Human-Computer Interaction
Phase 1 Understanding users & interaction/1- phas 1- example.pdf
Phase 1 Understanding users & interaction/2- COMP325B 2014 Project Phase I - Understanding users & interaction.pdf
COMP325B 2014 Project Phase I Due Friday, 15 August 2014
Designing a system to help people brand their personal identity Who are you? A cool-as designer, a surfer dude, a sports star, a coder, a book-loving geek? Who am I? An intellectual, an existentialist writer, a dancer? Throughout our lives we express our personal identity in many different ways. Sometimes this is through direct interaction with people, but more and more we present ourselves online via digital media. We tweet how we feel about that person who ‘stole our’ car park from us, post our dream holiday destination on Facebook, compose songs, design invitations, manipulate photos – all using digital software. Some of this expression results in permanent artefacts – photos, recorded music – other things are more temporary – phone conversations with friends, live music. Your task, this semester, is to design a system that will help people to brand their personal identity. Phase I of this project involves understanding how people currently deal with their personal expression. The aim of the activities in this phase of the project is for you to immerse yourself in the real-world context and issues involved in producing, managing, and sharing expression of personal identity, both online and in the real world/offline. You can interpret ‘expression of personal identity’ very broadly. Some things you consider might be active presentations of an artistic nature such as music, art or writing. Other aspects of personal identity might be happening more subconsciously such as the choice what food to eat, what sports to play or which friends to have; people might not perceive this as expression of their personal identity, nevertheless it forms a big part of it. This understanding of context should be deep enough to prepare you to perform a detailed design of a system to support people in producing, managing and expressing their personal identity; the system should enable users to ‘brand their personal identity’. You will create and evaluate this design in Phase II. In Phase III, you will implement and evaluate a proof-of-concept prototype of the Phase II design. Phase I consists of 5 steps. There are deliverables associated with each of these steps.
Step 1: Self-‐observation and self-‐interview: how do you express your own identity? In this step, you will analyse your own behaviour in expressing your personal identity: the strategies, applications, and resources that you use. Note that you might, or might not, have previously thought of yourself as expressing or branding your personal identity; here, we’re defining personal identity as a set of characteristics
(opinions, values, preferences, beliefs, experiences, possessions, skills, etc.) that a person has. They can be expressed through all sorts of things: actions, artefacts, communication, behaviour etc. Your investigation should include an exploration of: • The characteristics of your self-expression, are they temporary or permanent? Do
you create them alone or in a group? Do you express yourself in the ‘real world’, digital world or both? Are there any differences when and why you would choose one over the other?
• Are you active in expressing yourself, do these artefacts originate from your own creation (e.g. you are a singer/songwriter or artist) or are you more passive selecting other people’s works and express your own ‘personal brand’ through your choices (e.g. aspiring to own all death metal that is out there)?
• The types of artefacts your might produce; songs, photos, dances, books, poems, tweets, blogs, paintings, drawings, designs etc.. Collecting stamps, photos, CDs, vinyl records? Wearing certain clothes and hairstyles?
• Which temporary types of self-expression you perform; playing a musical instrument, singing, playing sports, acting, etc.. Attending plays, concerts, sports games?
• Your expression of identity; does it happen more introverted or extrovertly? Do you keep your expressions to yourself or do you love sharing them?
• Is your self-expression based on creativity, intellectually based, belief-based, political, physical, emotional, etc.?
• Your motivation for expressing your personal identity. Think about the last few times you can identify as personal expression; how did you express yourself, why did you do it? If you produced an artefact, will it have a further use? For example, do you have a specific time or circumstance in mind when you think that you’ll look at it again, or was it saved to fill out a collection, or to show someone else, or for ‘just in case’ (in case of what?)? – If it did not produce an artefact, do you think there will come a time you will want to know other people about that particular self-expression of yours? When might that be and with what aim?
• Regarding potential artefacts – where and how are they stored? For physical artefacts this question would be answered differently than from digital artefacts. Have you got a system of organization how to manage them or are they randomly spread out over your house or digital devices?
• Add any other personal identity-related behaviour associated to producing, managing and sharing/expressing ‘your’ personal identity not covered by the above points.
Please note that individuals may not participate in all activities listed above! Your work in this observation should reflect your expression of your personal identity. If you think you don’t express your personal identity or think you don’t have any, then include in your write-up a self-reflection on why you think this is. Deliverable: a 4–5 page report of this investigation. You are encouraged to include photographs, screenshots, or sketches to illustrate the write-up. In the investigation write-up, please include:
• A brief description of the location / environment of the self-observation (e.g., was this where you express yourself? Did you have the hardware/tools that you usually use?).
• A summary of your self-interview, written up as a set of questions with your associated responses. The questions that you ask yourself should be similar to those that you ask another person in Step 2.
• A brief overview of what you’ve learned about your own methods and motivations for expressing personal identity (what are the main themes or trends? For example, do you have a formal way of branding your identity or is your self- expression more random—and why? What were the problems points, and what worked well? Etc.).
Step 2: Interview and observation: Personal identity expression behaviour of a friend or family member Perform the investigation in Step 1 using a family member or friend as a subject. Interview this person to find out how they currently express their personal identity. Ask to observe them as produce or manage an aspect of self-expression (e.g. watch them how the manipulate their digital photos, play the piano, have a rugby game or sing in a choir). The interview questions should be similar to the questions that you asked yourself, in Step 1. Note that the questions might not be identical to those of Step 1—you may have found better ways to word the questions, or you may be prompted to ask additional questions by what you discover in this interview. See the “Ethical notes” below for important information on the conduct of this interview / observation. Deliverable: Write a 3-4 page report describing this person’s approach to expressing personal identity, and highlight the differences between their activities and yours. Again, you may include photographs, screenshots, or sketches to illustrate the write- up. In the investigation write-up, please include: • A brief description of the location / environment of the self-observation (e.g., was
this where your interviewee normally expresses themselves? Did they have the hardware/tools that they usually use?).
• A summary of the interview, presented as the set of questions that you asked, with each question followed by a summary of the interviewee’s response. Do not transcribe the entire interview, though you may wish to include brief quotes from the interviewee if they seem particularly interesting or useful.
• A brief overview of what you’ve learned about that person’s methods and motivations for expressing their personal identity (What are the main themes or trends? For example, do they have a formal way of branding their identity or is their self-expression more random—and why? What were the problem points, and what worked well? Etc.). In this overview, highlight the differences between their activities and your own.
Step 3: Diary study As you go through a normal day of work / leisure / study, record your activities in producing, managing, and sharing self-expressions. Use the form provided on Moodle. Conduct this diary study for at least three days. Note that the days do not have to be sequential. Deliverable: Hand in your diary forms. Write a 1-2 page report summarizing your diary entries: What sort of patterns did you see in your activities? How do your diary entries match to your self-observation and interview—or did you find out something new from your diary entries? What have you learned about what you do, or don’t do, with self-expressions?
Step 4: Critique of an existing personal expression system Write a critique of a system that can currently be used to produce, manage or share self-expressions of personal identity. Possibilities include, but are not limited to, • WordPress • Facebook • Twitter • Pinterest • Vine • InDesign
• Photoshop • Illustrator • Flickr • Garageband • Audacity • Youtube
Think about how this system / site supports a user in producing, managing, and sharing self-expressions. Note how well these systems / sites supports one or more of the user activities/needs identified in Steps 1 - 3, any additional behaviours that the system might support beyond those that you identified, and any major usability issues (egg in terms of interaction, functionality, layout, icons, etc.). Deliverable: Write a 3 - 4 page report that describes both the match and mis-match of this system to the behaviours that you noted in Steps 1 – 3. Again, you should note any additional behaviours that this system might support beyond those that you noted in Steps 1 – 3 (if any). You should include screenshots and sketches to illustrate your report.
Step 5: Summary of user needs Using the Steps 1–4 deliverables, produce a list of user needs for a new application that will support users in producing, managing and sharing self-expressions of personal identity. What functionality should this application support? How will the user interact with it? Deliverable: a 1–2 page summary of user needs. You should briefly demonstrate the rationale for each item in your specification by making reference to your investigations in Steps 1–4.
Material to submit Deliverables step 1-5: All students should upload a report onto Moodle containing all the deliverables specified in Steps 1–5 (apart from the diary forms) by 5pm on Friday 15 August. This report must be word-processed, using Times font, size 12 point, and single line- spacing. Use margins no larger than 2.5 cm on all sides. Make sure you include your name and student id number on a coversheet. Diary forms: Attach a cover sheet with name and student ID to your diary forms. Hamilton students must drop your filled-in diary forms in the COMP325 assignment box (outside the Computer Science office, first floor, G Building) by 5pm on Friday 15 August. Tauranga students must hand in your filled-in diary forms to Judy at the start of your Friday tutorial on Friday 15 August.
Ethical notes An important aspect of conducting HCI research is to behave ethically. When you are dealing with participants, you will need to do the following: • Give a copy of the Research Consent Form and Participants Bill of Rights to your
participants (see Moodle for copies of these forms; you will need to adapt the Research Consent Form for your needs).
• At the beginning of each session, verbally explain these documents, with particular reference to the participant’s right to withdraw at any point without explanation.
• Get the participants to read through the documents carefully. Two copies of the Research Consent Form need to be signed by the participant and yourself. One copy will be retained by the participant, and you will keep the other copy.
• After the end of this semester, when your grade for COMP325 has been finalized, destroy any data that you hold that was gathered from your participant(s).
Please also note that some members of the HCI research group at the University of Waikato may also analyse your results and use them to help in their research. Your work will be anonymised should this analysis be carried out. If you do not wish to permit your work to be analysed, you can inform the course tutor during your tutorial in Week 6, or send an email to the course tutor in Week 6. In no case will the lecturers for COMP325 know which students opted out of having their work analysed until after the end of the semester; that is, a decision to opt out will not adversely affect your grade. Similarly, a decision to allow your work to be analysed will not favourably affect your grade. Should you wish further information or to see the results of any analysis of the COMP325 project, please contact the COMP325 lecturers after February 2015.
Phase 1 Understanding users & interaction/3- DiaryForm-Diary Template File.pdf
Time & Date Location � creating identity expression � sharing identity expression
� managing identity expression
� destroying identity expression
� other __________________________________ Devices Involved Description of Event (Who was involved? What did you do? Why?) Time & Date Location � creating identity expression � sharing identity expression
� managing identity expression
� destroying identity expression
� other __________________________________ Devices Involved Description of Event (Who was involved? What did you do? Why?)
Name: Instructions: Fill in diary for three days. The days do not have to be consecutive. Location refers to your physical location when you are producing, managing, or sharing your expression of personal identity, (e.g., at home in bedroom, in uni lab, etc.). Tick the box that describes the personal identity expression activity you are doing:
� producing/creating an expression of personal identity, � managing an expression of personal identity, � sharing an expression of personal identity, (e.g., playing recording of own song to friends or playing it live), � destroying or deleting an expression of personal identity (e.g. ripping drawing / deleting digital photo) � other action (briefly state what action) Write down the physical devices involved (e.g., my tablet, a friend’s laptop, violin etc.) Briefly describe the event or action (e.g., I uploaded 2 digital photos to Flickr, I wrote a song about my broken foot) Estimate number of personal identity expression events not recorded in diary: __ Day 1 __ Day 2 __ Day 3 Time & Date Location � creating identity expression � sharing identity expression
� managing identity expression
� destroying identity expression
� other __________________________________ Devices Involved Description of Event (Who was involved? What did you do? Why?)
Time & Date Location � creating identity expression � sharing identity expression
� managing identity expression
� destroying identity expression
� other __________________________________ Devices Involved Description of Event (Who was involved? What did you do? Why?) Time & Date Location � creating identity expression � sharing identity expression
� managing identity expression
� destroying identity expression
� other __________________________________ Devices Involved Description of Event (Who was involved? What did you do? Why?)
Time & Date Location � creating identity expression � sharing identity expression
� managing identity expression
� destroying identity expression
� other __________________________________ Devices Involved Description of Event (Who was involved? What did you do? Why?) Time & Date Location � creating identity expression � sharing identity expression
� managing identity expression
� destroying identity expression
� other __________________________________ Devices Involved Description of Event (Who was involved? What did you do? Why?)
Time & Date Location � creating identity expression � sharing identity expression
� managing identity expression
� destroying identity expression
� other __________________________________ Devices Involved Description of Event (Who was involved? What did you do? Why?) Time & Date Location � creating identity expression � sharing identity expression
� managing identity expression
� destroying identity expression
� other __________________________________ Devices Involved Description of Event (Who was involved? What did you do? Why?)
Time & Date Location � creating identity expression � sharing identity expression
� managing identity expression
� destroying identity expression
� other __________________________________ Devices Involved Description of Event (Who was involved? What did you do? Why?) Time & Date Location � creating identity expression � sharing identity expression
� managing identity expression
� destroying identity expression
� other __________________________________ Devices Involved Description of Event (Who was involved? What did you do? Why?)
Phase 1 Understanding users & interaction/4- before start.txt
Hi there, Phase I: Understanding users & interaction ! Focus on user needs Phase II: Paper prototyping ! Try out different design ideas Phase III: Prototype Implementation ! Environment of your choice I hope you read the Example and took an Idea before you read the requirements and tell me if you are able to do it or not. Just to keep in mind and to remember in simple words what the steps about and what want in the steps if possible. Step 1 and 2 Is about answering questions by two people. Step 1 self-observation ((interview with Ur self)) with the questions or any questions similar to what in the requirements. Step 2 asking the same questions to some and see what he/she says (interviewing someone) Is it possible to write about what I’m interested on? For me I’m interested Music and texting or sharing interesting news that I read about with my friends by Facebook, whatsup and blackberry messenger So if you could answer or create question to be related to what I interested on it will be great. Step 3 You can make it or ask me and I will tell you what I usually do. But in general any three days that I do what I’m interested on. Step 4 Any easy application that we can use in the next phases I hope everything is clear and please email or text me for any farther information. Kind regards Essa
Phase 1 Understanding users & interaction/5- some comments between student and Tutor.rtf
Some comments between the tutor and students:
Nots:
Step 1: don’t work in high level and theoretic, you’ll have more material to work with in Phase II.
If you can include more concrete details about how you express your identity and what these activities express about you. So, for example: using Twitter. How often? What sorts of things do you share on Twitter? Why? To whom? Try being that specific with the most significant self-expression activities.
In Step 2, remember to discuss the differences between your behaviour and that of the person you're interviewing. That needs to be a longer discussion than this step currently includes. You'll also need to make sure that you don't identify the person whom you interview (so instead, give an age range and a bit of other demographic detail, and *not* refer to him as your father). •
Step 3: For the diary study the request is to keep the diary for three days, and then to summarise the activities recorded.
Step 4, the idea is to critique one particular system in great deal (2 - 3 pages). You'll get much better marks if you focus on one system.
Step 5, each user needs must have next to it a description / discussion of the evidence supporting it (where that evidence is found in one of steps 1 - 4). That evidence is where the majority of the marks will come from. So, for example, one user need is 'managing events'. What specifically did you discover in Step 1, 2, 3, or 4 that leads you to believe that 'managing events' is a significant user need? Please be as specific as possible, by mentioning the step and the behaviour.
Q# Does phase I need to be written like a report. ie. from a 3rd person perspective and be objective?
Or can we give our opinions when we write it? Can the whole phase be written from the same perspective, since we are collecting the information?
A# Hi,
As step 1, phase 1 is a self-reflection it will be from you point of view rather than from an outside scientific sounding point of view. That is in the nature of the task we have asked you to do. Same with the diary entries in step 3.
You will have to report the interview in an object way, though.
Hope this helps,
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Q# We do not hand in a copy of the ethics form, we just keep a copy and have your interviewee keep a copy?
Is that correct?
A# Hi,
Your participants will keep the "Participant Information Sheet" and you will keep the "Research Consent Form" that they have signed. The participant does not need to have a copy.
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Q# Do our peer interviews have to be in person, or can we Skype video call interview someone and use TeamViewer (remote access software) to see what they are doing on screen?
If they can be remote, then does the person have to physically sign the form, or would an electronic signature (I think the university Excess Workload form uses initials if signing digitally) suffice?
A# We are happy for you to do it via video Skype (but not just audio) if you are using TeamViewer. Yes, an electronic signature would be sufficient.
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Q# Hi,
Yes, things like design work well for the self-observation. You can choose if you want to look at many different facets of one aspect, i.e. go into great depth with one area that is quite important to you or if you chose to look at a multitude of things. You simply need enough to actually write a good report and to have sufficient material so you can compare it to your interviewees answers and identify user needs.
Feel free to e-mail me and make an appointment to discuss this further.
A# Hi,
Yes, things like design work well for the self-observation. You can choose if you want to look at many different facets of one aspect, i.e. go into great depth with one area that is quite important to you or if you chose to look at a multitude of things. You simply need enough to actually write a good report and to have sufficient material so you can compare it to your interviewees answers and identify user needs.
Feel free to e-mail me and make an appointment to discuss this further.
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Phase 1 Understanding users & interaction/6- phase1-marks-scheme-2014corrected.pdf
COMP325B 2014: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction Project: Phase 1 Designing a system to help people brand their personal identity
Student Name:
ID:
Marks
Step 1: Interview/Observation: how do you express your own identity? Deliverable: Descriptions of observation/interview as a report (4-5 pages long) Assessment: evidence of the investigation, clarity in presenting evidence in question/answer format, overview /summary, appropriate use of photos, screenshots, sketches etc,
25
Step 2: Interview: personal identity expression of a friend or family member Deliverable: 3-4 page report Assessment: interview presented in question / answer format, summary and overview, appropriate use of photos, screenshots, sketches etc, comments on the differences between behaviours
20
Step 3: Diary study
Deliverable: 1-2 page report analysing and summarising diary entries Assessment: linking summary and analysis to entries, submission of diary in Assignment Box
15
Marks
Step 4: Critique an existing personal expression system Deliverable: 3 - 4 page report on existing personal expression system
Assessment: match and mis-match between systems and user needs (identified in step 5), identification of any usability issues, use of photos, screenshots and/or sketches
18
Step 5: Summary of user needs Deliverable: 1-2 page summary of user needs
Assessment: summary, linking of user needs to evidence gathered in steps 1-3 12
Presentation Spelling, grammar, formatting, coherence. 10
Total 100