap

• Designers cooperate primarily with the paying clients

• Designers often do not know the end-users

• Paying clients often do not know the end-users

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Principle #1: Know Your Users

• Exercise-1

• write down your email address & homepage

• write down your study/subject

• answer the following question:– What do you expect from this lecture?

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Principle #2: Involve Users Early and Continuously

• Exercise-2

• answer the following questions:– What kind of living environment / product /

service do you want to investigate?– What kind of futuristic scenario do you want to

develop?

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Why are users similar?

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Why are users different?• genetic differences

– gender, color of the skin, size, etc.

• family background– traditions, social status, religion, prosperity, etc.

• peer group background– age, interests, habits, attitudes, etc.

• society/nationality– culture, language, habits, attitudes, laws, etc.

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Causes for individual behavior

• Internal factors– genes

– physiological aspects

– psychological aspects

– cognitive experiences

– emotional experiences

• External factors– family

– school/education

– peer group

– work environment

– living environment

– written laws

– unwritten “laws”

– taboos

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Get familiar with your neighbor

• Exercise-3– talk to your neighbor 3 minutes about some

aspects/experiences of/in your life

– your neighbor has to listen carefully, and to repeat what you said as accurate as possible

– do this exercise again with changed roles

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How do we perceive the world?

• Senses– eyes

– ears

– nose

– taste

– skin

– haptic

• mind & memory• “heart”

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Get familiar with feelings• Exercise-4

– talk to your neighbor 3 minutes about some emotional experiences in your life

– your neighbor has to listen carefully, and to give feedback about his/her impression of your actual feelings now here in this room while you are talking

– do this exercise again with changed roles

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Models of users• the naive vis-à-vis prototyp (don’t use this for

design!)

• a model in form of an axiom system

• a known system with structure and behavior analogous to the system under consideration

• a prototypical system (the ideal user)

• an abstract description of the relevant aspects of a system (e.g., a mental model)

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The cognitive science view