IB Design Technology Topic 7

What is UCD?

Needs and capabilities of the users are determined and incorporated in the design

design more intuitive and better for user, but is expensive, difficult to translate certain data into design, takes more time, item too complicated and specific for public = more expensive.

Whole user experience

User can see all options and their results, current state of system, and follow intuitively from intention to action

Should address whole user experience. Should make it easy for the user to:

• determine possible actions at any time

• see the options and results of actions

• determine current state of system

• follow intuitively from intention to action

UCD trinity

User, Task, Environment

The Five Stages of UCD

Research (problem analyzed), Concept (ideas/concept modeling), Design (developed ideas, scaled models), Implementation (tests on users), Launch (end product launched)

1. Research (business and user problems are analyzed, UCD trinity considered, multidisciplinary teams - ethnographer, anthropologists, psychologists)

2. Concept (initial ideas, concept modeling, tactile and appearance evaluation, quick and cheap to carry out, multidisciplinary teams - designers, engineers, psychologists)

3. Design (Development of ideas, scaled models - prototypes, mock-ups, monitor performance against usability requirements, evaluation from the user, evaluation fed back into design cycle)

4. Implementation (tests and evaluations carried out with wide range of users, evaluation fed back into design cycle, multidisciplinary teams - measure end-users psychological and physiological experience)

   5. Launch ( end product launched, continuous evaluation carried out, monitor performance against usability requirements)

Affinity diagramming

A tool used to organise ideas and information.

Adv: simple, cost effective, easy to get data from group, builds teamwork
Dis: time consuming, can get quite large

Affordance

Property of an object that indicates how it can be used.

Buttons afford pushing, knobs afford turning.

Quantitative vs Qualitative

information in numerical form vs information in numerical form

Qualitative research gathers information that is not in numerical form aka description - can be observed but not measured. ex. open ended questions…
Quantitative: quantities = numbers

Anti-personae

Profile of a person for whom a product is not designed

Attitude

Perceptions, feelings and opinions about a product by a user

Focus groups and interviews

Collection of responses from users, a trail of observation of users interacting with product

Adv: dynamic, face to face, body language and gestures are noticed, easily measure reactions, clarify questions.
Dis: expensive, participants may not wish to share sensitive issues, small sample size = not accurate representation of whole sample size, moderator bias

Participatory Design

Involving the user in the design process, performing realistic tasks using paper versions of the final product.

Questionnaires

Obtaining responses through questionnaires

Adv: cheap, easy to administer, large number, sent easily to local, national or global regions
Dis: static, poor number of responses, maybe only interested people will fill out form (= bias)

Behavioural design

Focused on use and understanding, this considers how people will use a product, focusing on functionality.

Characteristics of a good user-product interface

These include: simplicity and ease of use; intuitive logic, organization and low memory burden; visibility; feedback; affordance; mapping; and constraints.

Constraints

Limitations on how the product can be used.

Design for emotion

A design strategy that focuses on increasing user engagement, loyalty and satisfaction with a product by incorporating emotion and personality into product design.

Dominant design

The design contains those implicit features of a product that are recognized as essential by a majority of manufacturers and purchasers.

Effectiveness

A measure of the speed of performance or error rate and its relation to the capabilities of a product.

Empathetic

When the designer takes the place of the user to see who potentially could use the product and the object could be better suited for the consumer.

Enhanced usability

Enhanced usability increases:

• Product acceptance (knowledge that product paid for will meet specifications)
• User experience (users' perceptions and responses that result from the use of the product - can modify over time due to changes in usage circumstances)
• Productivity (develop products with the user in mind, can reduce time-wasting or non-intuitive aspects of the design)
  & Decreases:
• User error (simpler interfaces and controls)
• Required training and support (more intuitive interface, more pleasant user experience, simpler controls = less need for training, and support for user = reduced costs.

Characteristics of good user interface

• Simplicity and ease of use (intuitive, easily accessible = more popular with consumers

• Intuitive logic, organization and low memory burden (intuitive interface allows consumes to quickly become competent in basic operations of the product - low trial and error rate)

• Visibility (colors, symbols of controls - visible and obvious how they work)

• Feedback (provision of information - ex. sound that results from action being done)

• Affordance (product that indicates how it can be - ex. buttons = pushing)

• Mapping (relates to correspondence between layout/ space of buttons of the controls)

• Constraints (limit the way a product can be used - ex. button can only be pushed)

simplicity and ease of use, intuitive logic and organization, visibility, feedback, affordance, mapping, constraints

Environment

The place where a product is likely to be used.

Feedback

The provision of information as a result of an action. This can be a audio, visual or aesthetic response.

Field research

First-hand observation of the customer's user experience.

It is essential for the research to be conducted in the user's environment.
Adv: gained first-hand knowledge & experience, obtain detailed data of people and processes, emphasize the role and relevance of social context.
Dis: data will be narrow, emotionally taxing between interviewer and client

User research

understanding user behaviours and needs through observation and feedback.

Ideo-pleasure

Pleasures linked to our ideal, aesthetically, culturally and otherwise.

Inclusive design

The design of mainstream products and/or services so that they are accessible and usable by as many people as possible without the need for adaptation or specialized design.
Universally accessible - including people with impairments.

Iterative design

Act of repeating a process with the aim of approaching a desired goal, target or result. Each repetition of the process is also called an iteration, and the results of one iteration are used as the starting point for the next iteration.

Iterative process - 6 principles

Led by the user and developed through user-centered evaluation - 6 principles:

• users are involved throughout the process
• design based on explicit understanding of UCD trinity
• design is driven and refined by user-centered evaluation
• iterative process
• addresses whole user experience
• design team: multidisciplinary teams

Learnability

The extent to which a user can operate a product or system at a defined level of competence after a pre-determined period of training

Mapping

Relates to the correspondence between the layout of the controls and their required action

Methods of extremes

A common sampling method where users are selected to represent the extremes of a user population, typically the 2.5th and 97.5th percentile. Products are then designed and/or tested to ensure that they function efficiently for those users.
Adv: the greatest number of users are accommodated
Dis: maybe sensitive for extreme groups to be involved

Natural environment

The monitoring of the user interacting with the product in their homes, place of work, or other natural product usage environments.
Adv: get data from real and intended contexts, tested in the intended environment
Dis: biased opinions from observers, quantitative data collected

Observation

A collection of responses from users, a trail of observation of users interacting with the product.
Adv: help unveil usability issues, test under conditions of use
Dis: data collected may be hard to analyse.

Participatory design

When users representing the target market for a product perform realistic tasks by interacting with a paper version of the user-product interface manipulated by a person acting as a computer who does not explain how the interface works

Personae

A profile of the primary target audience for a product
Goal: discover the needs of users, improve quality of product, identify what customers value
Shouldn't be a stereotype, or average of observed behaviour
Should be based on user research, common behavioural patterns, based on primary and qualitative research

Physio-pleasure

A sensual pleasure that comes from touching, smelling, hearing or tasting something. It can also be derived from a feeling of satisfaction that comes from the effectiveness of an object in enabling an action to be performed

Population stereotype + dis. & adv.

Responses that are found to be widespread in a user population (assumptions due to cultural expectations - ex. the door handle = turn down).
Dis: may be irrelevant (turning light switch on - Americans = up & others = down)
Adv: users can operate products without having to learn how to operate it.

Product acceptance

The knowledge that a product or service paid for will meet up to its defined expectations

Productivity

Developing products and services with the user in mind so that they can reduce time wasting and simplify complex aspects of the product

Prototyping testing session

A session where a test product is made and tested - all experiments are conducted before making the final product, making all changes necessary that can be seen when the prototypes are used.

Psycho-pleasure

Types of pleasure that comes from cognition, emotions, knowledge and other things that satisfy the intellect.

Reflective design

Design that evokes personal memory focusing on the message, culture and the meaning of a product or its use.
ex. watch - doesn't only tell the time, personal meaning & fashion statement

Scenario

An imagined sequence of events in the daily life of a persona based on assumptions.
Provide physical & social context for different personas, simulate "actual" user experience that can generate new findings.

Secondary personae

A profile of those who are not the primary target audience for a product, but whose needs the product should meet.

Socio-pleasure

Pleasures that come from a feeling of belonging to a social group, social-enablers, and other ways that one can identify oneself with social groups.

Sympathetic

The decisions required for the product to be the most helpful for the user given certain conditions.

Task

The thing that the product is supposed to do, however the user may have several sub uses for the product

Testing house

Typically a company that will test products on their site.
The environment in the lab is the same as in real life (ex. snow)

The attract/converse/transact (ACT) model

A framework for creating designs that improve the relations of users with a product and intentionally trigger emotional responses

Attract

How it looks - people buy product due to aesthetics

Converse

How you interact - increased interaction makes a product generally better

Transact

How it works - function

The four-pleasure framework

A framework devised by Professor Lionel Tiger that encourages design for pleasure and emotion. It comprises of four areas: Socio-pleasure; Physio-pleasure; Psycho-pleasure; and Ideo-pleasure.

Training and support

Help and guidance such as tutorials or instructions on how to use the product

Usability

The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals effectively and efficiently while functioning in a predictable and consistent manner

Usability laboratory

A lab in which usability testing is carried out and test users are monitored by another group of observers in a different room.
Adv: controlled environment (the product will be used as intended), observers give a wider view of the analysis, easier to observe, it is an "event" = more likely to come, can have discussions, testing equipment, don't have to travel
Dis: costly, can be intimidating, observer effect, highly artificial environment = not show natural behavior (not in normal context), uncomfortable, harder to get people to participate, people travel = limited to those in immediate area

Usability objectives

Usability objective include usefulness, effectiveness, learnability and likeability.

Usability testing session

The testing of a product with potential users to find out how usable the product is

Use case

A set of possible sequences of interactions or event steps between a user and a product to achieve a particular action

Usefulness

The extent to which a product enables the user to achieve their goals.

User

Person utilising the product, person who is being affected by the product or who is reaping benefits/drawbacks

User error

Mistakes and slips when using the product due aspects such as complexity or inefficiency

User experience

A person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service, this can modify over time due to changing usage circumstances

User population

The range of users for a particular product or system.
Classification: age, gender & physical condition

User-centred design

A design process that pays particular attention to the needs of potential users of a product by involving them in all stages of the design process.

Visceral design

Design that speaks to people's nature in terms of how they expect products and systems to function and how they expect to interact with them.

Visibility

Controls should be easily accessible to the human eye