Impressions

IDEO Method Cards

Competitive Product Survey
HOW: Collect, compare and conduct evaluations of the product's competition
WHY: This is a useful way to establish functional requirements, performances standards, and other benchmarks

Error Analysis
HOW: List all the things that can go wrong when using a product and determine the various possible causes
WHY: This is a good way to understand how design features mitigate or contribute to inevitable human errors and other failures.

Long Range Forecasts
HOW: Write up prose scenarios that describe how social and/or technological trends might influence people's behavior and the use of a product, service or environment.
WHY: Predicting changes in behavior, industry, or technology can help clients to understand the implications of design decisions.

Secondary Research
HOW: Review published articles, papers, and other pertinent documents to develop an informed point of view on the design issues.
WHY: This is a useful way to ground observations and to develop a point of view on the state of the art.


Behavioral Mapping
HOW: Track the positions and movements of people within a space over time.
WHY: Recording the pathways and traffic patterns of occupants of a space helps to define zones of different spatial behaviors.

Fly on the Wall
HOW: Observe and record behavior within its context, without interfering with people's activities.
WHY: It is useful to see what people actually do within real contexts and time frames, rather than accept what they say they did after the fact.

Guided Tours
HOW: Based on observations of real people, develop character profiles to represent archetypes and the details of their behavior or lifestyles.
WHY: This is a useful way to bring a typical customer to life and to communicate the value of different concepts to various target groups.

Social Network Mapping
HOW: Notice different kinds of social relationships within a user group and map the network of their interactions.
WHY: This is a useful way to understand interpersonal and professional relationship structures within workgroups.
A Day in the Life
HOW: Catalog the activities and contexts that users experience throughout an entire day.
WHY: This is a useful way to ground reveal unanticipated issues inherent in the routines and circumstances people experience daily.


Card Sort
HOW: On separate cards, name possible features, functions, or design attributes. Ask people to organize the cards spatially, in ways that make sense to them.
WHY: This helps to expose people's mental models of a device or system. Their organization reveals expectations and priorities about the intended functions.

Cognitive Maps
HOW: Ask participants to map an existing or virtual space and show how they navigate it.
WHY: This is a useful way to discover the significant element, pathways, and other spatial behavior associated with a real or virtual environment.

Conceptual Landscape
HOW: Diagram, sketch or map the aspects of abstract social and behavioral constructs or phenomena.
WHY: This is a helpful way to understand people's mental models of the issues related to the design problem.

Draw the Experience
HOW: Ask participants to visualize an experience through drawings and diagrams.
WHY: This can be a good way to debunk assumptions and reveal how people conceive of and order their experiences or activities.

Extreme User Interviews
HOW: Identify individuals who are extremely familiar or completely unfamiliar with the product and ask them to evaluate their experience using it.
WHY: These individuals are often able to highlight key issues of the design problem and provide insights for design improvements.

Five Why's
HOW: Ask "Why?" questions in response to 5 consecutive answers.
WHY: This exercise forces people to examine and express the underlying reasons for their behavior and attitudes.

Narration
HOW: As they perform a process or execute a specific task, ask participants to describe aloud what they are thinking.
WHY: This is a useful way to reach users' motivations, concerns, perceptions, and reasoning.

Surveys & Questionnaires
HOW: Ask a series of targeted questions in order to ascertain particular characteristics and perceptions of users.
WHY: This is a quick way to elicit answers from a large number of people.

Word Concept Association
HOW: Ask people to associate descriptive words with different design concepts or features in order to show how they perceive and value the issues.
WHY: Clustering users' perceptions helps to evaluate and prioritize design features and concepts.


Paper Prototyping
HOW: Rapidly sketch, layout, and evaluate interaction design concepts for basic usability.
WHY: This is a good way to quickly organize, articulate, and visualize interaction design concepts.

Scenarios
HOW: Illustrate a character-rich story line describing the context of use for a product or service.
WHY: This process helps to communicate and test the essence of a design idea within its probable context of use. It is especially useful for the evaluation of service concepts.

Scenario Testing
HOW: Show users a series of cards depicting possible future scenarios and invite them to share their reactions.
WHY: Useful for compiling a feature set within a possible context of use as well as communicating the value of a concept to clients.

Try It Yourself
HOW: Use the product or prototype you are designing.
WHY: Trying the product being designed prompts the team to appreciate the experience the actual users might have.

Labels: UX

posted by Hari @ 5/05/2006 12:09:00 PM