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!