Hi, Does anyone out there have the experience of actually performing a given job (for at least a day or three, perhaps longer) as a means of really researching context, tasks etc.? Specifically, I am thinking of an enterprise context, where the user doesn't have choice in tools, workflow and there are some highly developed skills (ie more than the basic web skills of an e-commerce user). Also, I am contrasting this approach to on-site observation, empathic modeling and user role playing.
For example, working in a call center as a first line telephone customer care agent. Sitting down with call center agent, getting some basic training and having that person watch your back to prevent major catastrophes, You answer calls, use the system(s) to retrieve and enter information etc., essentially it is you performing the job. This was something I though of proposing ages ago when I wanted to analyze and model the work of a particular type of system analyst. It never came to fruition (due mainly to technical skills gap, but also legal issues with outsider using systems) and I ended up doing standard contextual observations. It was great for insight into high-level aspects of the product and job that had issues (most of which we were already aware of) but not much nuance. It is inspired by a story I heard (circa 2001?) about a financial analyst getting a job at an Amazon.com warehouse as a means of gauging their likelihood of hitting/exceeding their numbers. There are a myriad of reasons not to do this, namely resource/time constraints, but I am curious to see if other IxDers, particularly those with a research bent have experience with this and could provide some input on how it compares to CI. Of course input from people with no experience is also welcome. What context was this performed in? (Real vs. Realistic Simulation) Did you have some basic, prior understanding of the domain? Did you do training? What did you call it? (methodology) Was it disruptive to work setting? Does it provide a level of insight worth the time/hassle of setting it up? Cheers, Julian ________________________________________________________________ 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
