Need-finding and Ideating

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Need-finding and Ideating

• John C. Tang
• September 4, 2007
• Turn in your Idea Lists!
• Sit at tables in groups of SIX (6)

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Todays newspaper (S.J. Merc)
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Today

• Complete intro to contextual inquiry
• Other methods
• Task analysis
• Ethnography
• Design
• Ideating
• Sketching
• Brainstorming

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Intro Christine Robson
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Last time Doing a Contextual Inquiry

• Direct Observation Interviewing
• In natural context of activity
• Intentionally pick participants, location, time
• Follow where the participant leads (partner)
• Learn users vocabulary
• Gather artifacts, recordings

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Outcome of CI

• Experiencing it is perhaps the most important!
• What are we going to do with all this data?
• Analyze
• Reporting
• Goal Gain understanding of user

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Understanding of user

• What resources are used to accomplish task?
• What hindrances encountered in accomplishing
  task?
• Analyze data to get better description and
  understanding of resources and hindrances

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Resources used

• Tools, devices
• Cell phone, computer, shovel
• Information
• Web page, phone directory
• Other people
• Expert, peer, grad student

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Hindrances encountered

• Not having the right tool
• Workarounds
• Unable to access resources needed
• Cant find information
• People unavailable
• Unaware of important information
• Confusion

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Analyzing data is collaborative

• Researchers involved in CI
• Designers
• Project leads
• Software developers
• Users
• Multiple perspectives elicit details

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Analysis session

• Each researcher presents each CI case
• Resources used to accomplish activity
• Hindrances encountered
• Things that surprised you
• Things that seem unusual, interesting
• Other participants ask questions, share similar
  or contrasting examples from their data

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Analysis session (2)

• After all cases are presented, team looks for
  patterns across cases
• Commonly used resources
• Commonly encountered hindrances
• Common themes, patterns, sequences
• Try out possible design ideas
• What if?

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Report

• Descriptive understanding of activity
• Common resources used
• Common hindrances encountered
• Common patterns
• Illustrated with stories, pictures, clips
• Design implications / insights

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Revisiting Jim and dating

• Resources
• Great looks
• Witty stories
• Good listening skills
• Hindrances
• Facial bruise from ultimate frisbee
• Matching story with prospects interests
• Noisy environment

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Contextual Inquiry in CS160

• Asking for a Contextual Inquiry of group project
  (future assignment)
• Each group member should do at least one
  contextual inquiry
• Analysis done by whole group
• Report

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Task analysis

• Goals
• A state of the system that the user wishes to
  achieve
• Tasks
• The activities required, used, or believed to be
  necessary to achieve a goal
• Actions
• Simple tasks that involves no problem solving or
  control structure

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Task analysis example
Communicate with family
student_at_berkeley.edu
MomandDad_at_home.net
GOALS
Ask for
Add personality
Starting the school year
Hi Mom and Dad, The school year has gotten off to
a fast start. Im in a great Human-Computer
Interface class!
Write email
Add emphasis
Add to email
TASKS

Oh, by the way, please send more money for books.
Gotta go!
Open Compose window
Type text
Type text
ACTIONS
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Task analysis example
Communicate with family
student_at_berkeley.edu
MomandDad_at_home.net
GOALS
Ask for
Add personality
Starting the school year
Hi Mom and Dad, The school year has gotten off to
a fast start. Im in a great Human-Computer
Interface class!
Hi Mom and Dad, The school year has gotten off to
a fast start. Im in a great Human-Computer
Interface class!
Write email
Add emphasis
Add to email
TASKS

Oh, by the way, please send more money for books.
Gotta go!
Oh, by the way, please send more money for books.
Gotta go!
Open Compose window
Type text
Format text
Type text
ACTIONS
luv u bunches, student
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Task analysis example
Communicate with family
Identify bundles
student_at_berkeley.edu
MomandDad_at_home.net
GOALS
Ask for
Add personality
Starting the school year
Hi Mom and Dad, The school year has gotten off to
a fast start. Im in a great Human-Computer
Interface class!
Write email
Add emphasis
Add to email
TASKS
Elicit breadth of tasks and goals

Oh, by the way, please send more money for books.
Gotta go!
Open Compose window
Type text
Format text
Type text
ACTIONS
luv u bunches, student
Use standard actions
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Ethnography

• noun -- The branch of anthropology that deals
  with the scientific description of specific human
  cultures.
• Typically applied to study of foreign cultures

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Its a jungle out there
Ethnography in the workplace
Lucy Suchman, Human-Machine Reconfigurations
Plans and Situated Actions
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Ethnography

• Natural settings
• a commitment to studying activities in the
  natural setting in which they occur
• Descriptive
• an interest in developing detailed descriptions
  of the lived experience
• Members point of view
• understanding the participants activity from the
  participants point of view
• Focuses on what people actually do
• understanding the relationship between activities
  and environment

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Ethnographic HCI studies

• Long-term, direct observation
• Rich, detailed, qualitative description
• Analysis takes at least 2X duration of data
  recorded
• To learn, apprentice with a mentor

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Other terms youll hear

• Participatory Design (PD)
• Besides partnering in the observation process,
  users can also actively participate in the design
  process
• Primarily reacting to prototype designs
• User-Centered Design (UCD)
• Focused on the user, not the technology (weve
  been presuming this)

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Design

• Ideating expressing ideas
• Representing
• Sketching
• Enacting
• Brainstorming
• More ideas ? more creative ? better
• Group vs. individual creativity

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Design ideology

• Sketching Visual Thinking
• Number of ideas, alternatives

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Sketching in design

• Allows quick iteration through many ideas (fast
  and cheap)
• Suggests and explores rather than confirm
• Stimulates left-brain /
  right-brain interaction
• Invites sharing ideas
• Product design roots

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Sketching Cartooning
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Design sketch
http//www.visionunion.com/article.jsp?code200504
140031
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Screen sketch
http//www.agilemodeling.com/essays/initialRequire
mentsModeling.htm
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Screen sketch
http//www.graphicalwonder.com/?p12
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Sketching exercise

• Buying / Pumping gas in 6-8 frames
• From memory of using these devices
• Draw actions ? focus on goals and tasks
• Individually create series of sketches
• Quality of drawings, details not important
• Must convey the interface and the interactions
• Learning by doing!
• 10-minutes

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• Approach pump
• Open gas lid
• Payment mode
• Type in zip code
• Select grade of fuel (optional services)
• Pumping gas (auto-on feature)
• Do you want a receipt?

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Reflecting on sketching

• Hard? Easy?
• Did exercise suggest any ways of improving the
  taskflow to better match users goals?
• Collect Please make sure your name is on it
• Discussion section Perspective drawing

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Computational sketching

• Many software tools for sketching
• Freeware gimp GNU Image Manipulation Program
  http//www.gimp.org/windows/

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Screenshots (Windows)

• Windows Print Screen key
• Typically found in upper right corner
• Puts screenshot into paste buffer
• Currently active window only

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Screenshot (Macintosh)

• Copy entire screen
• ltcommandgt ltshiftgt 3
• Copy region of screen
• ltcommandgt ltshiftgt 4
• Copy active item on screen
• ltcommandgt ltshiftgt 4 ltspacegt

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Brainstorming

• Technique for facilitating group creativity
• Popularized by Alex Osborn, 1930s, Applied
  Imagination
• Defer judgement
• Wildest possible ideas
• Go for quantity
• Build on others ideas

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Rules for brainstorming
1. Be visual 2. Defer judgment 3. Encourage wild
ideas 4. Build on the ideas of others 5. Go for
quantity 6. One conversation at a time 7. Stay
focused on the topic
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Brainstorming exercise

• Create ideas that would help you communicate with
  your family, from your 90 yr. old grandfather, to
  your 10 yr. old younger sister
• What are their user characteristics?
• What kinds of info would you like to communicate
  with them?
• Work in groups
• 15 minutes

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Brainstorming

• Alternatives
• Magnify
• Minimize
• Reverse
• Leverage
• Distort
• Integrate

1. Be visual 2. Defer judgment 3. Encourage wild
ideas 4. Build on the ideas of others 5. Go for
quantity 6. One conversation at a time 7. Stay
focused on the topic
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Reflecting on brainstorming

• Explore new ideas?
• Surprised at number of ideas?
• How much longer would you go?

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Manipulative verbs

• Adapt
• Modify
• Magnify
• Minify
• Substitute
• Rearrange
• Reverse
• Combine

• Multiply
• Divide
• Eliminate
• Subdue
• Invert
• Separate
• Transpose
• Unify
• Distort
• Rotate
• Flatten

• Squeeze
• Complement
• Submerge
• Freeze
• Soften
• Fluff-up
• By-pass
• Add
• Subtract
• Lighten
• Repeat

• Thicken
• Stretch Extrude
• Repel
• Protect
• Segregate
• Integrate
• Symbolize
• Abstract
• Dissect

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Processing a brainstorm

• Take a short break
• Poll on interesting ideas (10)
• Group ideas together
• Identify and apply criteria
• Prioritize
• Identify follow-up tasks

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Assignment Map of Berkeley (Due Sept. 11)

• Draw conceptual map of Berkeley that conveys your
  experience of the area
• Introduce me to Berkeley!
• Express visually, not with words (like
  Pictionary)
• Create feature list
• Show map to one other person not in CS160
• Heres a map of Berkeley I drewtell me what you
  learn from it
• Record number of features they recognize
• Hand in 2 copies (black white copy OK)

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Example

• Feature list
• BART station
• Soda Hall
• Hill between BART and Soda
• The Play, Cal vs. Stanford, 1982

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Next time

• Return to Soda 405
• Readings
• Millen, Feinberg, Kerr, "Dogear Social
  Bookmarking in the Enterprise"
• Kathy J. Lee "What Goes Around Comes Around An
  analysis of del.icio.us as social space
• Guest speaker from facebook
• Dave Fetterman, Senior Engineer, founder of
  Facebook Platform
• Ami Vora, Facebook Developer Community

My office hours TODAY 200-300 6th floor alcove