Participatory Design in a Human-Computer Interaction Course: Teaching Ethnography Methods to Computer Scientists

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Participatory Design in a Human-Computer
Interaction CourseTeaching Ethnography Methods
to Computer Scientists

• Dr. Jerry Weinberg
• Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
• Dr. Mary Stephen
• Saint Louis University
• Supported by a grant from the National Science
  Foundation

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Programs are used by somebody

• Designing for human hardware/software
  capabilities and limitations (Human-Factors)
• Short term memory Millers magic number
• Long term memory recognition vs. recall
• Limits of perception color pollution
• Designing for how the user thinks about the tasks
  the application is supporting (Psychology
  Sociology)
• How do they organize the work?
• What strategies do they use to accomplish tasks?
• How is information recorded and communicated?
• What is their conceptual model?

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Overall Goal

• Develop a learning experience for User Center
  Design
• learn and practice methods for collecting user
  data
• Particularly from non-technical users
• modeling user data and recognizing design
  implications
• designing from the data
• Present practice Ethnographic Techniques
• Team design project that encompasses entire
  process from gathering data to prototyping an
  application
• Students from lower division courses become
  potential users of the project application
• Create a lab environment for team design
  activities and user interaction

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Overview

• Motivating User Centered Design
• Course Overview
• Exercises for Teaching Ethnography
• Putting it into Practice
• Results of the Course

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The Myth of Commonsense User-Friendliness

• Example from Interface Hall of Shame
• www.iarchitect.com/mfame.htm

HTML Checker Version 1
Version 2
Potential Design
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Usability Tests Simple Task Made Difficult

• Purchase St. Louis Cardinal Tickets for a family
  of four 2 adults and 2 children. One child is
  under the age of 10. Get the best seats possible
  for the game on July 10th.
• The Faculty Technology Center at SIUE provides
  help to faculty members who want to use computer
  technology in their courses. Find out what hours
  they are open during the week.

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The Designer/Programmer

• As a computer professional, they are most likely
  going to be both the designer and programmer of a
  system.
• Poor design results in non-use, mis-use, abuse,
  and (potentially severe) errors
• CACM Inside Risks

Case of the Tell-Tale Heart
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Participatory Design Methods

• Participatory design methods create situations in
  which the user becomes a partner in the design
  process.
• User-Centered Design Landauer
• Human-Centered Systems Flanagan, Huang, Jones,
  and Kasif
• Participatory Design Muller and Kuhn
• Contextual Design Beyer and Holtzblatt

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Overview of Contextual Design

• Contextual Inquiry
• Gathering raw data
• Ethnographic Techniques interviewing,
  observation, and field notes
• Work modeling
• Visual representations of work
• Consolidation
• Drawing conclusions about the general population
  of users from individuals
• Visioning
• Brainstorming solutions
• User Environment Design
• System Blueprint and interface specification
• Paper Prototyping
• Lo-fidelity testing of interfaces

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HCI Course Description

• Covers human aspects of interaction design, on
  technological aspects of interface design, and
  design methodologies.
• 15 week, required course
• Prerequisite is Interaction Programming that
  teaches students a GUI programming environment.
• Course is usually taken in the junior year prior
  to the Senior Project course
• Enrollment is between 15 and 30

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What Is Ethnography?

• Research technique that involves study of people
  within natural setting in order to understand
  what is happening within that setting.

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Characteristics

• Researcher is instrument for gathering data
• Sources of data
• Observations
• Interviews
• Artifacts (documents)
• Questionnaires

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Relationship to Contextual Design

• Ethnography Skills Used
• Interview users
• Examine artifacts
• Prepare field notes
• Observe users during paper prototyping
• Analyze data to build models

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Interview Example
Click to play
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Sample Exercises

• Interview another student about his/her job.
  Students videotaped pairs of students doing
  interviews and then critiqued the interviews.
• Observe someone working in a public area for 10
  minutes. Record field notes related to
  observation.

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Term-long Design Project

• Teams of 3-4 Students
• Real potential users
• Volunteers from lower division courses
• Universal task (e.g. electronic organizer)
• Project milestones
• Work models and consolidation models
• Paper prototyping
• High-fidelity prototype

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Work Modeling
Different aspects of the Users Work
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Paper Prototypes
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Paper Prototypes
Click to play
Click to play
Click to play
Click to play
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Hi-Fi Prototypes
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Human-Computer InteractionSoftware Design
Usability Testing Lab
Designed with the aid of St. Louis
Companies Edward-Jones Tripos Master-Card ACM
GatewayCHI
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Design War Room

• Writing Walls with Metal Backing
• Poster sized paper for models design ideas
• Magnets allow multiple teams to use as a War
  Room

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Design War Room
Click to play

• Working-on-the-Wall
• Create a shared understanding
• Immersion in the data Walking the Wall
• Group Memory

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User Interaction Room

• User Interviewing
• Paper Prototyping
• Usability Testing

• Cameras for observation and videotaping
• Monitor in Design War Room is slaved to users
  computer

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Evaluation

• The project looks at two general questions with
  respect to the HCI students
• 1. How well do the course material and lab
  experiences translate to an understanding of
  design principles and practices?
• 2. How well does the HCI students understanding
  of design principles and practices relate to
  their actual design practices.

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Data Sources

• Questionnaires
• Student interviews
• Analysis of videotapes of students working on
  projects
• Following students in senior project course using
  interviews, questionnaires, and analysis of
  project materials.

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Findings to Date

• Students rated ethnographic skills activities as
  very useful for the senior project.
• Students with work experience in computing
  reported viewing their jobs differently after the
  course.

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I made the transition at work from being a
software engineer to a software designer. I
didnt know there was a difference between the
two job titles. Now I do.
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I had an internship and all I did was sit in a
cubicle and code all day. They kept telling me
that that was all there was to it sit in a
cubicle and code, and I was really disappointed.
So, when I got to this class, it was a relief to
me because I realized thats not all there is to
it. I had hoped there was a way you could work
with people but I had no idea it was so intense
with the interviews and all.
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• All teams in revised curriculum completed all
  phases of term-long design project.
• Not case before revised curriculum implemented.
• Division of Labor Approach vs. Working on the
  Wall Approach
• Traditional students reported no previous
  experience with a group projects, and initially
  reported discomfort at the prospect of a group
  project. At the conclusion of group project, all
  students rated the experience of working in teams
  very highly.

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• No detectable difference between outcomes during
  semester with HCI lab available and semester
  without HCI lab available.
• Students in HCI course and senior project course
  used lab once lab completed.
• All students valued lab.
• Having lab is important, but redesigned course
  can be taught even if HCI lab not available.
• Video camera and quiet corner

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• Senior project teams used interviewing and paper
  prototyping. Not all teams constructed work
  models or consolidated model.
• Instructor bias influences design process.

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Sample Course Materials Available Soon

• www.cs.siue.edu/hci
• Course Materials
• Slides with interviewing technique video clips
• Sample Exercises and Example Projects
• Example work models
• Video Tape on Paper Prototyping Card Sorting
  (Currently Available)
• Links to HCI Resources