Design Critique

Design Critique

1. two-way (designer explains and critic provides counter-judgements)

2. divergent & convergent (new ideas + what's wrong)

3. expertise of critic

4. "Hamburger Rule": +ve -> -ve -> +ve

5. Socratic questioning

   • clarification
   • challenges designer's assumption
   • alternating perspective
   • checks implications of the design

6. "good design follows certain design principles

   • user-friendly
   • simple
   • novel
   • powerful
   • invisible (focuses on the work being done not the design
   • univerisal
   • just
   • intuitive

7. Empirical methods

   • usability tests: discover breakdowns and redesign (lowest cost)
   • Technology probe & experience sampling: a working probe -> conduct surveys -> ecological validity
   • A/B tests: control/experimental (provide strong evidence for causality)

8. Analytical methods

   • cognitive walkthrough: select tasks -> prototype of necessary states -> persona of necessary states
     • users' motivation, processing, self-efficacy, risk taking, learning strategies
   • Heuristic evaluation: how learnable is the interface
   • claims analysis: define scenarios, make claims about the design
   • cognitive modeling: models of how people reason about tasks