October 19, 2004
HCI Comments V
Kristen Blair, Bill Gaver, Tony Dunne, Elena Pacenti. Cultural Probes,ACM Interactions, February 1999, pp. 21-9
Researchers can improve the quality of their data gathering by consulting and applying principles from the artistic/design tradition. High production values generate better responses. Using hand-crafted artifacts reinforces the impression that the people being observed are important as individuals, not just as an amorphous "target group". Likelihood of cooperation is thus increased. Moreover, the unconstrained, evocative techniques encourage rich responses and enable "user-centered inspiration" that informs the developer about previously undiscovered issues. In some parts, the study appears to veer too much towards gratuitous design tinkering, and the step from viewing probes to proposing designs is not sufficiently described. Principal take-away message for me: sustaining regular communication on a personal level with the target audience is essential. Being creative about the means employed to achieve this conversation can help.
Prototyping for Tiny Fingers, Marc Rettig, Communications of the ACM, April 1994, pp. 21-7
Rettig presents powerful arguments for using quick-and-dirty low fidelity prototypes very early on in the development process. Changing designs and going through more iterations becomes easier since the investment (in terms of time, resources and ego) in each prototype is kept low. Results can be obtained quickly and the danger of getting mired in details too early on is minimized. I have experienced the point that testers tend to comment on "fit and finish" issues in a different area - paper writing. Draft reviewers often focus on surface details such as tone or even punctuation, without addressing more fundamental questions such as structure or soundness of arguments. Switching to other media for design prototypes is in itself valuable - physical, tangible objects have very different "paths of least resistance" and constructing a prototype under such altered circumstances forces the developer to question notions of what is natural/easy/desirable in the interface.
Looking Across the Atlantic: Using Ethnographic Methods to Make Sense of Europe, Genevieve Bell, Intel Technology Journal, 3rd Quarter 2001
The difficult task the ethnographer-as-outsider faces to truly understand her subject of inquiry became apparent to me through some of the reported details. Having grown up in Europe, I noticed a few choices made that likely prevent the study from producing a balanced view. The chosen time frame over the summer months is problematic. Especially in southern Europe, daily habits fluctuate greatly between seasons and the heat common in July/August strongly influences behavior patterns since air conditioning is not common in private residences. So people spend the middle of the day indoors to avoid the sun and go out at night much more frequently than during the rest of the year. Furthermore, the places chosen exhibit some peculiar idiosyncrasies not representative of their national environments. In Italy, Venice was picked as the "major urban metropolis." With roughly 300,000 inhabitants and an economy strongly skewed towards tourism, Venice is very much unlike other Italian urbanizations. In Spain, both the Basque and Catalan regions are known for fierce separatist movements that seek to uphold local culture against "Spanification." Both regions prize themselves on their independence and difference from mainstream Spanish culture.
Despite these mischaracterizations, the study still resulted in a better understanding of Intel's potential European customers. The "domains of significance" that emerged from the ethnography should help position products in these markets. However, the author's own concern, voiced in one of the concluding paragraphs, that "finding ways to make our ethnographic work relevant" remains the biggest challenge, points to the hurdles open-ended, qualtitative research faces in an industrial setting.