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In the beginning of your project your main activity will be doing user research and getting to know the goals and problems of your users. Later on you will probably solve more specific problems and use more books and online resources to solve these problems. | In the beginning of your project your main activity will be doing user research and getting to know the goals and problems of your users. Later on you will probably solve more specific problems and use more books and online resources to solve these problems. | ||
===Familiarize yourself with the domain=== | |||
You do research to get to know about activities, problems and motivations of people who will usually work in another field like you do (it is unlikely that you will do user research on other user researchers). The work of e.g. a statistical analyst demands specific terms (e.g. "significance tests") and has specific tools ("ANOVA"). | |||
It is a good idea to get an overview of the field before collecting data. It will not only help you to understand better what people are telling you, furthermore, you can set yourself more specific goals on what you want to find out and check, if your research idea makes sense (e.g. you could get the conclusion that what you actually want to find out might be better determined by sampling another group of people and not the one you first expected) | |||
This preliminary research should not prevent you from asking questions, even if you read what might be answered in a book. What the pre-research in books or wikipedia articles yields, is a idealized, often rather abstract description. It is good to know these ideas and procedures. However, they are often applied very differently in the real world and a term which is well defined in the book may mean something different to the people you work with. So you should ask if a term or a process is mentioned what it actually means. As a outsider this is o.k. (''they'' are experts in their field) – and often are happy to explain their practices regarding a term, problem or method. | |||
===User Goals/User Motivations=== | ===User Goals/User Motivations=== | ||
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What the goals of your users are is best to find out using research methods like interviews. Goals are hard to guess. You may not even always be aware of why exactly ''you'' do something - and it is even harder to tell what drives other people. Especially if you are new to a field you should use research but even people who think they are experts are often wrong about the users goals. Don't try to guess harder. You want to know. | What the goals of your users are is best to find out using research methods like interviews. Goals are hard to guess. You may not even always be aware of why exactly ''you'' do something - and it is even harder to tell what drives other people. Especially if you are new to a field you should use research but even people who think they are experts are often wrong about the users goals. Don't try to guess harder. You want to know. | ||
=== | ===Ask and Observe === | ||
<!-- We need a more thorough structure and introduction here | <!-- We need a more thorough structure and introduction here | ||
A very useful tool for doing research | A very useful tool for doing research is combining observation with asking questions. | ||
They are best done early in the design process and will help you to find out for which user needs you design and what problems need to be solved. Interviews are not difficult to do, very versatile and you will get a lot of insight. | They are best done early in the design process and will help you to find out for which user needs you design and what problems need to be solved. Interviews are not difficult to do, very versatile and you will get a lot of insight. | ||
====Recruit users==== | ====Recruit users==== | ||
<!-- that should come *after the user understood what intervies are good for--> | <!-- that should come *after the user understood what intervies are good for--> | ||
You want to | You want to find out about potential users of your future product, so you need to see who could use it. Than you try to get these people to an interview. | ||
You can use a couple of ways to contact these potential users: Use your universities Mailing List, ask friends of friends. As you can do the interviews via skype as well, you can state that you search for interviewees on your twitter-page or blog. (Remember: you don't search for everybody, so state for which people you are looking for) State what you are going to do and what it is for. As a student you have probably no money you can offer as compensation. | You can use a couple of ways to contact these potential users: Use your universities Mailing List, ask friends of friends. As you can do the interviews via skype as well, you can state that you search for interviewees on your twitter-page or blog. (Remember: you don't search for everybody, so state for which people you are looking for) State what you are going to do and what it is for. As a student you have probably no money you can offer as compensation. | ||
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Using interviews we want to find out about | Using interviews we want to find out about | ||
* User goals and motivations | * User goals and motivations | ||
* | * Their Actions and the reasons for doing them | ||
* Which Problems exist currently in doing so | * Which Problems exist currently in doing so | ||
====Mind the context==== | ====Mind the context==== | ||
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[[Category:Design]] | [[Category:Design]] | ||
[[Category:Courses]] | [[Category:Courses]] | ||
[[Category:Jan Dittrich]] | [[Category:Jan Dittrich]] | ||
[[Category:Jens Geelhaar]] | [[Category:Jens Geelhaar]] | ||
[[Category:Interaktion]] | [[Category:Interaktion]] | ||
[[Category:Interface-Design]] | [[Category:Interface-Design]] | ||