The company I currently work for provides online services for restaurants. One of our greatest accomplishments for this company as a design team is a seating management program that is about to go into several test restaurants.
When we began the research for this product, we went into all the restaurants here in the town of Durango to interview hosts and hostesses. We did not really introduce ourselves as designers looking to develop a better way to seat guests but more so as researchers for a start-up company. We began by asking them about the work they do and had them walk us through a typical workday. We then proceeded to examine their actual behavior. We documented the different types of mediums they used in taking reservations, handling walk-ins and dealings with restaurant staff. It was in observing their behaviors that allowed us to clearly see both the problems and solutions. Once we compiled this information, we were able to build solid personas, true-to-life scenarios, story boards, workflows and then wireframes that we then could take back to the host and hostesses for usability testing. From there, we did visual comp specs that we then tested again before turning over to engineering. Ultimately, it is the quality of the research and experience of the researcher that will determine the true value it can bring to the design process. We were fortunate to have an outstanding individual who truly understood how to properly perform research to give us such powerful results. I apologize if I seem condescending, but if you are not getting value out of your research, then you need to ask yourself if you are doing it right. We also have employees here who are not adept to doing research correctly and the results have been less than useless. Even with my experience doing this research, I do not consider myself an expert in this field. My only bit of advice (at this moment) is: Do not go straight into telling people what you are doing and then asking them what they think they would want you to do. Even by telling them what you are doing, you begin influencing their answers.Your interviewees will always want to impress you with their intelligence and try to say what they think you want to hear. So don't give them any clues. Research their behaviors, maybe even secretly (I know, easier said than done) They will give you more answers if they think they are not being tested under the microscope. Maybe save the hardcore "interviewing" as a means of usability testing with some low fidelity mock ups. We just made color copies and had people pretend they were computer screens. Have the right people do the interviewing. Many of us think we can do it right, but if others observed us, they may think differently. As for myself, I look forward to continually learning from all of you here - Thank you for your time! Stefan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=27702 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
