Imran Hussain

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Virtual University Human-Computer Interaction
Lecture 19User Research

• Imran Hussain
• University of Management and Technology (UMT)

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In the Last Lecture

• Goal directed design process
• Software development process
• Detail of design process
• Types of users

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In Todays Lecture

• Research techniques
• Qualitative Research techniques

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Qualitative vs Quantative Research

• People, associate the word research with science
  and objectivity and the current notion or
  prevailing concept of valid research only that
  yields quantitative data.

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Qualitative Research

• Understand Existing products, and how they are
  used
• Technical, business and environmental contexts
• Constraints, Vocabulary and other social aspects
  of the domain in question

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Help in design projects

• Helps to identify the patterns of behaviour.
• Helps the progress of design team
• Providing credibility and authority to design
  team
• Uniting the team with a common understanding of
  domain issues and user concerns
• Empowering management to make more informed
  decisions about product design issues that would
  otherwise be based on guesswork or personal
  preference

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Other benefits of Qualitative Research

• Faster
• Less expensive
• More flexible

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Question that leads to superior design

• What problems are people encountering with their
  current was of doing what the product hopes to
  do?
• Into what broader context in peoples lives does
  the product fit and how?
• What are the basic goals people have in using the
  product, and what basic tasks help people
  accomplish them?

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Types of qualitative research

• Stakeholder interviews
• Subject matter expert (SME) interviews
• User and customer interviews
• User observation/ethnographic field studies
• Literature review
• Product/ prototype and competitive audits

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Stakeholder Interviews

• Start by understanding the business and technical
  context
• Common vocabulary and understanding among the
  design team, management and engineering teams.

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Definition

• Any one affected by the outcome of the project or
  actual product itself is known as the stakeholder

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Stakeholder Interview

• Managers
• Engineers
• Sales people
• Marketing people
• Design people

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How to conduct interview?

• Interviews of stakeholders should be held before
  user research.
• Interviews should be one-on-one
• Optimum duration should be of an hour.

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Stakeholder Interviews

• What is the primary vision of the product from
  each stakeholder perspective?
• What is the budget and schedule?
• What are the technical constraints?
• What are the business drivers?
• What are the stakeholders perceptions of the
  user?

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• Understanding these issues help you to better
  serve your customer, as well as the user of the
  product.
• build consensus internally for decision making,
  and build credibility for design team.

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Subject Matter Expert (SME) Interviews

• SME are also known as domain experts
• SMEs are expert users they have management
  perspective.
• SMEs are knowledgeable, but they are not
  designers
• You will want access to SMEs throughout the
  design process

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User and Customer Interviews

• User and customer are two different groups
• User
• People who use the product and try to accomplish
  something with it.
• Customer
• Who make the decision to purchase the product.

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User and Customer

• Consumer domain
• Customer are same as user
• Enterprise/Business domain
• Customer and user represent different groups of
  people

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• Its important to understand customers and their
  goals in order to make a product viable.

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Interviewing customers

• Their goals in purchasing the product
• Their frustrations with current solutions
• Their decision process for purchasing a product
  of the type you are designing
• Their role in installation, maintenance, and
  management of the product
• Domain-related issues and vocabulary
• Reasons and problems behind product suggestions
  and ideas

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Interviewing User

• Different type of users
• Current users
• Potential users

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Interviewing User

• Problems and frustrations with the product
• The context of how the product fits into their
  lives or workflow
• Domain knowledge from a user perspective
• A basic understanding of the users current tasks
• A clear understanding of user goals

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Literature Review

• Studying documentation which is relevant or
  pertains to the product or domain
• Business strategies document
• Business plans
• Various policies, processes and procedures
• Product marketing plans
• Data coming from market research
• Technology specification
• White papers
• Business and technical journals articles
• Competitive studies
• Usability study results
• Customer support data

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Product and Competitive Audits

• Examine existing products and prototype
• Examine competitive products
• Design team gets a feel for things
• Source of information for question
• To understand the audit based upon heuristics
• Expert review of product interfaces and to make
  comparisons.

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Enthographic Interviews
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Contextual Inquiry

• Context
• Partnership
• interpretation
• Focus

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Improving contextual inquiry

• Shortening the interview process
• Using smaller design teams
• Identifying goals first
• Looking beyond business contexts