Initial Impression
Upon reading the course description, my initial impression of this course was basically a course on user-centered design. I thought we would learn about interface design and similar topics, to my surprise the course is much more!
Course structure
I thought the topics covered were useful to learn and were presented logically. The course was delivered well, we would learn one weeks lectures then have a small project with respect to the most recent material. The final project allowed us to implement what we've learnt in the course to that point as well as that weeks new learnings. The course structure allowed us to build a routine and plan accordingly for N2M4210 homework.
Final Project
A final project in this type of design course is almost mandatory in order to put theory to practise. The final project for this course did involve a lot of development work that students couldn't really work on until the last couple weeks. I feel that groups that created a website to demonstrate the user experience had an extremely large amounts of work, since they acted as web developers, graphic designers, and user experience designers. In the end, my group was thinking more graphic design and less user experience design.
I understand user experience to involve all interactions with the product. Including hearing about the product, signing up, and using it; I am not sure our final project covered all of those subjects. It would have been interesting to spend more time designing the complete process rather than making our website usable.
Moreover, it would have been interesting learning how to make a product give you a certain feeling everytime you use it or think about it. This is the objective of user experience design and although the final project should include some thoughts on this, I am not sure that we emphasized this point enough.
Application
I learnt a number of user research methods that I'll surely apply to future design projects. I hope that I'll always think user experience design now that I've learnt the concept. The course is full of a number of systematic ways of doing things and I'll surely keep the website as a favourite!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Reflections on User Research Smoke & Mirrors article
First, I found the series of posts to be insightful and interesting. It touched on many different topics covered within this module and thus some of the thoughts hit home.
The article started with comments on the use of eyetrackers. I've never actually thought of using an eyetracker but could see how the authors "pitfalls" made sense. If you know that someone is looking at something is that enough? I agree that it is solely not enough. You don't know why the user is looking at it, if it is interesting or confusing; two different conclusions that would lead to contradicting results.
I really enjoyed the sections on user research. This is a topic that we covered and focused on in this course: ethnography, card sorting, etc. As a result of this course and other design projects, I feel that user research is a must. I've had design projects completely change do to the feedback and response we receive. A perfect example is the final project for this module; we started expecting to create a credit card solution and ended up creating an online game.
The author of the blog hints that user research gives experienced designers results that they would feel are obvious. This is a point I disagree with. However, I wonder if this is because I am not an "experienced designer". I find that user research gives me insight and a perspective that I could get from nowhere else.
The blog continues to say that user research is useful as a business strategy. I felt that this was a great point! Even if the required design changes are evident, a designer might need the research results in order to push the company to implement the changes.
Another interesting point I felt the blog mentioned was in response to the IDEO video. I watched the IDEO video in one of my design courses and found it to be inspiring. It was slightly unpleasant reading the authors critical remarks; the video is idealized and probably staged but nonetheless designing should be a constraint free process as demonstrated in it. I feel that this is important and especially when innovating a new solution as demonstrated in the video.
All in all, I enjoyed the blog series and particularly enjoyed the opinions shared, whether I agree with them or not. It was a fun read and I would recommend it to anyone in any design industry.
The article started with comments on the use of eyetrackers. I've never actually thought of using an eyetracker but could see how the authors "pitfalls" made sense. If you know that someone is looking at something is that enough? I agree that it is solely not enough. You don't know why the user is looking at it, if it is interesting or confusing; two different conclusions that would lead to contradicting results.
I really enjoyed the sections on user research. This is a topic that we covered and focused on in this course: ethnography, card sorting, etc. As a result of this course and other design projects, I feel that user research is a must. I've had design projects completely change do to the feedback and response we receive. A perfect example is the final project for this module; we started expecting to create a credit card solution and ended up creating an online game.
The author of the blog hints that user research gives experienced designers results that they would feel are obvious. This is a point I disagree with. However, I wonder if this is because I am not an "experienced designer". I find that user research gives me insight and a perspective that I could get from nowhere else.
The blog continues to say that user research is useful as a business strategy. I felt that this was a great point! Even if the required design changes are evident, a designer might need the research results in order to push the company to implement the changes.
Another interesting point I felt the blog mentioned was in response to the IDEO video. I watched the IDEO video in one of my design courses and found it to be inspiring. It was slightly unpleasant reading the authors critical remarks; the video is idealized and probably staged but nonetheless designing should be a constraint free process as demonstrated in it. I feel that this is important and especially when innovating a new solution as demonstrated in the video.
All in all, I enjoyed the blog series and particularly enjoyed the opinions shared, whether I agree with them or not. It was a fun read and I would recommend it to anyone in any design industry.
Final project: Designing for user experience
Need
The group was given the task of identifying a need. After brainstorming several needs, the need to teach financial responsibility at a young age was agreed upon. The solution that will be designed to solve this need will be created from the perspective of a commercial bank. The target customer is youth since it is best to teach financial responsibility at a young age, before detrimental problems arise.
User Research
The group developed user profiles and conducted user research. The novice user for this product is someone with very little banking experience and simply wants to gain competency. The advanced user is a young person with some financial experience and is interested in understanding all the services offered by the bank. The anti-user is the young person who understands banking services and needs more from the product. In this case, a more advanced product is required.
The user research led to a number of user requirements that a solution tackling this need must employ. The user requirements are listed below:
The group decided on using a series of online game based on financial knowledge. This was seen as a fun interactive to teach financial terms an different banking services. The group conducted more user research when performing information organisation decisions. In this case, the games must be categorized logically. The games all have a different theme varying from Jeopardy to Wheel of Fortune.
High Fidelity Solution
User Evaluation
Overall the feedback in response to the changes was very positive. Users felt it was worth the extra work and development in order to demonstrate the idea. The overall look and feel of the project was improved.
The group was given the task of identifying a need. After brainstorming several needs, the need to teach financial responsibility at a young age was agreed upon. The solution that will be designed to solve this need will be created from the perspective of a commercial bank. The target customer is youth since it is best to teach financial responsibility at a young age, before detrimental problems arise.
User Research
The group developed user profiles and conducted user research. The novice user for this product is someone with very little banking experience and simply wants to gain competency. The advanced user is a young person with some financial experience and is interested in understanding all the services offered by the bank. The anti-user is the young person who understands banking services and needs more from the product. In this case, a more advanced product is required.
The user research led to a number of user requirements that a solution tackling this need must employ. The user requirements are listed below:
- able to effectively teach variety of financial knowledge to youth
- easily accessible
- easy to use
- not intrusive
- able to fit easily into the user’s day-to-day life
- targeted towards the identified user age group
- teach content relevant to user group
- able to measure progress and success
- able to provide long-term results
- give incentives for use
- interactive
- affordable or even free
- easy to manage and update content
- supports growth of users (i.e. able to provide material for various levels)
The group decided on using a series of online game based on financial knowledge. This was seen as a fun interactive to teach financial terms an different banking services. The group conducted more user research when performing information organisation decisions. In this case, the games must be categorized logically. The games all have a different theme varying from Jeopardy to Wheel of Fortune.
High Fidelity Solution
The group decided to create the Jeopardy game as a proof of concept. The key functionalities of the Jeopardy game that will help increase the positive experience of the game is as follows:
- The game will involve a wager system that affects the score
- The online game will have a multi-player option
- The different games will be locked and only become accessibly when the previous game is completed
- There will be an interactive-chat function on the website
- For extended learning, students can click the “learn more” link and more information on the specific topic will be shown
User Evaluation
Overall the feedback in response to the changes was very positive. Users felt it was worth the extra work and development in order to demonstrate the idea. The overall look and feel of the project was improved.
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