Work In Progress Using User Experience Research to Develop Needs Assessment Skills of Undergraduates

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Work In Progress - Using User Experience Research
to Develop Needs Assessment Skills of
Undergraduates

• Laura Moody Joan Burtner
• Mercer University

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Goals

• Develop potential research opportunities in the
  area of cell phone design and use.
• Provide hands on opportunities for engineering
  students to
• understand the needs of customers, clients, and
  end users
• develop specific skills to research and assess
  needs of customers
• analyze and evaluate real world data in a variety
  of forms

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The study

• Purpose
• Explore methodologies for developing an
  integrated understanding of the user experience.
• Identify principal components that describe two
  of the three foci of the user experience.
• Method
• 19 undergraduate students in 2 courses
• 3 cell phones
• Interview
• Simple task
• IRB approval

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The cell phones
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Data

• Phase 1 - Personal experience
• Story-telling
• 3 descriptors current and ideal cell phone
• Phase 2 Test phones
• First impressions semantic differential
• Practice and individual impressions
• Simple task performance
• 3 descriptors test phones
• Ranking

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Student participation

• In the study
• 2 courses
• participants and observers
• Data analysis
• partial data sets
• in-depth analysis
• Implications
• customer service voice of the customer
• human factors design

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Course Activities

• IDM 355 -Quality Mgt. (Spring 04)
• Cell phone study
• participation
• observation
• Link to course content
• the voice of the customer
• survey design
• understanding data types

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Course Activities

• IDM 404 - IDM Case Studies (Spring 04)
• Use of quality tools
• Reporting quality results
• ISE 428 - Quality Egr. (Fall 04)
• Collecting and evaluating customer service data
• Review of data analysis techniques
• Use of quality tools and reporting results

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Course Activities

• ISE 311 Ergonomics Work Mst. (Spring 04)
• Participation in study
• Performance data analysis
• Implications
• handtool design
• design of human factors studies

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Course Activities

• ISE 412 Human Factors Egr. (Fall 04)
• Research methods
• Study design data collection
• Modeling human-technology interaction
• Design of human-machine systems

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Independent study

• Undergraduate student
• Collecting and organizing data
• Evaluating qualitative data
• e.g., semantic differential results

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Independent study

• Evaluating quantitative data
• e.g., dialing errors

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Independent study

• New techniques
• e.g., card sorting

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Independent study

• Next steps
• Statistical analysis of quantitative data
• Classify descriptors
• Link between descriptors and preferences
• Evaluate story-telling results
• Develop ideas for future project
• Report

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Independent study

• Students perspective
• Her view of the project
• Benefit of working with faculty as a team I
  feel like Im on an engineering project team.
• Deliverables and time requirements
• Relevance of the experience

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Ongoing student involvement

• Use of data in the classroom
• understanding data types and data gathering
• qualitative vs quantitative data
• data analysis and modeling
• Continued exploration of research methods
• human factors research and design
• understanding customer needs and the voice of the
  customer