What deliverables do you have at the end of the user research phase?
A description of users: empathy maps or personas
A description of users’ current activities: user journeys or task models
A definition of the design problem or challenge: requirements or a less structured statement of the design problem or design challenge or a point of view statement
What is a Point Of View statement?
An actionable statement defining the design challenge
[user] need to [verb] because [insight]
What is Conceptual Design and what does it focus on?
It is high-level design work focusing on what the system has to be like, what facilities it must offer, but not the details.
- Exploring lots of alternative ideas through ideation
- Choosing the overall interaction model and technology that the design will use
- Creating main user journeys for key, commonplace goals
What are 5 ideation techniques?
- Brainstorming
- Sketching
- Storyboarding
- Worst Possible Idea
- Braindumping
- Mindmapping
What’s involved in creating Future User Journeys?
- image/sketch of persona
- title summarising the goal
- series of linked steps
- concise description of each step
- illustration of each step
*Create at least one journey for each persona
What do User Journeys need to be evaluated against?
- Organised requirements - are they all met?
- Viability - can this actually be done?
- Acceptability with users, stakeholders, law, safety
How can User Journeys be used in interviews?
- Verify the main design decisions (e.g. does the flow of work make sense against practice?)
- Test alternative storylines & select between them comparatively (a lot cheaper than building three different systems!)
- Identify real world requirements (new ones may emerge), including key issues for detail design.
What do Storyboards contain?
A sequence of boards each representing a single step in the user’s journey
Caption to explain the content of each board
The whole story should have a clear “beginning and end”.
What does the Detailed Design phase entail?
- Moving from “what” to “how”
- Selecting design ideas to pursue
- Developing more detailed user journeys with more information about each stage
- Creating visual prototypes
What are prototypes and what are they used for? (4 points)
A prototype is a concrete representation of (some aspects of) a design
- For formative evaluation of the design
- To trying out new ideas and techniques
- To stimulate creativity and brainstorming
- To sell a product / concept
Low vs High Fidelity is one of 3 prototyping approaches, what are the two other types?
- Throwaway vs Evolutionary
- Horizontal (broad coverage, less depth) vs Vertical (cover reduced number of features but in greater depth)
What are pros (6) and some cons (5) for using Paper Prototyping?
Pros:
1) Emphasises creating the design rather than using the tool
2) Cheap, fast to learn and use
3) Less attachment to designs on the part of the design team
4) Good for involving users early in design and evaluation activities
5) Encourages comments on the big ideas rather than style details
6) Potential for creative designs
Cons:
1) Not so good for representing interactivity
2) Difficult to store, edit and search - management of large designs
3) Inadequate as a stand-alone design specification
4) Inappropriate for impressing clients (unless done at very high quality by an artist)
5) Layout and design choices may fall to take account of system constraints or platform specific guidelines
What is Wizard-of-Oz prototyping?
WoO prototyping utilises human intervention to enhance a limited functionality prototype
What are some pros and cons of software prototyping?
Pros:
Most reliable way of assessing the complex dynamics of a system; appropriate for evaluating non-functional as well as functional aspects of systems; high-fidelity good for clients
Cons:
Expensive; may freeze a design (it becomes difficult to change); ‘owned’ by the designer, imposes a particular style; lack of creativity
