Elicitation Methods

1
Elicitation Methods

• Information types
• Information
• Internal Perspectives
• Behavior
• Facts
• Ratings
• Decision

2
Elicitation Methods

• Data collection methods
• Focus Groups (opinion data)
• Contextual Inquiry (observation data)
• Surveys (opinion data)
• Interview
• Market Validation
• Workflow Elicitation
• Usability Test
• Demonstration
• Tradeoffs

3
A Fundamental Challenge

• Imagine a world where designers
• Realize that they are making decisions that
  affect users
• Make these decisions based on knowledge about
  users, tasks, and contexts, rather than
  assumptions
• Chief Assumption the users are just like me

4
Project Sharing

• Group discussion
• Share results of contextual inquiry (5 mins each)
  
• Discuss the users, goals, context, tasks
• Discuss what you know and need to know
• Class-level discussion
• Share one challenge, one surprise, and one lesson
  that you think you would not have discovered with
  another elicitation technique? (such as e-mail
  survey, phone interview, etc.)

5
Discussion of Readings

• Facilitate class discussion of topics / ideas /
  themes garnered from the online postings related
  to assigned readings.
• Discussion Leaders
• 1. Susan Saranovich
• 2. Montine Rummel
• 3. Scott Somohano
• Insights from supplemental reading.

6
Analyzing Users

• Goal of analyzing
• Analyzing users is like
• Excavating
• Peeling an onion
• Surveying, getting the lay of the land
• How are techniques for analyzing (e.g., user
  lists, personas) like tools?

7
User Attributes

• Motivation
• Capabilities
• Beliefs
• Attitudes
• Goals
• Problems
• Preferences
• Values

8
Motivation

• Drives behavior
• Some are obvious, many are subtle
• Point at specific usage patterns
• Provide a reason why those behaviors exist
• Capture motivations in the form of user goals

9
User Goals

• Types of User Goals
• Life Goals
• Personal aspirations beyond the context of the
  design
• Explain why the user is trying to accomplish end
  goals
• Example be an expert earn a promotion
• Experience Goals
• Simple, universal and personal unconscious
  difficult to articulate
• How do they feel or the quality of the
  interaction
• Example Confident, competent (dont feel stupid)
• End Goals
• Expectation of a tangible outcome
• Something in mind you expect to accomplish
• Examples find the best price complete the order

10
User Goals

• False Goals
• Save key strokes or mouse clicks
• Run on the web
• Be easy to learn
• Speed up data entry
• Make use of latest technology
• Increase visual appeal
• Consistency across platforms
• Consider if the product/system were transparent,
  would the goal change?

11
User Goals

• Extracting Goals (Cooper)
• Hear goals directly during interview
• Whats a good day?
• Whats a bad day?
• What are the most important things you do?
• If it were magic, what would it help you do?
• Infer goals from actions
• How are people behaving currently?
• What are they trying to accomplish?

12
Exercise Extracting Goals

• Irene, 73, Widow (Cooper)
• Actions
• Lives alone in a small town
• Sees daughter and grandkids once a month
• Other family far away
• Reads newspaper front-to-back each morning
• Keeps TV on for background noise
• Plays bridge on weekends
• Volunteers for hospital and welcome wagon
• Only drives locally (not on highways)
• Sends lots of greeting cards and letters

13
Project ExerciseUser Analysis

• Using the contextual inquiry data you collected,
  generate a characterization of the users
  (including goals) and the tasks that users
  complete using your product/process/system.
• Your characterization should also include
  information on the context/circumstances in which
  the tasks are completed.
• Prepare a one-page description of these results
  and potential implications for redesign.
• Bring copies of the exercise to class (one copy
  for each member of the team, one copy for the
  instructor) and also post it to your design
  portfolio.
• Due next Thursday

14
Filling Gaps

• Discover things you want to know that you didnt
  think to ask?
• Follow-up
• Interview
• Repeat inquiry
• Revisit recording

15
Looking back / Looking ahead

• Where weve been
• Topics Readings and discussion
• What is UCD?
• What to know about users?
• Collecting information about users
• Doing contextual inquiry
• Project
• Insights about users, tasks, and contextual
  issues
• Actual data from observing real users
• Sharing among team members
• Resulting in user information to analyze and
  synthesize

• Where were going
• Project exercise
• Results of synthesis of user information
• Readings
• On tasks and context, characterizing and
  synthesizing, communicating
• Summaries One page
• Issue Statement A reminder
• 1. Randy Dowell 2. Nancy Samuels 3. Carleigh
  Romeis