#31877
Constructing a User Experience: The Cost-Benefits Compass
A common frustration among UX professionals who are employed in the software development industry is the perception that executive-level management gives lip service to user experience rather than supporting specific UX activities by allocating sufficient resources for them.
Werner, Ben. UXmatters (2008). Articles>User Experience>Methods
#26835
The contextual inquiry is a specific type of interview for gathering field data from users. It is usually done by one interviewer speaking to one interviewee (person being interviewed) at a time. The aim is to gather as much data as possible from the interviews for later analysis.
UsabilityNet. Resources>Usability>Methods>Contextual Inquiry
#18617
Contextual inquiry is basically a structured field interviewing method, based on a few core principles that differentiate this method from plain, journalistic interviewing. Contextual inquiry is more a discovery process than an evaluative process; more like learning than testing. Contextual inquiry is based on three core principles: that understanding the context in which a product is used (the work being performed) is essential for elegant design, that the user is a partner in the design process, and that the usability design process, including assessment methods like contextual inquiry and usability testing, must have a focus. For example, suppose you need to assess the usability of a wrench for automotive repair. Using contextual inquiry, you'd visit mechanics at auto repair shops and see how they work. You'd take in not only physical arrangements such as the location of the tool chests, or cramped conditions inside engine compartments, but also environmental concerns, such as the level of cleanliness of their hands, or the noise level in the shop, or the tight schedules imposed by their bosses. All of these would help define a context for their work--and thus a context for the usage of your product, the wrench. You'd also listen to their gripes about your product; how it slips out of their hands if they've been working on greasy stuff, how it gnaws the corners off stubborn bolts. You'd ask them what would make their jobs easier; what design changes would help them. They're a partner in the design process. Of course, you'd conduct all this research centering on the one thing you're analyzing: the wrench. This focus is important--it sets the goals for the visit ('We need to know how they store their wrenches'). Once you're done with your site visit, you can assess from your notes whether you found out what you needed to know.
Hom, James. VWH.net. Articles>Usability>Methods>Contextual Inquiry
#30415
Contextual Inquiry: Listening and Questioning to Improve Information Design 
Contextual Inquiry is a field research technique that focuses on interviewing users in their own context as they do actual work. As a basis for effective design, Contextual Inquiry can contribute to the requirements and structure of systems and information. This half-day workshop presents a practical introduction to Contextual Inquiry as a step in designing information that supports and extends users' work.
Beabes, Minette A., Mary E. Raven, and Karen Holtzblatt. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Information Design>Methods>Contextual Inquiry
#27182
Every piece of user research is part of an ongoing research program, even if that program is informal. However, making a program formal provides a number of advantages: It gives you a set of goals, a schedule that stretches limited user-research resources, and results when they’re needed most. It also helps you avoid unnecessary, redundant, or hurried research.
Kuniavsky, Mike. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods
#30297
Crappy Personas vs. Robust Personas
If you're just going to guess on the personas, why bother? Just design for yourself, like the 37Signals team does. However, when you do the field studies, you create relationships with the people in your research. You can return to those people and ask them questions. You can learn about the things they do.
Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas
#29636
Creative Low-Budget Usability Testing Methods
Usability testing doesn't come cheap. You can however, follow test models that will help you improve the quality of your products, including websites. Usability professionals agree that some testing is better than none, and traditional formal usability testing can be adapted to fit your needs and your budget. This paper discusses how all four of these methods: low-cost usability testing, heuristic evaluations, expert reviews, and checkpoints in the development process were used to analyze subsites and applications at a federally funded public health website.
Reilly, Maggie T. and Cathy N. Hogan. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Usability>Testing>Methods
#27491
Criteria for Focused Data Collection 
The objective of this task is to propose and validate a mechanism whereby projects can identify their needs for software measurement data and focus their data collection activities using a minimum standardized set of software measures. The purpose of this strategy is to evolve a process that will enable NASA projects to tailor with their data collection activities to their unique needs for effective management control indicators, but also encourages consistent data collection that will facilitate statistical analysis across NASA domains.
Wilson, William M. NASA (2001). Articles>Usability>Methods>Assessment
#30458
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. With such dissident research, critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social inequality.
van Dijk, Teun A. Discourse in Society (2001). Articles>Language>Methods>Discourse Analysis
#26652
Critical incident technique is a method of gathering facts (incidents) from domain experts or less experienced users of the existing system to gain knowledge of how to improve the performance of the individuals involved.
#32027
Crowdsourcing as a Model for Problem Solving: An Introduction and Cases 
Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem-solving and production model that has emerged in recent years. Notable examples of the model include Threadless, iStockphoto, InnoCentive, the Goldcorp Challenge, and user-generated advertising contests. This article provides an introduction to crowdsourcing, both its theoretical grounding and exemplar cases, taking care to distinguish crowdsourcing from open source production. This article also explores the possibilities for the model, its potential to exploit a crowd of innovators, and its potential for use beyond forprofit sectors. Finally, this article proposes an agenda for research into crowdsourcing.
Brabham, Daren C. Convergence (2008). Articles>Collaboration>Methods>Open Source
#28075
Customer Satisfaction Measurement
What are the best ways to measure customer satisfaction? Wiley shares some of her ideas.
Wiley, Ann L. Intercom (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Surveys
#26121
Customer Storytelling at the Heart of Business Success
As most of us know by now, customer personas and scenarios are vehicles for helping an organization continuously keep their customers in their line of sight. Traditional segmentation identifies and categorizes a current or potential audience based upon common characteristics, including demographics, attitudes, behavior, transactions, frequency of interaction, spend, and more. They are discovered by “doing the math,” which may include data aggregation, cluster analysis, factor analysis, and other statistical methods applied to large sample sets. And then segments are given catchy names like Savvy Skeptics, Active Balancers, Indulgent Nutritionist, or Trade-Uppers. When done right, segments are statistically derived from the analysis and synthesis of quantitative data and are a solid foundation for customer understanding.
Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas
#28499
Are there any downsides of prototyping? Not really. But as with everything else in life, you might stumble and hurt yourself if you don’t watch your step. This article points out some of the banana skins to steer clear of.
Olsen, Henrik. GUUUI (2007). Articles>User Interface>Methods
#18224
Data Collection and Analysis: A Look at Process-Oriented and Product-Oriented Field Studies
This paper discusses methods for identifying, collecting, and analyzing field data for product design. We present three examples of field studies (one focused on the use of a specific product and two focused on more general user processes) to illustrate how the type of study can affect field methods. In the product-oriented study, observers built an understanding of the work environment by looking at how the users interacted with the product and how the product affected their work, identified patterns of activity, and offered explanations for these activities. In the processoriented studies, observers built an understanding of the work process and made recommendations about how to support it.
Schulz, Erin Leanne, Judith A. Ramey and Denise Carlevato. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>Usability>Methods
#18227
Defining a User-Centered Design Process 
User-centered design includes a focus on user characteristics and their environment, on user tasks, on measurable user goals, on prototyping alternative designs, and on testing, improving, and retesting the winning design. Insights are shared from UCD projects associated with the BookManager and VisualAge products.
Rauch, Thyra L., Candace Soderston and Greg W. Hill. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>User Centered Design>Methods
#21333
Defining Feature Sets Through Prototyping
Defining requirements and features can be a daunting task under the best of circumstances. The Vision Prototype allows the user-centered vision to be seen—and discussed—by all team members and then easily translated into a set of functional requirements.
Quinn, Laura S. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods
#21459
Deliverables and Methods: Special Deliverable #8
To date this column has focused on how to make deliverables more effective, either through their content or through the tools to create them. For this issue, I would like to explore the relationship between deliverables and methodology. Unfortunately, this calls for a definition of IA methodology, which may challenge the definition of IA as the hardest question in our field.
Brown, Dan. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Information Design>Methods
#30443
Demand Characteristics is a term used in Cognitive Psychology to denote the situation where the results of an experiment are biased because the experimenters' expectancies regarding the performance of the participants on a particular task create an implicit demand for the participants to perform as expected.
Soegaard, Mads. Interaction-Design.org. Articles>Usability>Methods
#20261
In a high-powered production environment like the web, a design method can help you get more done faster…and provide you with rules to break. New ALA writer Ross Olson shares his company’s game plan.
Olson, Ross. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Methods
#28405
'Design' encompasses a very wide spectrum of disciplines and applications, which address an enormous range of different problems. When designing a product, the techniques and priorities a designer should use change according to its purpose.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Project Management>Methods
#24102
The object of this contribution is to investigate how the design practice could promote and guide convergence dynamics amongst a plurality of stakeholders.
Maschi, Simona. University of Alberta (2003). Design>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas
#20297
Designing an Effective User Study
When it comes to learning about your users, a plethora of methods await you. But which one is best for your situation? The answer depends on many factors, including the kind of information you hope to discover, the time and budget you have available, and your access to users.
Hammar, Molly and Dawn Stevens. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Usability>Methods>User Centered Design
#19919
While there are many instruments that measure the capacity for establishing peer-level communication skills, few exist that evaluate the effectiveness of knowledge transfer in the writer-reader relationship. The Learning Style Inventory (LSI), the User Empowerment Inventory (UEI), and thinkaloud protocols help assess how people acquire new knowledge and process information. The results of such measurements/ observations help determine user requirements. This paper presents a case history of how the LSI, the UEI, and think-aloud protocols helped improve both user and training documentation to a technology-averse audience in a reactive project environment.
LeVie, Donald S., Jr. STC Proceedings (1996). Design>Documentation>Methods>Usability
#21291
Designing on Both Sides of Your Brain
There's a natural balance that can be mastered between both intensely imaginative, and passionately logical lines of thought. We need to seek out this synergy to be good at design. The surprising truth is that for designers everywhere, the scientific method can be an extremely powerful tool for finding and evangelizing your great ideas.
Berkun, Scott. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Graphic Design>Methods>Cognitive Psychology
