Understanding usersUnderstanding usersQualitative Research From: About Face 3: Essentials of Interaction Design

How do we gather info?How do we gather info?InterviewsFocus Groups (not covered)User ObservationLiterature Review/Market

ResearchProduct and Competitive Audits

Who do we interview?Who do we interview?

Subject Matter Experts

Who else do we interview?Who else do we interview?

CustomersWhat are their goals?

What frustrates them?

What is the decision process for purchasing/using?

What do we ask?What do we ask?Goal-oriented questions

◦What activities currently waste your time?◦What is most important to you?◦What helps you make decisions?

System-oriented questions◦What are the most common things you do

with the product?◦What parts of the product do you use

most?◦What are your favorite aspects of the

product?◦How do you work around problems?◦What shortcuts do you employ?

How do we interview?How do we interview?Interview where the interaction

happens Avoid a fixed set of questions Focus on goals first, tasks second Ask for show and tell

I want to collect money owed me. I want a list of people with open balances.

More interview tipsMore interview tipsAvoid making the user a designer.  Avoid discussion of technology Guide the interviewee towards

examining problems and away from expressing solutions (e.g., not “Would this feature be useful…”)

Encourage storytelling about experiences with a product.

Encourage both typical cases and exceptional ones.

Example Interview Example Interview Questions:Questions:EECS Website EECS Website Why do you come to the website?What do you primarily use the site for? Is there anything on the site that prevents

you from doing what you need to do quickly and efficiently?

Is what you need present?What sort of information do you expect when

searching for a school?Did anything on our EECS website convince

you to do your graduate work here? Is the current color theme of the EECS page

appealing?

Identifying Users to Identifying Users to InterviewInterviewPersona Hypothesis.

◦What different sorts of people might use the product?

◦How might their needs and behaviors vary?

◦What ranges of behaviors and environments need to be explored?

May also identify behavioral and demographic variables.

Example Persona Example Persona Hypothesis: Hypothesis: EECS WebsiteEECS Website Students

◦ Potential Students High School students Transfer International Continuing

Education Graduate

◦ Current Undergraduate Students Non-EECS EECS

◦ Current Graduate Students EECS

Parents◦ Potential students◦ Existing students

Faculty◦ CSM Faculty◦ Collaborators

Job Candidates Prospective

Employers

Example Behavioral Example Behavioral Variables:Variables:EECS WebsiteEECS Websiteeducation level (high school, undergrad,

grad, faculty, etc)aesthetic preference (simple-> pictures

-> flash/more dynamic)level of interest (quick browsing, casual

search, focused search, detailed reading)persistence (easily frustrated, tolerant) skills (basic website navigation,

comfortable, expert navigator)familiarity with department (no

knowledge, alumni, current major, current non-major, parent)

frequency of use (never, seldom, occasional, frequent)

User ObservationUser ObservationMost people are incapable of

accurately assessing their own behaviors. 

You can talk to users about how they think they behave, or you can observe it first-hand. 

The latter route provides superior results. 

Technological aids such as audio or video recorders may be used, but should not be too obtrusive.

Example Example Ethnography/Usability:Ethnography/Usability:EECS WebsiteEECS WebsiteTask: Find out what classes are

going to be offered next semester.

Observation: First went to course home pages but couldn't find the info there. Then went to course descriptions and found it, but took two minutes or so of looking around the page to find the information. It is hidden at the bottom of the page kind of out of the way.

Example Ethnography:Example Ethnography:Programming IDEProgramming IDELots of sitting and staring at screen.Frequent switch to explanation of assignment

◦ Looking for specific details as opposed to rereading assignment

◦ Lot of time reading lab description for insight.Frequent switching between .h and .cpp

without adding code to either. Lot of confusion about what goes in each section.

No textbooks in sightLots of warnings, errors that won’t go away.

Compile, receive error, remove line, recompile, still have error. Rely on error messages from IDE, but often don’t understand the message.

Lots of looking at neighbor’s code.

Continued ObservationsContinued ObservationsNo one googled errors Students not making much use of

resources like chapter notes.Many students have difficult time

typing, which slows them down significantly

Users seem to spend more time navigating around code that actually writing code.

Some students who appeared to be lost spent time messing around with Visual Studio interface.

Market Research*Market Research*Identify and analyze the market

need, market size and competition

Not Marketing Research (how to market a product effectively)

* from Wikipedia

Competitor Analysis – Competitor Analysis – Why?Why?“Competitor analysis is an essential

component of corporate strategy. It is argued that most firms do not conduct this type of analysis systematically enough. Instead, many enterprises operate on what is called “informal impressions, conjectures, and intuition gained through the tidbits of information about competitors every manager continually receives.” As a result, traditional environmental scanning places many firms at risk of dangerous competitive blindspots due to a lack of robust competitor analysis.”*

* Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2007

How? Competitor ArrayHow? Competitor ArrayDefine your industry - scope and nature of the

industry Determine who your competitors are Determine who your customers are and what

benefits they expect Determine what are the key success factors in your

industry Rank the key success factors by giving each one a

weighting - The sum of all the weightings must add up to one.

Rate each competitor on each of the key success factors

Multiply each cell in the matrix by the factor weighting.

ExampleExampleKey IndustrySuccess Factors

WeightingCompetitor#1 rating

Competitor#1 weighted

Competitor#2 rating

Competitor#2 weighted

1 - Extensive distribution

.4 6 2.4 3 1.2

2 - Customer focus

.3 4 1.2 5 1.5

3 - Economies of scale

.2 3 .6 3 .6

4 - Product innovation

.1 7 .7 4 .4

Totals 1.0 20 4.9 15 3.7

Literature ReviewLiterature ReviewWhite papersJournal articlesWeb searches

Product & Competitive Product & Competitive AuditsAuditsExamine competitor productsUsability analysis (more later….)Useful featuresWhat’s missing

Example Literature Review:Example Literature Review:CONNECTCONNECT Poken Poken is used for social networking, personal

identification communication. It uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to exchange social data between two keychains. An individual is identified with a ‘poken’, a keychain. The primary data exchanged is a ‘social business card’. Which the digital mirror of your business card. Contact information on a ‘poken’ their website.

  Crowd Vine This product creates profiles for people that contain

their contact information. There doesn’t seem to be a way to exchange contact information with people other than sharing your email address or profile name. A profile contains the user’s social networking profile information. The site is like a social business card for finding ways to interact with people. The basic functionality is very similar to LinkedIn.

Handling the Interview Handling the Interview DataDataIdentify expectationsMap behavioral variables to

interview subjectsCreate personas

Example Expectations:Example Expectations:EECS WebsiteEECS WebsitePrimary persona (current undergraduate) expectations…I expect that the website will: Help me plan my schedule for next semester Help me contact my professor(s) Help me decide whether to continue for a master’s

degree Help me find job opportunities in CS/in the department

Secondary persona (prospective student) expectations…I expect that the website will: Help me decide whether to attend CSM Help me figure out how much it will cost Help me determine if the research relates to my

interests 

Example: Map Subjects to BVExample: Map Subjects to BVEECS WebsiteEECS Website

Low frustration tolerance High frustration tolerance

Barely any time spent on site

Spent lots of time on site

Frustration Tolerance Level

Amount of time spent on site

User1

User1

User2

User2

User3

User3

User4

User4

User5

User5

Exploring/bored Specific taskReason for visiting site

User1User2 User3 User4User5

K-12 Student Status

User1 User2User3 User4 User5

Non-student (or graduate)

PersonasPersonasBased on real interview subjects (not

stereotypes) – but not one exact subject

Given a name for reference, easier for designers to relate to

Resolve 3 user-centered design issues:◦Elastic user - generic “user” bends and

stretches the design ◦Self-referential - developers project their

own goals, motivations, skills and mental models onto a product’s design.

◦Design edge cases must be programmed for, but they should never be the design focus.

Example Persona:Example Persona:EECS WebsiteEECS WebsitePersona: Alex (Non-Macs major) Doesn't want to spend a lot of time on the site -- in

and out mentality Not very experienced with the site -- infrequent

visits Wants to find either course home page and

bookmark it or professor contact info -- probably won't come back till next semester

Would like an easy to navigate site, overcomplicated is bad.

Familiar with mines, knows that EECS classes generally have course home pages.

Not particularly interested in non class or professor related information.

Example Persona:Example Persona:EECS WebsiteEECS WebsitePersona: Laura (transfer student)New to Mines, in need of EECS related

informationVisited the site just a couple times, not

sure where everything is yetCritically needs EECS degree information to

decide on a major at mines Needs info like flowcharts and course

descriptionsWould like to see current and up-to-date

information on the site so she can get a feel for the department

Hopes to be able to find the desired information without issue.

Example Persona:Example Persona:EECS WebsiteEECS WebsitePersona: Robert (Computer Science

Major) (Primary Persona)Familiar with the site -- visits it once or

twice a monthWants easy access to course homepages

and professor contact informationWould like to see frequent updates on

upcoming important events (such as group advising for registration)

Needs course flowcharts, course descriptions

Needs graduate school info

Persona ExpectationsPersona ExpectationsExpectations for a product and its

context of use are informed by the persona’s mental model of the product.

Identify behaviors expected or desired from the product

Think about: what do subjects mention first, what action words do they use, and what intermediate tasks they don’t mention.

Persona Expectation: EECS Persona Expectation: EECS WebsiteWebsiteWebsite will help me plan my

scheduleWebsite will allow me to contact

my instructorWebsite will tell me what I need

to know to become a CS major at Mines

Website will help me be part of the Mines CS community