CIS510 Information-Gathering Techniques

One method that is recommended involves interviews with stakeholders and current users with the product/service in question. With users, it gives the team to chance to discuss hopes and expectations with the service and what is currently working. With stockholders, they are not necessarily using the product but they are heavily invested in project cost, delivery, and future implications. It’s important to have a consistent conversation amongst the different stakeholders and users. The same questions will create a baseline to better determine an urgent need.

Another method that can be used is distributing and collecting questionnaires. The team needs to determine what kind of survey is to be distributed, for how long and through what avenue. With surveys, simplicity is key. The same kind of questions establishes a baseline for the management team to collect a pool of feedback. It’s hard as it is to get employees to respond to “action” items on a day to day basis. With this in mind, short and concise surveys will encourage to staff to get them out of the way quickly. The objective with this method is to ensure that the employee does not get significantly distracted.

One of the most insightful ways to gather information is to analyze the current procedures manuals. In day to day function, experienced employees are not necessarily looking at the job manual to continue doing their job. However, they likely learned directly from referencing these manuals. Process outlines are to be updated as needed. More importantly, looking for more effective ways to complete each item improves overall job functionality. Presenting any potential changes to the executive staff helps keep them involved and ensures the upmost compliance.

With all new and edited design, comparing vendor details keeps the entire project within budget. More so, the ideal vendor will meet as many of the needs as possible. Vendors know who their competition is and will follow up with potential clients to make their sale. It generally isn’t difficult to compile a list of top vendors and find the best product. With large scale business and multi-function departments, a combination of vendors are used most of the time. When using more than one vendor for different functions, they have to work in unison. Vendor cross compatibility is key, and there may be times when these vendors can no longer work side by side. Reviewing these periodically ensures the highest level of productivity, as with a periodic review of the overall design plan.

Even with all of these effective techniques combined, nothing proves more fruitful than collecting feedback from the active users of the product or service. While most preparation is done at the admin end, the users have a completely different view of the application. They run into issues that we sometimes cannot simulate in the admin process. Obtaining user data brings the most holistic approach to solving user end glitches.

In summary, design improvements lead to “reduced learning times, faster performance on tasks, lower rate of errors, higher subjective satisfaction, and better human retention overtime.” (Shneiderman, 1993) The benefits are more profound the more time is invested in the design operations. The information gathering techniques used help aid in bringing innovation to the business.

References:

Shneiderman, B. (1993). Sparks of innovation in human-computer interaction. Intellect Books.

Ye, X., Liu, H., Chen, L., Chen, Z., Pan, X., & Zhang, S. (2008). Reverse innovative design—an integrated product design methodology. Computer-aided design, 40(7), 812-827.

Zilberstein, S., & Lesser, V. (1996). Intelligent information gathering using decision models. Computer Science Department, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts.