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Design, Prototyping, and Design, Prototyping, and Evaluation in Developing Evaluation in Developing

Countries Countries

Jen Mankoff,

Assistant Professor

EECS

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What is human computer interaction about?

Creating applications that provide needed services to clients in acceptable ways

Supporting specific goals– Efficiency– Fun– …

A design process that leads to successful adoption of designs

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What is human computer interaction about?

Understanding interaction of – Tasks– Customers– Technology– Environment

Techniques forcycle of– Design– Prototyping– Evaluation

Tasks

Customers Technology

Envi

ronm

ent

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Case Study: Computers for Rural Healthcare

Handheld support for rural healthcare providers Tasks supported

– Rapid access to medical records– Addition of a new case– Specific modules for pregnant women, young

children, etc. Employed a user-centered methodology (includes

customers/technology/Tasks/environment and iterative design)

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–Norman–Value Sensitive(informed by rural health example)

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Design: Norman paper

Even designing for engineers from MIT is difficult to get right

Solution: Use a discoverable conceptual model– Familiar affordances – Visibility of functionality– Natural mappings– Include feedback– Avoid creeping featurism

Solution: Need to iterate on designs (6-8 times!)

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What does Norman’s model leave out?

Differing context of developing countries– We don’t necessarily know what’s familiar– Conceptual Models may be different

• Affordances differ

• Natural mappings differ

• Other thoughts?….

– Iteration even more key

Differing values in developing countries

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Value Sensitive Design

Values “depend on the interests and desires of humans within a cultural milieu”

Explicitly considers both direct and indirect stakeholders (important for adoption)

Tripartite methodology -- shared with usability– Conceptual investigations– Empirical investigations– Technological investigations

… all support design

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Prototyping

Rapid prototyping is crucial Goal of prototyping is to support further

evaluation and design (iteration)

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Prototyping Techniques

Paper Prototyping Build it Wizard of Oz

None are perfect -- research lies in creating tools & techniques that will support rapid development and evaluation

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Paper Prototyping

Sketch it out on paper– Fast, simple, effective– Simulate “computer”, get feedback about real use

Problems– Only really effective in well-constrained environments– Limited to desktop-like applications

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Build it

“sketch” it out on a computer– Existing prototyping tools & UI builders – Easy to create familiar look and feel

Problems– Existing tools limited to the desktop

• Lack support for small, mobile devices• Lack support for variety of input and output

– Familiar look and feel limited to our culture

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Wizard of Oz

Fake it– Only “prototype” the surface– Use a human “behind the curtain” to fake the rest– Particularly good for recognition

Problems– Easiest to do in a constrained environment– How does one “fake” rapid sensor input, etc?– Wizard must understand dialect, culture, etc.

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–Conceptual–Empirical–Technological(informed by rural health example)

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Many Different Evaluation Technqies

Different strengths and weaknesses Appropriate at different stages of iteration Samples presented today categorized under

tripartite methodology– Conceptual investigations– Empirical investigations– Technological investigations

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Conceptual Investigations

Usability: Task analysis: – What task?– Who are the

stakeholders? – Where will it take place?

(e.g. need for rugged design)

– When will it take place? – Why is it being done?

Values– Value identification; – Stakeholder analysis

(who are they, benefits & harms for each group, connection to values);

– Informed comparison of fundamental issues (are there conflicts, etc)

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Empirical Investigations

Usability & Values both incorporate– Ethnographic inquiries– Surveys– Interviews

However, the questions asked differ

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Empirical Investigations: Questions to Ask

Usability– Who/Where/When/What/Why (task analysis)– What is the conceptual model work? – What are appropriate forms of feedback, mappings,

etc? Values

– How are different values prioritized by stakeholders?– How does what is said differ from what is done?– What is the impact of larger structures such as

organizations and governments on what is possible?

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Technical Investigations

Usability & Values both incorporate:– Toolkits supporting good practice– “Probes” (technology, culture, value,…)– Experiments with prototypes– Field studies

Again, the questions asked differ

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Technical Investigations: Questions to Ask

Usability– Does a system meet specific goals (such as usability,

learnability, fun, etc)– Does the conceptual model work?

Values– Does a given technology allow values to be expressed

in certain ways? – Does a given technology imply values or impose values

that were not the designer’s intent?– What benefits and harms does a technology imply?

How does this map onto corresponding values?

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As it happens…

Major research goal for me is developing tools and techniques for evaluation– Ubiquitous computing (mobile devices,

unconstrained environments)– Universal access (disability, literacy, etc)

Applications in developing countries are a perfect testbed for these ideas

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Contributions to date

Tools & Techniques for simulating different user experiences– Motor impairments– Visual impairments (relates to literacy)

Technique for handling different values (modified heuristic evaluation)

Comparison of field & lab techniques for dealing with a subset of ubicomp applications

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Plans for the future

Tool for supporting combination of paper prototyping & Wizard of Oz in unconstrained, mobile applications

Modifications to Ubicomp prototyping tools specific to supporting different evaluation techniques

Additional modifications to evaluation techniques