HCI 510 : HCI Methods I
• User Needs
HCI 510: HCI Methods I
• Norman’s Assignment
• Stuff we missed from last week
• Interactive Touch Screen Technology - Example
• Participatory Design – Introduction
• Participatory Design – Process
– Affinity Diagramming
• Participatory Design – Methods
HCI 510: HCI Methods I
• Norman’s Assignment
• Stuff we missed from last week
• Interactive Touch Screen Technology - Example
• Participatory Design – Introduction
• Participatory Design – Process
– Affinity Diagramming
• Participatory Design – Methods
NORMAN’S Assignment
Think like a usability engineer. Select an
object from your home.
Analyse it as a usability engineer would.
Not the whole object …
Just one or two functions.
How do you determine what actions are
available at any moment with this object ?
How is feedback provided ?
What is the conceptual model of the system ?
What are the affordances of the object ?
Due on February 9th 2010
HCI 510: HCI Methods I
• Norman’s Assignment
• Stuff we missed from last week
• Interactive Touch Screen Technology - Example
• Participatory Design – Introduction
• Participatory Design – Process
– Affinity Diagramming
• Participatory Design – Methods
HCI 510: HCI Methods I (Last Week)
• User Centered Design - Introduction
• Usability
• User Centered Design - Process
• User Centered Design - Methods
• User Centered Design – Questions
• Affordances
• Norman’s Principles of User Centered Design
User Centered Design - Process
User Centered Design - Process
1. Specify the context of use
Identify the people who will use the product, what they will use it for, and
under what conditions they will use it.
2. Specify requirements
Identify any business requirements or user goals that must be met for the
product to be successful.
User Centered Design - Process
3. Create design solutions
This part of the process may be done in stages, building from a rough concept
to a complete design.
4. Evaluate designs
The most important part of this process is that evaluation - ideally through
usability testing with actual users - is as integral as quality testing is to good
software development.
User Centered Design - Process
A Typical User Centered Design Methodology
Most user-centered design methodologies are detailed in suggesting specific
activities, and the time within a process when they should be completed. The
following shows a typical UCD process.
In this version, the UCD activities are broken down into four phases:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Analysis,
Design,
Implementation and
Deployment,
User Centered Design - Process
A Typical User Centered Design Methodology
1.
Analysis Phase
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•
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•
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•
•
Meet with key stakeholders to set vision
Include usability tasks in the project plan
Assemble a multidisciplinary team to ensure complete expertise
Develop usability goals and objectives
Conduct field studies
Look at competitive products
Create user profiles
Develop a task analysis
Document user scenarios
Document user performance requirements
User Centered Design - Process
A Typical User Centered Design Methodology
2.
Design Phase
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Begin to brainstorm design concepts and metaphors
Develop screen flow and navigation model
Do walkthroughs of design concepts
Begin design with paper and pencil
Create low-fidelity prototypes
Conduct usability testing on low-fidelity prototypes
Create high-fidelity detailed design
Do usability testing again
Document standards and guidelines
Create a design specification
User Centered Design - Process
A Typical User Centered Design Methodology
3.
Implementation Phase
•
•
•
Do ongoing heuristic evaluations
Work closely with delivery team as design is implemented
Conduct usability testing as soon as possible
4.
Deployment Phase
•
•
•
Use surveys to get user feedback
Conduct field studies to get info about actual use
Check objectives using usability testing
You may notice that “usability testing” appears several times throughout the
process, from the first phase to the last.
Providing a positive user experience is an ongoing process.
HCI 510: HCI Methods I (Last Week)
• User Centered Design - Introduction
• Usability
• User Centered Design - Process
• User Centered Design - Methods
• Affordances
• Norman’s Principles of User Centered Design
User Centered Design - Methods
USERS
It is necessary to think carefully about who is a user and how to involve users
in the design process.
Obviously users are the people who will use the final product or artifact to
accomplish a task or goal.
But there are other users as well.
The people who manage the users have needs and expectations too.
What about those persons who are affected in some way by the use of the
artifact or use the products and/or services of the artifact?
Shouldn’t their needs and expectations be taken into consideration in the
design process?
User Centered Design - Methods
USERS
Eason identified three types of users: primary, secondary, and tertiary.
Primary users are those persons who actually use the artifact;
Secondary users are those who will occasionally use the artifact or those who
use it through an intermediary;
Tertiary users are persons who will be affected by the use of the artifact or
make decisions about its purchase.
The successful design of a product must take into account the wide range of
stakeholders of the artifact.
Not everyone who is a stakeholder needs to be represented on a design
team, but the effect of the artifact on them must be considered.
User Centered Design - Methods
Background Interviews and Questionnaires:
Collecting data related to the needs and expectations of users; evaluation of
design alternatives, prototypes and the final artifact at the beginning of the
design project.
Sequence of Work Interviews and Questionnaires:
Collecting data related to the sequence of work to be performed with the
artifact early in the design cycle.
Focus Groups:
Include a wide range of stakeholders to discuss issues, share their thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, ideas, and describe their requirements early in the design
cycle. It's often necessary to have an experienced moderator and analyst for
a focus group to be effective.
On-Site Observation:
Collecting information about the environment and context in which the artifact
will be used early in the design cycle.
User Centered Design - Methods
Participatory Design:
Participatory design actively involves users in the design and decision-making
processes. This often takes the form of a mini-project to generate prototypes
to feed into a project design process. Participatory design sessions require an
experienced moderator. This usually occurs early in the design cycle.
Role Playing, Walkthroughs, and Simulations:
Evaluation of alternative designs and gaining additional information about
user needs and expectations; prototype evaluation. This usually occurs early
to mid way through the design cycle
Usability Testing:
Collecting quantitative data related to measurable usability criteria in the later
stages of the design cycle.
Final Interviews and Questionnaires:
Collecting data related to user satisfaction with the artifact in the final stages
of the design cycle.
User Centered Design - Methods
Worksheet 3
The following table lists a range of user centered design techniques.
Fill in the cost, output type and sample size for each of these techniques.
User Centered Design - Methods
Worksheet 3
Interactive Touch Screen Technology
HCI 510: HCI Methods I
• Norman’s Assignment
• Stuff we missed from last week
• Interactive Touch Screen Technology - Example
• Participatory Design – Introduction
• Participatory Design – Process
– Affinity Diagramming
• Participatory Design – Methods
Interactive Touch Screen Technology
There's been some discussion over the reasons why so many people don't
understand touch screen, or "surface" computing, even though research in
this area has been going on for years.
As the new owner of the HP TouchSmart, I know that I get it.
Interactive Touch Screen Technology
The research I've conducted in this area suggests that people will "get-it" only
if there is a strong commitment to develop touch-screen "surface" applications
through a user-centered, participatory design process. In my view, this should
incorporate principles of ethnography, and ensure that usability studies are
conducted outside of the lab.
This approach was taken with Intel's Classmate PC. Intel has about 40
ethnographic researchers, and sent many of them to work with students and
teachers in classrooms around the world.
Interactive Touch Screen Technology
Here are some thoughts:
When I try to explain my fascination with developing touch-screen interactive
multimedia applications, (interactive whiteboards, multi-touch displays and
tables, and the like), many of my friends and family members eyes glaze over.
This is particularly true for people I know who are forty-ish or over.
Even if you are younger, if you never saw the cool technology demonstrated
in the movie Minority Report, or if you have limited experience with video
games, or if you haven't came within touching distance of an interactive
whiteboard, the concept might be difficult to understand.
Interactive Touch Screen Technology
The reality?
Even people who have the opportunity to use surface computing technology
on large screens do not take full advantage of it. Multi-touch screens are often
used as single-touch screens, and interactive whiteboards in classrooms are
often serve as expensive projector screens for teacher-controlled PowerPoint
presentations.
Most importantly, there are few software developers who understand the
surface computing approach, even with the popularity of the iPhone and iPod
Touch. Most focus on traditional business-oriented or marketing applications,
and have difficulty envisioning scenarios in which surface computing would be
a welcome breath of fresh air
Interactive Touch Screen Technology
More thoughts:
After studying HCI (Human-Computer Interaction), and relating this
knowledge to what I know as a psychologist, my hunch is that the "Window
Icon Mouse Pointing-device" (WIMP) and keyboard input mind-set is
embedded in our brains, to a certain extent. Like driving a car, it is something
automatic and expected. This is true for users AND developers.
Interactive Touch Screen Technology
Think about it.
Suppose one day, you were told that you no longer were allowed to control
your car by turning on the ignition, steering the wheel, or using your feet to
accelerate, slow down, or stop the car! Instead, you needed to learn a new
navigation, integration, and control system that involved waving your hands
about and perhaps speaking a few commands.
For new drivers who'd never seen a car before, this new system would be
user-friendly and intuitive. Perhaps it would be quite easy for 16-year-old kids
to wrap their heads around this concept. For most of us, no. Imagine the
disasters we would see on our streets and highways!
Interactive Touch Screen Technology
When we think about how newer technologies are introduced to people, we
should keep this in mind.
In my mind, spreading the word about surface computing is not a "if you build
it, they will come" phenomenon, like the iPhone. We can't ignore the broader
picture.
I believe that it is important that the those involved with studying, developing,
or marketing surface computing applications realize that many of us simply
have no point of reference other than our experiences with ATMs, airline
kiosks, supermarket self-serve lanes, and the like.
Interactive Touch Screen Technology
Value of ethnographic research:
"Intel looked closely at how students collaborate and move around in
classroom environments. The new tablet feature was implemented so that the
device would be more conducive to what Intel calls “micromobility”. Intel
wants students to be able to carry around Classmate PCs in much the same
way that they currently carry around paper and pencil."
Intel's approach uses participatory design and allows the set of applications
developed for the Classmate PC to reflect the needs of local students and
teachers. Schools from many different countries were included in this study.
HCI 510: HCI Methods I
• Norman’s Assignment
• Stuff we missed from last week
• Interactive Touch Screen Technology - Example
• Participatory Design – Introduction
• Participatory Design – Process
– Affinity Diagramming
• Participatory Design – Methods
Participatory Design
Participatory design (also known as 'Cooperative Design') is an approach to
design that attempts to actively involve all stakeholders (e.g. employees,
partners, customers, citizens, end users) in the design process to help ensure
that the product designed meets their needs and is usable.
The term is used in a variety of fields e.g. software design, urban design,
architecture, landscape architecture, human-computer interaction, product
design, sustainability, planning or even medicine as a way of creating
environments that are more responsive and appropriate to their inhabitants
and users cultural, emotional, spiritual and practical needs.
For some, this approach has a political dimension of user empowerment and
democratisation.
For others, it is seen as a way of abrogating design responsibility and
innovation by designers.
Spinuzzi, C., The Methodology of Participatory Design, Technical Communication, Volume 52, Number 2, pp 163-174, 2005.
Participatory Design
Participatory design (also known as 'Cooperative Design') is an approach to
design that attempts to actively involve all stakeholders (e.g. employees,
partners, customers, citizens, end users) in the design process to help ensure
that the product designed meets their needs and is usable.
The term is used in a variety of fields e.g. software design, urban design,
architecture, landscape architecture, human-computer interaction, product
design, sustainability, planning or even medicine as a way of creating
environments that are more responsive and appropriate to their inhabitants
and users cultural, emotional, spiritual and practical needs.
For some, this approach has a political dimension of user empowerment and
democratisation.
For others, it is seen as a way of abrogating design responsibility and
innovation by designers.
Participatory Design
Participatory design (also known as 'Cooperative Design') is an approach to
design that attempts to actively involve all stakeholders (e.g. employees,
partners, customers, citizens, end users) in the design process to help ensure
that the product designed meets their needs and is usable.
The term is used in a variety of fields e.g. software design, urban design,
architecture, landscape architecture, human-computer interaction, product
design, sustainability, planning or even medicine as a way of creating
environments that are more responsive and appropriate to their inhabitants
and users cultural, emotional, spiritual and practical needs.
For some, this approach has a political dimension of user empowerment and
democratisation.
For others, it is seen as a way of abrogating design responsibility and
innovation by designers.
Participatory Design
As the name implies, the approach is about design--producing artifacts,
systems, work organizations, and practical or tacit knowledge.
Participatory design draws on various research methods (such as
ethnographic observations, interviews, analysis of artifacts, and sometimes
protocol analysis), these methods are always used to iteratively construct the
emerging design.
Participatory design's many methods ensure that participants' interpretations
are taken into account in the design. These methods are used through the
entire research project; the goal is not just to empirically understand the
activity, but also to simultaneously envision, shape, and transcend it in ways
the users find to be positive.
Spinuzzi, C., The Methodology of Participatory Design, Technical Communication, Volume 52, Number 2, pp 163-174, 2005.
Participatory Design
Participatory design started in Scandinavia through a partnership between
academics and trade unions.
Since that time it has worked its way across the Atlantic, becoming an
important approach for researchers interested in human-computer interaction,
computer-supported cooperative work, and related fields.
Participatory design has undergone many changes - but its core has
remained more or less constant.
Spinuzzi, C., The Methodology of Participatory Design, Technical Communication, Volume 52, Number 2, pp 163-174, 2005.
Participatory Design
Participatory Design
Pelle Ehn, a primary participant in the UTOPIA project, describes
its design philosophy, which they called the tool perspective:
The tool perspective was deeply influenced by the way the design of tools
takes place within traditional crafts... new computer-based tools should be
designed as an extension of the traditional practical understanding of tools
and materials used within a given craft of profession.
Design must therefore be carried out by the common efforts of skilled,
experienced users and design professionals.
Users possess the needed practical understanding but lack insight into
new technical possibilities.
The designer must understand the specific labor process that uses a tool.
Winograd, T., Bringing Design to Software, Addison-Wesley, 1996
Participatory Design
Participatory design attempts to examine the tacit, invisible aspects of human
activity; assumes that these aspects can be productively and ethically
examined through design partnerships with participants, partnerships in which
researcher-designers and participants cooperatively design artifacts,
workflow, and work environments; and argues that this partnership must be
conducted iteratively so that researcher-designers and participants can
develop and refine their understanding of the activity.
The result of the research typically consists of designed artifacts, work
arrangements, or work environments.
Spinuzzi, C., The Methodology of Participatory Design, Technical Communication, Volume 52, Number 2, pp 163-174, 2005.
Participatory Design
Participatory design's object of study is the tacit knowledge
developed and used by those who work with technologies.
It's important to understand this focus because tacit knowledge,
which is typically difficult to formalize and describe, has tended
to be ignored by the theory of cognition that has tended to
dominate human-computer interaction: information processing
cognitive science .
Winograd, T., Bringing Design to Software, Addison-Wesley, 1996
Participatory Design
Knowledge is situated in a complex of artifacts, practices, and interactions; it is
essentially interpretive, and therefore it cannot be decontextualized and broken
into discrete tasks, nor totally described and optimized.
In the constructivist view, participants' knowledge is valorized rather than
deprecated, and their perspectives therefore become invaluable when
researching their activity and designing new ways to enact that activity.
"Knowing and learning," as Barbara Mirel says, "take place in a dynamic system
of people, practices, artifacts, communities, and institutional practices“.
Mirel, B., Applied Constructivism for User Documentation, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 12:7-49, 1998
Participatory Design
Good systems cannot be built by design experts who proceed with
only limited input from users.
Even when designers and prospective users have unlimited time
for conversation, there are many aspects of a work process—such
as how a particular tool is held, or what it is for something to "look
right"—that reside in the complex, often tacit, domain of context.
The UTOPIA researchers needed to invent new methods for
achieving mutual understanding, so that they could more fully
understand the work world of graphics workers.
Winograd, T., Bringing Design to Software, Addison-Wesley, 1996
Participatory Design
Requirement specifications and systems descriptions based on
information from interviews were not very successful.
Improvements came when we made joint visits to interesting
plants, trade shows, and vendors and had discussions with other
users; when we dedicated considerably more time to learning from
each other, designers from graphics workers and graphics workers
from designers; when we started to use design-by-doing methods
and descriptions such as mockups and work organization games;
and when we started to understand and use traditional tools as a
design ideal for computer-based tools.
Winograd, T., Bringing Design to Software, Addison-Wesley, 1996
Participatory Design
One goal of participatory design is to preserve tacit knowledge so that
technologies can fit into the existing web of tacit knowledge, workflow, and work
tools, rather than doing away with them.
In contrast to rationalist studies that assume workers' tasks can be broken down
into their components, formalized, and made more efficient, participatory design
assumes that tacit knowledge cannot be completely formalized.
The knowledge is too layered and subtle to be fully articulated. That is why
action-centered skill has always been learned through experience (on-the-job
training, apprenticeships, sports practice, and so forth). Actions work better than
words when it comes to learning and communicating these skills.
Spinuzzi, C., The Methodology of Participatory Design, Technical Communication, Volume 52, Number 2, pp 163-174, 2005.
Participatory Design
Greenbaum and Kyng identify four issues for design:
1. The need for designers to take work practice seriously—to see the current
ways that work is done as an evolved solution to a complex work situation that
the designer only partially understands
2. The fact that we are dealing with human actors, rather than cut-and-dried
human factors—systems need to deal with users' concerns, treating them as
people, rather than as performers of functions in a defined work role.
3. The idea that work tasks must be seen within their context and are therefore
situated actions, whose meaning and effectiveness cannot be evaluated in
isolation from the context
4. The recognition that work is fundamentally social, involving extensive
cooperation and communication
Greenbaum , J. and Kyng. M., Design at Work. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1991.
Participatory Design
Today, some of the concepts of participatory design are
becoming standard practice in the computing industry. The
emerging common wisdom in the major softwaredevelopment companies is that it is important to design
with the user, rather than to design for the user.
Participatory-design researchers have devised a variety of
techniques to facilitate the communication of new
technology possibilities to workers—to give the ultimate
users insight into what it would be like to work with an
envisioned system.
These techniques include the low-fidelity mockups and
role-playing activities (as in UTOPIA), as well as
technology-aided methods such as the use of quick-anddirty video animation to simulate the patterns of interaction
with a new interface.
Muller, M. and Kuhn, S. (eds). Special Issue on Participatory Design, CACM 36:4, June, 1993.
Participatory Design
In a panel at the 1994 Participatory Design Conference, Tom
Erickson of Apple Computer set out four dimensions along which
participation by users could be measured:
1. Directness of interaction with the designers
2. Length of involvement in the design process
3. Scope of participation in the overall system being designed
4. Degree of control over the design decisions
Winograd, T., Bringing Design to Software, Addison-Wesley, 1996
Participatory Design
Participatory Design
Participatory Design
www.ted.com
Go to the TED website and watch a few talks –
they are all great.
Try and focus on ones related to Design and HCI.
Tim Brown’s one on creativity and play is good,
Theo Jansen’s sculptures are pretty awesome.
Steve Jobs is interesting. Derek Sivers makes you
think differently in just two minutes...
Participatory Design
www.ted.com
Pick which ones you like that tell you
something about the design process or
method.
This could be an abstract thought about
how we do things or practical tips to help
you design objects.
You can do this assignment for up to two of
the talks – 10 points of extra credit for each
one.
Due on February 23rd.
Participatory Design
www.ted.com
Briefly describe one of the TED talks that
you liked.
Why do you think this talks can help in the
design process ?
Give a practical example of the ideas from
the talk being applied (and not an example
that was actually in the talk).
HCI 510: HCI Methods I
• Norman’s Assignment
• Stuff we missed from last week
• Interactive Touch Screen Technology - Example
• Participatory Design – Introduction
• Participatory Design – Process
– Affinity Diagramming
• Participatory Design – Methods
Participatory Design Process
Research design Participatory design is still developing and consequently its
research design tends to be quite flexible.
For instance, the early Scandinavian work tended to rely on union-sponsored
workshops and games involving heavy direct interaction between designers and
users, while later work in the U.S. has tended to supplement targeted interaction
with less intrusive methods such as observation and artifact analysis.
Spinuzzi, C., The Methodology of Participatory Design, Technical Communication, Volume 52, Number 2, pp 163-174, 2005.
Participatory Design Process
But three basic stages are present in almost all participatory design research:
• Stage 1: Initial exploration of work
In this stage, designers meet the users and familiarize themselves with the ways in which
the users work together. This exploration includes the technologies used, but also includes
workflow and work procedures, routines, teamwork, and other aspects of the work.
•Stage 2: Discovery processes
In this stage, designers and users employ various techniques to understand and prioritize
work organization and envision the future workplace. This stage allows designers and
users to clarify the users' goals and values and to agree on the desired outcome of the
project. This stage is often conducted on site or in a conference room, and usually involves
several users.
• Stage 3: Prototyping
In this stage, designers and users iteratively shape technological artifacts to fit into the
workplace envisioned in Stage 2. Prototyping can be conducted on site or in a lab; involves
one or more users; and can be conducted on-the-job if the prototype is a working
prototype.
Spinuzzi, C., The Methodology of Participatory Design, Technical Communication, Volume 52, Number 2, pp 163-174, 2005.
Participatory Design Process
• Stage 1: Initial exploration of work
Since initial exploration tends to involve examining technology use on site, Stage 1 draws
from ethnographic methods such as observations, interviews, walkthroughs and
organizational visits, and examinations of artifacts.
This stage is typically conducted on site, during the normal work day. In the earlier
Scandinavian iterations, this initial exploration tended to be highly interactive and intrusive:
the researchers generally aligned themselves with relatively powerful workers' unions that
believed in the projects and could insist on the sorts of disruptions caused by walkthroughs
and organizational visit.
In North America, unions were much weaker and workers were not in a position to force
participation, nor were they terribly interested in such projects. So researchers turned to
less intrusive ethnographic and ethnomethodological techniques such as observations and
interviews.
Although the methods draw from ethnography, they are oriented toward design as well as
description, so they tend to be focused and enacted differently, with more interaction in
mind. Much of that interaction takes place during the second stage, in discovery
processes.
Spinuzzi, C., The Methodology of Participatory Design, Technical Communication, Volume 52, Number 2, pp 163-174, 2005.
Participatory Design Process
•Stage 2: Discovery processes
Stage 2 is where researchers and users interact most heavily, and it also typically involves
group interactions.
Again, discovery processes tended to be more interactive and intrusive in the earlier
Scandinavian iterations than in the later North American iterations, but in all
implementations they are more interactive than traditional ethnographies.
Because of participatory design's orientation toward design, the goal is to cooperatively
make meaning out of the work rather than to simply describe it.
Methods used during this stage include organizational games, role-playing games,
organizational toolkits, workshops, storyboarding, and workflow models and interpretation
sessions.
Spinuzzi, C., The Methodology of Participatory Design, Technical Communication, Volume 52, Number 2, pp 163-174, 2005.
Participatory Design Process
• Stage 3: Prototyping
Finally, this stage involves a variety of techniques for iteratively shaping artifacts. These
techniques include mockups, paper prototyping, cooperative prototyping among others.
Finally, and just as importantly, results are disseminated in forms that users can
understand and share--a continuation of the "language games" that allow researchers and
users to collaborate, and a way to continue to support the empowerment and participation
of users.
The tone for this dissemination was set early on, in the UTOPIA project: results were
discussed in everyday language in a union publication called Graffiti.
Another example is contextual design's practice of "walking" through affinity diagrams and
consolidated models with participants and of providing a room with diagrams and
prototypes posted on the walls so that workers, managers, engineers, marketing people,
and customers can see the state of the project in progress.
Spinuzzi, C., The Methodology of Participatory Design, Technical Communication, Volume 52, Number 2, pp 163-174, 2005.
HCI 510: HCI Methods I
• Norman’s Assignment
• Stuff we missed from last week
• Interactive Touch Screen Technology - Example
• Participatory Design – Introduction
• Participatory Design – Process
– Affinity Diagramming
• Participatory Design – Methods
Affinity Diagramming
Affinity Diagramming
Have a Go at Affinity Diagramming
Imagine that Damian has decided to run the rest of this course online …
What issues are there in this for you as ‘users’ ?
Use an affinity Diagramming approach to identify, group and discuss these issues …
HCI 510: HCI Methods I
• Norman’s Assignment
• Stuff we missed from last week
• Interactive Touch Screen Technology - Example
• Participatory Design – Introduction
• Participatory Design – Process
– Affinity Diagramming
• Participatory Design – Methods
Participatory Design Methods
Muller claims that participatory methods occur in the hybrid space between
software professionals and end-users.
He has an influential argument that the border or boundary region between two
domains – two spaces – is often a region of overlap or hybridity – i.e., a third
space that contains an unpredictable and changing combination of attributes of
each of the two bordering spaces.
Within this hybrid third space, the old assumptions of both the colonizers and the
colonized are open to question, challenge, reinterpretation, and refutation.
Enhanced knowledge exchange is possible, precisely because of those
questions, challenges, reinterpretations, and renegotiations.
These dialogues across differences and – more importantly – within differences
are stronger when engaged in by groups, emphasizing not only a shift from
assumptions to reflections, but also from individuals to collective.
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Muller extends the HCI analyses to make an analogy between the concept of two
spaces, and the problem of HCI methods to bridge between two spaces – the
world of the software professionals, and the world of the end-users.
Each world has its own knowledge and practices; each world has well-defined
boundaries.
Movement from one world to the other is known to be difficult.
We can see this difficulty manifested in our elaborate methods for requirements
analysis, design, and evaluation – and in the frequent failures to achieve
products and services that meet users’ needs and/or are successful in the
marketplace.
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Traditional scientific practice in HCI has focused on instruments and
interventions that can aid in transferring information between the users’ world
and the software world.
Most of the traditional methods are relatively one-directional – e.g., we analyze
the requirements from the users; we deliver a system to the users; we collect
usability data from the users.
While there are many specific practices for performing these operations,
relatively few of them involve two-way discussions, and fewer still afford
opportunities for the software professionals to be surprised – i.e., to learn
something that we didn’t know we needed to know.
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Methods Discussed by Muller include :
• Sitings
• Workshops
• Stories
• Photos
• Games
• Prototypes
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Siting
One of the simplest parameters that can be manipulated to influence hybridity is the site of
the work. At first, this appears to be a simple issue.
There are usually two approaches to participatory design:
1. Bring the designers to the workplace.
2. Bring the workers to the design room.
When collaborating with users in our design environment (e.g., a meeting space at the
company), we can invite a number of users from different plants and learn from hearing
them exchange work experiences…
Being in a foreign environment (and with other users), users will tend to take a more
general view of things.
When collaborating with users in their work context, users tend to feel more at ease as
they are on their home ground – we are the visitors. Tools and environment are physically
present and easy to refer to. This makes for a conversation grounded in concrete and
specific work experiences.
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Workshops
In PD, workshops are usually held to help diverse parties (“stakeholders”) communicate
and commit to shared goals, strategies, and outcomes (e.g., analyses, designs, and
evaluations, as well as workplace-change objectives).
Workshops are often held at sites that are in a sense neutral – they are not part of the
professionals’ workplace, and they are not part of the workers’ workplace.
More importantly, workshops usually introduce novel procedures that are not part of
conventional working practices. These novel procedures take people outside of their
familiar knowledge and activities, and must be negotiated and collectively defined by
the participants.
Workshops are thus a kind of hybrid or third space, in which diverse parties communicate
in a mutuality of unfamiliarity, and must create shared knowledge and even the procedures
for developing those shared knowledge.
and new initiatives.
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Workshops
The best-known workshop format in PD is the Future Workshop, whose overall framework
proceeds through three stages:
• Critiquing the present;
• Envisioning the future;
• Implementing – moving from the present to the future.
These three activities involve participants in new perspectives on their work, and help to
develop new concepts and new initiatives.
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Stories
Stories and storytelling have played a major role in ethnographic work since before there
was a field called “HCI”.
Stories in participatory work may function in at least three ways.
• First, they may be used as triggers for conversation, analysis, or feedback.
• Second, they may be told by end-users as part of their contribution to the knowledge
required for understanding product or service opportunities and for specifying what
products or services should do.
• Third, they may be used by design teams to present their concept of what a designed
service or product will do, how it will be used, and what changes will occur as a result.
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Photographs
There are many ways to tell stories. One approach that has informed recent PD work is
end-user photography.
It can be noted that both (a) taking pictures and (b) organizing pictures into albums are, of
course, familiar activities to most people in affluent countries. T
These activities allow end-users to enter into a kind of native ethnography, documenting
their own lives.
It is important that the informants themselves (the end-users) control both the camera and
the selection of images.
They thus become both authors and subjects of photographic accounts of their activities.
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Games
From theory to practice, the concept of games has had an important influence in
participatory methods and techniques.
When properly chosen, games can serve as levelers, in at least two ways.
First, games are generally outside of most workers' jobs and tasks. They are therefore less
likely to appear to be "owned" by one worker, at the expense of the alienation of the nonowners.
Second,… [PD] games… are likely to be novel to most or all of the participants. Design
group members are more likely to learn games at the same rate, without large differences
in learning due to rank, authority, or background… This in turn can lead to greater sharing
of ideas…
In addition, games… can help groups of people to cohere together [and] communicate
better. One of the purposes of games is enjoyment -- of self and others -- and this can both
leaven a project and build commitment among project personnel.
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Prototypes
Low-tech prototypes may lead to “third space” experiences because they bring people into
new relationships with technologies – relationships that are “new” in at least two important
ways.
First, the end-users are often being asked to think about technologies or applications that
they have not previously experienced.
Second, in participatory work with low-tech prototypes, end-users are being asked to use
the low-tech materials to reshape the technologies – a “design-by-doing” approach.
In this way, participatory work with low-tech prototypes involves much more user
contribution and user initiative than the more conventional use of “paper prototypes” as
surrogates for working systems in usability testing
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Participatory Design Methods
Muller, M.J., Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI (revised). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.),
Human-Computer Interaction: Development Process. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum, 2008
Next Week
Task .
Read up on all the methods and techniques
used in participatory design.
I recommend Spinuzzi’s “The Methodology of
Participatory Design” and Muller’s “Participatory
Design : The Third Space in HCI”
In class you will be asked to write up a design
process for a specific design brief.
You will not be assessed on the design itself but
rather on your ability to come up with
techniques and methods to involve users in the
design process.
Next Week
Task .
Read up on all the methods and techniques.
You should be able to justify the tasks you
assign in your design process.
The task will take approximately 20 minutes.
This is NOT an open book test, you are
expected to know the methods you are to use.
This task will be worth 20 points
and it will take place on Feb 16th.