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<p>K<span class="smaller">ATIE</span> <span class= "taller">S</span><span class="smaller">OLDAU - IS4300</span> </p>
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<h1 ><div class="h1_text">Reading 3</div></h1>
<h2>Ethnography</h2>
<p>
In <a href="https://www.ccs.neu.edu/course/is4300sp13/ssl/articles/fetterman.pdf" class="citation">Fetterman's book</a> he says ethnography is the technique of describing a group or culture. Ethnographers seek to discover the daily routines of normal people by acting as human instruments. They go right into the groups they’re studying to understand the native’s point of view. Steps involved in ethnographic work start off with the selection of a problem/topic and a theory to guide the study; the problem is the driving force behind the research (Fetterman 1). </p>
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<p>
To help minimize bias, ethnographic methods and techniques are used. This includes fieldwork, which is working with people in their natural setting for a long period of time. (Fetterman 31).When deciding how to sample members of the target population you can either choose who and what not to study or select who and what to study. When entering a community it’s best to be introduced by people who are highly regarded by the group (Fetterman 33). It’s also important to get both the broad scope and the minute details. Once in the community, there are multiple methods and techniques used for data collection. These include participant observation and interviewing. Interviews can involve survey or grand tour questions, specific questions and/or open-ended or closed-ended questions. Interviews are helpful in determining how people think (Fetterman 39). Surveys help to plan the use of resources. Lastly, Specific questions help to refine the ethnographer’s understanding (Fetterman 42). While doing all this it’s extremely important for ethnographers to keep respect and behave ethically. </p><p>
The first paper, <a href="https://www.ccs.neu.edu/course/is4300sp13/ssl/articles/kindberg05.pdf" class="citation">“I Saw This and Thought of You: Some Social Uses of Camera Phones”</a>, is an example of a study that used ethnographic research. This study utilized a lot of interviewing, but didn’t come close to the desired length of time that ethnographer’s should spend with a community. They conducted interviews with 34 people to try and find out how and why people share pictures taken with their camera phones. It turns out that most people shared the pictures with absent friends or family or used them to help complete a task. Being able to share pictures with those who are absent helped to keep relationships alive and in-touch. The paper says that, in the future, developers should try to make sure that uploading and/or sharing images is a hassle free experience and to ensure that the speed with which it is possible to share remains almost instantaneous. </p><p>
<a href="https://www.ccs.neu.edu/course/is4300sp13/ssl/articles/swan05.pdf" class="citation">“Notes on Fridge Surfaces”</a> is another example of a paper that utilized some ethnographic methods. This study attempted to uncover how refrigerators are used by the general population. It was found that the refrigerator is crucial in keeping the family communicating effectively and organized, whether it be by calendars, recipes, notes, etc. It was found out that the placement of the fridge and the fact it’s continually used throughout the day cause it to be shared with all household members. Magnets were found to be a key reason why refrigerators are the central hub of communication because they allow information to be put up on the appliance.</p><p>
The third paper, <a href="https://www.ccs.neu.edu/course/is4300sp13/ssl/articles/p280-millen.pdf" class="citation">“Rapid Ethnography: Time Deepening Strategies for HCI Field Research”</a>, Millen discusses field methods that can provide a reasonable understanding of users and their activities in a short amount of time. To do this, the research focus and scope has to be limited, key informants are used, multiple observers and interactive observation techniques are utilized, and qualitative data analysis is done collaboratively. The opportunity cost of using a wide-angle research lens can be too large for a project to take on. Multiple researchers can be advantageous because they can split up and cover more ground than one researcher could do alone. In order to save time a greater focus and collaboration is required. Rapid methods have had to be developed because new technologies are developing at such a quick pace. Rapid prototyping and quick usability testing join together with rapid ethnography to help meet the demands of doing quality work quickly and inexpensively. </p><p>
I think rapid ethnography would be interesting to discuss in class because in the HCI area it seems as though that’s what would be the most useful to know about. Straight up ethnography would take too long and by the time you were done with the study the technological landscape could have already changed. I’d also like to talk about how to make sure you’re doing good ethnographic research even if you’re part of the demographic you’re looking at. For my team project our end users are students at Northeastern in the College of Computer and Information Science and it would be nice to know how to help make sure that we aren’t blinded to important observations just because we live in this environment on a daily basis. I found the first reading (the Fetterman one) to be interesting but didn’t quite understand the strong connection it had to HCI since the ethnography it was describing would take years. People working in tech industries normally don’t have years to figure out exactly who they’re dealing with or what they wish to do. I liked the three papers for this reason because I felt it wrapped it all up nicely and presented ideas that were interesting in many aspects. I also found that the studies done about refrigerators and cameras were intriguing because those are two objects I use in my daily. </p>
<h2>Task Centered User Interface Design and Use Cases </h2>
<p>
In <a href="http://hcibib.org/tcuid/chap-1.html" class="citation">Chapter 1</a> of Clayton Lewis and John Rieman’s book, <a href="http://hcibib.org/tcuid/" class="citation">Task-Centered User Interface Design</a>, they talk about using specific tasks that the user will want to accomplish as a guide to designing the system. There are 11 steps to task-centered design.</p><p>
<ol>
<li><b>Figure out who’s going to use the system to do what.</b> Perform task and user analysis to figure out what the system needs to do. For a system to be successful, it needs to do what the users need.</li>
<li> <b>Choose representative tasks for task-centered design.</b> Identify several tasks that provide complete coverage of the functionality of a system. Simple tasks can help make design decisions early on. Complex tasks aid in discovering interface problems.</li>
<li><b>Plagiarize.</b> Find interfaces that already work for users to use as inspiration. This helps make sure users will easily be able to use your design based on their knowledge of other systems.</li>
<li><b> Rough out the design.</b> Use pen and paper to sketch out design; don’t code yet. Coding commits designers to too many decisions too early in the design process. </li>
<li> <b>Think about it. </b>Discover the strengths and weaknesses of an interface before building it to ensure time and energy isn’t wasted. GOMS analysis can aid in estimating task time. Cognitive walkthroughs, another technique, can analyze user’s actions as they perform specific tasks on the interface.</li>
<li> <b>Create a mock-up or prototype. </b>While in early stages of design, paper mock ups to represent stepping through an interface. Later, prototyping tools will be of use. Underlying system functionality doesn’t need to be completely finished yet because it can be faked or emulated. </li>
<li> <b>Test the design with users. </b>Test the system with real end users. Once multiple users have tested it analyze the data to get insight into where user’s had problems using the interface.</li>
<li> <b>Iterate.</b> Look at the results of testing, balance the costs of correction against severity of testing, revise the interface, then test again. </li>
<li> <b>Build the design.</b> Make sure to build the interface in a way that will let it be modified in the future. Write clean and modular code.</li>
<li> <b>Track the design.</b> Keep designers in touch with end users. New information can be learned and used in the design process. </li>
<li><b>Change the design.</b> Revise the interface with regular upgrades. This ensures sales are maintained and that your system can still be useful even as tasks and users change. </li>
</ol>
</p><p>
In <a href="http://hcibib.org/tcuid/chap-2.html" class="citation">Chapter 2</a> of the same book,<a href="http://hcibib.org/tcuid/" class="citation">Task-Centered User Interface Design</a>, the process of getting to know users and their tasks is explained. The first step is to find real potential users to ensure you’ll have people who will want to use your product. Once you’ve found users, develop concrete and detailed examples of tasks they’ll want to perform on your system. These examples are specific and describe complete jobs, but do not say how the user should perform the tasks. They should also describe the users of each task. However, it’s important to remember that users are not always right. After tasks have been determined, rough out an interface design and produce scenarios for the examples. Tasks are design-independent, but scenarios are design-specific and showcase what a user would have to do and what they’d see step-by-step when performing a task. The context in which tasks are completed can help make design decisions for you. It can be easy to get stuck in abstract discussions, but these aren’t of great use. Concrete examples can help you get to the core of the problem more easily.
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The third reading on <a href="http://www.usability.gov/methods/usecases.html" class="citation">Usability.gov</a> concentrated on use cases, what use cases describe, and how to write them. Use cases are descriptions of how users will perform tasks and include two main parts: the steps users will take to accomplish a specific task and how a site should respond to a user’s actions. They focus on the user, the interaction, and the user’s goal. Descriptions of a series of interactions between a user and a website capture information about the user, the interaction, and the end goal. This is done without specifying an interface. Use cases are written in easy-to-understand narratives. Steps to developing use cases involve identifying and choosing one of the end users. Once those have been chosen specific tasks and their context are described, then interactions and alternate courses and events are examined. Lastly, commonalities among use cases are searched for and noted. When all of this has been completed the process repeats with a different chosen end user. All of this was described in terms of websites but the process can most likely be extended into other areas as well.
</p><p>
The readings advocated for roughing out designs before you go full throttle ahead. I’d like to discuss more about this in class. I understand how you’d rough out the design, but am not quite as clear on how paper mock ups are used. Do you just make a separate mock up for each step assuming the user pressed the right button? Or do you create paper mock ups that give users the ability to go through a system even after making an error? I found the reading to be interesting because it advocated so strongly for making sure you had specific users and tasks in mind while designing a project. I suppose it’s something I’d always assumed you was done, but I think it was beneficial for the information to be laid out and explained in such clear terms. It seems as though when these steps are followed that the process of designing and revising becomes a lot easier and that straying from these suggestions might result in a bit of a headache later on once you’re farther into the project.
</p>
<h2>MOOCs</h2>
<p>
I think <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/What-You-Need-to-Know-About/133475/" class="citation"> massive open online courses</a>, or MOOCs, are a great idea. Not everyone has the ability to go to a college or university and MOOCs can be a way for these people to educate themselves without having to spend up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, I’m still not completely sold on the effectiveness of most MOOCs. I think peer-to-peer and peer-to-instructor interaction is extremely helpful in making sure you are grasping the concepts. This interaction is pretty impossible with MOOCs since the student to teacher ratio can be 1:10,000. I’ve used Udacity before and think that their way of teaching material and then quizzing you on it after every section is effective, but not all MOOCs take this approach. Another drawback is that even if a student takes a course like this and masters the material, they have no degree or credits to prove it. Although it might be difficult to do because universities around the world will be afraid of losing business, I think obtaining credit from MOOCs will be easier and more widely respected in the future. To fit today’s students needs I’d like to see assignments (and maybe quizzes) used. These help to ensure that students are grasping material and the practice helps them learn. I’m not sure how this would look in areas other than computer science or something like mathematics, but I think similar things could be done for the humanities. Discussion boards for each separate topic could be useful as well; they’d allow people to ask questions and discuss topics with others who are also enrolled in the class. To allow for more personal interaction in the courses perhaps professors, TAs, and/or tutors could hold office hours on the web where they utilize virtual chatrooms or video conferencing to allow people the opportunity to get their questions answered.
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