LECTURER: JANE DOE

INTRODUCTION TO
USER RESEARCH
TOPIC OUTLINE

Basics and Definitions of User Research 1

Basic Idea of User-Centered Design 2

Planning User Context Analysis 3

User Research Methods for the Determination of User Requirements 4

From User Context Information to User Requirements 5

TOPIC OUTLINE

Service Design Methods 6

UNIT 2

BASIC IDEA OF
USER-CENTERED DESIGN
STUDY GOALS

- Understand the concept of user-centered design

- Recognize the importance of iterative design
- Describe how design solutions are communicated in
practice
EXPLAIN SIMPLY

1. How can the concept of user-centered design be

described?
2. What is iterative design and why is it important?
3. What is the relation between user requirements and
context of use?
BASIC IDEA OF USER-CENTERED DESIGN

User-Centered Design
• Users are involved throughout
product development
• Human needs, skills and
behavior
• Create usable, functional and
efficient systems

Source of the images: Gonzalez, 2008; Sylianteng, 2014.

BASIC IDEA OF USER-CENTERED DESIGN

Understanding Phase
- Goal? Understand the existing problem.
- User researcher observes (potential) users to generate knowledge about their behavior,
characteristics, needs, problems, environments, interests, and motivations.
- Empirical collection of context of use information
Interview: Users are asked Cultural probe: Materials
questions about their use for self-documentation

Observation: Watch the user Focus group: Group

performing tasks discussion on specific topic
BASIC IDEA OF USER-CENTERED DESIGN

Understanding Phase
- Documenting context of use information is crucial for the development process.
- No fixed format for such a description, but a collection of different forms of
documentation of context of use information (example persona)

What could be a
possible persona for a
Tinder user?
BASIC IDEA OF USER-CENTERED DESIGN

Design Phase

Alternative Solutions: Multiple ideas should be

generated • A clear conceptual design is important for the
development of understandable and easy-to-use
+ interactive systems
-Unrestricted
Das Markenimage
creativity:muss dabeiand
Unrealistic den Wünschen
absurd ideas
should not be criticized
derbecause they could be helpful
& Bedürfnissen Kund*innen entsprechen
and provide creative insights • Conceptual design is about how things should be
- Eigenständiges & unverwechselbares Profil
structured, classified, and organized
+
Unlimited questioning: Obvious things should be • Interactive system can meet the expectations and needs
questioned and tested. Often a solution is only found
when the supposedly obvious is questioned of the user
BASIC IDEA OF USER-CENTERED DESIGN

Design Phase
- The structure of an interactive system
is usually represented by diagrams.
- These diagrams shows use case and
actors interacting (e.g., the users but
also other systems.
- Depicts the use cases and actors with
their relationships and
dependencies.
 ENVISION
In the design phase, abstract solutions
are developed that need to be Where do you see the
visualized. A cheap and quick solution benefits of high-fidelity
prototypes? And where
for this is prototyping
the disadvantages?
Source of the images: Justinmind, 2021.
BASIC IDEA OF USER-CENTERED DESIGN
Low-Fidelity Prototype
- Mostly sketches and made out of paper
- Quickly and easily changed
- Flexible design, e. g. sticky notes
- Used in earlier project phases
- Fast and cheap and direct user
participation
High-Fidelity Prototype
- Technical implementation through
special tools
- Similar in behavior than the final version
- Harder to change
- Usually used in later project phases
- Production consumes many resources
BASIC IDEA OF USER-CENTERED DESIGN

Evaluation Phase
- Two main types:
- User-based evaluation: Design is tested
by representative users
- The aim is to find errors.
- Expert-based evaluation: The design is
inspected by usability experts.
- The aim is to predict errors.
BASIC IDEA OF USER-CENTERED DESIGN

Evaluation Phase
User-based evaluation
- The systematic observation of users attempting to complete a task or set of tasks
with the system based on representative scenarios is called usability testing.
- Representative users test functions and report their experience

Expert-based evaluation
- Expert-based evaluations are based on subject matter experts’ judgements of
usability.
- Compared to user more “hard” measures are controlled for (memory usage,
consistency, visibility of system status)
BASIC IDEA OF USER-CENTERED DESIGN

Evaluation Phase

Which evaluation is
more important?
REVIEW STUDY GOALS

- Understand the concept of user-centered design

- Recognize the importance of iterative design
- Describe how design solutions are communicated in
practice
UNIT 2

TRANSFER TASK
TRANSFER TASK

Inside a Robot-Staffed Hotel (15 minutes to prepare a short presentation)

1. Read the article about the “Henna Hotel,” the first robot staffed Hotel in
the world.
2. Imagine you are the hotel manager, and you are tasked with producing
a prototype before the hotel opens. What do you think are the best ways
to prototype in order to get customers’ feedback? Should the hotel use
high or low fidelity approaches?
3. Please make a use case diagram with all the actors involved in the
provision of the hospitality service of one night in the Henna Hotel.
TRANSFER TASK
PRESENTATION OF THE RESULTS

Please present your

results.
The results will be
discussed in plenary.
LEARNING CONTROL QUESTIONS

1. What is not a typical form of documentation?

a) Task model
b) Cultural probes
c) User group profile
d) Persona
LEARNING CONTROL QUESTIONS

2. Interaction design spans across five dimensions. Which of the

following is not one of them?
a) Emotions
b) Behavior
c) Physical objects and spaces
d) Visual Representation
LEARNING CONTROL QUESTIONS

3. What is a style guide?

a) An ISO standard for developers
b) A supervisor who implements the design in detail with the
developers
c) A summary of the user research results
d) A design manual for developers
LIST OF SOURCES

Gonzalez, J. (2008). Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/25598800@N02/3336185966

Justinmind.com (2021). Low vs. High-Fidelity Prototypes. Justinmind.com. https://www.justinmind.com/blog/low-fidelity-vs-high-fidelity-prototypes/
Sylianteng, N.(2014). Rethinking the Parking Sign. https://nikkisylianteng.com/v2/project/parking-sign-redesign/
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