Seminar 1 - Arsalan's Notes

Chapter 2 points out that one should start the design process by focusing on the user's needs. One should check if a problem currently exists and if an improvement is necessary (improvement of the system may negatively affect the user experience). I agree with this as this saves a lot of work and time in the long run (avoid having to code a product nobody will use). For a designer, it's smart to state all assumptions about the user experience and verify if they're true (false assumptions can lead to problems later). A designer should be able to justify why their idea is useful and how it will support people in their activities. Text also discusses conceptual models for activities (instructing, conversing, manipulating + navigating, exploring and browsing). These summarize what a user is doing with some certain software. Finally, it goes over the usage of interface metaphors, their benefits and how to implement them in product. I agree that interface metaphors are useful for people unfamiliar with technology but cannot be applied unless it's to a new technology.

Chapter 7 goes over the methods of obtaining data (questionnaires, interviews, workshops, natural observation and studying documentation). Using the acquired data, we can describe how a user  interacts with a product by creating scenarios.

Question to discuss: Which form of data gathering is most applicable to our project?

My thoughts on this: Interviews are good to get in-depth analysis but finding willing participants may be difficult. We should still aim to get five of them done. Within our targeted subgroup, it would be interesting to see if their is a lot of variation in the data or if there is a strict common opinion shared. We could also do a questionnaire for short yes/no questions. A workshop might not be feasible with people we don't know. Natural observation may work, we can observe physical interaction within the museum (person interacting with a model/device). However the user's thought processes are harder to pinpoint with this technique.

Generally how the theory relates to our project:

The course literature is useful so far because the theory has provided guideline on how to undertake the project. It shows where to start and what methods to use. One method we could consider would be using hierarchical task analysis - a method to analyse all different tasks a user could do, it can show how complex certain interaction may be.