an ethnographer participate - overtly or covertly - in peole’s daily lives for an extended period of time watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions
knowledge on the organizational context and individual behaviour is gained
user-interface designers observe the users AND the interfaces they use at work
etnographic methods have been applied to office work, air-traffic control, other domains
Etnographic guidelines
preparation
understand organization policies and work culture
familiarize yourself with the system and its history
gain access and permission to observe or interview
field study
establish rapport with managers and users
observe or interview users in their workplace, and collect subjective and objective quantitative and qualitative data
follow any leads that emerge from the visits
analysis
compile the collected data in numerical, textual, and multimedia databases
quantify data and compile statistics
reduce and interpret the data
refine the goals and the process used
reporting
consider multiple audiences and goals
prepare a report and present the findings
Comments
each collected data requires interpretation and attention for each situation
learning the technical language of the users is vital for obtaining rapport
rating scales or rankings should be used
anecdotes or critical incidents capture user experiences
written report summaries are also useful
working relationships may develop
users become active participants in the design of their new interface
for current interfaces data on the range and distribution of task frequencies and sequences are available
if not available they should be logged from day to day operation
these data are crucial, particularly if a process known as business-process-re-engineering is taking place
where the ts are single tasks and the fs are single frequencies for every user class
Preparing the field
data about current performance should be collected
information about similar systems can be gathered
interviews can be conducted with interested parties (Carroll, 1995)
an early and easy way to describe a novel system is to write scenarios of usage and then act them out
when multiple users must cooperate as in
cockpits, control rooms, financial trading rooms this technique is particularly useful
or using multiple devices as in
customer-servie desks, medical laboratories,...
National Digital Library Project
an example of scenario portraying the NDL Project
K-16 Users: a seventh-grade social-studies teacher is teaching a unit on the Industrial Revolution. He wants to make use of primary source material that would ilustrate the factors that facilitated industriallization, the manner in which it occurred, and the impact that it had on society and on the built environment. Given his teaching load, he only has about four hours total to locate and package the supplementary material for classroom use.
Another scenario
US Holocaust Museum and Education Center
A grandmother and her 10-and 12- year old grandsons have visited the museum before. They have returned this time to the Learning Center to explore what life was like inn her shetl in Poland in the 1930s. One grandson eagerly touches the buttons on the welcome screen, and they watch the 45-second video introduction by the museum director. They then select the button on “History before the Holocaust” and choose to view a list of towns. Her small town is not on the list, but she identifies the larger nearby city, and they get a brief textual description, a map of the region, and a photograph of the marketplace.
Holocaust Museum and Education Center
They read about the history of the town and view 15-second videos of the market-place activity and a Yiddish theater production. They bypass descriptions of key buildings and institutions, choosing instead to read biographies of a famous community leader and a poet. Finally, they select “GuestBook” and add theirnames to the list of people who have indicated an affiliation with this town. Further up on the list, the grandmother notices the name of a childhood friend from whom she has not heard in 60 years-fortunately, the earlier visitor has left an address.
Analysis of scenarios
written to give nontechnical museum planners and Board of Directors the idea of what could be built if funding were provided
easy for people to grasp
convey design issues such as physical installation and development requirements
some scenario writers also produce video tapes, e.g.
Apple’s Knowledge Navigator (1988)
Sun’s Starfire (large screen work supporting CSCW)
Bill Gates police drama 2005 (digital wallets, interactive home TV, educational dbs, medical communications
issues of technology - web, privacy, copyright, etc.
impact of new systems requires a statement (as in ecological policies) to promote high quality systems in government related applications - Battle et al., (1994)
in the private sector reviews would be optional and self administered
an outline was suggested by Shneiderman and Rose (1996)
Social impact statement
describe the new system and its benefits
convey the high-level goals of the new system
identify the stakeholders
identify specific benefits
address concerns and potential barriers
anticipate changes in job functions and potential layoffs
address security and privacy issues
discuss accountability and responsibility for system misuse and failure
Missing part of statement
avoid potential biases
weigh individual rights versus societal benefits
assess tradeoffs between centralization and decentralization
preerve democratic principles
ensure diverse access
promote simplicity and preserve what works
Final part of statement
outline the development process
present an estimated project schedule
propose process for making decisions
discuss expectations of how stekeholders will be involved
recognize needs for more staff, training, and hardware
propose plan for backups of data and equipment
outline plan for migrating to the new system
describe plan for measuring the success of the new system
Social impact
written by the design team
early along the process design
accessible to users, managers, public
the statement is next evaluated by managers, other designers, end users, federal government units, stte legislatures, regulatory agencies, professional societies, and labor unions
once the social impact statement is adopted it must be enforced
effort, cost and time should be appropriate to the project
Statement consequences
it may offer large improvements by preventing problems that could be expensive to repair
privacy protection may involve user-interface mechanisms for controlling passwords, file access, identity checking, data verification
encryption and decryption processes may involve complex dialog boxes to specific keys
safety and reliability:
aircraft, automobiles, medical equipment, military systems, nuclear reactor control rooms...may require life-or-death decisions like in air-traffic control
if an interface is difficult to understand it could lead to
a law suit against the designer, developer, implementor alleging improper design
high-quality interfaces, well-tested, adhering to state-of-the-art design guidelines
copyright protection for software and information
protection against piracy
clever hackers usually circumvent all barriers
sues against corporations and universities are not uncommon
site-license agreements allow copying within the site
new problems arise with on-line information (such as the one from a database or from the web)
who owns it? can one sell it?
what about publishers and authors?
Another issue
freedom of speech in electronic environments
are users allowed to make controversial/potentially offensive statements via e-mail?
must community standards hold?
are ntework operators responsible for or prohibited from eleiminating offensive or obscene jokes, stories or images?
equal access for impaired persons
the most controversial issue for user-interface designers is: copyright and patent protection for interfaces
What should be protected?
what material should have copyright?
fonts, lines, boxes, shading and colors cannot be accorded copyrights i.e. GUIs cannot be protected
music is protected, notes cannot be (collections of words may be copyrightable)
yet...Apple’s desktop was copied by Microsoft (the judge decomposed the interface into elements)
the confusion lies on the difficult separation between ideas (not protectable) and espressions (protectable)
An example
the idea of working with many documents at once is not protectable (by multiple windows) but that specific expressions of windows (colored frames, animation, etc.) is protectable
are copyrights or patents more appropriate for user interfaces?
copyright is easy to obtain - a notice on the user interface and file an application - last 75 years for a company and life +50 years for persons
patent is complex, slow and costly - last 17 years but are more enforceable
Copyright infringement
it is easy to detect if the copy is complete
what if there are partial copy, some elements are the same but not all of them
ordinary observers must be convinced that the copy is substantially similar to the original
User interfaces copyrighted?
some believe that user interfaces should not be copyrighted, instead they should be shared
copyrights interfere with standardization
others believe that user interfaces should be copyritten for recognizing artistic work, encourage innovation and reward the designers
complexity and cost of protection, designers do not want to share their creatures
interface designers must respect existing expressions, they should seek for licenses or cooperative agreements to share user interfaces
web site
for style guidelines, design methods, standards organizations, can be found at
