On Feb 2, 2009, at 4:40 PM, Katie Albers wrote:
(1) on the few occasions where I've been forced to take notes, I literally had no idea, later, what had happened. The paper was undoubtedly much the wiser, I couldn't put anything on it in a context that made it make sense to me...and I spent years working with professionals on how to "get over" this "limitation" and my brain still works that way...change didn't work (and I can't imagine why anyone thought it would). On the other hand, I have a stunningly good memory. But I rarely encounter anyone who is willing to consider that there may be other ways of creating a record. In any case, Jared, please let me beg off another try at incorporating note- taking again. It's like asking a deaf person to listen more carefully.
Katie, with all due respect, I could care less whether *you* take notes or not. If note taking doesn't work for you, then don't do it. (Though, if you're recording the session, don't you take notes off the recordings? What do you do with them if you're not taking notes off of them?)
However, there is a long gap between you deciding note taking doesn't work for *you* and declaring them evil and suggesting that nobody should ever do it.
Having spent many hours in my career training researchers to take good notes, I can tell you that (a) good note taking is not a natural talent, it's a learned skill, (b) most people don't learn in school how to take good research notes (or even passable ones), and (c) it takes practice to become proficient at it.
That said, I still prefer it to retrospectively trying to glean useful information from recordings post facto. It doubles the research time (at a minimum -- in fact, it could be longer for some types of studies), it loses context, and it boring as all get out. There is nothing that can turn a great, exciting, fun research project into something completely dreadful as transcribing notes off of recordings.
(2) I find that note taking is a default that works against any further examination of alternative methods of recording one's reactions, on the spot observations, questions, etc. Often those are better recorded through another means, but people don't look for any other means because they'll just take notes. In any case, it's always another distraction, and how many do you want to tolerate?
Again, this is just a lack of training. Good researchers and journalists learn to take notes while being introspective and interrogative. This isn't rocket science, but it isn't natural either. It takes learning a skill and practicing it.
What you're describing is poor note taking practice. It takes no skills to do a crappy job at anything you put your mind to. (Damn. I say this so often that I've decided to call it Spool's First Law of Competency.)
As far as terminology, this is one of those cases when I consider the user's actual behavior to be the subject of the trial, although obviously their behavior is in reference to the trial of the software. Therefore, although I call the manipulators in a one-on- one software test "testers" in order to emphasize their agency; I refer to them in a contextual enquiry as "subjects" because it's their reality I want to get into, not the software's. I can readily see arguments in opposition, but these terms have always worked for me.
For someone who is concerned about the behavior changing effects of note taking, have you ever noticed how people respond when they discover you've referred to them as a "subject"? They get a real glassy-eyed Am-I-A-Rat-In-A-Maze look. It's very dehumanizing, in my opinion. It's not at all empowering.
In user research, I'd be happy to see the word "subject" just banished from the vocabulary. ("Testers" is another one I wouldn't mind seeing go by the way side.) Partner, participant, and collaborators are all better terms.
That's my $0.02. Jared ________________________________________________________________ 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
