Observing Users

Observing Users

1. Goals, Questions and Paradigms

   • What and when to observe
     • Observing is useful at any time during product development. Early in design, observation helps designers understand users' needs. Other types of observation are done later to examine whether the developing prototype meets users' needs.
   • Approaches to observation
     • Quick and dirty
     • In usability testing
     • In field studies

2. How to observe

   • In controlled environments
     • you control everything
   • In the field
     • Have a framework to know what to observe
   • Participant observation and ethnography

3. Data collection

   • notes plus still camera
     • least technical way, not recommended, its tiring
   • audio recording plus still camera
     • less intrusive than video, still needs transcription
   • video
     • captures both video and audio, but can be intrusive

4. Indirect observation: tracking users' activities

   • diaries
     • Diaries provide a record of what users did, when they did it, and what they thought about their interactions with the technology.
   • INteraction logging
     • Interaction logging in which key presses, mouse or other device movements are recorded has been used in usability testing for many years. Collecting this data is 378 Chapter 12 Observing users I usually synchronized with video and audio logs to help evaluators analyze users' behavior and understand how users worked on the tasks they set.

5. Analyzing, interpreting, and presenting the data

   • Qualitative analysis to tell a story
     • Analyzing and reporting ethnographic dafa
   • Qualitative analysis for categorization
     • nalyze data into categories