Products fulfill needs, Experience fulfill desires

From Marc Gobe, The 10 Commandments of Emotional Branding

“Products fufill needs, experiences fufill desires. A product or shopping experience, such as REI stores’ rock climbing walls or the Discovery Channel stores’ myriad of “sound zones” has added value and will remain in the consumer’s emotional memory as a connection made on a level far beyond need.”

Thanks to Kyle for the post that led me to Marc Gobe.

Experience Days - A unique product/service

Whether you are looking for an exciting extreme experience like free falling or 4 wheel driving or something more tranquil like spa treatments or cooking classes the Experience Days offereded at Gizoo were fun to browse through when looking for fun vacation ideas.

Designing for Poor Motor Control

I am working on the design of a hand held device for patients that suffer the hypertonicity or spasticity caused by cerebral palsy, multiple scelrosis, brain injury or stroke. I have thinking about the disability consequences that result from these conditions. I have been researching assistive devices these patients might be using to accomplish common daily tasks like bathing, eating, walking and so forth.

I found this great site that listed the variety of assitive devices that people with motor control use to get through their day. From this list, I have been able to explore what tools people use and would be familiar with, I am hoping to understand why the designs of these devices help a person cope and apply those same principles into the device I am designing.

I am not an accessibility expert, but I am hoping to design something that will fit seamlessly into the lives of these patients and their caregivers.

Online Gaming and Medical Device Design

Some of my close friends know that I am totally addicted to COD5. It is important to recognize that I am using this immersively interactive experience to help me think of new ways to approach design problems. I may even be patenting one of my more promising ideas for a medical device soon. Since I plan on patenting this idea, I can't talk about it yet. I am listed a a co-inventor for two patent applications, one for deep brain stimulation and another for an indoor air comfort system, so maybe all this game playing is paying off.

I would like to share a Game Research site I stumbled on with a link to a good article: http://game-research.com/index.php/articles/making-sense-of-software-computer-games-as-interactive-textuality/

Spend time having fun and ideas will come!

Touchscreen UI for Handheld Devices

I am designing a User Interface for a handheld device with a touchscreen.

One of the first engineering things I needed to learn about was resistive vs capacitive touchscreens.

Synaptics had a white paper at Control Design that helped me understand the technology behind these options.

I am taking a look at several different products available in the market today including: iTouch, Garmin, Blackberry Storm, HP iPaq and other handheld devices I have designed recently that haven't been released to the market yet.  I am constantly learning new things about what works and what doesn't work well with regular folks during usability studies.

There hasn't been much research on touchscreens yet, but the article on Evaluation of One Handed Thumb Tapping on Mobile Touchscreen Devices was helpful and it has helped me while planning for a formative study of the prototype early next year.   In the referenced study, they found that preferred hand motions were quicker, that it didn't matter if you were walking or just standing while using the device, and that on-screen buttons on the edge had higher accuracy, but on-screen buttons in the center were deemed more comfortable to press.  You will need to be an ACM member to download the full paper.

Web Page Tabs and Accordions

After having worked on medical devices for the last four years, I am coming back to my roots and picking up some web design projects. My approach for preparing for this re-entry to the web world was to visit as many sites as possible, taking a look at each from the user's perspective to see what kinds of features and interaction patterns were now routine parts of websites. My second step is to find out how the web producers "do it". Which of these things are technologically practical and useful and which aren't based on my client's technology choices, business needs and target audience.

It has been fun to refresh my HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills, all of which are very limited.
Here are two sources I think you might want to check out if you are doing any website design:

• warehouse of JavaScript tutorials, examples and code by Jason Bartholme
• animated examples of a wide variety of tab styles at DzineBlog

Customer Informed Design

I just downloaded the Harvard Business Review article, "Turn Customer Input into Innovation" for $6.50 because I thought it would help me think about User Research and what to do with the data in a whole new way. Were there techniques I wasn't tapping? Were there analysis trends that I wasn't familiar with?

The teaser on this article was:
"Lots of companies ask customers what they’d like to see in new products and services—but they go about it all wrong. A new methodology for capturing customer input promises to galvanize the innovation process."
and it definetly got my attention.

This article does support my general approach and I did learn a couple of nuggets, and a new algorithm I would like to use on my next data gathering. My peers in product mangement have talked about Opportunity Assessments and I never really knew how they came up with their numbers. This article describes how to ask questions, group responses and apply the algorithm for another view of the outcome. I was all over how to ask questions and group responses, but never applied this algorithm. So the article was just what I was looking for, taking my tried and true techniques and looking at the data in a new way.

I can't wait to try it!

Design View #50 - Digg's Designer Divulges Design Details

I love it when techies teach others about user centered design.

SP: So does user-centred design impact or restrict your vision for the site?
User-centred design is the only thing I think about--that's the critical aspect for designing Digg or Pownce, or any of the web sites I work on. All I care about is how people use the site currently, and how they will use it, depending on what I do.

SP: Do we need ideas any more then? Or should we just let our users tell us what we should be doing entirely?
No, no, our users don't tell us what we should be doing. Our users guide us to what the problems are. They'll sometimes make good suggestions, but usually they're suggesting a specific thing when they really mean a problem. An it's up to us to find solutions to the problems--like the Henry Ford maxim that I mentioned in my talk today: "If I had have asked my users, they would have told me they wanted a faster horse." Anticipating beyond what our users can imagine. Having the feel to make that logical jump to the next level. That's where the real genius is.

SP: In your presentation you spoke a lot about metrics, and about using information about how people really use your site to influence design. So what do you think about surveys? Should we be running them? What should we do with the results? And how much weight should we give the responses?
A certain type of person is going to fill out a survey, so automatically put that into your weighting. But surveys can be quite useful. We did one on the recommendation engine on Digg, and it resulted in some good data. But I wouldn't use surveys as your sole means of getting feedback from people. Surveys come across as quite tainted, so there's a lot of deciphering to be done with a survey. I think doing user testing, task-based analysis, and focus groups; bringing in a more targeted set of users is probably more beneficial. But it's more work than a survey too.

Get the whole article at SitePoint Design View.

Product Experience combined with Product Performance Creates a Winner

I have always said that first the thing has to work well, THEN you can knock their socks off with a great experience. I have had the pleasure to do some work with P&G but not on the Gain product profiled in this article at AdWeek.

I love being involved in the design of new products, but I always like to do field research to make sure I understand how people are using similiar products today. P&G also does user research. "We use a lot of ethnography, watching how people use a product and why they don't use it," observes Kotchka.

What a great job!

Customer Feedback while using the product

I have always told people outside our profession that having a user use the product while giving us feedback is oh so much more valuable than performing a survey or focus group. The Journal of Consumer Research published by The University of Chicago Press has an article I must have.

"Is There a Substitute for Direct Experience? Comparing Consumers' Preferences after Direct and Indirect Product Experiences" by Rebecca W. Hamilton and Debora Viana Thompson.

Abstract:
We show that direct product experiences (e.g., product trials) and indirect product experiences (e.g., reading a product description) result in different levels of mental construal and product preferences. Study 1 demonstrates that increasing experiential contact with a product triggers more concrete mental construal and increases preferences for products that are easy to use relative to those that are more desirable but difficult to use. Studies 2 and 3 show that the effect of product experience can be attenuated by encouraging consumers to think concretely prior to product exposure and by asking consumers to choose products for others instead of themselves.

If you have a subscription, please let me know if the article is worth the subscription cost. I am looking for some metrics that show the benefit of product use versus recall or perception studies.

Customer Demographics, Behaviors and Motivations

I went searching for the lastest buzz on product experience, but didn't find any new sites or online references of note, well except for that Fast Company article about the 22 year old CEO of FaceBook. I have a Fast Company subscription and read that in the magazine. It is always a good read.

So I searched for Customer Needs Summary since I am in the middle of creating one for one of my projects. I found an interesting site I had never seen before and I found references to where they got their data and I followed the trail, losing track of time in the process. I was looking for demographics, behaviors and motivations of the target users for the product I am researching and designing. I found some of this data, plus a great PPT at Educause Connect. What interested me most was the generational motivation information.

I also found some interesting articles on AJAX, Social Computing and Web 2.0.

UPA2007 EP Rodeo Topic: Integrating UCD with other Methodologies

I was able to participate in the Experienced Practioners Rodeo at UPA 2007 on Tuesday afternoon. We covered four topics in depth and I happened to be the note-taker for one of the topics. We created a simple slide deck to summarize our Integrating UCD discussion.

Other topics included Agile & UCD, Accessibility and Hand-Held Usability. I hope to see those discussions posted as well.

UPA 2007 Contextual Inquiry Examples

Debbie McConnell and I presented at the UPA 2007 conference. Our first talk was about making the transition from web design to small screen design, "Designing for Small Screens: Crossing from Web to Product Design."

Our second talk, "Contextual Inquiry: Get Out of Your Cube!", was about using the skills you have acquired doing studies in an office setting and some tricks we have found for preparing to study in non-office settings like warehouses, manufacturing facilities, medical settings, high security environments and other environments that have potential safety issues.

I promised to make sure that the examples I displayed would be made available in several ways, one of them was on this blog. So, if you were able to find the blog, even though I could not remember the URL, please feel free to get a copy of the presentation, checklist and observer log.

A Great User Experience Definition

I have served many roles in my professional career and my title and self-affiliation has changed over time to be more inclusive of all the types of skills I have mastered over the years. From quality assurance anlayst, business analyst, systems analyst, data analyst, usability analyst to UI designer, interaction designer, product designer to my current self appointed title: User Experience Designer. I feel like this is the best fit now, since I incorporate user research, design and evaluation on all the projects I juggle.

Kimmy Paluch wrote a great article, take a read.

Design Process with Measurable Results

A designer is often called upon to support their design choices, especially those that lead to a higher cost of manufacturing cost. The designer will need to be able to help the accountants understand how the design will influence the return on investment. The design process should include qualitative and quantitative unbiased evaluation techniques that will either support or deny the additional costs. The new product design needs to be compared to previous product benchmarks as well as against leading competitors.

Chuck Jones, Cheif Designer, Whirlpool has instituted a standardized company-wide design process that produces measureable results by putting design prototypes in front of customer focus groups and takes detailed measurements of their preferences about aesthetics, craftsmanship, technical performance, ergonomics, and usability. "Whirlpool charts the results against both competing products and its own previous iterations, giving it a baseline of objective evidence from which to make investment decisions." See the full article at Fast Company.

Identifying potential user errors

Gathering Information
Collecting data during field observation is greatly facilitated by having a protocol of what you will be looking for with an outline of what you know of the users, procedures, tools and techniques they might employ during the session.

Analyzing Information
Once you have the data collated, grouped and categorized you can more easily see trends, best practices, and potential user errors. Identifying and mitigating these potential issues during the design phase is one of the key outcomes of a successful site visit.

Issue identification
The Medical Device Reporting arm of the FDA describes user error to be any error a user might make while using the product. If a product has been found to have instances of user error, they feel the product may be incorrectly branded, not have clear enough directions for use or not provide adequate warnings. If a product is found to have these issues, the FDA may require additional labeling to mitigate the potential use errors.

While doing site observations we often see many things we couldn't imagine because the context of use is not the same as the conditions we anticipated.

Here are some areas to keenly observe while in the field:

• How is the product held, positioned, manuevered and carried by the user?
• Where is the product in relation to the user?
• Where is the product placed when in use and not in use?
• How is the process, procedure, or task flow different than we anticipated or advised?
• How are the techniques or task steps evolving in the field?
• What supplementary tools or aids are used in addition to the product?
• What does the user need to "tell" the product?
• What does the product need to "tell" the user?

And most importantly:

• At any time, could some get hurt? Financial loss, pain, security, embarrassment, etc.

At any site visit, you will see something unexpected and you can imagine many more potential issues than you actually see occur. People will find a way do anything more effeciently and they will find ways to use the product that we never imagined. This is why it is so important to continue to do field studies on products, even well established products.

Clearly identify all the things you think might go wrong and try to design them out. Potential user errors are much like potential risk or potential side effects. Just because you identify it, doesn't mean it will happen, but it is better to know what you might want to avoid or what you might do to mitigate a error before it happens.

UX as change agents

User Experience professionals are the bridge, the glue, the change agent of product development projects. They help to create a vision that is verifiable by the users the product is intended for. Read more from Paul Sherman at UX Matters.

Audibility - Decibles and Frequency

I am doing some research to help define a standard for the audible interactions of a handheld device. The sound is used to create a confirmation of an action, to remind the patient of an action they are or should perform or a warning that they need to take action. I have reviewed what similiar products are doing and also what normal everyday things sound like.
Here is a list from of the approx. decibel rating of common sounds from Answer.com:

30 Soft whisper
35 Noise may prevent the listener from falling asleep
40 Quiet office noise level
50 Quiet conversation
60 Average television volume, sewing machine, lively conversation
70 Busy traffic, noisy restaurant, alarms of medical equipment
80 Heavy city traffic, factory noise, alarm clock
90 Cocktail party, lawn mower
100 Pneumatic drill
120 Sandblasting, thunder
140 Jet airplane
180 Rocket launching pad

Above 110 decibels, hearing may become painful
Above 120 decibels is considered deafening
Above 135 decibels, hearing will become extremely painful and hearing loss may result if exposure is prolonged
Above 180 decibels, hearing loss is almost certain with any exposure


It is important to understand that sound is measured in both decibles and frequency. Decibles(dB) is the strength of the sound, while frequency(Hz) is the cycles per second of the sound. Each person will respond to the combinations of dBa + Hz with the perception of some being louder than others. You can test your hearing at The University of New South Wales - Music Accoustics site.

Features a user may not have thought to ask for

My family and I have been fascinated by the videos you can find at YouTube.
My Jeep Liberty lease is coming up in 2007 and I have my eye on a Lexus. Lexus came up with a car that parallel parks by itself. I wonder if market research data determined that someone like me is often a terrible parallel parker. I can't imagine saying in a user interview, "I stink at parallel parking." But, if you had time to do some contextual inquiry and you went for a drive with me downtown where we had to park, you again would not see me struggle to parallel park, I would rather pay to park in a ramp than to make the attempt. The point is that interviews and contextual inquiry get a good glimpse of a user's reality, but there is always so much more to discover and design sometimes needs to back away from what we see users doing and be inspired by the problems that have not been solved yet.

Lexus LS460 Parallel Parking

Process Research via Focus Groups

I don't recommend using focus groups to gather your user research, but I do recommend using them to provide clarification and expansion of the data you have gathered during site visits. After conducting a site visit study at a handful of sites in your target population, hosting a focus group will help you to validate what you observed and be able to define patterns of behaviour across the wider audience.

If you are designing a product for a process that may have a variety of users and protocols when using the product, you will never be able to see the scope of that variation by doing site visits alone. This is when a focus group of subject matter experts may help you validate, while further defining, and describing the processes that will have the most predictable and successful results with the product.

This kind of focus group will generate the best results when you do some upfront planning and make sure you have a support team with you when facilitating.

FOCUS GROUP PLANNING

Invite the right people (leaders, practioners, researchers)

Provide the proper incentive (status, cash, opportunity to influence and learn)

Provide enough information for them to come prepared. (schedules, agendas, notes)

Location, facility and materials (near attendees, comfort and AV/whiteboards)

Create a facilitation team (product leader/expert, facilitator, notetakers)

Roles and responsibility assignments for the facilitation team

FOCUS GROUP PREPARATION

Record the session objectives. Ensures capturing data needed to make design decisions

Structure the agenda of the session around meeting the objectives

Remember that we are human and need frequent breaks to stay engaged

FOCUS GROUP FACILITATION

Make sure the group understands what you hope to learn during the session

Always start the session by introducing everyone and their role

Begin with what you currently know about the process and product

Ask them to challenge any of these assumption and clarify anything that isn't quite right or may be different in their experience

Next ask them to help you fill in the blanks of your knowledge. What don't we know about the process, what are we missing?

Lastly, allow them to describe their likes and dislikes of the product.

If you already have some early concepts, you might want to share them and ask the team to help you fix or refine these concepts, now that you have a deeper and more accurate understanding of the complexity of the project

The most important factor in getting good data from a focus group is having a facilitator the understands and acheives the objectives of the session. The facilitator must also be very good at introducing the agenda segments and facilitating the conversation to keep it moving, keep it on track and to engage all attendeees.

If the process and product are very complex, I have heard of having multiple notetakers that focus their attention on one or two of attendees. This way none of the conversation is missed. I haven't tried this yet, but I intend to soon.