IMD IPD mind meld

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Research in design by observation

From the top of my head observation brings three concepts to me:

- The Lost Approach where you confine subjects into a situation to see how it unfolds. In the concept of design we could make a workshop/group of people to do the thinking for us and therefore get not only your own view but a view of the group and if done in say a meeting of just in a break time of work with a group of friends it can produce something (even only one thing) That you may not be able to find in any other way. This is formally known as Naturalistic Observation this is a method of observation, commonly used by psychologists and social/behavioral scientists, that involves observing subjects in their natural habitats. Researchers take great care in avoiding making interferences with the behaviour they are observing by using unobtrusive methods. When using Naturalistic Observation, the researcher observes the studied behavior in its natural setting without attempting to influence or control it. Therefore, the studies are often conducted in places like streets, homes, and schools. Laboratory studies are rather uncommon for this method because the lab setting itself may "contaminate" the participants, who often act differently when they know they are being studied (bias). When a lab study can not be avoided, the researcher participates only as an observer. One advantage of this method is that the information collected is the direct response to a stimulus. However, determining the causes of the observed behavior is sometimes difficult, and special care must be taken to avoid potential bias.

- Another approach is the James Bond Approach where you spy on what people to everyday to see how if any places they adopt/think about what the question is about. Again in this design situation it could be applied by asking a person a question at the beginning of the day and see how they observe and think about the question throughout the day. This could be done as a diary format. This is formally known as a Contextual Inquiry. 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 different interviews for later analysis.

- Another approach is the Watch Out Beadle’s About approach. This is where you trick someone/observe a situation similar to the one that you have adopted to things that have gone wrong so that you avoid doing them in your own solution. This is formally known as Design Walkthrough- A design walkthrough is an examination of a design artefact, or group of related design artefacts in an attempt to find flaws or problems.

- Usability Roundtable- You have the most design freedom in the beginning when you know the least about your users. Getting smart early lets you incorporate good ideas before the site is frozen. People bring things to the table and think what to do. In Islam this is called Mashwera. Mashwera is the Sunnah (tradition) of the prophet where all member of the group consulted/collated all information that they got in a day and told them to the leader with the group present the leader also tells what the next step is. Invites analysis.


Please comment about what you think of the theories of observation thanks!

IMRAN LOBANIA





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