- user's needs - comfort, efficiency, satisfaction, NOT stupidness, NOT shame, in control, fun
- maslow's hierarchy (bottom-up)
- physiological - food, water, shelter, sex (wtf?)
- safety - security, stability
- belonging - family, friends, lover
- self-esteem - respect, mastery, recognition
- self-actualization - creativity, pursuing inner talents
- parallel to HCI design - basic needs (functions) of our product are typically met, but additional (pleasurable) stuff is missing
- F-shape pattern, prominence of upper left area of the screen
- user research - process of acquiring info on users' needs, habits, experience and skills
- it helps judge if our assumptions about the usage of a product are correct
- reduces dev and service costs, should be done early in development
- qualitative vs. quantitative approach
- qualitative - smaller sample size, lots of info, less structure
- interviews, observations
- (+) helps with initial exploration, detailed
- (-) time consuming, vulnerable to researcher bias
- quantitative - larger sample size, little info, structured
- surveys, tests
- (+) quick collection of data, exact numeric data
- (-) marginalization of secondary aspects, result might be too abstract to interpret in any meaningful way
- process
- qualitative -> insights, questions -> hypothesis
- -> quantitative -> interpretation -> qualitative
- research sample - focus on size, diversity, validity
- sampling strategies - random, non-random (quota, snowball, self-selection)
- sampling bias - difference between responses by test group and general population
- other biases - responder's expectations, instrument bias, etc.
- ethics - no harm should be done to participant, it should benefit them, privacy constraints
- observation (introspection, extrospection)
- ethnographic research - day-to-day monitoring of activities (i.e. company processes)
- long-term, flexible
- interview - structure / semistructured
- (+) no self-selection, ability to ask follow-up questions
- (-) researcher's bias, expensive, lack of anonymity
- design principles
- 30-90 minutes in length
- researcher should be non-judgemental, mustn't attempt to interpret
- don't state an answer is wrong
- attempt to understand non-verbal communication
- keep questions open-ended, avoid leading/binary questions
- unfinished sentences technique
- survey
- (+) low cost, anonymity, large target
- (-) low response rate, complicated follow-up, no chance to intervene
- explain, protect privacy, reward, get contact (for sending results)
- design principles
- answers should be disjoint, complete
- be as specific as possible
- do not ask unnecessary questions
- use scales
- stick to closed questions
- issues - people exaggerate and lie, social pressure (stemming from impersonality)
- user testing
- (+) effective, relatively cheap, hands-on
- (-) UI needs to be in testable state, doesn't provide solution, scheduling
- can be qualitative, quantitative
- testing is task-focused
- participant should be instructed to think aloud
- participants - nervous, don't know what to expect, don't want to feel stupid
- explain test situation, expectations, don't be a cold asshole
- stages
- I. ice breaker - small talk and shit (apparently helps overcome anxiety?!)
- II. briefing - "You are not wrong, I am", think aloud, bureaucracy
- III. pre-test interview - verify if participant is (roughly) suitable
- IV. data collection - do not intervene, interpret data to other observers
- V. post-test interview - showcase alternatives?
- VI. debriefing - reveal the purpose of study, calm down emotional individuals
- caveats
- employee syndrome
- authority figure
- ability to change participant's self-esteem
- keep an eye on non-verbal cues (iceberg pic)
- focus group
- 8-12 (4-6) participants
- subgroup of general population
- (+) effective, interactive, group dynamics
- (-) less flexible, artificial, group dynamics
- focus on attitudes rather than usability of one particular product
- address general and specific stuff, group and individuals alike, make it fun, engage everyone equally
- group thinking - conformity introduces bias (peer pressure?)
- eye tracking
- card sorting
- A/B testing
- we can compare statistical data between two versions (i.e. ad impressions)
- remote testing
- low-cost, less impact and control, higher ecological validity (respects user's comfort zone)
- identifying research needs -> attributes -> data collection -> data filtering -> data analysis -> presentation -> output
- adhere to cultural norms
- Hofstede's cultural dimensions
- power of distance
- individualism
- masculinity
- uncertainty avoidance
- long-term orientation
- indulgence
- Hofstede's cultural dimensions
- a fictional user from a particular (notable) subgroup
- we need to provide detailed description, motivation (why we've chosen that particular group), habits, patterns, characteristics
- rules
- do not project yourself as a typical user
- do not try to please everyone (results in compromises)
- use rigid types of users (does not allow for elasticity)
- creation process
- gather factoids (bite-sized bits of data about users)
- create scales for categories
- cluster
- precision over accuracy
- grouping
- primary
- secondary
- complementary
- anti-persona (someone we don't target with our product)
- ex. software pirates, stalkers, children
- depict roles, not individual people
- (+) induces empathy, more intuitive than hard data, easier to remember
- beware of zombies personas
- personas need to be frequently referred to and well-known
- deals with processes related to cognition of own world and own self
- ex. sensation, perception, language, thinking
- thinking
- convergent - utilizing previously researched solutions
- divergent - discovering something entirely new
- rational - step by step with full awareness
- intuitive - the eureka moment
- mental representation
- methods of storing information inside our brains
- ex. storing references to real-life objects as images, text
- cognitive styles
- explain differences in cognitive processes in regards to stimuli filtering, information processing and storage
- Jung typology
- Extraversion (perceives external world as source of energy) x Introversion
- iNtuition (believes information received from internal world) x Sensing (prefers facts)
- Feeling (acting emotionally) x Thinking (cold, calculated approach)
- Judging (planners) x perceiving (best under stress)
- Field dependency (Witkin)
- field dependent - rely on instant visual perception, takes long to identify stimuli, worse analytical and creative skills
- field independent - fast perception, analysis, non-conventional thinkers
- Reflexivity (Kagan)
- reflexive - slow and precise, thinking through, weighting alternatives
- impulsive - speed, inaccuracy
- Visualizer x Verbalizer (Richardson)
- flow
- state when an individual is utterly engrossed in an activity, feeling of ecstasy, distorted sense of time, high confidence, satisfaction, meaningfulness
- requires balance between challenge and skill
- [-] skill, [-] challenge - don't give a toss
- [+] skill, [-] challenge - boredom
- [-] skill, [+] challenge - anxiety
- results in improved performance, creativity, good feeling
- should refrain from interruptions (phone calls, push notifications)
- requires perfect tools
- memory process
- store -> retain -> recall -> forget
- multi-store model (Atkinson)
- sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory
- in order to keep thoughts in short-term memory, we need to rehearse
- after finishing the task we flush short-term memory
- perception
- sight (primary focus)
- hearing
- touch
- taste
- smell
- pain
- kinesthetic
- human eye
- rods - monochromatic vision, low light, on the sides of vision
- cones - color vision, require adequate light, center
- brain has an option to fabulate a huge chunk of our visual experience
- processing
- shape, size, color, movement
- peripheral vision is processed at all times (required in potentially dangerous situations)
- attractors
- sudden movement > movement > static objects
- gestalt principles
- proximity - objects close to one another appear to form groups
- closure - completing an object without sensing some of its parts
- similarity - similar objects appear to be grouped
- continuity - people tend to mentally form continuous lines
- figure and ground - (face/hourglass pic)
- affordance theory (Gibson)
- we perceive objects by their affordances - suitability to use such an object for specific tasks (ex. door handles)
- methods of perception
- top-down - reinforces relevant information
- bottom-up - focuses on connecting patterns
- attention
- process of allocating processing resources
- cocktail party effect
- focus on an ongoing conversation that the person in question is active in relative to other audio stimuli
- attention shift when they hear a triggering word (ex. their name)
- cognitive load
- total amount of mental effort used in short-term memory
- intrinsic - inherent level of difficulty associated with a specific topic (ex. math equations)
- extraneous - depends on the manner in which information is presented to learners (ex. simple concept taught by an incompetent teacher)
- germane - load devoted to processing and construction of schemas
- mental states characterized by feeling
- accompanied by physiological responses
- based on temperament (Jung)
- varying length, intensity, spontaneity, reproducibility
- levels - sensations, affects, emotions, passions, moods
- primary emotions
- anger, disguist, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise
- ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉc needs - we desire good looking stuff
- focus on initial judgment - first 0.5s is critical, impressions gained persist throughout the experience
- product personality - customers choose products that express on extend themselves (Mac vs PC ads)
- aesthetic interfaces are perceived as more usable and cause increase in productivity and satisfaction
- beauty - quality of an object (objectivist view) x subjective
- dependent on culture (Japanese websites)
- people do not make optimal decisions, beauty of a product skews rationality (ex. cliché that women buy cars based on color)
- hedonic (vanity, luxurious) x pragmatic (no frills, focus on main function) objects (ex. airline class system)
- in context of HCI - usability is pragmatic, aesthetics are hedonic
- ideally cater to both needs, focus on pragmatic stuff when pitching a product (after all, aesthetics are easy to see at first glance)
- personality + environment = behavior
- sum of acquired and preset strategies to deal with various situations
- temperament, skills, motivation
- identity, ego, super-ego (iceberg pic)
- test methods - Jung/MBTI, OCEAN, Team roles, Rorschach
- type A - easy-going, type B - high-strung
- uncanny valley phenomenon - the feeling resulting from interacting with a machine that has a realistic humanoid look, but lacks the same level of realism in behavior (false expectations)
- irrationality - cognitive acts in violation of rules of logic
- Dunning-Kruger effect - cognitive bias wherein people of low ability suffer from illusory superiority (ex. robbers with lemon juice)
- optimism bias - "This thing isn't going to happen to me!"
- cognitive biases
- over-emphasis of personal qualities
- stereotypes
- egocentric bias
- loss aversion
- framing effect
- avoid risk when positive effect is offered
- seek risk when negative effect is offered
- ex. "93% of PhD students registered early when a penalty fee for late registration was emphasized, with only 67% doing so when this was presented as a discount for earlier registration."
- irrelevant alternatives
- subscription pricing - might entice customers to spend more money
- seductive design
- enticing people to engage in certain behavior
- ex. gamification, sequencing (profile completion)
- scarcity
- social proof (awards showcase), authority proof (dentists)
- element of mystery
- PUMP
- personalize
- unexpected
- meaningful
- pleasantly packaged