Aims of this chapter Illustrate how observation, interviews, and questionnaires that you encountered and are used in evaluation Explain the key concepts and terms used in evaluation Introduce three main evaluation approached and key evaluation methods within the context of real evaluation studies Examine how the approaches and methods are used for different purposes at different stages of the design process Discuss some of the practical challenges that evaluators have to consider when doing evaluation Summary The why, what, where, and when of evaluation The basics…
Why evaluate? Duh if you don’t how will you know it is working for the users. What to evaluate – Depends on the product, but generally usability, aesthetics, emotional, engaging and motivating qualities. Where to evaluate – Depends on the products, could be in the laboratory or in the field When to evaluate…
Early design of an artefact to clarify design ideas Evaluation of a working prototype Refining or maintaining a product Exploration of a new design concept Evaluation approaches and methods 3 main approaches, and can use a combination of any of the three
Usability testing – important, especially in the later stages of the product lifecycle. Analyses how a user interacts with a product, uses questionnaires, observation, etc. Field studies – done in natural settings with the aim of understanding what people do in their natural environment Analytical evaluation – Two categories of evaluation methods are considered, inspection and theoretically based models. A key feature of is that users need no be present. Main methods used in evaluation are…
Observing users asking users their opinions asking experts their opinions testing users performance modelling users NB – 12.4 has a number of case studies that may be asked in the exam – please read the
