Reflections on User Research Smoke & Mirrors

Design has always been a really subjective matter. How everyone perceives a particular design is different; their perceptions are moulded by their own experiences, probably also affected by their cultural background. No one can really say FOR SURE, that a design is perfect - that everyone will DEFINITELY love it. In the world of design, i guess there is no 100%.

In this article, Fahey (the author) raises the issue on the attempts at the scientific quantification on user experience, and describes this as pseudo-science. Now that the world we live in is so technologically advanced, new tools and gadgets are the rage. For most of the tasks that we try to do, there will be some tool that we can use to help us. And this brings us to the 2nd part of the article, where he talks about eyetrackers.


I have never known of such a device - one that can tell you what people are looking at, and help improve the design of the website. Personally, i think it is quite a ridiculous device. Humans have their own opinions on matters like this, why do we even need a device to help us decide?


Like what Fahey mentioned, (and i agree) results from an eyetracking study are not surprising to a good designer. Why? Because with good design instincts, and of course experience, designers are able to determine and solve the problems in a design, without help from scientific devices. However, results from such studies are not necessarily useless. Although such results are not definitive measurements of a design's efficiency, it is still information that a designer with good instincts and experience can use adequately.


But of course, not everyone has good design instincts, and everyone's preferences differ. In the business world, where everything is about numbers, statistics and scientific research, it would be rather difficult to impose such opinions without 'evidence' that it is a good opinion, that will benefit the company.


I felt that part 3 of this article was quite insightful. Despite knowing that there're problems with the design, and that there is some way to solve the problems, designers often find it difficult to convince their clients/bosses to revamp and adopt a new idea. In this case, scientific research helps in getting the job done. The statistics serve as a reassurance to the clients, and also acts as a further push to prove to the client that the new design would work; the results from user research helps to explain and justify good design decisions to people without deep design skills or instincts.


Part 4 of the article was rather interesting as Fahey brings up the issue about the 'Persona Rooms'. I thought the Persona Rooms were rather interesting, although albeit excessive. No matter how much a designer tries to imitate someone else's life, the designer is still himself. There is no way that he could live and think like his persona. For a start, all the experiences he had will definitely not be 100% same as his persona's past experiences. The designer himself is already moulded to be who he is, his cultural background would lead him to have preferences over different values, his life experiences etc. He just will not be able to be the real 'Bob' or 'Mary' that his persona is.


Personally, i think it would be better if the designer found someone who is like his persona, and then get more information from that person.


Last but not least, i liked the fact that Fahey used an example of a novelist doing research for her characters to bring out the impact and value of non-scientific researches. Although the research gives her plenty of information, the novel is still based on the novelist's imaginations and opinions. This is much like the way a designer works - to create a work that he/she thinks is the most appropriate from the results of research.

Final project - OrganizEZ

Our final project is a website that caters to event organising. Throughout the process of creating this website, we did several research and testing - to get an inkling of who will be our target audience, identifying the needs of users. User testing methods in the later design phase helped in identifying the inefficiencies in our website and to improve the user's experience.

OrganizEZ is an event organising website, that helps users with the reservations of seats in associated restaurants. It has an online booking system that is directly linked to the database of the restaurants. In this system, information about the restaurants are summarised and shown all in a page for easy viewing.

While doing this project, i have learnt many lessons that i suppose, would be quite applicable in work. It was interesting to know that methods such as card sorting are used to get users to categorize information. And it was great to see the many different ideas of classmates, and their awesome prototypes. :)

3. Advanced User

Subject : James, 20 year old undergrad at NUS, SoC

Having come from a low-income but loving family, James used to spend his childhood hanging out at family gatherings, having fun with his cousins and relatives. Being an only child, his parents take very good care of him, providing him whatever that he needs as best as they can. However, these materialistic toys are not what James want. What he wants are friends with whom he can play together with, to have stayovers with and to hang out with. Thus, whenever he goes to a new school, he tries his best to take part in camps and social activities, to know as many friends as possible.

Recently, James graduated from his college and was accepted into the School of Computing in NUS. With his strong IT, computing background, James likes to help his friends with their programming labs. He finds it a joy to teach his friends, and gets a sense of satisfaction whenever his friends manage to understand and complete their labs. Whenever he is posed with a difficult programming problem, he would put in his best effort and feels a sense of achievement when he successfully solves the problem.

Being the one with strong IT background, friends and family often ask James for advice or help on matters such as how to use a particular software, how to install programs and how to use the internet. James takes pride in himself as being the one whom everyone looks for, when it comes to IT matters.

In order to have a balance between work and play, and to make more friends, James signed up as a Freshmen Orientation Camp group leader. During the camp, James felt a close bond to his group, as they were very active, lively and enthusiastic. They became a tight-knit group who shared stories about themselves and supported each other in team games.

Now that the summer camp is over, James misses his group often and would thus try to organise outings in order to keep the group together. Being someone who wants his group to have thorough fun, and to ensure that everything goes well, James does the contacting and sending out of sms-es himself. Although he finds it difficult to include all the details of the outing in an sms, James still thinks it is the best way to get everyone's responses. And when someone replies and asks him questions such as "how to get there?" "who's going?" "want to meet somewhere first and go together?", he replies each and every sms without complaints.

During his free time, James engages in online gaming, going out with his girlfriend, playing basketball with his friends, spending time with his family and of course, organising outings for his favourite group. James is a responsible young man. Now that he is already 20, he tries his best not to rely so much on his parents. Using his monthly allowance, he pays for his handphone bill, transport and food. As he is a somewhat thrifty person with a huge handphone bill to pay(because of the organising of outings), James would only eat the cheapest food that he can find in school, and refrains from buying drinks or snacks.

Despite always having a busy schedule, James would still try to make time for his girlfriend. They spend most of their time playing online games together, and watching dvds at home. Once in a while, James would surprise his girlfriend by taking her to dine in a nice restaurant, even though it means that he would have to eat lesser in the following days

2. Four Pleasure Analysis

Subject: Amanda, 27, Investment Banker currently living in Singapore

Amanda started her internship with a renowned bank during her university days, and has never looked back. Consistently being one of the top 5 achievers in the company did not come easily. She is a perfectionist and pushes herself very hard for the best results. As a strong, confident and powerful career woman, Amanda expects a lot from herself, and from everyone else. She finds no need for men; whatever she needs, she can provide for herself. Besides, they can never be good enough for her.

Having come from a wealthy family, Amanda's parents have pampered her since young, and she is grateful to them for providing for her, and supporting her with whatever decisions she makes. Because of them, Amanda is used to a lavish and luxurious lifestyle. This has not changed, especially with the financial power that her job offers. To get away from her busy work schedule, Amanda goes for weekly facials and spa treatments to relax herself and to regain her focus. Besides that, Amanda frequents fine-dining restaurants and likes to enjoy wine with her meals. To maintain her slim physique, Amanda often heads down to the gym to sweat it out. Just like any other woman, she totally adores shopping, but only buys the finer products that can match up to her exquisite taste.

Amanda lives in a penthouse and often holds dinner parties at her home so that her friends can come over to hang out, and to enjoy the beautiful view of the night sky. Amanda have known her friends since college days. They have been there for her whenever she needs someone to talk to, and they remain as close today. Although Amanda's friends are also working, they do not have the same success as her, and are often envious of her tall and slim outlook; frequently asking her for beauty tips. They long to be like her; secretly wishing that they could also be as successful and live a life of luxury. Amanda knows of their desires, and is proud of being the high achiever in her group whom everyone looks up to.

Besides her close group of friends, Amanda also has another friend whom she loves and confides in. Koko, a chihuahua, has been her pet ever since she left the warmth of her family to live alone. Amanda treats Koko like her own child, often bringing Koko for walks, and teaching her new tricks. Sometimes after dinner, Amanda gets her chauffeur to bring them both to the beach for a relaxing evening walk. Whenever Amanda has to go overseas, Koko gets to stay in a pet hotel where she can be properly taken care of.

Physio-pleasure

- Going to the gym to work out allows Amanda to maintain her figure, and to keep herself healthy. (Need Pleasure)

- Pampering herself with spa treatments and facials, Amanda is able to relax while ensuring her skin will be soft and supple. (Appreciation Pleasure)

- Spending time with Koko, and walking with her by the beach makes Amanda happy, and helps take her mind away from work.

Socio-pleasure

- Amanda loves to be the center of attention and is often pleased when her friends compliment her. She is aware that her friends are in awe of her extravagant lifestyle, and is happy about it. (Appreciation Pleasure)

- By living alone, Amanda often misses her parents' company. She would make time to ask them out for dinner, or return home to visit them, and chat with them.

Psycho-pleasure

- Whenever she is free, Amanda likes to play with Koko. Teaching her new tricks, and seeing her learn them successfully, brings a smile to Amanda's face and lets her feel a sense of achievement.

- Amanda would sometimes cook the food for her dinner parties (only on very very special occasions). Being someone who seldom works in the kitchen, Amanda feels accomplished whenever she manages to whip up a delicious meal.

Ideo-pleasure

- Despite being one of the top 5 achievers, Amanda is not satisfied until she is the best. She has been brought up to know that men and women can have equal statuses, thus she believes that she is able to outdo the men by constantly working on her goal to be the top achiever.

Product Benefit Specs:

- Unique design, fine details, sleek & stylish

- High-class brand

Being a person who has exquisite taste, and someone who does not want to be associated with the 'common' people, Amanda needs a phone that is sleek & stylish yet with some fine details. Of course, the brand of the phone has to suit her standards, and has to be one that not many people have.

- Slim and light

A slim and light phone allows Amanda to look stylish and is convenient for her to bring around.

- Embedded with a high quality camera so that she can take photos with her friends

As someone who loves the company of her friends, Amanda likes to keep photos of their gatherings for memory-sake.

- Able to play MP3

A personal music player is useful for Amanda, as she can listen to her favorite music while working out at the gym.

- 3G

As Amanda's job is quite demanding, she has a need for 3G so that she can 'attend' meetings through video conferences. It enables her to multi-task, and gets more work done.

- Bluetooth

Bluetooth allows Amanda to look professional whenever she needs to answer calls while on the move, and makes it easy for her to upload photos to her laptop.

1. Pleasure with products

Emotion and design

Visceral design: refers primarily to that initial impact, to its appearance.
Behavioural design: is about look and feel, the total experience of using a product - the physical feel/pleasure and effectiveness of use.
Reflective design: is about ones thoughts afterwards, how it makes one feel, the image it portrays, the message it tells others about the owner’s taste.

First of all, it is difficult to determine whether a design is totally visceral, behavioural or reflective. That's because everyone has differing views and preferences, so what i'm gonna discuss on is subjective. :)

Almost everyone listens to music, and i suppose nobody really dislikes music. Therefore, i've chosen to discuss about audio players.

Visceral



Philips Micro Hi-Fi System MC235B/37
(image taken from www.consumer.philips.com)

Behavioural: Nothing really special, provides basic functions - CD player & radio, wall mountable
Reflective: Does not really have great show-off value; easily afforded by others
Visceral: Sleek, visually pleasing, stylish

I personally like this design very much, the color and the thin design of the system makes it look very sleek. Philips is quite a home-brand, so i would expect a number of households having this audio system.

Behavioural

Panasonic SC-NS55
(image taken from www.panasonic.com)

Behavioural: More functions, universal dock for iPod, ease of use
Reflective: Not very special, looks common
Visceral: Unattractive, bulky

As for this product, it looks alright, but is somewhat bulky. The blocky design reminds me of older types of audio systems. Based on the design, i would not think that this is an expensive product. However, it has more functions as compared to the philips model, so i guess it would be value for money.

Reflective

Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 9000
(image taken from www.bang-olufsen.com)

Behavioural: Convenient, not very easy to use - no remote control,
Reflective: Show off status, spending power
Visceral: Modern, cool, stylish

For those who do not know, Bang & Olufsen is focused on the designs of its' products. It caters to people who have high spending power because its' products are really expensive. This audio player looks very cool, and is unique as compared to other designs of audio players/systems. If i knew of someone who has this player, the first thing that will come to mind is that, this person is very rich. In a way, it shows off a person's status and spending power because spending so much on just an audio player, is not something that anyone could do.

0. Bad Design : Sony DSC F-88

The following are 3 photos showing the product in question.


Now, people, do you have any idea how to start using the camera?

Feelings towards the product

Users approached the product with curiosity. Unlike typical cameras, this camera is designed in such a way that the lens is not embedded within the camera body. Instead, the lens is embedded in a rotational fixture that makes up the camera.

Lesson they learnt from the interaction

Friends who have tried using this camera always ask questions relating to the same problem - "how do i switch on the camera?"/"where's the power button?"

The power button is not really obvious to the users. Based on previous experiences with cameras, one would think that the power button would either have a red dot (instead of green) or a power symbol. In fact, there's actually a graphic instruction beside this switch that tells you where the power button is.


Another way to switch on the camera is to simply rotate the lens.


Impression on brand

Users have a positive impression on SONY, because it has been around for quite a long while, and is known for its' aesthetically cool designs.

Reflection on the product and user reaction

Users' reactions matched my predictions. At first encounter, it is difficult to immediately figure out how to start the camera. However, if users look carefully, they would probably figure out how to start the camera on their own. Personally, i think the graphic instructions, combined with the mode symbols, make it somewhat easier to understand where the power button is.

For users with previous experience of handling cameras with 'hidden lenses', they are more likely to figure out that, similar to sliding the cover of the lens to get the power on, a simple rotation of the lens will achieve the same result.

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