Design Models and

Understanding Users
Lecture 3 – CS 3160
 Last Day and Announcements

• Reviewed the history of HCI/UI Design

• Today, User Centered Design Models and Understanding Users

• It's brought to my attention that next Wed (Jan 31) is the CO-OP &
CAREER CONNECTIONS: ALT+NETWORKING from 5:00-7:00.
• This of course conflicts with our lab which is an important one: you will be
designing the interviews that will be held in lab on Feb 7. Your project going
forward will be based on the results of these interviews.

• I've decided that I'm going to use part of class today and start labs late on
Wednesday so that students can attend this session (mostly)
• Today: You will start Lab2.
• Wed. Jan 31 – the lab will be held from 6:30-8:00 pm you need to attend for
attendance AND you must interact with a TA for feedback.
• NOTE: we have the labs booked from 5:30+ so if your group isn't going to the
session, you can still go to the lab and use the time to work on it.
 Good Design and
Usability
• We want to design good interfaces à but how do relate
“good”
• We talk of “good, bad or poor” design in relation to
Usability

• Usability: (as defined in Part II of the ISO9241 standard)

• “the extend to which a product can be used by specified
users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness,
efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use”

• Effectiveness: measures the accuracy and completion of

goals
• Efficiency: are the resources expended in relation to the
accuracy and completion
• Satisfaction: the comfort and acceptability by the users
AND sometimes enjoyment
Problems with
Bad Designs

1. User Frustration and Dissatisfaction

• “Computer Rage”
• First coined in 1999 by
Market & Opinion Research
International
• Found in poll that workers
are verbally and physically
abusive towards the
information technology

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

Problems with Bad Designs

2. Loss of productivity, efficiency and money, and can cause

embarrassment to the company
• Poor user interfaces can have a financial cost

3. Safety and User Interfaces

• This is a very important issue for safety-critical systems
• Consequences can be injury or worse, death
• e.g., aircraft, power plants, medical devices, etc.
 Example of Bad
Design: Safety

• "Around 8:05 a.m., the Hawaii

emergency employee initiated the
internal test, according to a
timeline released by the state.
From a drop-down menu on a
computer program, he saw two
options: “Test missile alert” and
“Missile alert.” He was supposed
to choose the former; as much of
the world now knows, he chose
the latter, an initiation of a real-
life missile alert."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/missil
e-alert-hawaii-panic-1.4486510
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/01/14/hawaii-missile-alert-how-one-employee-
pushed-the-wrong-button-and-caused-a-wave-of-panic/?utm_term=.443391523ce9
User Centered Design

• An approach to UI development and

system development.
• Focuses on understanding:
• Users, and
• Their goals and tasks, and
• The environment (physical,
organizational, social)
• Need to pay attention to these
throughout development
 UI Designers à
concerned with ways to
designing usable products
UI Design that encourage positive
user experiences
vs.
Software
Software Engineers à
Engineering concerned with
engineering the software
for products
For UI - User Centric Design
• An approach to user interface design and development that
involves users through-out the design and development
process
• Focuses on:
• Understanding users of a computer system under
development
• Understanding the tasks that users will perform and the
environment (e.g., organizational, social, physical) in
which they use the system and the devices that are used
• Focuses on user experience
User Centric
Design
This model is based on premise that:
1. Users must be involved (Prototype)
throughout the development
process
2. The process should be highly
iterative
 User Centric Design

• Who are the “Users”?

• Customers (the ones who hire/pay you to design the UI)
• Other people in the organization with interest/stake in the development (e.g.,
management, the ones supplying content, etc.)

} End users (the actual people who will use the system to
perform tasks)
 User Centric Design
How to make the process iterative?
• We evaluate at all stages of development
• Early in the design process
• Users can help define
requirements/specifications
• Users can help test early mock-ups
• During implementation/prototyping
• Can evaluation versions to test design
and functionality
• Can give opinions and suggestions
• During training/after delivery of product
• Can give opinions for updates and detail
any problems
 (Prototype)

User Centric Design

• 4 main principles of user centric design (ISO Standard)

1. Active involvement of users
2. Appropriate allocation of functions between the user and the system
3. The iteration of design solutions
4. Multi-disciplinary design teams

• 4 essential user centric design activities (ISO Standard)

1. Understand and specify the context of use
2. Specify the user and organizational requirements
3. Produce design solutions (prototypes)
4. Evaluate designs with users against requirements

• This contributes to the Usability of the system and the User Experience with the system
 Design Process

UCD = user centered design

 Roughly, a combination of the Phased UCD
Design Process Model and the Iterative Design
model
Process Phases == Labs, Milestone and
Assignments and other project elements
in the Phase 1: Understanding Users, Validating
Design Concepts
Course Phase 2: Applying Design Principles,
Design Walkthroughs

Project Phase 3: Contextualizing, Refining, and

Evaluating Designs…
Phase 4 would likely involve a field trial …
 This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

Understanding Users
Part I
 Topics

UNDERSTANDING USER RESEARCH ETHNOGRAPHY CONTEXTUAL

USERS FOR THE INQUIRY
COURSE PROJECT
 Concept vs Reality

Slide D. Reilly
 Concept vs Reality

Slide D. Reilly
 • You are trying to do a variant of user-
centered design
• In user-centered design you actively
engage actual or potential users of your
system throughout the process
Understanding
• In UCD understanding users includes:
users in this • Spending time with them at their place of
course project work (or where the supported activity takes
place)
• Interviewing / surveying users
• Defining their needs and tasks and verifying
these with them.

• But in reality, you are using your classmates

• They are similar to you BUT can still offer a
new or different perspective based on
experience and background
 Conducting Research:
Use variety of resources
• Online resources: Academic articles, News, Blogs, Wikipedia, Photo essays, Videos, Data repositories
• Note: If an online resource doesn’t cite sources and clearly identify who created it, then it isn’t a trustworthy
resource also consider author motivation. Are they primarily sharing information or are they primarily trying
to persuade? If the latter, be skeptical about the informational content.
• Libraries: Librarians do that By appointment E.g. https://libraries.dal.ca/hourslocations/kellogg.html
• Use Dal library search to find academic articles and electronic books. This will give you access if Dalhousie
has paid for it.
• Citations: Academic articles are peer reviewed to ensure the research methods, analysis, and argumentation
are sound.
• But not all publication venues are top-quality (e.g., can check their Impact Factor (IF), avg. number of
citations an article they publish gets. Higher is generally better, but this biases popular topics.)
• A paper with a lot of citations may have had a greater impact on the relevant research community, and so
may be more useful. There is an echo chamber effect, however.
• Snowball method: If you find a highly relevant article: Look at their list of references, identify potentially
relevant ones.
• Look at the list of articles that cite this one, identify potentially relevant ones. …and so on… Example: ACM
Digital Library
Ethnography

• “…theory of cultural behaviour in a particular

society” (Frake 1964:111-112)
• “It takes a very skilled person with a high
degree of selfawareness to study a cultural
scene he has already acquired” (Spradley and
McCurdy 1972:32-34)
 Ethnography
• People observed as they go about their
normal activities
• Observers immersed in the environment
and become a part of the normal
activities
• Strong attempt to minimize the impact
of having the observer present (e.g.,
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC the Hawthorne Effect)
CC BY-SA-NC
• Important to NOT INFLUENCE normal
activities
• Sometimes observers are more hidden
while other times observers are fairly
apparent (i.e. part of the experience) but
are still careful to not influence activities
or behaviours
• More of an experience than a data-
collection exercise
• BUT experience must be analyzed,
shared with others so it must be
This Photo by Unknown Author is documented or captured somehow
licensed under CC BY
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
Ethnography

• Reveals info that may be missed by other

methods (i.e., real activities, context of
work, implicit goals)
• Records behaviours, activities and context
• Including what is normal or taken for
granted
• What people say/do
• Documents notes, pictures, room
layouts, video
• Don't plan what you are going to collect,
just collect what happened
• But do know how to collect
 Contextual Inquiry
• A design methodology rooted in ethnography
• Structured approach to gathering and
interpreting data from fieldwork for the purpose
of informing design

• Typically involves 7 stages:

1. Contextual Inquiry
2. Work Modelling
3. Consolidation
4. Work Redesign (visioning and storyboarding)
5. User Environment Design
6. Mockup/Prototype and Test with Customers
7. Refining Design
Contextual Inquiry

• One-on-one field interviews with customers/users in

their workplace to discover what matters in the work
• Can gain reliable knowledge about what
customers/other users do and what they care about
• Identify appropriate people to meet, observe, and
interview: customers, users, managers, etc.
Contextual Inquiry

• To efficiently gather information relevant to

product development.
• To gather context sensitive information that is
relevant and helpful to design.
• Taking users out of context separates them
from familiar cues, tools, and environmental
aspects of their normal work environment.
• When asked questions out of context, users
tend to speak in generalities.
 • CI is usually much shorter than ethnography
• Focused on design issues not on understanding
“everything”

Contextual • Less concern with “blending in” to become

participant observer
Inquiry vs • Main goal is to design a system in traditional
ethnography there is no pre-determined agenda to
Ethnography follow beyond understanding culture
• Contextual Inquiry example: student shopping
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV6br-npgfw
 Contextual Inquiry

Interviewing: What they say Observing: What they do

Get them to think aloud while See actual behavior, which often differs
working/or doing an activity from what they say
Narration can add “hidden” information
Interviews to find out more details - Ask
specific questions related to a topic of
interest
What is Observation?

• Watching people, programs, events, tasks,

communities, etc.
• Used to:
• Provide information about real-life situations
and circumstances
• Assess what is happening
• Valuable because you cannot always rely
on participants’ willingness and ability to
provide information
When is observation useful?

• When you want direct information

• When you are trying to understand
an ongoing behaviour or process
• When there is physical evidence,
products, or outcomes that can be
readily seen
• When other data collection methods
seem inappropriate
 Observations

Advantages Disadvantages
• Most direct measure of • May require training
behaviour • Observer’s presence may create
• Provides direct information artificial situation
• Easy to complete • Potential for bias
• Saves time (maybe) • Potential to overlook
• Can be done in natural or meaningful aspects
experimental settings • Potential for misinterpretation
• Difficult to analyze
 Contextual Inquiry

Interviewing: What they say Observing: What they do

Get them to think aloud while working See actual behavior, which often differs
Narration can add “hidden” information from what they say

Interviews to find out more details - Ask

specific questions related to a topic of
interest
 Talking and listening to people

Verbally asking participants

questions and hearing their point of
Interviewing view in their own words

is… Done face-to-face or over the phone

or video

One to one (one interviewer and one

interviewee)

35
Interviews Advantages
• Deep and free
Disadvantages
• Costly in time and
response personnel
• Flexible, adaptable • Requires skill
• Glimpse into • May be difficult to
participant’s tone, summarize
gestures responses
• Ability to probe, • Possible biases
follow up (interviewer,
participant,
situation)

3
6
 Language

• Keep language in line with the participant

Avoid

• Avoid long questions

• Avoid leading questions

Rapport + Respect
Interviewing • Create comfort

Tips • Be respectful

Timeframe

• Establish a time frame (and stick to it!)

Listen

• Listen carefully
• Probe answers

37
Example: How to • Suppose I wanted to create a new app for
an ice cream shop and decided that I want
come up with to talk to people to learn about ice cream.

questions to ask in
an Interview
38
Some questions

• Do you like ice cream?

• Do you eat ice cream?
• Is vanilla ice cream your favorite?
• Do you eat your ice cream in a
cone?

39
 Suppose I asked 20
people these questions
– what could I learn??

15-20 people like ice cream

17-20 eat ice cream
5-20 people like vanilla best
10-20 eat ice cream in a cone
 What is everyone's
favorite flavour of ice-
cream?
But what
How people like to eat ice
I don't cream (e.g., cone, dish)?
know
Why they eat ice cream?

41
 How can we make the questions better?

Do you like ice cream? Better: Do you like ice cream? Why or why not?

Do you eat ice cream? Better: Do you eat ice cream?

Why do/don't you eat ice cream?

Is vanilla ice cream your favorite? Better: What are your favorite three flavours in
order? Why is the top one your favorite?

Do you eat your ice cream in a Better: What are all the ways you eat your
cone? ice cream? AND how often for each? AND
why for each?

42
 Like about Ice cream
• Great on a hot day (15/20)
Favorite Flavours of Ice cream
• Creamy (10/20)
• Fun (9/20)
Dislike about ice cream
Rocky Vanilla • Too cold – hurts teeth (5/20)
Road • Melts in the summer (12/20)

Chocolate
Ways to eat ice cream Frequency
Cone 65%

15-20 people like ice cream Bowl 30%

17-20 eat ice cream Out of carton 5%
5-20 people like vanilla best
10-20 eat ice cream in a
43
cone
Interview types

3 types:
1. Structured
2. Unstructured
3. Semi-Structured
Structured
interview
• Uses same script and questions
for all users
• No flexibility in wording
• No flexibility in question order
• Can be both closed and open
response options
• Adv: Thorough and consistent
• Disadv: can not probe answers

45
 Unstructured
interview
(open or
flexible)
• Most spontaneous
• Focused topics but questions are not
predetermined or structured
• But there is a general idea of areas of
interest
• Questions tend to emerge from the situation
and what is already said/answered
• Can be difficult to run but you may get more
information as it is user driven (need
experienced interviewer)
• Adv: it is Individualized and relevant to the
situation
• Disadv: Harder to compare between users
since there could be differing questions and
you need an experienced interviewer to keep
the interview on topic
46
 Semi-
Structured
interview
• In this case, there is an outline of topics or
issues to cover and for the most part the
questions are listed. However,
• Questions may vary the wording
and/or vary in the order the questions
get asked
• May probe interesting responses
• Fairly conversational and informal
• Adv: The questions allow for probing to
learn more, and the interview tends to be
fairly conversational to the participant
• Disadv: still takes time to analyze and
compare between users (although easier
to compare than flexible)
47
Example Question Topics
Opinions/values - what a
Behaviors - what a person
person thinks about the
has done or is doing.
topic.

Feelings - what a person

Knowledge - to get facts
feels rather than what a
about the topic.
person thinks.

Background/demographics
Sensory - what people
- standard background
have seen, touched, heard,
questions, such as age,
tasted or smelled.
education, etc.

48
Probing

• Q: What did you like best about the interface?

• A: “I liked everything”

• Interviews allow you to probe answers. You could

now ask:
• “Can you give me an example?”
• BUT be careful not to ask a leading question
though…

49
Probing
• Avoid using clichés, and words which may not mean much (e.g., do you find
it intuitive?)
• It is okay to ask participants to be more precise or explain/define what they
mean or terms they are using.

• Asking a hypothetical question may encourage your interviewee to talk

more. For example, if someone has had an adverse experience with a health
service, you could ask:
• What would you like to have happened?
• Ideally, how would you like to be treated by nurses/doctors?

50
Some More Hints for Interviews

• Think of themes or sub-topics that you want

to investigate and then structure questions
around it. I'll go through an interview we used
after a study that explored google maps for
exploring a location. We organized the
questions according to main themes we were
interested in.
• Have a main question/s for each theme, then
a list of questions under it that could help
probe the participant more (note. some
participants didn't need the extra questions
because they included all the details in their
response to the main question)

51
Background for the next slides
• A while back, we ran a study to better
understand how people use Google maps to
plan walking routes with multiple locations to
visit
• E.g., you need to run errands (drop off your dry
cleaning, pick up coffee and bread from a
grocery store, and get a birthday card for your
friend) before meeting your friend for lunch.
You need to plan what you do first –i.e., where
to go…

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Themes we used for Interviews
• Theme 1: Creating a Route (how do people
create a route to follow e.g., how do they
choose which place to visit first)
• Theme 2: Navigating to Places (how do people
navigate to the location e.g., what views do
they use, do they use landmarks?)
• Theme 3: Lost and Reorienting (if they get lost,
how do they get back on track)
• Theme 4: Orienting to a Location (at different
locations can they figure out where the other
places are relative to where they currently are)

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

 Theme 1: Create a Route
At the beginning of the study, you chose to go to
[first location] followed by [list of other ones].
Why did you create this route?
• What views in Google maps did you use to
help you find the location of each place at the
start? Why did you used this / these views?
• Why did you use the different views?

For [the location] you chose to visit [name]. Why

did you choose this location over the others?
• What views in Google maps did you use to
help you decide on the place you visited?
Why did you used this / these views?
• [if applicable] Why did you use the different
views? How did these ‘views’ [talk about each]
help you decide? This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Note main questions are in blue, and follow-up/probing questions are underneath
 Theme 2: Navigating to places
What views in Google maps did you use to help
you walk/navigate to the different locations?
Why did you used this / these views?
• Did you switch map views when locating a
particular location? Why? How did this
help?
• How did these ‘views’ [talk about each] help
you locate the places?

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Note main questions are in blue, and follow-up/probing questions are underneath
 Theme 3: Lost and Reorientation
While finding the different locations, did you ever
get lost?
YES
• How many times did you get lost? Can you tell
me about it / them (e.g., for what location)?
• Why do you think you got lost?
• Were you using a particular map view at the
time?
• How did you get back on route? What helped
you?
If NO
• Was there any occasion where you were
unsure that you were going in the right
direction?
• If so, what happened to reassure you that you
were going in the right direction? This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Note main questions are in blue, and follow-up/probing questions are underneath
 Theme 4: Orienting to a Location
When you were asked to point to [landmark],
which map view/s helped you?
• Did you ever find it hard to orient yourself
with the landmark? Why? What did you do
to help?

• Why did you use that/those views? How did

it/they help you find the landmark/s?

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Note main questions are in blue, and follow-up/probing questions are underneath
 General Questions about maps
Did you find different map views to
more helpful for certain navigation
tasks?
• Which ones?
• Why?

In the past have you Google maps or

another location-based application to
help you navigate an area?
• How was it helpful?
• Did you use the same views as you did in
this study – [what was different?]
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
 Start to work on Lab2

• As mentioned, since next Wednesday there is a Coop and Industry

Meet Up we are going to start Lab2 today and then you'll need to go
to the lab next Wednesday to finish it and consult with a TA.

• Next Wed. the lab will be held from 6:30-8:00 – this will allow group
members to attend mostly the session and still come to the lab.

• Note: a TA will be available in the Lab from 6:00pm onwards so if

your group isn't going to the session you can go earlier and still finish
by 7:30.
 Lab 2 Instructions

• Review each theme (4) that you created in Lab 1. Make changes if
necessary/you want.
• For each theme, create short scenarios (2-3 sentences at most) that reflect a
narrative to motivate the user to think about your topic/problem
• Ensure the wording is specific enough that a user knows what to do
without telling them how to the task. Don't assume that they will use a
particular app or software, instead focus on the task theme. You could
ask them to show you how they would do the task using software or apps
but again, it depends on how they would naturally complete the task as
to whether or not they use specific apps/software.
• For each scenario, come up with 4-5 main interview questions (that should
also include probing/follow-up questions) that will help you understand the
theme/scenario better.
• Finally, add a few general questions that relate to your topic.
 Lab 2 Example
Main Topic: Finding new ways to show navigation on a map
Theme 1: "Navigating while walking from point A to point B in a new city".
Scenario: Imagine you are visiting a city that you've never been before, and you want to
walk to several local tourist sites in the city. You don't know the language which makes it
hard to read street names. Think about what you would do to get from tourist location 1
(e.g., a museum) to tourist location 2 (e.g., an art gallery).

Note: A good scenario should help the user understand the theme/sub-problem/task in
order to find out how they may deal with the situation and should not relate to any
specific app or software - i.e., maybe they'd use a paper map or ask directions or go to a
visit tourist centre, so you don't want to influence their opinions by mentioning google
maps.
 Lab 2 Example (cont'd)
Questions for theme: Navigating while only walking to end points in a new city:
1. Describe a way you could navigate while walking to the different tourist sites
such as a museum and art gallery, that does not depend on
knowing/needing to read the street signs.
2. Have you ever been in this situation? Can you describe what you did in this
situation? If you haven't been in this exact situation, is there a situation that
was similar and how did you deal with it.
3. [If the user mentions using their phone or a map app in any of questions 1 or
2 – then ask these questions:]
a. In the above questions you mentioned using 'google maps/or some
other app'. Could you walk us through an example of how you would
use this app? (then observe and ask questions while they do it).
b. Suppose you don't have a data package so you can't use your phone, Notice: I have not
what would you do? How do you think these other ways would help mentioned any
you? features, rather I'm
3. [If the user doesn't mention using an app to help e.g., says they'd use a leaving it up to the
paper map then can ask:] user to identify
potential features
a. If you were able to use your phone that had a map app on it, would
they think would help
you use it? Why/why not? them.
4. If you were to use a new app to help you, how would you like the app to
help you navigate in this situation?
Sources

• Shneiderman, B., Plaisant, C. (2005). Designing the User Interface

(4th Edition). US: Pearson-Addison Wesley.Stone, D., Jarrett, C.,
Woodroffe, M. , Minocha, S. (2005). User Interface Design and
Evaluation. England: Morgan Kauffman Publishers.Sharp, H., Rogers,
Y., Preece, J. (2007). Interaction Design: beyond human-computer
interaction.(2nd Edition). England: John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.
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