Exploring and making sense together
Tuuli Mattelmäki
Interpretation and making sense
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Interpreting in teams
Interpreting alternatives
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• Applying interpretation
models
• Interpretation in the
terms of the material
• Condensing and
combining
• Direct interpretation
Done in multidisciplinary teams
>team commitment
>team sees more than any one person would alone
> team can include experts or user representants
Observer can ‘walk through’ a single contextual interview
While the team
> listens, asks questions
> records issues, interpretations, and design ideas
with the help of questions the observer remembers more than
s/he would on his/her own.
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Making sense through interpretation models
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Making sense through interpretation models
Contextual design Holtzblatt et al. :
Contextual design Karen Holtzblatt et al. Guidelines:
-Profile
-Interpretation session should happen within 48 hours after the
interviews
-The sequence model – step by step representation of tasks
-Conducted by the cross-functional design team
-The physical model – represents the physical environment
-Roles: interviewer tells, notetaker documents
-The artifact model – represents the physical and digital
things
-General team member – offers insights, asks questions, captures
ideas
-The flow model – represents people’s responsibilities and
roles
-Moderator – moderates, focuses,
-The cultural model – reveals infuences on a person
(organisation, company, geographical locaton)
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
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Making sense
through
interpretation
models
making sense through pre-defined themes
shared responsibilities
http://smart.uiah.fi/home/the_scene_of_experiences.pdf
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
• http://www.id.iit.edu/papers/kumar_iwips2004.pdf
Making sense through pre-defined themes
Example:
Interpreting
tools
POEMS=
People, objects,
environments,
messages,
services
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Analysing
• Be open and honest
• » try to understand the whole picture
• » try to “see” the reasons for doing and not doing something
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Look for key events that drive the activity
Look for patterns of behavior
Check insights - triangulate
Report findings in a convincing and honest way
Produce ‘rich’ or ‘thick descriptions’
Include quotes, pictures, and anecdotes
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Making sense through questioning
- Why some insights and observations are interesting?
- What in that material stimulates my curiosity?
- Where should I be curious?
- What is the relation with my /team’s interests and the
captured experiences?
- What matters to the potential users...?
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
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Making sense in terms of the material
Making sense in terms of the material
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Affinity diagram
Affinity diagram
• by Jiro Kawakita orginally, later also Karen Holtzblatt,
Hugh Beyer (Contextual Design) , and in Hackos &Redish
(User task analysis for interface design)
• creating meaningful information structures from loose
pieces of data
• Enables stepping backwards from individual people and
empathic connections
• Use Post it notes and pens
• Write observations, insights, design ideas so clearly that
other would read and understand
• Stick them pasted on a wall for easy viewing
• cover the wall with big papers on which you paste the
notes - easy to move away
• place one note at a time
• Silently: encourages unconventional - individual thinking
– discourages semantic battles
– It also helps prevent one person from steering
• OR read their notes aloud while placing them : team
members hear - in the background - what kind of
material others have pasted
• start grouping (use tape if not sticky enough)
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Affinity diagram
Interpreting in teams
• when groups start to emerge -> clarify and discuss the
relationship between the items
• Select a phrase or sentence that clearly conveys the meaning or
common thread that ties all of the notes together
• Describe all the items in that group
• Reflect the spirit as well as the content
• Avoid Jargon or Cliches or “meaningless” titles -> Instead an
opportunity to create new twists in old topics: should not sound
too familiar
• often one of the cards in the cluster will serve as a title
• Should be understandable to even to people who are not on the
team
• Make a presentation including: superheadings, headings, design
ideas, selected notes
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
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reveals common issues and themes
Serves as the crystallization of all data
Important tool in communicating the findings
Can be complemented later as many times as needed
» botton up procedure
» start from individual notes
» group similar notes together
» do not use any apriori categorisation principle
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
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Affinity diagram
Affinity diagram
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Find good
labels for
the groups
Not like this:
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Making sense
in terms of the
material
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Communicating
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
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Communicating
Combine and condense: User descriptions
Represent individual characters and
interpretations (without revealing the
person)
Summarize characteristics, tasks,
attitudes etc.
Support insights and facilitate
collaboration.
Create base for brainstorming, developing
and evaluating concept design solutions.
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Direct interpretation
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Dive into data
Form big pictures
Focus on experience
Understand your own
experiences
• Trust your instincts
• Be inspired
• Mix and match
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
Tuuli Mattelmäki 2008
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