My Experience with NM4210-User Experience Design

Today is the day. God has given me this day to use it as I will. And I have chosen to use it to wrap up my final assignment for this module that is to be NM4210: User Experience Design.

I am typing this post on the infamous bus service 151 on my way to school from the other end of the service line, to submit my final report and peer-evaluation form. And I must say that I am largely satisfied with the journey thus far; the bus captain was all smiley and chirpy when I boarded the bus and he even assisted an old lady to her seat. It’s a positive experience. I just hope that the traffic will be smooth flowing. And I digressed.

As my first level 4000 module, NM4210 is more than just a module to fulfill my modular credit requirements. I took it with the intention of testing to see if honors year may be a possibility or no-go for me. I foresee that it will be tough and hectic if I am taking more of such modules.

Despite the busy schedules and weekly deadlines for presentation, I must say that my experience with the module is highly positive overall, albeit peppered with some negativity along the way.

In the beginning, the vagueness of the module kind of threw me away as it differs greatly from the clear knowledge structure of all the previous modules that I have taken; one week we were taught a method to design for user experience, the next week we were told that the method will not work. However, as the lessons unfold and the assignments kicked in one-by-one, I begin to appreciate the lack of structure as it allows me a great deal of possibilities and creativity to explore the methodologies taught and twist and change them to render them more appropriate and useful to our assignments.

And then the final assignment started.

The weekly deliverables for the final assignment meant that we have to consistently work on it while coping with the requirements of other modules. We ended up working on most all the Monday nights until three-plus four a.m. in the morning (our class is on every Tuesday, 9am to 12pm). And since I stayed rather far from school, it meant that I can only catch approximately 3 hours of sleep before I make my way to school. It didn’t help that Tuesdays are long days for me with my last lesson ending at 8pm.

However, this common experience actually bonded my group members together, and I believe it is one that we look back fondly at as we counted down to the last of the Monday late-nights.

The module got even more confusing (and the traffic halts to a jam now along Bukit Timah Road).

More and more user research methodologies were taught to us and we have to decide how we want to adapt them to our final assignment in order to find out what we need to find out about our target users. At times, I felt like we were on the right track only to be thrown off-track by the comment/ feedback of the class, especially those by the tutor.

Often time, I was awed-inspired by the kind of insights the tutor, Mr Reddy, has although he was not directly involved in the doing of our assignment. It strengthened my belief that good UX designs do not only evolve from excellent user research but also with the accumulation of experience by the designer.

And like the bus ride that was affected by external factors such as the traffic condition, the experience with the module was affected by the increasing work commitments demanded by other modules. I believe this is also why UX design is difficult to the point of being impossible; there are too many external factors that the designers cannot control/ manage in the designs.

We approached the final lap.

As the deadlines for all module projects loom, the workload of our final assignment intensifies. At some point, I felt that we will never be able to complete the assignment. This may be true in reality though, as there will never be an end to UX design and user research; it is a pure wicked problem. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for us, the assignment has to end with the user evaluation, going a full cycle. I guess deadlines for design rollout in the corporate world will be based more on the profit and cost timeline.

Although there are still ways to improve our designs by leaps and bounds, we have to call it a wrap and submit our final report by 5pm today.

In conclusion, I believe I have learned a lot from this module. More than the hard facts commonly taught in most modules, I’ve learned about the endless possibilities that UX design entails, and the creation and application of knowledge. While this experience will not be sufficient to make me a designer, it is definitely a positive start! The end is only the beginning of greater things to come.

With that, I shall end my post. (Actually it’s because my bus has reached its destination and I’m in school now; it was a positive experience travelling as well despite the minor hiccups). =)

P/s: Weiwei printed the report and submitted it. The pages turned out to be a little messy with some on single-sided, and some double due to the school's printer setting and the printing of the coloured pages. Personally I feel that this presentation isn't good when it comes to the reader's experience. But we decided to save the Earth (and save money) and not reprint everything in single side. :)

Final Project; My Reflections

I've just finished compiling our final report.

Mentally going through the process of Discovering needs, Defining our target users, Designing our prototypes, to User Evaluating our prototypes as I read the report, I suddenly realized that amount of effort that has been put into "trying" to create successful UX designs; I say "trying" because you can never tell if your design will work until the users really use it. And even if it works for now, it may not work forever.

Going through all the researches and designing, researches and redesigning, I feel the effects of design being a wicked problem; it is an endless cycle of designing and redesigning to improve it further. And having to take the users' perspectives into consideration makes it even more wicked to the point of being impossible. It means that UX designers needs to be acutely aware of their users (through means of research or otherwise) in order to perform their job well.

As a novice designer, sometimes I got lost in the process of designing and failed to recognize that the design is actually what I wanted and not what the users wanted. This is dangerous as it will mean that the final design will not be accepted by the users.

Besides taking the users into consideration while designing the product, good UX designers I realized should also be able to take the users into consideration when designing their user researches. For example, in the case of the cultural probe we carried out in our project, the respondents will not be able to fully utilize a probe pack that consists of a camera as the camera is not allowed in their military camps.

From doing this project, I feel that it is impossible to ensure positive user experience throughout the whole usage of the product. The thing about experience is that it is too subjective. What a designer can attempt to do is perhaps to micro-manage the whole usage process by breaking down each stages of the usage process into tiny parts and then design to meet the requirement of these parts. While this may sound easy, the difficulty comes in when the designer has to piece this parts together to form the whole design; the parts has to be well connected to ensure a smooth process of usage. At this point, I am suddenly reminded of the analogy about enlightenment that Mr Reddy told us.

He said that there are 3 stages in enlightenment. The first stage is to recognize that there is a mountain. The second stage is to recognize the elements e.g. the rocks, the trees, etc., on the mountain. The last stage is to recognize how these elements come together to form the whole mountain.

Using the analogy, I believe good UX designers are those who are able to see how every small part relates to the whole experience of using the product. It's a tough job indeed.

Overall, the whole project is an excellent experience for novice designers like me as it provides me with real life experience that will aid me if I do decide to persist on in this field.

Right now, I will just appreciate the good designs in my life and be thankful to the designers.

User Research Smoke & Mirrors

The article (in 5 parts) by Christopher Fahey can be found here:
1 2 3 4 5

My Reflections
Part 1: Design versus Science

When we talk about User Experience Design, the main focus is undoubtedly on the user i.e. it is human-centric. Given this focus, I believe that the field of science that we are talking about here is the Social Sciences as opposed to Natural Sciences.

The key difference between the two fields is that social sciences study subjective, inter-subjective and objective or structural aspects of societies, whereas natural sciences focus on objective aspects of nature; there are no definitive answers in social sciences and depend largely on the context of the study.

Unfortunately, the problem with many UX designers (as identified by Fahey) is that they confused user research with the hard (natural) sciences research, and take for granted that their social-scientific research will provide definitive solutions to their design problems.

THEY DO NOT!

However, from an academic viewpoint, I still strongly believe that the values of these researches should not be discounted even in the field of user design. Designers, like academicians, should review each research data with a pinch of salt and gather as many varied perspectives as possible. The understanding of such diverse perspectives will aid in laying the foundation of the designers’ experience i.e. designers can gain experience from these researches. And experience, as Fahey pointed out, is highly necessary to be expert designers.

Part 2: Research as a Design Tool

The main problem I analyzed from reading this part of the article is that user researchers sometimes over inferred from their research data.

I believe this problem isn’t exclusive to user research as it is present in all other types of researches. For example, a direct positive statistical correlation between two factors (X and Y) simply tells us that when X increases, Y increases as well. It does not tell us that the increase in X causes the increase in Y or vice versa, or that a third factor Z causes both to increase at the same time.

So the issue in question here is the researchers’ ability to interpret the data as what the data says (or does not say), and NOT with the research itself. The data only tells you what it does, NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS.

With regards to the question on whether we need such expensive and complicated research methodology to inform us something that is ‘commonsensical’, I will think that it depends. From a commercial viewpoint where decisions are often made based on the dollar-sign, it may be rather wasteful and extravagant (both in terms of money and time) to conduct such research. But from an academic viewpoint, I will say ‘why not?”.

My point is that what is ‘common sense’ may not be so common after all. Commonality is perhaps just a social construct that is dependent on the society in question. For example, it may seem quite common sense that people will not put anything that stinks in their mouth, but in reality we have people who swear by the delicacy that is to be the smelly bean curd, which is touted to taste better if it smells worse (not to me though, the smell is enough to put a few meters between me and the dish). Another example somewhat related to eyetracking is that theatre practitioners often preached that the movement from upstage right (audience’s left) to downstage left (audience’s right) is the strongest, most attention-grabbing. This knowledge seems quite commonsensical but it does not quite apply to the Chinese audience; the thing is that English texts read from left to right whereas Chinese texts read from right to left. Thus, what is common sense may in fact be common only to a particular person, group, or society.

Hence, the reasoning in part 2 of the article does not discount the value of research at all.

The factor that determines the value of research to me is whether or not new knowledge can be garnered from it, and that the value of this new knowledge outweighs the cost of gaining it. There’s no point trying to prove something that is long proven again right? Isn’t that why we should always look through secondary research data first?

Part 3: Research as a Political Tool

This is the part whereby I fully agree with Fahey. My only gripe about this is that most often than not, designers are forced to justify every single aspect of their designs. And the effort needed to do so will mean that less effort can go to ‘perfecting’ the designs. It’s a lose-lose situation.

Part 4: Research as Bullshit

By now, I guess it is quite obvious that I place more significance on research as compared to the author (I may be wrong on this though; I suspect that the author places as much emphasis on well-planned and well-executed research that generates thoughtful insights). Hence, when I saw the sub-heading, I thought that this part of the article has potential of being flame bait. However, as I read further, I cannot help but agree with his observations.

As mentioned above, the value of research to me is whether or not new knowledge can be garnered from it, and that the value of this new knowledge outweighs the cost of gaining it. In the examples cited by Fahey, it is rather obvious that the cost outweighs the benefits. Seriously, a persona room?! Like, huh?

With regards to the passing off of subjective analysis as objective findings, I believe the issues here are on the integrity of the actual research methodologies and how the researchers present their findings. Unfortunately, unlike academic researches whereby researchers have to provide details of how they carry out their researches, or even the raw data collected (usually with a small administrative fee), and discuss the limitations, commercial researches are not bounded by such practices (due to the competitive nature of business). Hence, it makes it harder to verify the accuracy, biases, reliability and validity, etc., of the (commercial) research. Thus, the onus is on the readers to take the results with a pinch of salt and not over rely on a singular source; multiple perspectives from varied sources should be sought to gain a clearer understanding.

Part 5: Non-Scientific User Research isn’t a Bad Thing

Indeed. All types of research should be awarded with the same level of scrutiny and analysis.

Knowledge of user, like any other knowledge, can be gained from empirical research or critical/ cultural research, empiricism or rationalism. As such, our understanding of the users can only progress with the accumulation of knowledge from all varied perspectives. This is not unlike the accumulation of experience, which (I repeat) is a requirement of expert designers.

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

~ Sir Isaac Newton

My Conclusion
User Experience research (both scientific and non-scientific) is crucial in aiding designers’ understanding of the users especially in unfamiliar contexts. However, designers should not be over reliant on them as the interpretation of the research data may be biased and flawed; knowledge of the research background, limitations, etc., is necessary to sieve out such errors but such knowledge is usually unavailable in commercial researches.

It is true indeed, that research alone does not guarantee good user experience design; the experience of a good designer is also crucial. But I feel that the two are kind of intertwined, in that experience results in the ability to plan good research that will aid in the design, and good research will add to the experience of the designer.

Understanding the users is like a never-ending cycle; thorough verifications with the users should be carried out to ensure that the designers’ understandings (derived from their own experience or from research results) are reflective of the actual users. Ultimately, it all boils down to the users when it comes to User Experience Design.

Final Project; Phase 4 - Evaluation

Having developed our product prototypes, it's time we have the users evaluate it. What we did was to ask users to navigate around our website prototype, and have them fill up a survey questionnaire that consisted of questions in Likert Scale measuring their emotions.

Using the Circumplex of Emotions, we realized that the general feeling about our website prototype is that it is pleasant but calm/ boring. It lacks the feeling of excitement that we wanted to create in our users.

However, we also noted that the Circumplex of Emotions does not tell us why the users feel so; it will be over inferring from the data to do so. Hence, we carried out laddering to further ascertain the 'why' behind their feelings.

And here's our presentation for Phase 4:

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Class feedbacks
The result is kind of expected as our website prototype is rather bare. Besides expecting the results, Mr Reddy also commented that it appears to be just another website selling mobile phone. And this is a crucial point that we have to work on in order to sell our product, which is a customizable mobile phone. He also suggested that we need to carry out user evaluation of our product concept i.e. customizable mobile phone. This is the part we missed because we only evaluated the users’ emotions about the website i.e. the look and feel of the website.

My reflection
I agree with the class and Mr Reddy on their feedbacks. The fact that the result is kind of expected also pointed to Fahey's point that some design problems are easily identified without having to go through research. I am glad that we went though the process though, as we managed to gain experience from carrying out the researching planning, measurement, and analysis. I believe that the experience of planning and executing researches will also enable a designer to hone his/ her research skills. This will ensure that the research carried out will allow the designer to know what he/ she wants to know.

I also learned that one research method can be employed in diverse settings to find out different things. As in the case of the circumplex of emotions, we can use it not only to measure the look and feel of our website, we can also use it to measure our product concept. One group also experimented with flashing their website along with competitors' websites, and then have the users evaluate his/ her emotions for all websites. I feel that this will allow designers to learn about their website as compared to the competitors. The next step to this, I guess, is to ascertain why users feel a certain way about the various websites, and incorporate the findings in the updated design.

Final Project; Phase 3 - Design

Phase 3a
For Phase 3a, we refined our 3 user personas - the advance user, the novice user, and the anti-user based on last week's feedbacks. We decided to target the military users and come out with a military phone. We then did some user research on participants who fit our updated advance user persona before attempting to design our product.

Our product basically can be divided into 2 sub products: the mobile phone, and the website that allows user to customize the mobile phone and purchase it.

For the mobile phone, we carried out a simple cultural probe using just a small notebook and pen, like in Assignment 3. This is not only due to our budget constraints, but also because it will be impossible for our participants to bring in visual/ audio recording devices into their military camps.

Because military personnels in Singapore will all carry a little black notebook and pen with them during training, we decided to give them the same notebook to record down their feelings and happenings during the search, the usage, and the disposal of their mobile phone. This is in accordance to the Product Life Cycle, the Value Creation and Delivery Sequence Model, and the Simplified UX Model, whereby the user experience of the product can be enhanced by tracking each stage of their usage, from the product manufacturing raw material (think Body Shop), to the sourcing/ purchase, to the actual use, and finally to the disposal of the product.

We also carried out survey to find out about the needs and excitement features of a mobile phone as perceived by our target users. Likewise, we also seek to find information online through the online forums that may be frequent by our target user.

For our website, we analyzed numerous mobile phone companies' websites (e.g. Nokia, Samsung, etc.), service providers' website (e.g. Singtel, M1, and Starhub), and also Dell's website to come out with a common-to-all information-categorization list. Card sorting was then carried out to determine the most user-friendly information structure for our target users.

Here's our presentation for Phase 3a:

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Phase 3b
There is no presentation for Phase 3b. What we are required to do, was to develop low-fidelity prototype based on our user research findings. Hence, we sketched out potential mobile phone designs and listed the specifications of our mobile phones, and we also came out with paper prototype of our website.

Mobile Phone - Low Fidelity Prototypes
Slide Phone
Clamshell Phone
Bar Phone

Showing our mobile phone designs to Mr Reddy, he feedbacked that we should probably do away with the clamshell phone and the slide phone, as the nature of these two designs is that they are less durable compared to a solid bar phone with the slides and hinge mechanisms etc., which are dust magnets. He also asked about the use of our mobile phone by soldiers during the night whereby there is a need to be tactical.

We also decided on 4 main tasks that we want our users to undertake to test the paper prototype of our website, and see if the users are able to derive positive user experience or face difficulties trying to carry out the tasks.

The 4 tasks are as follow:
1.Sign up for a user account
2.Purchase a mobile phone
3.Customize and purchase a mobile
4.Trade-in a mobile phone

And here's our low-fidelity prototype:


Phase 3c
For our mobile phone, we incorporated the ideas we got from our research and came out with this medium-fidelity prototype.

Unfortunately, we were unable to do a high-fidelity prototype like the dummy phones we often see on display. Here's our mobile phone prototype.


For the website, we managed to create a high fidelity prototype, which can be found HERE! and incorporated the findings from our previous researches as well.

Final project; Phase 2 - Define

We refined our Needs Analysis from Phase 1 through ethnography (observation of people in our daily life). Having reaffirmed our belief that customized mobile phone is the way to go, we went on to do In-depth interviews with 15 randomly selected respondents about their mobile phone usage.

We found out that different users have distinct usage and needs for mobile phone. What strikes us the most is that often times, social circumstances restricts/ affords only certain usage patterns e.g. National Servicemen in our conscripted army are not allow to bring in camera phone into military compounds. Hence, we decided that a customizable mobile phone for this user group is the way to go.

Based on this user group, we came out with our user personas, as well as the three levels of emotional appeals, and four-pleasure analysis of our advance user.

Here's our presentation for Phase 2:

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Class feedbacks
Feedbacks we got says that our target users are too varied and diverse. It's not a niche-enough group and that will increase difficulty in our product design to satisfy them; this despite our argument that our product is customizable and hence, able to cater to a larger group of users with different needs.

My reflection
In retrospect, I have to agree with the class that it is better if we are able to zoom in with a very clear focus on who we want to target, and then seek to maximize the user experience of this target group.

Final project; Phase 1 - Discover

Research and Proposal
For our final project of this module, we are required to identify the needs of people and come out with a product that is touted to cater to these specific needs and wow the people.

Ideally, we should be looking at niche groups with very specialized needs. The reason given is that it is better to satisfy one group thoroughly rather than try to cater to the masses and fail to satisfy any group at all (with all the groups being moderately satisfied only).

And we went about trying to identify these unfulfilled needs by observing people around us (kind of like ethnography, except that we did not know what we were looking for or where to start), and asking friends about what they are missing in their lives that they feel can be made better with a one-of-a-kind product/ service.

For a start, we found out that everybody wants to individualize themselves. There is an inherent need for people to stand out from the rest of the crowd, to express their own identity, to exert their presence as in individual, and to state who they are. This is evident in the myriads of clothing, hairstyles, accessories, bags, etc that people turn up in just for that few hours of lessons in school. Even people who simply throw on a pair of FBT shorts, tee-shirt and slippers are trying to express themselves (perhaps as nonchalant, or socially non-conforming?).

Paradoxically though, while they need to declare their individuality, there is also a need to be part of a group. This is perhaps better known as the individual-collective identity paradox in social psychology. This may probably explain why Mac users are individuals who wish to stand out from the majority of PCs users, but are closely bonded (almost cult-like) to other Mac users.

Having identified this need, we then attempt to seek out products/ services out available that are currently unable to satisfy this need. It was by chance that we realized that customized mobile phone might be just what we are looking for. We found out that people often have very distinct use for their mobile phone e.g. some people listen to MP3 on their mobile phones while others own an MP3 player instead. Besides usage, social circumstances also dictate their mobile phone needs e.g. national servicemen serving the country in military vocations are forbidden to bring camera-phones into camp to guard confidential information.

Hence, we propose that a customized mobile phone a la Dell computers may be the way to go for our project. Given the expertise of Dell Inc as a quintessential Internet company touting direct sales business model and build-to-order production, we hope to tape into Dell’s existing expertise, networks, and infrastructures to come out with the new product line.

Here's our presentation for Phase 1:

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Class feedbacks
The class is divided into 2 camps of thoughts generally about our idea. The first camp is excited about the prospects of our products as they feel that at times, they face difficulty choosing which mobile phones to buy, wishing that they are able to combine the best of all mobile phones and discard what they don’t need. Perhaps comparative advantage (in economics term) is what they are looking for.

The second camp is more sceptical about the idea and they raised rather valid points. The first point is that of technological possibility and patent-issues. Unlike the computer which uses standard parts/ components, mobile phones do not. Hence, it will increase the difficulty of us trying to emulate Dell’s model since it will be hard to source for suppliers of the components.

The second point is that of identity. While our product allows people to customize to suit their identity, our product has no identity of our own. Mr Reddy raised the analogy of a famous interior architect. While the architect will customize his/her designs based on the clients’ desires, he/she will have a signature style that attracts these clients in the first place.

My reflection
I very much agree with the comments given that there are issues that we need to iron out before we can say that our idea is feasible (at this point in time). I guess we will have to work on whether we want to carry on with our idea or discard it for an altogether new one.

Assignment 3; Design Probe

For this assignment, we are supposed to employ any of the user study methods taught and then propose solutions to improve the lecture learning experience.

To make sure that we get to practice most of the methods, we decided to use three methods instead of just one. Given that the scope of the topic is very broad, our aim of the user study methods is to get a broad perspective on the general problems or barriers to great lecture learning experience. Hence we did not restrict on particular lecture group, lecture module, etc.

User Study Methods Employed:
The three methods are 1.) Cultural Probe, 2.) Laddering, and 3.) Ethnography.
Our probe pack

Having identified many problems using the three methods, we then attempt to sieve out the common problems in all three of them.

Common Problems Identified:
The first common problem is that of the lecture theatre’s design.

The lecture theatres are generally too big for most classes, resulting in empty/ half-filled lectures. This emptiness may lead to a drop in temperature without the human warmth.

Students also like to sit at the last few rows of the lecture theatres, talking among themselves, distracting other students.

Some lecturers cannot be heard especially by students sitting at the back rows.

The space between the rows are also too narrow and restrictive for comfortable seating.

The second common problem is the lecturer factor.

The lecturing style, speech/language, nuances, and accents of the lecturer may affect the UX of learning in lecture theatres.

The lack of “Crowd control” by the lecturers may also reduce the UX of students who genuinely want to attend the lectures.

Appropriate pauses for questions/taking down notes were not given and this may reduce the UX of learning as well.

Lastly, the lack of personal grooming by the lecturers may also affect the UX of learning in lecture theatres.

The third common problem is the student factor.

Generally, students lack proper time management to maintain sufficient time for sleeping and eating (especially breakfast).

Many students are also affected by their fellow students’ improper behaviors and attitudes during/ towards lectures.

Proposed Solutions:
We propose that lecture timing should not coincide with peak hours (office hours) as this may indirectly affect the travelling to/ fro campus for lectures. Back-to-back lecture timing should also be avoided.

On the students part, we propose that they need to manage their time better to have enough rest. A positive attitude towards learning is also required.

Most importantly, students need to be sensitive and considerate to other students who are attending the lectures by not talking, eating, or doing anything disruptive to the lecture.

Changes to the design of the lecture theatres will also improve the UX of learning in them.

We propose seminar style teaching with maximum capacity of 30 students per class. This will essentially eliminates the problem of empty lecture theatres, cold temperatures, and the lecturer not being heard.

The smaller class will also allow the lecturer to perform better crowd control.

Regular maintenance of the projectors and sound systems is also required.

Lastly, we also propose some solutions for the lecturers.

Lecturers should improve their lecturing style by being less monotonous and not read from the slides. Accented English is acceptable as long as it is comprehensible.

Proper crowd control should be carried out by lecturers to maintain the level of UX in learning for most students.

The lecturers should also give the students sufficient time to take down notes and/ or process the information delivered.

Good personal grooming by the lecturers will also aid in improving the overall UX of learning in lecture theatres.

My Reflection
User experience varies greatly between individuals. Even with extensive studies on users, it will be difficult to identify what creates positive experience.

I guess one good way to start is by observing the daily happenings, the social norms and cultural practices. Once we've identified these events, we can go on to interview the people to probe deeper into why these events create positive experience for them.

After doing this assignment, I suggest that perhaps researchers can start with cultural probe and/or ethnography. With a better understanding of the situations, then we may move on to laddering to probe deeper. This will kind of answer my previous question on how to ask the 'correct' questions for laddering to work too. The basic understanding of the users will allow the researcher to formulate appropriate questions to ask in laddering.

And here's our Presentation Slide

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A question on Ethnography

I posted this on the module forum but I thought I'll post it here as well since I have kind of neglected this blog after all the festivities and celebrations. And considering that this blog will be graded as my participation, I ought to do something soon! I promise. =)

I am just wondering that it is a necessary criterion for ethnographers to observe without imposing a presence.

For example, if I'm observing the happenings in a lecture theatre during lecture and I go in with a bulky camcorder or worst still a film crew, wouldn't it be counter-productive in that I've actually created an artificial presence that will not be there under normal circumstances? And in this case, the people being observed may become aware of them being watched and hence, behave in a different (possibly more composed) manner. This will mean that the observations are not attuned to the reality, but rather a forced reality. I'm sure those of us who have went through education in Singapore long enough will know that teachers do behave differently and that they may even request the students to behave in a certain manner when an examiner from the Ministry of Education is scheduled to sit in during class.

But on the other hand, such artificial presence may actually yield unexpected discovery. I remember my Sociology lecturer sharing his experience of doing an ethnography study on resurgent Christianity in Singapore (Goh, 1999). While he was observing a baptism, his presence actually affected a new believer in that the believer was unable to verbalize tongue despite encouragement (socialization) by fellow members. It was only when he (my lecturer) was ushered away, and after repeated socialization that the new member was able to speak in tongue.

Hence, the observation on the effects of his presence (and many other factors of course) actually made him conclude that Charismatic Christianity may not be as rational as people believe it to be.

With these conflicting examples, I am interested to know whether or not ethnographers should observe without people knowing or vice versa. Any ideas?

Reference:
Goh, D. P. S. (1999). Rethinking resurgent Christianity in Singapore. Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science, 27(1), 89-112.

Reflection on Session 4

It's the first day of Lunar New Year and I want to wish one and all a prosperous and happy Lunar New Year! =)

Back to the topic of UX design; this week we learned about 4 different approaches to experience design. While none of the approaches will guarantee the result of a product with excellent UX design, they certainly provide a basis for understanding the users better.

We also got to try out the technique of Laddering in class. Seemingly simple, this technique requires the researcher to ask a series of 'why' questions to a participant until they cannot explain further to find out the root of the problem.

It is only when we put it into practise that I realized it's not as easy as perceived. I ended up in a quagmire of circular reasoning with my respondent saying that "A is like that because of B, and B is like that because of A".

In order for Laddering to work, the researcher must be trained to seek out very specific yet related questions that will lead the respondent to answer specifically in a non-leading manner (I hope I'm making sense). What I'm saying is that we need to ask very precise questions that will not corner the respondent into limited choices of answers as this might affect the accuracy of the research. I believe this is an acquired skill that comes with a lot of practice.

And the most interesting technique to me is ethnography. I guess it’s due to the voyeuristic pleasure of observing people in their nature surrounding (just joking). But the irony of this technique is that while we want to blend in with the environment so that the specimen in concern will not be affected by our presence, there is a risk of going native and end up not being able to pick up crucial behavioural details. For example, a researcher might end up being too comfortable with the participants’ behaviours and not realize that their behaviours might be out of the norms.

Again, I believe it takes time and practice to master the technique. God, please give me 48 hours a day!

Assignment 2: Four Pleasure Analysis

Based on the picture of a product given in class, we were supposed to create the profile of a potential user. Here's the picture:
(Source: http://www.blavish.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/Knee-High%20Croc%20Boots%20Christian%20Dior.jpg?)

For the uninitiated, this pair of Black Miss Dior boots is designed by Christian Dior in 2006. A newer version of it is currently available on Dior's website

Imaginary subject: Miranda, 28 years old fashion buying manager living in Singapore.

Miranda attended one of the top all-girls high schools and achieved straight Aces for 9 subjects in her GCE 'O' level. However, she opted for an alternative education path by enrolling herself to the Diploma in Fashion Management course offered by La Salle College of the Arts. Emerging as the top student, she moved on to graduate with a 1st class honours degree in management (marketing). Her education had been funded by one scholarship after another throughout.

Although she has been working in the fashion industry ever since she graduated from university 6 years ago, her current job is not her first; she started out as a store manager for a global fashion brand and was quickly poached by competitors for her excellent work performance. Subsequently, she worked as a fashion merchandiser and a fashion marketer. Given her unique and intricate fashion style, she was headhunted to become a fashion buyer for a luxury brand. Within a short span of 3 seasons, she was promoted to the position of buying manager. She feels that every man is for himself and she will not hesitate to job hop when the next better opportunity knocks.

Miranda enjoys her current job very much as it gives her immerse sense of satisfaction jet-setting from one country to another. She takes pride in the acknowledgement awarded by fellow industry players that she has unique foresight for fashion; she maintains her edge by keenly following all fashion trends, seeking out unique details so as not to be seen as a blind follower. This is evident in her disapproval of fashion bimbos who swear by absurdly high heels despite the health risks and physical inconveniences. Although she faces heavy stress from her job, she takes them in her stride and refuses to show any signs of fatigue or defeat.

To cope with her job, Miranda gyms up to 2 hours 3 times a week at the exclusive town club during which she runs on the treadmill with her earphones blasting music into her ears for half the time. She also embarks on a twice a year shopping sprees in a foreign fashion capital to reward her hard work. In her free time, she also patronizes the theatre and enjoys sipping aged wine at the exclusive wine bar with her friends. She appreciates both activities for the masterful artistry behind their creations as much as for being seen as a refined person. She also enjoys playing host to her friends at her district 9 penthouse.

Miranda is single although she has no lack of suitors. Men love her 1.72m and 46kg svelte frame although many of them are put off by her dominance and intelligence. Not that Miranda is affected or worried as she feels that men who are not able to appreciate a strong woman like her are simply not man enough. A staunch feminist and believer of equal rights, Miranda believes that all women should have their own career and be able to fend for themselves. Ironically, the same cannot be said for animal rights as she believes in the jungle law of survival of the fittest.

Only child to an upper middle class family where both her parents are working, Miranda grew up as a latchkey kid from the tender age of 9. Highly independent, she cooked her own meals, travel to school on her own, and revised her homework without being told. However, she loves her parents still and hates to trouble them with her stuff as she knows that they are working very hard to provide for her.

Physio-pleasure

• Miranda enjoys the mobility her job gives her - Appreciation
  
• Working out in gym keeps her fit and svelte - Need
  
• She prefers shoes that are comfortable to wear and walk in - Need
  
• She enjoys drinking aged wine with her friends - Apppreciation

Socio-pleasure

• Miranda enjoys the acknowledgement awarded to her by fellow industry players - Appreciation
  
• She also likes being seen as a refined person - Appreciation
  
• She enjoys hosting her friends - Need
  
• She takes pride in not troubling her parents with her problems to show her love for them - Need

Psycho-pleasure

• Miranda studies hard for her own future and scores excellent results in her education - Need
  
• She holds a very stressful job therefore she exercises, hangs out with friends or patronizes the theatre to relief the stress - Need
  
• She will not hesitate to job hop when there's a better offer taking pleasure in her ability to rise up to any job - Appreciation

Ideo-pleasure

• Miranda has a very unique sense of style and she will not follow fashion trends blindly - Appreciation
  
• Because of her childhood and upbringing, Miranda is wary of being dependent on others - Need
  
• She also believes in feminism and aspire for equal rights - Appreciation
  
• In terms of competitions and animal rights, she believes in survival of the fittest and every man for himself - Need

Product Benefit Specifications
Ideally, the phone should be chic looking and also practical/ user friendly. One close match of the possible hand phone will be the Samsung F700 (below).

(Source: http://byrev.net/2007-12/samsung-f700-release-date-early-november/)

This hand phone is slim and light making it highly portable. The 3.6Mbps data speed will also allow Miranda to work on the go, which is further facilitated with the qwerty keyboard and the 2.78 inch touchscreen display. The supposedly 5 Megapixals camera will also aid Miranda's work in the fashion industry. The music player function will also allow Miranda to listen to music while she's working out; a matching and stylish earphone with ear hooks will be good as it will hold the earphone in position while the user is exercising. One possible earphone is the Bang & Olufsen A8 Earphone (below).

(Source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/417ZKXAE25L._AA280_.jpg)

Another close contender is the new HTC S730 (below). The Microsoft Office MObile software will allow Miranda to access her work documents on the go. The external keys will also facilitate normal usage of the phone compared to the Samsung F700.

HTC S730 (Source: http://www.unwiredview.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/htc-s730-wing-volans.jpg)

To further customize the mobile phone for Miranda, a few modifications can be made. One possible improvement will be to include Wifi. This will allow Miranda to access the Internet freely wherever she goes.

Outlook of the phone can be enhanced as well. This can include the use of exotic leather such as snake's hide, crocodile skin, stingray skin, etc, to cover the back casing of the hand phone.

Stingray Leather (Source: http://www.tropicalleather.com/interestingarticles/stingpow140.jpg)

It will also be good if the mobile phone can be co-branded with some famous fashion designers e.g. Christian Dior, Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, etc, who are famous for unique and provocative designs.

The mobile phone should preferrably be within the price range of SGD 800 to SGD 1200 to maintain a certain level of exclusivity while not being too exorbitant for practical reason.

Commenting

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Reflection on Session 3

For this session, we were given the picture of a product and told to profile a person who will use it. It is an interesting exercise and I shall post my detail profiling of the person in a later post.

One point I find interesting is that a fellow classmate actually asked if it is against the principles of targeting a large market segment since we are focused only on one particular person. Mr Reddy's reply was that at least we can be sure that one person will buy the product rather than designing a product catered to the mass market and end up having no one buying it.

Personally, I feel that there is another reason why detailed profiling works; while we can be sure that the profiled person will definitely buy the product, we can also bank on others who may not be like the profiled person but who aspire to be. In fact, I guess most of the time it is this aspiration that leads people to consume certain products; I may not be that fit, hunky tri-athlete but I will buy the Oakley shades because I aspire to be like him.

During the presentation of our Product for Pleasure assignment, Mr Reddy also questioned why I chose the Citizen Gents Classic watch as a visceral design. Although he took in my explanation that I was looking at it from the perspective of a traditional mature man who likes stability and classic designs, I feel that perhaps I could have chosen another design that is more recognizably visceral in its design. And the new example I found is the Green Floral Watch.
(Source: http://www.bizlatino.biz/images/AMagnolia/jewelry/FashionWatchGreenFloral.jpg)

Quick Facts
Brand: N/A
Model: Green Floral Fashion Watch.
Price: CAD 29.00 approx. SGD 41.00, according to http://www.xe.com/
(Source: http://www.bizlatino.biz/magnolia/jewelry.php)

Behavioral: Well, the watch is certainly able to tell time. But that's about it. It's definitely not the watch you will wear for any strenuous activities.

Reflective: It's not branded and it doesn't boast any precious stones or expensive metals.

Visceral: It’s a beautiful watch with its floral design. In fact, I believe it’s more a piece of jewellery than a functional watch. Hence, it’s definitely a visceral design.

Ok. That’s my thoughts for session 3. Let me know what you think. =)

Assignment 1: Pleasure with Product

To design for user experience, designers need to be able to create pleasures I believe and as such, we are tasked with this assignment of finding 3 examples of a product within a same category that exemplify the 3 different levels of brain processing resulting in human emotional attributes. And the product category I have chosen is wrist watch.

Visceral Design
The visceral design I have chosen is the Citizen Gents Classic Watch.
(Source: http://www.creativewatch.co.uk/citizen/bm8240-03e-mens-citizen-leather-strap-watch-large.jpg)

Quick Facts
Brand: Citizen
Model: Citizen Gents Classic BM8240-03E
Price: £76.00 approx. SGD 220.00, according to http://www.xe.com/
(Source: http://www.creativewatch.co.uk/citizen-astra-watches.html)

Behavioral: Well, the watch certainly performs the basic function of telling time but that's about it. Although it is water-resistant, it is not waterproof; I also doubt anyone will wear it to swim given the leather strap.

Reflective: The watch does not really have much show off value. It does not cost much and the brand positioning is not really high.

Visceral: The design is definitely timeless; it is a classic wrist watch that oozes stability and manliness.

Behavioral Design
The behavioral design I have chosen is the Casio Men's Classic Digital Watch.

(Source: http://direct.tesco.com/product/images/?R=100-1330)

Quick Facts
Brand: Casio
Model: Citizen Men's Classic Digital Watch
Price: £7.98 approx. SGD 22.50, according to http://www.xe.com/
(Source: http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.100-1330.aspx)

Behavioral: Definitely. This watch is packed with useful functions such as alarm, illumination, timer, etc. It is also water resistant up to 50 meters, making it suitable for common water sports uses. Made of plastics and rubber, it is also lighter and longer-lasting.

Reflective: Needless to say, this is not a show watch.

Visceral: This watch looks very retro or outdated, especially with its newer counterparts like the G-shock series.

Reflective Design
The reflective design I have chosen is Patek Philippe Calatrava 5296.

(Source: http://www.patek.ch//html/en/descriptionCards//ref_5296G_001.html)

Quick Facts
Brand: Patek Philippe
Model: Patek Philippe Calatrava 5296
Price: £7,420 approx. SGD 20910.00, according to http://www.xe.com
(Source: http://www.chronomaster.co.uk/Patek%20philippe.htm)

Behavioral: This is a rather basic wristwatch without much function. It is water resistant up to 25 meters. However, it is supposedly very long-lasting.

Reflective: This watch reflects the status of the wearer, as a stable man who is capable of appreciating fine craft. The brand also reflects the social status of the wearer as a person who has arrived in the society.

Visceral: While this watch looks classical like the Citizen Gents Classic Watch, it is a fine piece of art; it is made of white gold with solid gold winding rotor, and boasts sapphire crystal case back. It also bears the Geneva Seal Hallmark.

My Reflection
Having done the classification of the 3 different design types, it strengthened my understanding that the visceral and the behavioral designs are more tangible while the reflective design is more abstract; UX designers need to be able to design products that look good and are packed with desired functions, and they also need to design status symbols

While the Citizen Gents Classic Watch looks similar to the Patek Philippe Calatrava 5296, the perceived hedonic quality of the Patek Philippe's watch is much higher. And the price of the Patek Philippe clearly shows that reflective design is necessary for a product to command a premium in pricing.

Another realisation while I was doing the classification was that the perceived product value changes over time and with people; the Casio watch was perceived to be cool and hot when it was first introduced although it now seems a little outdated to most people. With the retro-craze going on recently though, some people are spotting the watch now, as it reflects their sense of style and fashion i.e. the reflective level of processing.

Hence, I feel that a reflective design is zeitgeist of a culture and period. And UX designers can either prolong the duration of such reflections or come out with a succession of products.

I also feel that the 3 levels of design are often interlinked e.g. a good visceral design or behavioral design may translate to a good reflective design. Likewise, a good reflective design requires the visceral and behavioral aspects to back it up.

Lastly, I ponder on the balance between the 3 levels and reaffirm the statement Mr Reddy made in Session 1 that there is no absolute methodology in UX design. I guess we can only rely on thorough researches and understandings of the users in order to ensure that we design occasions that evoke positive user experience.

Reflections on Session 2

I shall start this post with a little reflection on session 2 of the module. Prior to attending this session, my perception of UX design basically product-centric i.e. users will have good experience using a product if it is good. Little was I thinking of creating occasions for experiences or replicating experiences through association with positive events. Such knowledge is definitely insightful and enlightening. *ponder*

Assignment 0: A Bad (Design) Start

Forget all the superstitions on commencing anything and everything with something good. We shall start this blog with a bang by, as the title has suggested, posting a maiden post on something bad! *clap* This kind of reminds me how people will ask the actors to “break a leg” before they get out on stage because saying “good luck” is considered bad luck. But I digressed.

So the bad design I found is something that is very close to the hearts of most students and maybe the lecturers too. And it is…

The Daglo TH1001 Swing Tablet (Source: http://www.tionghin.com.sg/school02.html)

Users’ Reactions
1. My personal experience with the Swing Tablet was in the lecture hall of a junior college. I had placed my files, pencil case, and some textbooks on the table when I got tired and wanted to rest awhile. I rested my head on the textbooks and unknowingly nudged the table forward. Expectedly, it swung down and all the stuffs fell onto the ground with loud thuds, disrupting the lecture. Hence, the word embarrassment aptly summarized my user experience with this product.

Interestingly though, the lecturer went on to joke that the table design forbids us from sleeping during lecture.



2. A friend of mine had a worse experience with this bad design. She was working on her laptop, which was on the table (duh -_-?), when she needed to get up to ask her tutor something. Her getting up movement however pushed the table forward, and swing it down together with her laptop. Her laptop crashed both physically and literally, and she lost whatever she was working on. While she forgivingly says that she should have held up the laptop, she does feel that the design can be improved or changed to function better.

What is the (design) problem?

The main problem of its design lies in the swing table. The design works in such a way that the knob holds the table and allows the user to swing it up or down in a single circular motion. However, as the knob is usually very loose, a slight nudge will result in the table slamming down; such nudges usually occurs when a user leans forward, or try to get out of the seat.

While the knob supposedly also affords the tightening of the table into position, such tightening seldom works (only 6 out of the 30 chairs that I tested are able to hold the table tightly) perhaps due to wear and tear, or the design fault of the knob.

Impression on Brand
None of the 6 friend I spoke to are aware of the brand of the chair. Personally, I did not know the brand too until I saw the name “Daglo” printed on the hind-legs of the chair upon close scrutiny.



A quick search on the Net shows that the product is manufactured by Tiong Hin Engineering (Pte) Ltd, a local furniture manufacturer. Their furniture is mainly for schools, public spaces, and offices.

The knowledge that these chairs are manufactured by a local company drew mixed feelings with 3 different camps of views; the first camp expressed support for local product, the second camp said that chairs of better quality from Japan etc. should be imported, and the last camp remained nonchalant with the gained knowledge.

My reflection
Retrospective of my experience with the swing tablet, it suddenly dawns upon me that for one product, there are different users and they might even be using the product in different manners. In the case of the chair, the school uses it as an educational facility, the lecturer uses it (in a way) to conduct her lecture, the students uses it to sit and write comfortably during lessons, etc.

And these different users may have entirely different experience with the same product. Using the chair as an example, my personal experience is not so pleasant while my lecturer's experience may be argued to be rather positive. It is interesting to note that the same event is the cause of such divisive reactions.

Likewise, a local brand can mean entirely different things to different users; the patriotic users may support the brand more while the quality-seeking users may desire foreign brands with implied, albeit possibly stereotyped, quality.

With this new 'insight', designing user experience seems to be even harder than ever, almost impossible. If I am the manufacturer of the swing tablet, how do I ensure that all the users of my product will have a positive user experience? From the functionality, to the aesthetics, to the hedonic quality; do we come out with a really generic product that is able to satisfy the needs of all users? Or do we customize the product for every single user? While the latter can be argued to be able to better create the most suitable user experience, the cost involved will definitely increase exponentially as well. How do we strike a balance then between the two extremes? I do not have an answer now, but I hope I will be able to answer this question at the end of this module.

Meanwhile, I shall ponder on the issues of Designing Content for New Media.