Interaction Design II:

"Designing for Interaction", Chapters 4-5

Chapter 4: What is Design Research?

Design research, according to Saffer, is “the act of investigating, through various means, a product or service’s potential or existing users and environment.” Designers use research methods to obtain information about users and their context in order to better develop solution for the audience in the intended environment. Research gives designers empathy when designing, so as to avoid designing solution that potentially could frustrate or embarrass users.

Research Methods:
Observations: These include the “Fly on the wall” technique, shadowing, contextual inquiry (i.e. shadowing while asking questions about behaviors), and the “Undercover Agent” technique where users are observed covertly.
Interviews: These include direct storytelling, where users are asked to tell stories about times they interacted with a product or service; developing an “Unfocus Group” where a group of experts are assembled in the field to explore a product or service from different viewpoints; role playing, where users are asked to play out different scenarios; extreme user interviews (e.g., working with someone who doesn’t use a service or product); or observing user habits and personalities.
Activities: Include users in an activity that involves making an artifact, (e.g., a collage, model, or drawing).

Chapter 5: The Craft of Interaction Design

Research models are used to organize the information gathered during research to inform the designer’s solution.

Research Models include:

• Charts: linear flow charts, circular flow charts, spider diagrams, venn diagrams, spatial maps and matrices.
• Personas: Often designers derive personas, or archetypal people who use a product or service. Personas are derived from talking to users and are created from observing a common set of behaviors or motivations among the people they’ve researched.
• Scenarios: Scenarios are stories about what it will be like to use the product or service once created. Personas are placed in the context to bring a design to life. One common scenario is the first time user.
• Task Analyses: A tasks analysis is a list of activities required to execute an action that the design must support. Task analysis then determines task flows, where tasks are put in a sensible order. This step shows the logical connections between wire frames.
• Use Cases: Use cases attempt to explain what a certain functionality does and why.
• Wireframes: A set of documents that show structure, information hierarchy, functionality and content.
• Prototypes: Where all the pieces of the design come together , communicating what the devise would resemble.