Human Computer Interaction Slides

1. Lecture 04
Human Computer Interaction

2. Understanding The Problem (Need Finding)
• Coursera, University of San Diego (Scott Klemmer)
• About Face – Chapter 2

3. Design
• Design is a systematic and Data Driven Process
• We need to explore evidence based techniques

4. Quantitative vs Qualitative Research
• Quantitative
• Produces quantitative data, such as statistical information
• Talks about numbers --- how many? How much?
• In most scientific domains quantitative research is done for example in
domains of physics, biology etc.
• But in understanding users, quantitative research can miss many details.
• We will use both qualitative and quantitative research but mostly
qualitative

5. Quantitative vs Qualitative Research
• Qualitative
• Qualitative research helps us understand a product’s domain, context,
and constraints in different, more useful ways than quantitative research
does.
• Behaviors, attitudes, and aptitudes of potential and existing product users
• Technical, business, and environmental contexts — the domain — of the product to
be designed
• Vocabulary and other social aspects of the domain in question
• How existing products are used
• Qualitative research can also help the progress of design projects:
• It gives the design team credibility and authority, because design decisions can be
traced to research results.
• It gives the team a common understanding of domain issues and user concerns.
• Large teams can lead to everyone having their own ideas
• It empowers management to make more informed decisions about product design
• Issues that would otherwise be based on guesswork or personal preference.

6. Quantitative vs Qualitative Research
• How does the product fit into the broader context of people’s lives?
• What goals motivate people to use the product, and what basic tasks help people
accomplish these goals?
• What experiences do people find compelling? How do these relate to the product
being designed?
• What problems do people encounter with their current ways of doing things?

7. Quantitative vs Qualitative Research
Category Quantitative Qualitative
Based on Numbers Opinions and
Experiences
Participants Larger Sample Smaller Sample
Techniques Surveys, Observations In-depth interview,
focus groups,
observations
Results % of people agreed
with a statement
In-depth analysis /
summary
Format Mostly closed
questions
Open ended questions

8. Quantitative Techniques: Surveys
• Surveys -> Most Common
• Collection of data about participants (e.g., experiences, opinions)
• Selecting a representative sample
• Through the use of questionnaires
• How to construct questions?

12. Design Requirements
• Precision / Sensitivity / Discriminate
• Reliability
• Results are stable across multiple administrations of the instrument
• Validity
• The questionnaire measures what it says it is measuring
• Usability
• For respondent and the researcher
• Instructions & Marking Criteria
Yes No
No

13. Purpose of Survey
• Writing questions should not be the first thing in your mind!
• What are the current issues?
• Describe characteristics or behavior!
• Is it the right instrument for the context of study?
• The aim was to determine the habits of students and see what
would be most beneficial to help them meet deadlines, and
gauge whether an app that blocks use of social media would
actually help increase productivity and reduce stress!

14. Who Will Complete The Questionnaire?
• To achieve this, we set out a survey for a randomly selected
group of students to take, and using the data gathered to adapt
our application to best suit the needs of the end user. We
planned to take a sample of approximately 20 people, within the
age range of 18-24 as this group is most prone to putting off work
before deadlines and as such would benefit from the system.

15. Potential Pitfalls
• Failing memory of respondents
• Effect of fatigue, feeling bored, time pressure
• Social desirable replies
• Respondent does not want to appear stupid
• “Please the researcher” effect

16. Question Content
• What Information do I / They / We need?

17. Question Wording
• Questions should be:
• Simple (but not too simple)
• Clear and Unambiguous
• Relevant to the topic
• Brief (but not too short)
• User neutral language
• Avoid
• Negative Wording or Emotional Language
• Biased, Leading, and Double-Barreled Questions
• Which question is more specific?
• Which health center do you like the best?
• Which health center are you most likely to go to when you are sick?

18. Question Wording
• Which question is more specific?
• Which health center do you like the best?
• Which health center are you most likely to go to when you are sick?
• How important is it for local government to provide child care services?
• How important is it to you that local government provided child care
services?
• Which teacher is most knowledgeable and friendly?
• Which teacher is most knowledgeable?
• Which teacher is most friendly?

19. Question Wording
• Which question use simple language?
• With what frequency has your child experienced a raised temperature
within the last 30 days?
• How many times has your child had a fever in the last month?
• Which question can bias people’s answer?
• What medication, such as malaria medication, have you purchased in
the last week?
• What medications have you purchased in the last week?
• Do you think the government should spend more on the military to avoid
a catastrophic invasion of the country?
• Do you think the government should spend more on the military?

20. Question Format

21. Question Format: Closed-Ended
Advantages Disadvantages
Easy and quick to answer Can put ideas on participant’s head
Easy comparison of responses Participants with no opinion might
answer
Easier analysis Can feel constrained & frustrated
Responses choices can clarify a
question
Confusing e.g. Many Choices
Easy to replicate Prone to erros

22. Get Informed Consent

23. Customer and User Interviews
• Difference between customers and users?
• Customer Interviews
• Goals in purchasing the product
• may not be the same as the end users.
• Frustrations with current solution
• Domain related issues and Vocabulary

24. Interviewing Techniques
• Choosing Participants
• Representative of target users
• May be current users of a similar system
• Might also be non-users
• If you were to be designing a lecture support system, who would
you interview?
• Teacher?
• Student?
• Freshman?
• Ph.D.?
• Stronger and Weaker Students?
• Teaching Staff?
• Department Admin?
• Parent?

25. Recruiting Participants
• Get a diverse set of stakeholders
• Use incentives and motivation
• Approximate - better than nothing
• Medical students instead of doctors
• Computer students instead of software engineers
• Not Ideal but better than nothing
• You can ask people you know to refer you to other people they know
• Look for people in the middle instead of at the top
• They are the ones who do the actual work
• Also they will be more willing to talk.
• People at the top don’t have time and they are very self conscious about
what they will say.

26. What are Good Questions?
• Is the daily update an important feature to you?
• What do you thing they will say?
• Would you like stores with less clutter?
• Do you want CU online to be more user friendly?
• You like feature X, don’t you?
• Do you agree that a task manager would help you in your
everyday life?
• How stressful do you find getting up early in the morning?
• Most of these questions are leading questions

27. Other Types of Questions to Avoid!
• What they would do / like / want in hypothetical scenarios
• People are not designers, they may not know what to say
• For example Henry Ford said in the day of horse and buggy if you had
asked what they wanted
• They would have said a faster horse
• The designers see the possibility of the car
• People are not experts designers but they are experts of their lives so ask them
about that.
• How often they do things
• We often lie to ourselves
• If asked how often do you exercise?
• Instead make them concrete.
• Instead ask “how many times did they exercise last week?”. That is more
concrete and more recent in their memory
• How much they like things on an absolute scale
• What does 7 mean?
• Avoid binary Questions
• Do you like grape fruit?
• Yes
• Not a very interesting question.

28. So What are Good Questions?
• Especially at the beginning of the interview, ask open ended
questions and slowly get to the closed-ended questions.

29. How to Conduct Interviews
• Introduce yourself, explain your purpose
• The interview is about them, not you!
• Begin with open, unbiased questions
• Ask the question and let them answer
• (a little bit of) Silence is Golden

30. Follow Up
• Adjust your questions to their previous answers
• Ask questions in language they use / understand
• Pick up on and ask for examples
• Be flexible

31. More about Interviews
• Scheduled Interview Facilitate Depth
• Where to Conduct Interview?
• Should you record audio or video?
• Disadvantages:
• Time-consuming to review / edit
• Can change participants’ responses
• Requires permission
• Advantages
• A robust record
• Highlights are great for communication
• Helps you focus on interviewing
• Save Records – It’ll help later
• Keep photos, notes, and artifacts
• Helps tie all design to use, rather than debating things on abstract
plane

32. Some Example Questions
• Goal-Oriented Questions
• Goals – What makes a good day? A bad day?
• Opportunity – What activities currently waster your time?
• Priorities – What is most important to you?
• Information – What helps you make decisions?
• System-Oriented Questions
• Function – What are the most common things you do with the product?
• Frequency – What parts of the product do you use most?
• Preference – What are your favorite aspects of the product? What drives
you crazy?
• Failure – How do you work around problems?
• Expertise – What shortcuts do you employ?

33. Some Example Questions
• Work Flow-Oriented Questions:
• Process – What did you do when you first came in today? What did you
do after that?
• Occurrence and Recurrence – How often do you do this? What things do
you do weekly or monthly, but not every day?
• Exception – What constitutes a typical day? What would be an unusual
event?
• Attitude-Oriented Questions:
• Aspiration – Where do you see yourself doing five years from now?
• Avoidance – What would you prefer not to do? What do you
procrastinate on?
• Motivation – What do you enjoy most about your job (or lifestyle)? What
do you always tackle first?

34. Participant Observation
• “You can observe a lot just by watching.” –Yogi Berra
• Ethnographic studies
• This technique is actually developed by anthropologists.
• To find out in detail about other cultures you have to live their lives
• That’s when you know what they are all about.
• Why do participant observation uncover more detail than
interviews?
• Participant observation can uncover things that are difficult to articulate.

35. Participant Observation

36. Participant Observation
• What do people do now?
• We have to learn what is baseline
• What values and goals do people have?
• We would like to build a system that fits in with what people would like to
achieve
• This is not the same as building what the people have asked for
• They often don’t know themselves!
• How are these particular activities embedded in a larger ecology?
• Considering not just the activity but looking at the bigger picture
• Similarities and Differences
• If we are designing new buses, all users would not be concerned about
the same thing.

37. Apprentice
• Process vs Practice
• Set up a partnership with the people to be observed
• Be taught the steps in the process
• Observe all of the practices
• Validate what you are observing with those observed as you go
along
• You learn things that no one tells you
• You find out about all the work around
• For example if you have to design a new check out system for a
super market you can apprentice as a check out clerk
Apprentice: Work with
people

38. Interviewing and Observing Users
• The technique of ethnographic interviews is a combination of
immersive observation and directed interview techniques.

39. Ethnographic Interviews – Interview Teams and
Timing
• One hour per user interviewed is often sufficient.
• Except in the case of complex domains such as medical, scientific, and
financial services.
• These may require more time to fully understand what the user is trying
to accomplish.
• A team of two designers per interview.
• The moderator drives the interview and takes light notes
• The facilitator takes detailed notes and looks for any holes in the
questioning.
• These roles can switch halfway through the interview if the team agrees.

40. Method for Ethnographic Interviews
• Avoid a fixed set of questions.
• Assume the role of an apprentice, not an expert.
• Use open-ended and closed-ended questions to direct the
discussion.
• Focus on goals first and tasks second.
• Understand the Why instead of What at the beginning
• Avoid making the user a designer.
• Avoid discussing technology.
• Encourage storytelling.
• Ask for a show-and-tell.
• Avoid leading questions.

41. Thank You 
Any Questions?