A Compelling Target Population

This article describes a study that determined 1/4 of the entire homeless population in the United States is comprised of veterans–which make up 11 percent of the total adult population in the States. This is the type of finding that can be crucial to articulating an argument to address this year’s CHI design problem. When you come across information like this you should immediately start asking questions: Why does this continue to occur? What is the problem or set of problems that continue to contribute to this ill faded situation for veterans? Does it look like homelessness will be a problem for new veterans arriving back from Iraq (in the short and longterm)? What is the root of this problem and why does it occur in the aftermath each new war? Historically, what has been done? Is this happening across the United States?  Is there somewhere locally that you could focus your efforts on or investigate this issue further? Do the problems that are happening locally reflect those occurring nationwide? If so, could you do something that would impact the problem locally, which could then be generalized on a much larger scale?

These are just some of the issues you should be considering when developing your design solutions.

CHI 2008: searching for the HSC Panacea

Ok, so there have been some important HSC developments regarding the CHI 2008 design project. Normally, if you are conducting research for a course grade and not planning to publish the study it is alright to proceed with the project without HSC approval. This is UNLESS the target population being researched is a “vulnerable subject population,” which the homeless in fact are. SO, this means that researchers will not be able to directly gather data about homeless people. This stems from a student question to the HSC committee about getting a homeless shelter employee to deploy a cultural probe with one of their clientele (e.g. a homeless citizen). One of the major problems in this instance revolves around consent and the possibility that homeless citizens will feel pressured into taking part in the study even if they don’t want to (which alludes to broader concerns regarding power structure and intrusion of privacy). Additionally, it appears that most research methods to directly study the local homeless population will be problematic from a research ethics/human subjects research regulation point of view.

EPIC 2007

This year’s EPIC (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference) covered a lot of topics relevant to I543 including, among other things, novel methods for probing user experience, the role of ethnography within the design process (and design research), distinctions between design ethnography and traditional anthropological ethnography, and translating ethnographic insights into valuable business considerations. I uploaded a variety of different papers from the EPIC 2007 proceedings preview to the I543 course resources on OnCourse. It’s evident that, now more than ever, understanding and designing for user experience is becoming the focal point of industry research. EPIC is growing quickly and will be an important venue for industry and academia alike to keep their finger on the pulse of ethnography’s shifting role within design research. For a more in depth description, I suggest you check Jeff’s perspective on EPIC 2007.

What I learned in Design School

Design stretches across a wide variety of disciplines. While the design materials, outcomes, and metrics for success vary quite a bit, there are many similarities in the way practitioners conceptualize design and the process through which it occurs. Likewise, approaches to design education across schools and institutes reveal many similarities in how students learn to design and the principles that guide this process. While this discussion of knowledge learned in design school comes from a fine arts perspective, it offers key insight applicable to students in all design programs. While a bit less passionate and encompassing, this post details many of the skills that students develop while in the HCID program here.

presentation criteria

The following criteria may help you better formulate the presentations you plan to give in I543 and other classes.

Content Delivery

• clearly deliver key points from every slide without reading from the slides
• enunciate words with appropriate volume
• appropriate use of audio/visual materials
• deliver in your assignment time

Presentation Manner

• obvious rehearsal
• appropriate use of eye contact with the audience
• professional manner, appropriate for the setting
• audience engagement for Q&A and comment section

You can find more information and tips here.

Preparing for the Test (from Sakshi)

Camtasia & the Logitec webcam may cause some installation problems with Windows Vista. So, it would be preferable if students used Windows 2000 or XP. Make sure to keep this in mind and not postpone your software installations until the last moment thinking it will be easy & quick.

• Sakshi’s advice is a standard principle for any kind of testing. Make sure you have rehearsed and are familiar with the technology you plan to use–otherwise the results could be DISASTROUS!

a future for HCI

60 minutes recently ran a segment on the problematic lack of usability in the digital products that increasingly surround us in our daily lives. This piece helps partially contextualize the problems that we’re addressing in this course. They interview Don Norman and other notables.

…and while not related to usability, this segment (which aired last year) provides a startling glimpse into the unintended consequences of design. you’ll hear more about these issues in Eli’s class next semester…

camera study process

This diagram might be of help to those still wondering about how to conceptualize the disposable camera study process and arrive at design implications. Considering that your domain of interest is already quite narrow, each phase becomes increasingly specific, eventually arriving at concrete, actionable design implications for your domain and user group.

Usability Test Diagram

One group provided a good example how to present a usability testing diagram that might be useful:

Conducting a Usability Test

Make sure to take the HSC test by next Thursday.

Tips for conducting a usability test (Barnum 2002, Molich, 2001, Nielsen Norman Group)
Before the test

• rehearse the test before the actual tests
• confirm wtih users for scheudles before the test dates is important
• when writing task, avoid hidden clues (or leading them to the actions you’re intending to test)
• do not describe too detailed steps to complete a task

Recruitment

• make sure you screen participating users before they actually participate
• make sure your users are not experts in design or development or usability (thus, it’s not the best idea to get other HCI students to take your tests)
• usually its not a good idea to bring previously participated users again to another test for a new project
• generally, novice users  are best to use to discover critical usability problems

During the Test

• make sure you make users feel at ease, start from a simple task (e.g. beginning with a login task)
• you may give one task at a time
• make sure to give some time for preparations for each test (at least 20 minutes between tests)
• make a checklist for things-to-do before each test session starts (setting up video recording hardware/software, deleting broswer history, etc..)

During the debriefing session

• you can add more debriefing questions in addtion to the ones you already have
• collect all the quesitons from all your team members
• return to key problems the participant user encountered

For your testing, you can download the trial version of Camtasia to use on your laptop.