Interesting study
December 14th, 2009
A video on an interesting study, do you think you would be able to notice the difference?
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/14/change-blindness-exp.html
Microsoft Usability Labs Tour Recap
November 17th, 2009
Here are some notes of mine from the tour at the Microsoft usability labs in Mt. View last week. Just personal observations. Thanks to Christine, and Paula, Mark, and Noor, who made time to meet with us.
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Seems eye trackers are common equipment at such labs these days. But seems they can also create problems understanding results. For example, someone may look at one thing but be thinking about something entirely different, a common experience. And attention shifts much more rapidly than eye movements, you might have several shifts in attention within a scene before you move your eyes once (as those of us taking Psyc 256, Perception, heard last week). At Microsoft they said the data from an eye tracker gets a lot of attention from other groups, because it looks like hard data, but it still takes a lot of interpretation too.
Microsoft has both large central user experience teams (such as Windows and Office), and smaller ones that report directly to a specific product group. The larger, more centralized UX teams can range in size from 50-80 people, including designers, writers, and researchers. Many on the products at the Bay Area campus that we visited came originally from acquisitions (such as WebTV and Hotmail). MSN Future Directions and Research is one of the user experience teams that we met in Mt. View. That team has 6 researchers worldwide, all with Master’s and PhDs in varies types of research, and a designer who does mockups and prototypes (BA degree).
The most challenging part of user experience work is probably working with other internal groups on usability. Program managers balance usability with other business issues when they make decisions on a product. Like other high tech companies, Microsoft is data driven, and customer viewpoints need to be presented (data such as number of clicks may not match customer preferences).
Research begins with specific questions. There is no standard research methodology, but combinations of research methods are used depending on the problem. Typical methods include ‘lab ethnography’ (customer studies in the lab), participatory design (often using paper outlines), field visits (in homes or workplaces), eye tracking, remote testing (UK or Canada, for example), focus groups, single day testing (multiple resources on one project for a day), concept design (futures), card sorting, static mockups, interactive prototypes, and straight usability testing.
Metrics are typically customized for each study. In field visits, biggest value is seeing user environment and artifacts, also long term use of a product.
On our way to the usability labs we could see life size color posters of different people posing as personas, typical Microsoft customers. Usually usability studies have from 8 to 12 participants, although remote studies can include up to at least 32 people. We saw a TV lab, to evaluate software for selecting and storing TV programs, and an eye tracker demonstration. Usability tests can be displayed live to developers and others in their offices, although it’s always good to have developers come to the test and discuss it on the spot. Seeing a user have difficulty finding a function is a powerful persuasive tool. Microsoft uses a set of standard software tools in their usability labs around the world. A single study might take a couple of weeks to prepare, a week to run the study, and then a week to review the results.
Evaluating software for selecting and retrieving TV programs emphasizes customer enjoyment, which cannot be measured directly. Someone may spend a few minutes finding a certain film, and be quite satisfied if they get what they want. The TV lab includes living room furniture, as well as a separate control room. One issue with developing the software is that it will be used with a wide variety of different remotes from different manufacturers, so there can be problems with certain remotes. Layout of some remotes might encourage users to confuse modes, for example.
The eye tracking lab used software and hardware from Tobii, a Swedish company. The software is simple to calibrate and to use, and different types of output are possible, including graphical plots and spreadsheet data. Eye tracking is only used after other studies. For example, a study might first use recall methods to investigate user experience. Eye tracking generates metrics and results that “feel valid”, but may still take some interpretation. For example, if someone looks up away from the display, they might not be ignoring the display, but just pausing to think. And eye tracking may show users scan ads, because the ads are designed to attract visual attention, when they do not report paying attention to ads. Again you have to interpret the eye tracker results.
The student chapter makes it to the big stage
November 12th, 2009
For World Usability Day, the SJSU student chapter took a field trip to Microsoft User Research Labs in Mountain View, CA to learn about how user research is conducted and got a tour of the labs. The field trip was also mentioned on the National HFES website!
Chapter Elections- Get Involved!
April 10th, 2009
It’s that time again!! We will begin Chapter Elections Next week! This is a wonderful way to get involved and keep making our chapter better!
All positions are open for the 2009-2010 school year!
- President
- Vice President
- Events Coordinator
- Secretary/ Treasurer
- Webmaster
If you are interested please contact any officer (our emails are all on the “Contact” page). Please email your bio for the election for to Jamie Lueke. If you need any more information you can contact me at president@sjsuhfes.com.
Hope to see your name on the ballot!
~Amy
SJSU Psychology Department’s Spartan Psychological Association Research Conference (SPARC): Dr. David C. Foyle
April 10th, 2009
Hi Everyone, I wanted to share this info with you:
“I am forwarding the following information about the SJSU
Psychology Department’s Spartan Psychological Association Research
Conference (SPARC) because I thought our keynote speaker may be of interest
to students in your Human Factors program.
SPARC is a research conference which gives undergraduate and graduate
students an opportunity to present their psychological research in talks and
poster sessions. Each year we also have a keynote speaker.
Our featured speaker this year is Dr. David C. Foyle, who is a SJSU alumnus.
Dr. Foyle is currently a Senior Research Psychologist in the Human Factors
Research & Technology Division at the NASA Ames Research Center. Below is
his talk title and date/time. I’ve also attached an announcement and
schedule for SPARC.
Title: Aviation Human Factors Research: Designing Human-Centere Systems
Date & Time: Tuesday, April 21, 3:00 – 4:00, LomaPrieta Ballroom
More information about SPARC and Dr. Foyle can be found at the following
site:
http://www.sjsu.edu/psych/sparc/
We hope to see some of your students at the conference!
Sincerely,
Clifton Oyamot, Ph. D.
Faculty Adviser, SPARC
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
San Jose State University
San Jose, CA 95192-0120
408-924-5650
Clifton.Oyamot@sjsu.edu ”
Door fail: What do you do??
April 3rd, 2009
http://failblog.org/2009/04/03/door-fail-3/ (new window)
Paypal Tour at 4:30 pm today!
April 3rd, 2009
SJSU HFES has arranged a tour of Paypal. We will be visiting their newly constructed usability labs, as well as their eye tracking lab. The manager of User Experience, Kuldeep Kelkar, will be showing us around and he will also be giving a short talk on the Day in the Life of a UX Professional. You will also have a chance to ask him any questions that you might have about the field of UX. This is a members only event.
Hope to see you there!
Jamie Miller
Events Coordinator
BayCHI Monthly Meeting
March 8th, 2009
Title: BayCHI Monthly Meeting
Location: PARC, Palo Alto
Link out: Click here
Start Time: 7:30
Date: 2009-03-10
Just a heads up that this tuesday is the monthly BayCHI meeting. There are two presenters this month:
Dancing with Ambiguity: Design Thinking in Practice and Theory
Larry Leifer, Stanford Center for Design Research
Designing a Unified Experience: Bringing Interaction, Visual, and Industrial Design Together
Kim Goodwin, Cooper
More information can be found on the BayCHI Website.
Blog Usability
March 6th, 2009
Hey Everyone,
The other day I came across a blog (through the wonderful world of twitter) on the 10 Sins of Blog Usability. Since our new website is a blog and usability is what we do, I thought it was appropriate to pass on this info.
This is my first attempt at blogging by the way 
… so I don’t know first hand if their list hits the mark. Though, a few of their “sins” are definitely known UI principles.
Making remotes easier to use
March 5th, 2009
Is this a design failure?
Overridden by the user to make the remote simpler:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/03/making-remotes-easie.html (new window)