Studio 5 - Identifying Research Methods 1

What is ethnography?
Tony Salvador, Genevieve Bell, and Ken Anderson describe design ethnography as being "a way of understanding the particulars of daily life in such a way as to increase the success probability of a new product or service or, more appropriately, to reduce the probability of failure specifically due to a lack of understanding of the basic behaviors and frameworks of consumers." - Cited from Salvador, Quoted from Answers.com

Ethnography is something which has become recognised as a ubiquitous feature of the normal everyday life which we lead. It is part of the 'invisible computing' world that we live in, It is something that everyone does, everyday throughout life but will never notice it at all.

A person will often question their surroundings i.e. when you go to push a button whilst waiting for a lift and the button is slightly too low for you then the question would occur 'why didn't they place the button slightly higher than that?' - this is in our human nature to question things, but most of the time it is more of a random thought that an actual question to be stored, taken and analysied to look for a solution.

Ethnography is based around the analysis of things, it is one of the most important parts which makes up ethnography. It is using this part that we can determine between a normal individual and a professional, whom seeks out to solve everyday questions that others will think upon but look no further.

3 examples of ubiquitous computing

1. Uncle Roy All Around You
This is a game which dwells in the real world and within world wide web, where players start off as strangers and have the possibilty to become 'friends and helpers' towards one another. The concept of this game is that it will have users playing in the real-world and online combined as the same time playing an extremely high-tech game of hide-and-seek across the city of Manchester, England. Uncle Roy All Around You was created by Blast Theory Ltd, with the 1st title of the 'Uncle Roy' games being released in 2003.

• Online players can contact the real-world players via the use of text-messaging, whilst the real-world players can leave voice messages using their mobile phones in 'cyberspace' for the online players to retrieve at their disposal.
• Street players are equipped with PDAs to help them look for the thought up character of 'Uncle Roy'
• The game did encounter a few problems during the early stages of creation using GPS because it took quite long for information and data to be sent between the players and the sever. Since then Blast Theory have changed to using GPRS as this is faster and more efficient for the users of Uncle Roy All Around You

Changing the way that people think about a city - which for most people is just a backdrop for their life - is one of the professed aims of Uncle Roy. Instead of a blank cityscape, players have to interact and engage with it, asking people they have never met if they are Uncle Roy. Instead of a city full of strangers, people become potential helpers and friends. - BBC News

2. Treasure
This features a team and location style, played across a small area; mainly consisting of 4 people. In such a small area points are gained by the team collecting coins by visiting certain locations sent to their mobile, PDA or similar device using 802.11 wireless networking.

The user must ascertain the location, where a coin has been dropped then proceed to take their handheld computer devices. They must then take them to an area where they can connect wirelessly to a network and upload them to a server where they can be converted into points.

Although the basis of this game seems simple, the tasks of collecting the coins can be extremely difficult due to a player's opposing side. Once a user has located a coin and is on their way to getting in range of a wireless network, an opposing player can steal their coin to convert into points if the original player has failed to upload the coin in time.

3. Savannah
The target audience for this educational game were children from the school years of 6, 7, and 8 and the aim of the game is to teach these children about the ecology of the Savannah, Africa with the main scope aimed towards the behaviour of lions and their surroundings. The following technology was used for the Savannah game:
1. Global positioning system
2. Wireless network
3. 3 servers (games, events, maps)
4. PDAs
5. Mobile Bristol client (Bristol were in partnership with teams conducting the research for the trials of this game)
6. PC interface software

The children were given PDAs (Wi-Fi enabled) which included GPS location sensing technology. This was so that the children would be able to move around an augmented area using these devices to discour what resoucres a lion would need to survive, and learn to move around the 'terrain' like a lion would in their natural environment. The 'terrain' was an empty school playing field, fitted with camera's to monitor the children's behaviour as lions. Within the Savannah, the lions (children) had two domains, their den's and the outside terrain.

The den would provide the Children an area indoors where they could look at their findings, study the research, plan their tasks and reflect on the whole experience of each level they come across. The children are also set up via their PDA's 3 levels - 1) to claim territory through scenting; 2) to hunt successfully in the wet season; 3) to survive hunger and thirst in the dry season.
Using Ethnography Studies To Understand Users Interaction With The System

Savannah - This game is a very good example of how technology out in the 'real-world' can be used to study users' and how they interact with devices given to them. For example; because the actual Savannah game was created in an augmented enviroment out in the open, the analysts were able to modify the environment so that the following could happen:

• Recording - wireless microphones were used to record the conversations of the participants
• Video - There was a dedicated camera to each player of the game throughout the entire time that they were actually playing. Also because this game was placed in an augmented natural enviroment it meant that camera's could be set up to monitor the entire area and all players can be kept in shot so nothing is missed.
• Interactions - analysts would be able to look into how the participants acted within the enviroment, naturally.
• Logging - A central server was set up so that all system logs of the game, its actions and data were captured; to be used for study.

After the Savannah game and all data was captured, the research teams behind the game then created a 'dedicated game replay interface'. This allowed complete game status to be displayed for all of the participants, so that they could see what had happened to them as lions. Also using the reply interface analysts were able to view the system logs in a variety of ways. A fine-grained analysis was created about GPS sensing and location based interaction.

Assignment Method Discussion

For my assignment I have decided to go with option 1 and conduct the Usability Evalutation of a Mobile Device, and for this instance I am going to be conducting this on an Apple 8gb iPod Touch. Some of the methods previously discussed that I think would be of benefit to this evalution is;

• Wireless microphones - This wouldn't really be a major benefit, but encase their is any type of self-talk from the user whilst using the device it could be beneficial to have some vocal feedback from the participant whilst they are using the device and not being questioned.
• Video Capture - These could be used in various natural environments i.e. on public transport, within the home, in a park, walking down the street etc. This would be very useful also in a controlled environment where the user can be studied to see what functions they tend to use on the device more, and how they use it as it is a flat-panel touch screen technical device. I would like to test the product in a controlled area on a new iPod user and an experienced iPod user to find out if the interface is simple to use and if not, what are the problems.
• GPS Sensors - This would be an interesting technology to use, as the iPod touch already has Wi-Fi and GPS technology these could be used to study the pattern of use with the device. For example; at what times of the day is the device used, is the device only used whilst travelling etc.
• Combination of conceptual frameworks - I would like to combine usability-in-itself with usability-in-life making use of Norman's design principles and the hueristics of the device.

The major problem with testing an iPod/mp3 device is being able to get the feedback, as the main sources tend to come from questionnaires and interviews. Where as the main problem with the way I would like to conduct my experiment is cash-flow; to use devices mentioned would cost quite an amount of money with no real outcomes apart from mainly how the iPod is used rather than how good the product is in itself. Also as I would like to use video capture, alot of people do not like the feeling of being watched and so the testing would prove to be a farce in a way. Mainly because the participants wouldn't act in natural way, whilst they knew they were being recorded. Many would feel pressured and would tend to act differently with the device, and for that reason alone makes the testing in a controlled area or the use of video capture; extremely difficult.