7.3: Strategies for User Research

7.3
Strategies for User Research
The designer needs to understand the reasons behind the behaviours, wants and needs of the user. (Potentially through research)

     User population

• group of people that are expected to use your product (could be a very wide margin or it could be narrow, depending on the functions of the product)
• BROAD RANGING USER POPULATION - there are many who can use/operate the product, easy to use

  

  People of all ages can use the iPhone

• NARROW USER POPULATION - aimed at a group of people, may be difficult to use such as the aircraft cockpit (only pilots may fly it)

  

  Only a select group of people are able to operate CCTV rooms

     Classification of user

• User populations can be classified into groups depending on age, gender, and physical condition. 
• Criteria for user population classifications include interests, habits, nuances, emotional responses to specific stimuli, physical conditions, age, etc.
• creating design development that are specific to each group and their respective needs

  

  The OBaby support stroller is designed for the elderly (possibly grandparents) who need to use a walker whilst pushing the stroller.

     Personae

• is a fictional person who represents a major user group and is behaviour-based
• each personae has different needs, different attributes (is a guiding criteria when designing a product to fulfil the personae's needs.)



Example personae

• supports the design process by identifying and prioritising the roles and user characteristics of key audiences for a product

Personae help develop specifications in the researching processes.

• PRIMARY PERSONAE - typical stakeholders and needs must be satified
• SECONDARY PERSONAE - not the primary target audience, but the product should meet their needs; alternative insights
• ANTI PERSONAE - for whom the product is not designed for
• The reasons why a personae is created is to; 
• Understand the customer in detail
• identify which group of customers need to be valued
• improve the quality of products and services across a wide spectrum of design

     Use case

• use case is a written document that describes the interaction from the user experience.
• working out how your persona is using your product
• will provide information about usability and over experience whilst the user interacts with the design solution
• should depict all possible interactions 

  

  ATM use case diagram

  
  

  

  Restaurant service use case diagram

• can be depicted like above diagrams or in step form

     Scenario

• real-life scenarios that stimulate actual user experiences can generate new findings
• using persona in a scenario to figure how they might use your product
• an imagined sequence of events in the daily life of a persona based on assumptions by researches and designers

4.1 Classification and Properties of Materials

4.1
Classification and Properties of Materials
Materials are selected for manufacturing products depending on the product's properties and uses.

     Principles

• There are several factors considered in the choosing of materials when making a certain product. These include:

• PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (characteristics of a material that you can observe through visual aspects, non-destructive testing and visual classification): mass, weight, volume, density, electrical resistivity (copper), thermal conductivity etc.
• MECHANICAL PROPERTIES(how do they react when forces are applied) : toughness, stiffness, elasticity, plasticity, tensile strength (ability to withstand pulling forces), compressive strength (ability to withstand being pushed or squashed)
• AESTHETIC CHARACTERISTICS: taste, smell, appearance, texture
• PROPERTIES OF SMART MATERIALS: piezoelectricity, shape memory, photochromicity, magneto-rheostatic, electro-rheostatic and thermoelectricity

     Physical Properties
Design contexts where physical properties characteristics are important

1. Mass (kg) - is the amount of matter an item holds, is different to weight. 
2. Weight (kg) - is the gravitational force exerted on a body
3. Volume -  the amount of three-dimensional space a body takes up
4. Density - is the mass per unit volume of a material, ie. how dense an object is
5. Electrical Resistivity - is the  measure of a material’s ability to conduct or resist electricity, is especially important when selecting materials for conductors or insulators

   

   Plastic is able to resist electricity, making it suitable to coat wires with

   
   
6. Thermal conductivity - a measure of how fast heat is conducted through a slab of material with a given temperature difference across the slab, important for designs that need to generate heat 

   

   Oven mitts have low heat conductivity to allow for safe handling of hot objects

7. Thermal expansion - is a measure of the degree of increase in dimensions when an object is heated, designs include oven doors, glass pot lid rims, etc.

   

   Train tracks made out of certain metals may expand during prolonged heat exposure

8. Hardness - the resistance a material offers to penetration or scratching

     Mechanical properties
Design contexts where mechanical properties ae/or aesthetic characteristics are important

1. Tensile strength - the ability of a material to withstand pulling forces

   

   Lift cables posses qualities of tensile strength

   

   Bridge cables are made out of high tensile steel

2. Compressive strength - the ability to withstand pushing/squashing

   

   Concrete is able to withstand being pushed or squashed

3. Stiffness - is the resistance of an elastic body to deflection by an applied force, resisting bending, only applies to things that do bend

   

   Demonstrating resistance

4. Toughness - the ability of a material to absorb energy without breaking, fracturing or deforming (won't break under impact)

   

   Difference between tough and brittle material

5. Brittle - breaks on pressure, fragile
6. Ductility - the ability of a material to be drawn or extruded into a wire or other extended shape

   

   Copper is a metal that can be extruded into a wire

7. Elasticity - when material is bent (not reaching yield point) then relaxed, it reaches original position again; when a material behaves elastically, when the stress on the material is released before it breaks, the extension (strain) relaxes and the material returns to its original length or shape

   

   Examples of objects with elastic properties

8. Plasticity - the ability of a material to be changed in shape permanently by external blows or pressure (the ability to be shaped without breaking, eg. plasticine).

   

   Blow moulding is the morphing of plastic using heat and moulds.

9. Young's Modulus (Stress/Strain Graph)- measure of how stiff something is. The graph is drawn in the manner that the elastic region is generally a straight line, and at the limit of proportionality it changes to a curved line (plastic region)

Stress/Strain graph (Young's Modulus)

     Properties of SMART materials

Smart materials have properties that can be changed or altered such as transparency, viscosity, volume, or conductivity.

1. Photo-chromic - refers to a material that can be described as having a reversible change of color when exposed to light, eg. photochromic glasses that change depending on the lighting

   

   Photochromic glasses 

2. Thermoelectricity - converts heat into electric energy, is generated by a device that converts heat and the temperature difference between two materials directly into electric energy.

   

   Examples of thermoelectricity in products

3. Magneto-rheostatic (MR), electro-rheostatic (ER) - materials are fluids that can undergo dramatic changes in their viscosity; they can change from a thick fluid to a solid when exposed to a magnetic (for MR materials) or electric (for ER materials) field, and the effect is reversed when the field is removed.
4. Piezoelectricity - piezoelectric materials give off a small electrical discharge when deformed (or when hit) 

   

   Air bags demonstrate characteristics of piezoelectricity

5. Shape memory - materials that will return to its shape when deformed (under hot temperature change). They are metals that exhibit pesudo-elasticity and shape memory due to the rearrangement of the molecules in the material. An example of this material would be nitinol, with some frames of glasses made out of nitinol making it less breakable and more durable 

   

   Nitinol glasses

     Aesthetic Characteristics

Design contexts where aesthetic characteristics are important - how does it affect your senses? Aesthetic appeal include smell, taste, sound, texture, and appearance.

1. Taste - the ability to detect the flavour of substances such as food and poisons. Things can taste different given they were prepared differently (eg. wine stored in oak provides woody flavours)
2. Smell - can be used in design - has a particular ability to evoke memory
3. Appearance - the visual impact that a designed object purveys to the user, viewer or observer; has the ability to communicate a message about a design
4. Texture - relate to the tactile elements of designed products and environments
5. Shape - geometric or organic

Portfolio Skills: Spheres

Drawing circles as practice for the basic outline of the sphere

Drawing the volumetric circles using circles and ellipses 

7.2: Usability

7.2
Usability
Usability simply means how easy is a product to use for the user. 

     Usability Objectives
what you want in a product, with usability increased/enhanced, your product will more likely be accepted and widely used. ie uber services
Not fulfilling the usability objectives would leave for unsatisfactory users, and decreased positive ratings from users.

• USEFULNESS - does your product achieve its goals? Is it useful? Product should enable user to achieve the goals for the product.
• EFFECTIVENESS (ease of use) - how effective is it? it is quantitively measured 
• LEARNABILITY - is it easy to use? how hard is it for the user to operate the product? Is it easy to learn how to use the created product?
• ATTITUDE - does it make you feel good? how does the user percept the object, what are their feelings towards it

     Benefits of Enhanced Usability 

it increases product acceptance, user experience and productivity.

     Enhanced Usability Decreased

might cause user error, poor experiences and costs in training and support

Example user interfaces that are complex and possibly lack intuitiveness (from the user)

     Characteristics of good user-product interfaces

1. Simplicity - Products that are simple to use (the interface) will attract users/consumers opposed to complex and confusing controls.
2. Ease of use - Similar to simplicity, the interface should be easy to use and not excessively confusing
3. Intuitive logic and organization - you can use the product without external instructions. Helps the user to quickly become competent in the product operations (with a good design this can be achieved)
4. Low memory burden - Product should not cause a memory burden when it comes to remembering how to operate the product, for the convenience of the user. The user should be able to intuitively use the product without having to remember the full functionality of a product
5. Visibility - should be obvious in how the product works, the controls should be openly visible or obvious.
6. Feedback - a sound or something that happens that indicates an action has happened; provision of information 
7. Affordance - is the property of an object that indicates how it can be used. eg. buttons afford pushing, umbrellas afford you shelter, chairs affords support, etc. Good products would have a large amount of affordances and would provide the user with a lot of uses from the product.
8. Mapping - relates to the correspondence between the layout and the controls of the required action. This is the action of mapping/arranging the controls of the product so that it is clear to the user
9. Constraints - products are designed with in-built constraints, to ensure that they are inserted/used the right way (way to reduce user errors)

     Population stereotypes

items vary depending on countries and the location of the product. consumers in different places might react differently to products.

Wall plugs differ across the world, the population strategy would work in this scenario

     advantages:

• allows for quick associations and predictions (about behaviour or possible use) to be made about a group of people 
• user needs and behaviour can be identified and thus usability considerations are met 

     disadvantages:

• generalisation of the population might not mean accurately fitting all people of the population. preferences could differ between users.
• judgements could be incorrect.

7.1: User-centred design

7.1

User-centred design (UCD)

The fundamental principle of UCD is understanding the needs of the users is the key to designing the best products and services.

     Principles

• The design must be curated according to the understanding of the users, tasks and environment. 
• The design addresses the whole user experience.

Remote controls can be confusing

     User, task, and the environment

1. USER - the UCD pays very particular attention to the needs of the user. The designer makes the item/product to fit the user's needs and wants to best achieve usability (empathic design).
2. TASK - the design has to consider the task or job that the product is meant to do, eg. the ATM is meant to be a user friendly way to manage their electronic finances.
3. ENVIRONMENT - where the product is going to be used. eg. cars will be used in the open environment so each aspect of the car has to be carefully planned and placed in the right locations of the car for the eased use of the user. 

     Iterative processes

• It goes through design stages (akin to the design cycle), and at each stage the user is consulted until requirements are met. This leaves for very careful and thought out planning. 
• The five stages of the UCD consist of Research, Concept, Design, Implementation, and Launch. These five stages fit right in with the design cycle.
• RESEARCH - researching the requirements and considerations of the product
• CONCEPT - brainstorming ways and further developing that ideas to model the potential final product
• DESIGN - further development of ideas and curated models ie. prototypes and mock ups for the users and designers to evaluate
• IMPLEMENTATION - testing period of the product with the information gathered used to make improvements to the product
• LAUNCH - end product is launched and its performance is monitored.

Five stages of UCD

     Multidisciplinary teams

UCD design teams include a variety of experts in different fields, and some include anthropologists, ethnographers, engineers, and psychologists. 

     Inclusive Design

a product made and designed for all users regardless of age, physical, sensory, or disabilities.

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