Lecture03 - Field research and personas

Product Service System DesignTongji University, 2011/2012

Lecture03

Design Research MethodologyUser Interviews and Personas

Research Plan

The goal of any method you choose should be to provide a platform for people to express their ideas, needs, and especially that which is hard to articulate.

Discuss with the research group:

-The schedule-What do you want to understand (what's the purpose of the research)- Who does what?- Which kind of probes you want to collect?- How is the interview going to look like

It is about understanding other people's reality

your reality

their reality

Interpretative space

OBSERVATIONS INSIGHTS

"The person you are interviewing is the expert and your job is to give them a platform to express and articulate their reality and get the insights to interpret what drives their behaviors, actions and opinions."(IDEO)

In-depht interviews

The Personas Technique

This is the Cooper website; They invented and perfectioned the Personas technique. They do research and interaction design.www.cooper.com

"As I walked, I would engage myself in a dialogue, play-acting a project manager, loosely based on Kathy, requesting functions and behavior from my program. I often found myself deep in those dialogues, speaking aloud, and gesturing with my arms. (...) I found that this play-acting technique was remarkably effective for cutting through complex design questions of functionality and interaction, allowing me to clearly see what was necessary and unnecessary and, more importantly, to differentiate between what was used frequently and what was needed only infrequently."

(A. Cooper)

How did it startAllan Cooper's technique in software design

..then he starts working as a consultant..

I would ask them for a specific example of how someone would use their program. The answer would invariably follow this characteristic pattern: “Well, someone could create a crosstab of sales information…but it could be a chart, or if it were marketing data they could present it as a table. They could do anything!" (A. Cooper)

They couldn't describe ONE specific example of use

Softwares (or products, or services..) can be used by multiple users.. but at the end of the analysis you can group them and describe them.

understand how they think and behave, what motivates them, and where the pain is.

The average user does not exist.

Personas

Cathegory

Personal Info

NAME: ....AGE: ...SOCIAL LIFE: where is he from and where does he live now? alone or with someone? family status? ...

Use of Technology...................

Personal quote

Daily Life...................

He would like to...................

Frustrations..................

A Format Example.

you can find more examples here:

http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Persona+Format

Project

Field Research

Schedule

Target definition and research strategy.Schedule and planning.

Students' presentation of field research (place). Each team has selected where to go for field research. present pictures, description and location on the map. (digital presentation. ppt, pdf, videos etc.)

Students' final presentation of the research phase.- Desk introduction- Field research: place- Field research: users- Needs and opportunities- Persona Definition

10.19 (today) 10.26 11.09

No class on 10.02 (But you can send by

email the scripts for the interviews for feedbacks)

Final Research presentation structure.

1. Target DefinitionImages + description + motivation. Use a lot of visual techniques, to help people understanding and get familiar. 2. Place DescriptionWhere did you go? where is it on the map? how does it look like? Imagine you are doing a reportage. You have to add all the information you find useful, but also structure them. Do not be redundant and be careful with your selection.

3. PeopleCollect 9 to 12 in-depht interviews. In the presentation show their pictures and a summary of meaningful insights you got from them (try to quote what they say, don't try to interpret).

4. Wrap UpWhat did you find out? what are the needs of your users, which opportunities do you see?

5. PersonasDefine 3 personas that represent the users you interview. describe their daily life, needs, expectations etc. try to be very specific, and imagine they are real people.

Additional material

Reporters' materialPictures, videos, sounds, notes etc

InterviewsComplete versions of the interviews done. details of people and places where they live

OtherCollect flyers, business cards, sketches etc. Try to keep everything in order, it can be useful.

See you Next Wednesday.(I already put this on Slideshare)