Contextual inquiry

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Contextual inquiry literally means immersing oneself in the context of someone else’s environment, at least to my understanding.  It is observing a customer and the way they have structured their daily tasks as well as asking them questions about what they do IN the context of their job.  Contextual design in my mind should be mandatory; more often than not we think certain tasks are performed during work

The context is the important portion of being there and being able to observe the work and increasing the validly of the data.  Contextual questions would be more powerful for the inquiry, sense of what is important to the user while they are working.

Controlled experiments

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Controlled experiments in HCI pose the question of how one variable may affect another when performing a particular research study. The paper focuses on several important aspects of experimental design: participants, ethics, variables, within or between subject experiment, materials, procedures and analysis.

Firstly, it is important to select the most appropriate participants who are familiar with the task. Ethics should also always be considered- completing an IRB, making sure participants are aware of what they can expect as well as establishing anonymity guidelines. The experimenter has to indicate the dependent and independent variables. The intentionally varied variable is the independent, the measurable variable is the dependent one. Confound variables should be eliminated. Within subjects is a type of experiment that involves the participants performing all the tasks indicated by the experimenter, whereas between subjects the participant performs only one condition. In HCI multifactorial types of design are often used. In HCI most apparatus used is a computer or some type of software. A formal procedure must be established before performing the experiment.

In order to have a robust experiment the researcher must consider whether they are asking the right question, clear measures are established and the right participants are selected.

Quick and dirty website design (also knows as low fidelity)

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IMG_0986 IMG_0987 IMG_0988 IMG_0989 IMG_0990 IMG_0991 IMG_0992

In my redesign I focused on targeting the most important design issues and making sure the tasks can be completed in the easiest way possible.  I found it difficult to “just draw” but I think a lot of students has similar issues. I found that the users I was speaking to didnt really get the paper prototype idea and I had to in a way “defend” it. Overall interesting and new process for me. In general I dont think I really “get it” or I am just not good at visualizing and expressing the prototype on paper. Practice makes perfect right?

Usability Assessment Methods beyond Testing

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Several other methods of gathering data were discussed in this chapter. Simply observing the user population was one- its simple yet effective for gathering data. The user may also act or perform in a way that would be different if the experiment was done in a laboratory.

Questionnaires and interviews were also described- subjective measurements will be gathered but may be useful in detecting usability from the perspective of the actual participant and their opinions about the interface. Both of these are similar methods of gathering data, can be administered in various ways.

Focus groups are another way for the users to be spontaneous and also observe any interaction between the users.

Logging the use of the system automatically is another way to gather quantitative data, in this way the researcher has access to a lot of information that may not be gathered by simply speaking or observing the user.  Using one, all or a combination of the usability methods is important.

Making sure that the researcher chooses the most appropriate method to gather data is critical. The characteristics of the project are important before selecting several of the methods. Heuristic evaluations are an important supplement to the usability methods in gathering the most appropriate and pertinent information about the software.