What do YOU do, in addition to user research, to better relate to
and interpret your data?
-=- Jerome
Sort of related... I enjoy watching my children interact with things.
Often (but not always) I realize that their first indication on how to
use something is EXACTLY how it should've been done. e.g. We got into
an elevator and I asked my 4 yr. old to select the 3rd floor. So she
pressed the # 3. Problem was, it was a label next to a button. She
kept pressing the 3, not the button next to it. It made me think of
interactions on the web or on the desktop when some labels are hot,
others are not and how that can frustrate users. Could have been an
aesthetic choice, could've been due to manufacturing costs - who
knows, but they put a label next to a blank button, and that confused
my 4 yr. old. Would it have confused anyone a bit older? Probably not
in the elevator's sense - but on the computer, I think having hot
labels, or the label BE the button can be an incredibly useful/usable
interaction method.
Other times it's interesting, but not quite as useful (e.g. that
person who mentioned after their 2 yr. old played w/ the iPhone they
went up to the TV and tried to interact with it the same way). Do we
need multi-touch TVs? Probably not - but we might want multi-touch
remote interfaces so we can sit on our couch, or a multi-touch
computer screen, or a multi-touch coffee table to augment both.
In short - watching my kids learn and grow and use things for the
first time gives me great insights into the human learning process -
and this I believe helps me with my job.
I bet a fun test for those with or without kids would be to take your
device - be it an iPhone, Kindle, remote control, cell phone etc. and
give it to a room of 5 yr. olds and see what they do with it without
any coaching. (and be willing to lose a few of them from smashing,
throwing, rough-housing too)
B
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