Title: Experience Design Methodology: The Four Questions
Abstract: Abstract An approach to developing a research method course for user experience is discussed. The interplay between objective scientific study and interpretive humanistic inquiry is readily seen in this emergent field. A framework based on four paradigmatic questions is developed. is explored in relationship to experiments, surveys, qualitative descriptive inquiry, and rhetorical research. Students learn that research questions drive choice of methodologies and methods. The key is for students to gain skills to apply correct methodologies to situation. Introduction Information design, user experience design, and new product use methods from both sciences and humanities. In product development, different business disciplines such as technical communication, usability research, marketing, and engineering work toward of new products (Keiman, Anschuetz, & Rosenbaum, 2002). Experience or experience-driven can be considered as a new strategy in industrial and major corporations (Nokia, Philips, Nike) claim to have adopted it for their product development (Hekkert, Mostert, & Stompff, 2003, p. 114). This article provides a case analysis of how to best develop a user experience research course in which methodologies from humanities and sciences are utilized in an interdisciplinary fashion. Students studying experience should learn rationalistic and humanistic research approaches. With rationalist measurements, students learn basics of traditional human factor principles that objectively measure human machine interaction. Furthermore, experience implies social connectedness and action that requires need to understand how information transfers meaning between human and machine, and also between people using technology (i.e., machine). In this methodological framework, technical artifact is considered part of user experience within a context. The main question becomes what methodologies and methods are best used for interaction and experience design? Strauss and Corbin (1998) stated that methodology is a of gathering knowledge about world (p. 4). research is a melding of methodologies from humanities and sciences to establish knowledge on how people live with and shape uses of consumer products. brings together ideas from a wide array of disciplines with exciting results, including economics, electronic commerce, psychology, sociology, communications, artificial intelligence, and other specialty areas in computer science such as virtual reality and persuasive technologies, as well as theatre and entertainment (McLellan, 2000, p. 60). More specifically, the goal of experience is to orchestrate experiences that are not only functional and purposeful, but also engaging, compelling, memorable, and enjoyable (McLellan, 2000, p. 59-60). As products, information and communication technologies (ICT) are especially designed to become more ubiquitous. Thus, our methodologies need to be more sensitive to how people and products can seamlessly interact. While experience is a potentially powerful approach, it is still in its infancy (Hekkert, Mostert, & Stompff, p. 119). The rise of products such as ICTs beacon need to develop an experience discipline with a stockpile of research methods. An area fostering this is human factors, which is traditionally cognitive and behavioral. Yet, experience calls for a wider range of approaches we need to better understand how different approaches relate to each other ... What is needed is a framework that articulates experience in a way that does not rely on point of view of any single discipline, but provides a common design-oriented frame of reference for all relevant actors involved in design (Forlizzi & Battarbee, 2004, p. …
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-06-22
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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