Week 6: User Research
Summary
This week’s assignment was a continuation of the scenario from the ideation project. The mayor of Greenville prompted an observational field study concerning commuting. For my observational field study, I did three observations over the course of two days on Friday May 5th and Monday May 9th. Two of the three field observations were made during my personal commute from South Kirkland park and ride to the University of Washington (Pend Oreille road) from 7:46 am to around 8:20 am. The third field observation I conducted occurred on the 255 bus route from Montlake boulevard to South Kirkland park and ride. I essentially observed my surroundings keeping note of the practices done by individuals around me. I made my observations in pencil and paper allowing me to quickly jot my informations. I chose also to conduct three observations instead of one to observe more practices.
Reflection
As a commuter, this assignment opened my eyes to multiple practices that were done by the commuter community. I knew that looking out the window or an individual’s phone and sleeping were all practices done while riding the bus, but I discovered that many people glimpse constantly towards the front possibly to check where they are.
I found this assignment interesting because it made me question what other practices were done in our everyday lives that we are unaware of. It made me become aware of situations and practices that design ideas could be drawn from leading to products that impact everyone’s lives in some way. This fact made me realize that HCDE is more than simply creating leisure applications and products, but more about creating products and applications that positively impact a community.
Future Applications
User research is where communities’ or an individual’s problems become known, to allow designers and engineers to develop solutions. I can see myself using the user research observation practice to discover unaddressed problems for other HCDE projects, nature science projects, or future endeavors, but I do not see myself using this practice in a broader sense. This is because user research, especially the observation practice, can only cater towards specific situations and projects. I cannot gain that much information from observing others, and the only information I can gain is natural tendencies of individuals or common practices done in a location. I cannot gain what may be going through a user’s thoughts. Therefore, this practice is very limited. Without user research, I may create a solution to a problem that does not exist, but by sitting and observing individuals I am able to create solutions from the practices I personally witnessed.
