Human Computer Interaction

e # 12
Lectur

Qudsia Yousaf

Class : BSSE Semester 4th

Credit Hours ( 3)
 Review
Topics from previous lecture??

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Students should be able to know the following after this lecture

Goal Directed Design Research

Participant Observation
Interviewing
Ethnography
 Sample questions

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 Qualitative vs Quantitative Research
Qualitative research helps us understand a product’s domain,
context, and constraints in different, more useful ways than
quantitative research does.
 Behaviors, attitudes, and aptitudes of potential and existing product users
 Technical, business, and environmental contexts—the domain—of the
product to be designed
 Vocabulary and other social aspects of the domain in question
 How existing products are used

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 Goal-Directed Design Research
The following qualitative research activities to be most useful in
Goal-Directed design practice (in rough order of execution)
 Kickoff meeting
 Literature review
 Product/prototype and competitive audits
 Stakeholder interviews(executives, managers, representatives from sales,
marketing and development)
 Subject matter expert (SME) interviews
 User and customer interviews
 User observation/ethnographic field studies

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Participant Observation
 Participant Observation

“you can observe a lot just by watching.” Yogi Berra

 This is also called ethnographic studies.

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 Participant Observation
This technique is actually developed by anthropologists

To find out in detail about other cultures you have to live
their lives …. That’s when you know what they are all
about.

Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present. To understand the full
sweep and complexity of cultures across all of human history, anthropology draws
and builds upon knowledge from the social and biological sciences as well as the
humanities and physical sciences.

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 Participant Observation
Why do participant observation uncover more detail than
interviews?

Participant observation can uncover things that are

difficult to articulate.

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1.What do people do now?
2.What values and goals do people have?
3.How are these particular activities embedded in a larger ecology?
4. Similarities and differences across people
 ...and other types of context, like time of day

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 1. What do people do Now?
We have to learn what is the baseline

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 2.What values and goals do people have?
We would like to build a system that fits in with what people would
like to achieve

This is not the same as building what the people have asked for…

Often they don’t know that themselves

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 3.How are these particular activities
embedded in a larger ecology?

Considering not just the activity but looking at the bigger

picture

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 4. Similarities and differences

If we are designing new buses all users would not be

concerned about the same thing

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 Apprentice
Set up a partnership with the people to be observed
 Be taught the steps in the process
 Observe all of the practices

 Validate what you are observing with those observed as you go

along

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 Apprentice
You learn things that no one tells you
You find out about all the work around
For example
 if you have to design a new check out system for a super market
you can apprentice as a check out clerk

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Interviewing
 Choosing Participants

Representative of target users

May be current users of a similar system
Might also be the non-users

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 Interview
If you were designing a lecture support system
Who would you interview?

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  Teacher
 Students

 Freshman
 PhD

 Stronger and weaker students

 People with different backgrounds

 Teaching Staff
 Department Admin?

 Parent?

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 Recruiting Participants
Get a diverse set of stakeholders
Use incentives and motivation

Approximate - better than nothing

 Medical students instead of doctors
 Computer students instead of software engineers

 Not Ideal but better than nothing

You can ask people you know to refer you to other people they
know

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 Recruiting Participants
Look for people in the middle instead of at the top
 They are the ones who do the actual work
 Also they will be more willing to talk.

People at the top don’t have time and they are very self
conscious about what they will say.

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What Are Good Questions?

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“Is the daily update an important feature to you?”
 What do you thing they will say?
“Would you like stores with less clutter?”
Do you want Moodle to be more user friendly?
You like feature X don’t you?

Most of these questions are leading questions

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 Other Types of Questions to avoid
What they would do / like / want in hypothetical scenarios
 People are not designers, they may not know what to say
 For example in comparison of horse and buggy if you had asked what they

wanted
 They would have said a faster horse
 The designers see the possibility of the car

 People are not experts designers but they are experts of their lives so ask
them about that.

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How often they do things
 We often lie to ourselves
 If asked how often do you exercise?

 Instead make them concrete.

 Instead ask how many times did they exercise last week. That is more

concrete and more recent in their memory

Avoid binary Questions
 Do you like grape fruit?
 Yes
 Not a very interesting question.

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 So what are good questions
Especially at the beginning of the interview ask open
ended questions.

Closed-ended questions are those which can be answered by a simple

"yes" or "no," while open-ended questions are those which require
more thought and more than a simple one-word answer
An open-ended question is designed to encourage a full, meaningful
answer using the subject's own knowledge and/or feelings. It is the
opposite of a closed-ended question, which encourages a short or
single-word answer.
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 How to Conduct Interviews
Introduce yourself, explain your purpose
The interview is about them, not you!
Begin with open, unbiased questions
Ask the question and let them answer

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(a little bit of)

Silence is Golden !

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 Follow Up
Adjust your questions to their previous answers
Ask questions in language they use / understand
Pick up on and ask for examples
Be flexible

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Scheduled Interviews Facilitate Depth

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Where to conduct interview?
Should you record audio or video?

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 Drawback of Audio/Video Recording
Time-consuming to review / edit
 Can change participants’ responses
 Requires permission

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 Benefits
A robust record
 Highlights are GREAT for communication
 Helps you focus on interviewing

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 Save Records - It’ll help later
Keep photos, notes, and artifacts
Helps tie all design to use, rather than debating
things on an abstract plane

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 Interviewing and Observing Users
The technique of ethnographic interviews is a
combination of immersive observation and directed
interview techniques.

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 Ethnographic Interviews-
Interview teams and timing

A team of two designers per interview.

The moderator drives the interview and takes light notes
The facilitator takes detailed notes and looks for any holes
in the questioning.
These roles can switch halfway through the interview if
the team agrees.

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 Ethnographic Interviews-
Interview teams and timing

One hour per user interviewed is often sufficient.

Except in the case of complex domains such as medical,
scientific, and financial services.
These may require more time to fully understand what the
user is trying to accomplish.

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 Some Example Questions
goal-oriented questions to consider:
 Goals—What makes a good day? A bad day?
 Opportunity—What activities currently waste your time?

 Priorities—What is most important to you?

 Information—What helps you make decisions?

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 Some Example Questions
system-oriented question:
 Function—What are the most common things you do with the
product?
 Frequency—What parts of the product do you use most?

 Preference—What are your favorite aspects of the product? What

drives you crazy?

 Failure—How do you work around problems?

 Expertise—What shortcuts do you employ?

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 Some Example Questions
work flow-oriented questions can be helpful:
 Process—What did you do when you first came in today? What
did you do after that?
 Occurrence and recurrence—How often do you do this? What

things do you do
 weekly or monthly, but not every day?

 Exception—What constitutes a typical day? What would be an

unusual event?

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 Some Example Questions
Attitude-oriented questions
 To better understand user motivations
 Aspiration—What do you see yourself doing five years from now?
 Avoidance—What would you prefer not to do? What do you
procrastinate on?
 Motivation—What do you enjoy most about your job (or
lifestyle)? What do you always tackle first?

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 Method for Ethnographic Interviews
Avoid a fixed set of questions.
Assume the role of an apprentice, not an expert.
Use open-ended and closed-ended questions to direct the discussion.
Focus on goals first and tasks second.
 Understand the Why instead of What at the beginning
Avoid making the user a designer.
Avoid discussing technology.
Encourage storytelling.
Ask for a show-and-tell.
Avoid leading questions.

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 References
Coursera, University of San Diego (Scott Klemmer)
About Face chapter 2

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 Summary
Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research
Goal Directed Design Research
Participant Observation
 Ethnography
 Sample questions

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 Key Learning Points
Ethnography
Open-ended questions

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