Chapter 9 User-centered approaches to interaction design

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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

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

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

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

9. 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

10. Ethnography and design • Three ways it is associated with design: • “Ethnography of” • Studies of developers and workplace • “Ethnography for” • Studies of organizational work • “Ethnography within” • Integrated into methods for development

11. 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

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

13. “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

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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 4 principles of Inquiry • Context • Importance of going to workplace • Partnership • Developer and user should collaborate • Interpretation • Observations must be interpreted together by developer and user • Focus • What do you look for?

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

19. Working Model • Five aspects of “work” modeled: • Work flow model • Sequence model • Artifact model • Cultural model • Physical model

20. 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

21. 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

22. Work Flow Model

23. Sequence Model

24. Artifact Model

25. Physical Model

26. Cultural Model

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

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

29. 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

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

31. Review of techniques • Ethnography • Coherence • Contextual design • Participatory design

32. 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