3/9/23
Week NINE
In Figma, I noticed that Design refers to creating the interface and what it visually looks like, but Prototype refers to creating the interaction. Is this the case outside of Figma? Is this the best way to understand prototyping?
Answer: I think it is particular to Figma and is not how I understand the dichotomy between design and prototyping, which I see as the difference between generating alternatives and implementing one of those alternatives.
My question is from chapter 23 of the UX book. The chapter suggests that using the same participants for more than one cycle of formative evaluation. However, wouldn’t this technique fail if the design/research team is doing A/B testing with two new prototypes? Wouldn’t the participant be influenced by their thoughts regarding previous versions? In that case I believe it wouldn’t be true A/B testing, but A/B/C testing essentially.
I had a similar question, as I know this is a problem with a lot of social science experiments as well. To counteract the recency bias (remembering what you just did/responded to in the last simulation), there’s usually a time break of a couple days between each task. I wonder how practical this is to in UX work, though, especially give the constraints of time/money.
I am interested in the ways that UX designers interact with participants in testing their prototypes. A lot of the methods described in the book seemed to be performed in person. I know a lot of UX positions are now completely remote, though. I’m wondering how an online-simulated user testing experience would differ from in-person, and the pros and cons to both.
Chapter 22’s breakdown of the UX Target Table was beneficial, and I hope to implement the model in my work. Last year there was a spike in the requests for benchmarking our products. After each product area received a score it became less of interest. Even when collecting our scores, I don’t recall using Target Tables or anything similar. How do we as entry-to-mid-level researchers evangelize these processes in organizations that are less mature in their UX strategy? What are some best practices for teaching / managing up?
Empirical evaluation is a more systematic way of collecting data and evaluating the usability of a product. A lot of the methods described are ones I’m very familiar with after having used them often in school and at different workplaces such as using the think-aloud technique or administering questionnaires using the likert scale. I have yet to encounter it but are there more sophisticated methods of measuring user engagement, potentially some that require specific and advanced tools?
… I find the testing process itself to be rigorous and wonder if it requires more than two people (a facilitator and a notetaker) to capture all data points, including quantitative (such as number of errors, time-on-task, task path) and qualitative (such as user expression, verbal feedback, etc.) data. But having tools to automate a portion of data collection might simplify the process.
How do UX designers manage the limitations of the different methods used? User testing may not provide a complete understanding of user needs and experiences as there may always be gaps in our knowledge of user experience that cannot be fully captured through testing. In such cases, how do we acknowledge these limitations?
While Chapter 24 acknowledges that video recording can be unreliable, it also provides the most accurate data in its raw form. Summarizing user interviews inevitably involves some degree of subjective interpretation, but is it worth avoiding video recording despite the potential loss of valuable information?
I claim that there is a gray area between objective and subjective and that it’s a spectrum from objective to subjective measurements. Do you believe that?
I also claim that there is a gray area between quantitative and qualitative. What do you think?
(pause for video) # Readings
Readings last week included Hartson and Pyla (2019): Ch 20
Readings last week include Hartson and Pyla (2019): Ch 22–24
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