Virtual University - Human Computer Interaction 1 © Imran Hussain | UMT Imran Hussain University of...

Virtual University - Human Computer Interaction1 © Imran Hussain | UMT

Imran Hussain

University of Management and Technology (UMT)

Lecture 20

User Research – Part II

Virtual University

Human-Computer Interaction


In the Last Lecture

• Qualitative Research vs. Quantitative Research

• Qualitative Research Techniques– Stakeholder Interviews

– Subject matter expert (SME) interviews

– User and customer interviews

– Literature reviews

– Product/prototype and competitive audits


In Today’s Lecture

• Qualitative Research Techniques– Ethnographic field studies


Common Issues in Software Engineering

• Users cannot articulate their needs

• Software engineers complain of changing requirements

• Software engineers don’t respect users– “users are a pain”


The Solution: Ethnographic Field Studies

• One-on-one interviews– Directed ethnographic interview techniques

• Observing users (Work/lifestyle observation)– Immersive observation


User-Centered Design (UCD) Approaches

• User-centered design approaches (a philosophy)– Involves finding out about users, their goals and tasks

– Involves users in development process

• Principles of UCD– Early focus on users and tasks

– Empirical measurement

– Iterative design


User-Centered Design Approaches

– A.k.a. Naturalistic Observation


Ethnography

• Branch of anthropology (a social science)

• Literally means “writing the culture”

• Deals with scientific description of individual human societies

• In anthropology– Ethnography understands behaviors and social rituals of entire culture

• In human-computer interaction– Ethnography understands behaviors and rituals of people interacting

with individual computer-based products


Ethnography Framework

• Structures presentation of ethnographies

• Enables designers to use efficiently use ethnographic data


Dimensions of Ethnography Framework

• Distributed Coordination– Focuses on distributed nature of work

• Plans and Procedures– Focuses on organizational support for work

• Awareness of Work– Focuses on how people keep themselves aware of other people’s work


Ethnographic Field Study Methods

• These provide notational and procedural mechanisms that allow designers to gain first-hand information

• 2 methods– Coherence (Viller and Sommerville, 1999)

– Contextual Design (Beyer and Holtzblatt, 1996)


Contextual Inquiry

• An ethnographic interviewing technique

• Based on observing and asking user questions

• Based on master-apprentice model of learning

• Based 4 principles


Principles of Contextual Inquiry

• Context

• Partnership

• Interpretation

• Focus


Principles of Contextual Inquiry

• Context– Observe in normal working environments

• Partnership– Adopt collaborative tone

• Interpretation– Analyze and interpret data, but verify assumptions

• Focus– Subtle direction of interviews


Improving Contextual Inquiry

• Shorten the interview process– 1 hr-long instead 1-day long interviews

• Use smaller design teams– Perform sequential interviews with same team

• Identify goals first– Identify and prioritize goals, then relate tasks

• Look beyond business contexts– Use in consumer domains


Preparing for Ethnographic Interviews

• Need to capture entire range of user behaviors

• Identify diverse sample of users

• Create a hypothesis that identifies users to interview


The Persona Hypothesis

• Primarily based on behaviors

• Also considers target markets and demographics

• Product domain also considered– Business user behavior different then that of consumer users

• Addresses at a high level:– Who might use this product?

– How would their needs and behaviors might vary?

– Ranges of behavior and types of environments?


Roles in Business and Consumer Domains

• User types vary based on needs and behaviors in different domains (business, technical, consumer)

• Roles– Common sets of tasks and information needs related to distinct classes

of users

• Business and technical contexts– Roles often map to job descriptions

• Consumer contexts– Roles map to lifestyle choices


Behavioral Variables

• Distinguish users based on their needs and behaviors (e.g., e-commerce)– Frequency of shopping (frequent—infrequent)

– Desire to shop (love—hate)

– Motivation to shop (bargain hunting—searching for just the right item)

• User types defined by combination of behavioral variables


Demographic Variables

• Make use of demographic data (from market research data)– Age, location, gender, income

• Identified through user data


Domain Expertise vs. Technical Expertise

• Domain expertise– Knowledge of a specialized subject pertaining to a product

• Technical expertise– Knowledge of digital technology


Environmental Variables

• Company size (small – multinational)

• IT presence (ad hoc – draconian)

• Security level (lax – tight)


Creating an Interview Plan

• Create an interview plan based on persona hypothesis

• Explore all possible variables in 4-6 interviews

• Map variables to interview screening profiles– An interviewee might cover a number of variables

• E.g., young female office worker, 20 years old, university educated, loves to shop (this covers variables of age, gender, education, designation, desire to shop, etc.)

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