Reflections

Reflections on article - User Research Smoke & Mirrors

The article argues that science and research do not have a proper place alongside design and the design process. In fact, the author thinks that business place too much importance on user research, data, numbers, and scientific facts. Not only does it add extra cost, but it loses focus and the importance on the actual designing.

The author is obviously taking an extreme approach in the matter to get across his point. He however, does make a strong case and backs it up with some extremely relevant scenarios. Some forms of research are definitely taking things to the next level, such as in the case of the eyetracking study. If you need to use/pay for this method in order to figure out why your design went horribly wrong, you probably don’t have a very good design team in the first place. And instead of wasting time and money analyzing where on the webpage people are directing most of their attention to, just having someone with a decent design understand look at your website, they could probably identify the numerous problems without any tools or instruments.

I disagree with the author’s take on research methods. Although the author does imply that research is useful, he states that it is only when it comes to the breaking red tape and overcoming company politics. Research is definitely a good foundation for design. It should not in any case replace the elements of design, but it helps create a good backbone. Without researching about a problem/need, you will never know if your product will be successful. You may have the best design and even create a need for the problem. However if you know beforehand that there doesn’t not seem much interest in the application you attempting to design then that research is a savior and can save a lot of time and grief. In the end of the article, the author does cave in and suggests the added value to design when using “less-rigorous methodologies” and research techniques such as – card sorting, focus groups, usability testing, and personas.

The end of the article, the author stated something that opened my eyes:

A user can miss everything you put in his path, and call you on it, and the user is never wrong, even if there is nothing more you could have done to help him understand. The user is never wrong because experience is experience, not fact.

In the end of the day, whatever you are design, whatever you are trying to create a wonderful user experience for, you are doing it for the user. No matter how much money you have invested in a design team, or the lengths to which you go using science and research as tools to help the design process. It is that end user, each and every one of them, which will tell you if you have succeeded in the design. There is no set formula that will get you the outcome you are looking for, however I believe you can not totally ignore the science or research element, as it will help create a stepping stool to find the perfect design.

Reflections on module - NM4210 – User Experience Design

It’s not just about having a good design anymore. Designers are focused on creating a user experience not just something that looks cool. By creating an experience that arouses the senses of the user, you have not only made a successful product, but you have altered the user’s way of thinking. The user will now always look at any product of the same brand and think of the amazing experience they had once with the original product. As mentioned so many times in class with Apple, they created a brand identity with the user experience of the iPod. Now without even having physically touched or seen with my own eyes, I know I want to buy an iPhone.

Coming from an engineering background, I was really bored and uninterested with the level of technical detail involved with the projects and assignments. I knew I wanted to gain some exposure to world of design and unleash some creative juices. Through this module I was able to learn the theory and methodologies surrounding design – emotional probes, ethnographic studies, laddering, four pleasure analysis, reverse market, card sorting, and heuristic evaluations just a few of the ones. Although there are so many different approaches or tools for design they are mainly used as aids, the main point stressed is that there is no set way to determining the perfect design experience. The user is the one who decides, they are god which you must please.

The blog assignments were a useful tool to exemplify how users think and act, in a way to help make the design process easier. Pleasure with products assignments, we broke down the affect of a product in terms of visceral, behavioral and reflective, seeing that products almost never are able to cross over all 3 realms. In the four pleasure analysis assignment, we were able to examine how designs can appeal to users at different levels – physiologically, psychologically, sociologically, and ideologically. In the hell assignment (improving lecture theatres) we utilized ethnographic studies to observe how users interact with a product. This assignment was difficult to pinpoint or gauge user’s reactions just through observation. One user’s viewpoint could be totally different from another’s, so it was hard to come up with one solution to satisfy the masses. The final project consolidated use of all the different methodologies we learned. The project was a lot more difficult than anticipated, having to consult the user at almost every stage. Although, when producing the end product, it is understandable why the user is needed at all stages, to ensure that you do not go off course with the design. Brainstorming and designing within out group was fine, but a lot of times we missed small and simple things which we later had to integrate after a session of user testing.

In the end, I believe this module did a successful job in illustrating the techniques needed to build great user experience. It is not easy to do as there is not set method to follow, or formula to calculate. Every user is different, and to try and create a product that appeals to everyone is the key to unlocking the power of user experience design.

Improving Learning Experience in Lecture Theatres

After completing our investigations and presenting our findings to the class it was discovered that the conclusions reached by most groups was that to improving the learning experience of a lecture theatre is subjective and changes from person to person, based on how the individual learns best. Therefore, there is not one perfect solution to help improve the learning experience in LT’s for the masses.

However, our approach to how we came about to our solution is as follows.

Observations
As a portion of our ethnographic studies, we completed some observations while sitting in lecture theatres. The purpose was to evaluate how students acted and reacted to things in lecture theatres. From the environment surrounding them, to the lecturer, to even the time of the lecture itself. After observing several different lectures we came to some conclusions:

· Most students do not prefer to sit in the first few rows of a LT. They like to grab seats at the corners or the end.

· Students usually pay most attention at the beginning of a lecture. As time passes they lose interest and hide themselves behind their laptop or notes as they talk to their friends or do other things.

· Lecturers come in all sorts of shapes and forms. Most of which do not do a good job of teaching especially when they don’t read the feedback from the students

· The size of the lecture tends to also have a big impact on how students seem to learn in a lecture. It seems the smaller the lecture size the more attentive students remain.

Survey

Based on the observations, we developed a list of factors that influenced the learning experience in lecture theatres. We then created a survey to find out directly what the habits of students were and what they preferred for their lectures:

Summary of results:

• Time of lecture: 75% - 10am – 12pm

• Duration: 1.5 hr – 41.7% and 1 hr – 38%

• Class size: 25-49 – 37.5% (most in general like small class size <>

• Format of lecture: Seminar Style (more participatory) – 70.8%

• Characteristics of lecturer: Clarity of speaker – 95.8% (23), Charisma/Enthusiasm – 70.8% (17),

• Other notable - most people were concerned with not hearing properly (accent, speed of speech, etc)

• Temperature of LT: 22-24 degrees – 50%

• Misc. factors affecting learning experience: tired, bored, hungry, noisy students

• Based on pervious experience what do you think helps you learn in a lecture theatre learning environment:

• Having interest in the topic/subject matter being taught in the lecture

• Professor having proper knowledge in the field

• Writing out notes helps keep you paying attention, if you want to pass

• Enthusiasm of the lecturer

• Interaction or involving the students

• Visual aides

Laddering

From performing the ladering technique on users we were able to find out extra factors that made the learning experience of students better or worse. We started all of our laddering approaches with the question: “What don’t you like about the learning experience in a lecture theatre?” The direct answers to this question came in the form:

• Hard to take good notes on the small side tables

• Difficult to listen with others talking

• Lecturer isn’t organized

After divulging deeper into the laddering approach it became evident that all of these stemmed from students wanting to do well in life (having successful jobs).

Thru laddering we were able to justify the importance of improving the learning experience in lecture theatres, as it is obvious that most if not all students hope to do well in school to in turn allow them to be success in a career path in the future.

Interviews

Along with the surveys, we asked users to answer a few questions that we found were important after going through the observation period. A select few questions and results are below:

What is the one thing that bugs you about lecture theatres in NUS?
The lack of power sockets. They're either too far or all in use.

What do you think could be included in lectures that would greatly change your experience?
I think that if food and drinks were provided before the lecture, it would mentally change what you expect from the class.

What disturbs you the most during a lecture?
People walking in and out of the lecture theatre. You have to adjust your position to let people through and you sometimes lose your train of thought.

Solution

Based on our findings, we noticed some interesting trends in what we observed and what students seemed to really want as an improvement to the learning experience in lecture theatres. As a group we thought that we would outline an ideal lecture theatre that would meet the needs of majority of students.

You arrive in school for your first lecture at 9.45am. 15 minutes early, to have breakfast and a nice hot cup of java waiting for you outside the LT. The LT has warm red walls, is gently curved and can comfortably accommodate about 50 students. You go into the LT 5 minutes before the lecture starts with your coffee and sit at your usual spot. The temperature is just right at 22 degrees, cool but not cold. The wood finished table is big enough to accommodate all your lecture notes and your laptop. There is a powerpoint conveniently located at each seat as well as microphones so that the whole class can hear whenever someone asks a question. The chairs are on rollers and have arm rests, they are comfortable and ergonomic with cushioned arm rests. As you ease into your chair, people walk behind you to get to their seats. There is more than enough space between seats so that people can move comfortably in and out without disturbing others.

The lecturer is engaging, and clear in speech. He cracks jokes every once in awhile and uses relevant videos to explain the concept. There are short classroom exercises where you interact with one another and discuss questions. This aims to help you understand the concepts within the lecture hour itself.

As described above, our solution would meet the hierarchy of consumer needs. Having a comfortable, spacious and overall “feel good” feeling in our LT meets the pleasure need of the consumer. The easy to use equipment available meets the usability need. And lastly functionality wise, just being able to see and hear the lecturer properly is also met.

The solution of the ideal LT was broken down again to determine its validity through the four pleasure analysis:

Physio Pleasure: The feeling of space and the wood finished tables. Comfortable chair which fits seamlessly with the body.
Socio Pleasure: Being able to interact with the rest of the class with microphones
Psycho Pleasure: Satisfaction of being able to grasp concepts taught in class itself.
Ideo Pleasure: Love the style of the lecture and the layout of the LT.

Other Presentations

After listening to other groups’ presentation we found that we had arrived at similar conclusions, some being almost identical to us, in terms of the findings and observations. Some groups talked more about the energy needed by a student to get the most out of learning, and by increasing this energy it would in turn increase the learning experience.

Possibly improvements to the solution would be to actually device some experiments to study the affects of the students in some possible solution scenarios (ideal LT’s). It is impossible to know if improved learning experience is based solely on improved marks. Therefore, I believe that we would need to increase the sample size and perform a proper experiment to truly determine a solution on improving the learning experience of lecture theaters.

Four pleasure analysis

User Profile

• Alex Hues – 28 year old bachelor
• Lives in by the Harbourfront in downtown Toronto, Canada
• Works as a Financial Analyst for PriceWaterhouse Cooper Corporate Finance

Alex Hues is a single man in his late 20’s living on his own in a condo downtown Toronto. He works as a Financial Analyst for PWC, PriceWaterhouse Cooper, the world’s largest professional services firm in the world.

He is not currently seeing anyone, but is still quite the ladies man. He has always dating young women for a couple of weeks at a time, but is not ready in his life to settle down with anyone. He still enjoys just having a good time! He has a close group of friends who he is tight with, who refer to him as “Paris Hilton” because he loves to entertain guest, go out to bars and nightclubs (nightlife) and enjoys being the life of the party. Because of his busy schedule, he barely has a chance to go home to visit his family, but tries to still keep in touch with them and visit home twice a year.

Alex is working at his second company since graduating from university with a degree in math and business (double degree) from the University of Waterloo. He is not incredibly happy with his position at work. He had hoped that in this stage in his life he would have had been in a higher position with a company or somehow struck it rich in the stock market and retired. He still continues to put in the long hours in hope to land a promotion.

Being very health conscious, Alex tries to keep active on a daily basis trying to keep healthy and his lean image. He goes to the gym almost daily before work. Some days he meets his friends for a game of pickup basketball at the YMCA (local fitness centre and gym).

Most of all, Alex is careful to keep his eye on the latest fashion. He likes to look trendy and show that he makes a good amount of money without necessarily showing off. For work he gets decked out in a suit everyday, but even after work Alex likes to keep a business casual look when he goes off and enjoys the nightlife with his friends, or when he is entertaining the ladies. He keeps up with the current trends by reading GQ and other magazines, as well as shopping on Bloor Street (Orchard Road equivalent in Toronto). Some of his friends even go as far as saying that Alex is slightly narcissistic, but it is mainly attributed from his outgoing personality, that makes him seem to be a little cocky.

Four-Pleasure Analysis of Alex

Physio-pleasure

• Even though Alex puts in long hours at his office, he still likes to put in the time to keep active, fit and lean through working out at the gym and playing sports. – Need pleasure
• Wears suit and tie to work everyday in order to show his professionalism and business savvy – Need pleasure
• He finds it important to keep up with the latest trends though reading magazines and shopping for the latest mens fashions on Bloor Street – Appreciation pleasure

Socio-pleasure

• Constantly going out with friends and enjoying the nightlife – Need pleasure
• Loves to be the centre of attention, life of party – Appreciation pleasure
• Enjoys to have the “Paris Hilton” and “narcissistic” reputation from within his group of friends – Appreciation pleasure

Psycho-pleasure

• Since Alex is always working late hours and usually partying, hanging with friends or going out, he often gets burnt out and needs to relax. One of his hobbies that helps him de-stress is playing online poker (although it can be very costly) – Need pleasure

Ideo-pleasure

• Alex pays close attention to what he wears and the things he buys, as he gets a sense of satisfaction from his personal style. He loves knowing the he is looking good at work and especially when goes out at night – Need pleasure
• Still waiting for the big break at work, Alex knows that if he does work hard at his job he will get the satisfaction that goes along with a prestigious position in a financial firm – Appreciation pleasure
• Alex always remembers the name and at least one important detail of anyone he meets in order to help build a relationship with the person he has just met. whether it be in business, friendship or personal – Need pleasure

Physio – Staying fit and lean, trendy and sophisticated
Socio – Good personal relationship, socializing, centre of attention
Psycho – Self satisfaction, feel elite, status
Ideo – Responsibility, work ethic

Product Benefit Specification

• Candybar style of phone
• reflects the need to be different from everyone as the sliding and flip phone have no taken over
  
• Sleek slim design, chrome/gun metal finish- NO plastic casing
  
• demonstrates unsophisticated and trend consciousness of user
• also sleekness stands out classy and professional looking phone
  
• Functionality in phone is not too important - i.e. extra features
• since user would have the top of the line mp3 player, camera and other gadgets to demonstrate his status, would not need to have a phone with all the bells and whistles
  
• Simple user interface (buttons and menu)
• Conference calling capabilities
• to arrange his busy schedule at work and after work
  
• Extra battery
• calling friends to meet up with all the time, anticipating a lot of usage
• Bluetooth headset
• although doesn't have a car, at home, he can be hands free when he talks on the phone, also adds to status
• Quality of phone needs to be very high (sound, reliability, name, etc)
• reflects the self satisfaction of having a quality product you know you paid lots of money for
  
• Integration of contact list and calendar with computer
• as Alex has many friends, business contacts he can keep his list up to date and sychronized with his Outlook contancts
• organize his busy schedule through his phone

Potential cell phone for user - Nokia 8800

Pleasure with products - Refrigerators from the past, present and future

Traditional

Visceral – The top/bottom design fridge from my childhood is not the most appealing fridge to look at. It wouldn’t make anyone gasp when you walked into a kitchen.

Behavioral – Works like a charm. Very intuitive layout. Freezer on top, fridge on the bottom. Separate compartments for fruits, vegetables etc. It is perfect for functionality and efficiency.

Reflective – Nothing really more than a utility appliance for the kitchen. Doesn’t evoke a lot of thought or emotion. Just happy it does that job.

The traditional freezer on top (or top mount) style refrigerator is the most common type of fridge which has been around for as far back as we can remember. It is in no way an appliance that will cause chatter during dinner parties for its beauty, but it has a simple design and basic functionality that gives it longevity in the market. The freezer being on top (ie eye-level) makes it easy to access frozen items stored in the back. Top mounts are also very affordable based on the size you need, which is also why they are very common. In the end, the functionality and simplicity win out in this old-school design.

[http://images.buyersedge.com/images/Standard/refrigerators_guide_4.jpg]


Side by Side Fridge

Visceral – This sleek, titanium finish fridge adds some wow factor into any kitchen. The added gadgets (internet, music player, camera, video) only put it over the top.

Behavioral – No problems here. Advanced refrigerator technology puts it at the top of its game in terms of how cold to keep things, where to keep them (compartments) . Side by side door looks clean and easy. Issues come about when the extra gadgets make things a little more complicated than needed for a fridge/freezer.

Reflective – This refrigerator will definitely peak people interested when they walk into a kitchen with a lot of the technological features. And the brand LG is also a well known brand when it comes to cutting edge technology. The side by side door is also a popular style of fridge, and it is not that advanced that it has a lasting impression for days to come.

The side by side style fridge definitely has a more appealing aura surrounding it. Especially the titanium finish and display screen housing the internet/video make you want to constantly be standing beside your fridge, listening to music, checking the weather etc. With its internet capabilities you can re-stock your fridge by ordering online. Other than the fact that you have to stand all the time next to it, I would want to be with this fridge more than anywhere else in my house. Music, videos, internet and FOOD!!!

[http://www.lginternetfamily.co.uk/fridge.asp]


Tree House Fridge

Visceral – This unusual yet fascinating design will definitely stand out where ever you see it. By looking at it you wouldn't think that it was a refrigerator at all, more like a cartoon cutout!

Behavioral – The fridge has separate branches for storing meats, cheese, fruits and other items. Although, i'm not too sure where exactly you would keep this in your kitchen at home :P Also you step on a button to open the compartments. It doesn't seem like it would easy to use, especially when i'm hungry and i just want to get something quickly

Reflective – Without a doubt this tree house refrigerator would be very expensive and would probably be more decoration or conversation piece than something used in the average kitchen.

The tree house fridge is definitely something from the future, and is an example of reflective design. I would think to see this only in a science museum or if you were insanely wealthy. I'm not sure how easy it would be to load the different compartments with fruits, vegetables, eggs etc. Although it seems like it would have advanced control of temperature for each section. In the end the fridge stands out as a reflective design giving the memory of childhood when you have a tree house in your backyard and of picking apples from a tree. This is definitely a fridge that you would tell everyone you know about.

[http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/01/the_fridge_of_t.html]

How to unlock the door?

I have recently arrived in Singapore to study at NUS for semester 2. I am on an exchange from the University of Waterloo, located in Canada. While studying here in S'pore I will be residing in the Prince George Park Residence, where I have encountered multiple episodes of bad design. I will detail one of the episodes below -

How do I open unlock the door of my residence?

When I arrived at my residence at 1:30 am, after 20+ hours of being in an airplane, I had hoped to get the keys to my room and get to bed. This was far from the case, as I encountered numerous obstacles before being able to curl up on my bed.

I received two room keys along with a plastic tag indicating my room/level/block number and a circular, black object (key fob) attached to the key chain.

First impressions - Intuitiveness:

Coming from North America, the black circular object I assumed was a transponder or key card of some sort that usually accompany keys for a condominium. The key card/transponder is used to wave in front of a security point to gain access to a set of doors or restricted areas, as to allow only the tenants of the building to gain access.

Another possibility was that the circular object attached to the keys was an electronic key fob. From first glance it was possible that this key fob would give remote keyless entry as you see becoming standard in the cars available today.

Issues:

The door for my room has its door knob as would normally be seen on any door, but there is also a second knob placed slightly higher than the main door knob.

At first attempts in opening the door, I went to turn the door knob, but it was locked. Any user in this situation from any part of the world would try checking to see if the door is open already and just turn the handle. Since it was locked, I assumed to find the keyhole in which to unlock the door from, however none was to be found.

Next thing I did any user would do, would be to try the 2^nd smaller know above the door. Turning both ways it only kept rotating the knob and nothing would happen. This is where normal means to opening a door would probably end. Being from North America, a key, number pad or card swiping would be the normal conventions used to open a locked door.

Already accustomed to the idea of keyless entry for cars, I opted to try pushing the button on the key fob. Eureka! I heard a beeping sound. Although, my spirits were dampened after attempting to turn the handle for the door/gate. I pressed the button on the fob once again, but this time I tried turning the knob. I had finally solved the puzzle. The lock clicked open and I was able to open the gate with the handle.

Other issues relating to unlocking the door is that, your key fob must be within a half a foot from the 2^nd knob, as there must be some signal being transmit when the button is pushed down. Also the length of time that the button needs to be pressed is longer than a user would assume is necessary to unlock the door.

When locking the door, you must again push the button. I had assumed that after I closed the door, I would only need to turn the 2^nd knob to once lock the door.


Summary and Conclusions:

Even now, when I got to open the door, I make mistakes on where I position the fob, assume the door is unlocked or just make some sort of mistake and I am unable to unlock the door. As a user, you would think that after learning how to unlock the door the first time it would become second nature. However, this was not the case. A bad design is one that even if a design is not intuitive, after learning how to use the device, a user still makes mistakes or is unsure of how to properly use it.

In the case of unlocking my residence door the key fob mechanism is so different and non intuitive from what any North American would ever think to do. I still make the mistake of trying to press the button or turn the handle without thinking to use the button of the key fob first. As I am not sure what is considered the norm here in Singapore or South East Asia for that matter, any user coming from North America will intuitively jump to pressing the button without turning the little knob or just turning the main handle on the door without thinking twice. Especially not having a keyhole on the door will confuse almost anyone for the first few times.