Week 10

Chapter 14

After taking so many cognitive science classes, it seems to me that usability testing could be abandoned, and evaluation would depend more on field studies. Usability testing doesn't seem like it would provide much information in addition to field studies. People are rarely going to be using a product in a controlled environment, so testing in one wouldn't have much use, other than possibly identifying MAJOR problems with a design, but those problems would probably be discovered in the field study anyway.

I got a kick out of reading about the Tracksys 'lab-in-a-box'. I think it's amusing that something was designed specifically for studying the study of design. Then again, designers and researchers are people too, and I'm sure having all their tools in one easy (hopefully?) to use box is nice. From the look of it, maybe the Tracksys could undergo a redesign, as it's beginning to look a bit dated.

I like the example the book used, MedlinePlus, to serve as a basis for usability testing and field studies. Mainly due to the fact that it's a large website, and the redesign would impact a large number of people. So seeing real application on a large scale in the real world was appreciated.

Chapter 15

Analytical evaluation almost seems silly to me, because as the introduction says, the researcher is role-playing as the user. If products are designed with the user in mind, shouldn't the user be the one to evaluate whether or not s/he likes the interface? However, I guess I can see a couple advantages to this approach. The first one being that it's simply more testing. If designers can predict what the user may or may not like before the product is given to the user, maybe they can make evaluations simpler for the user. More importantly though, I don't think users always know what they like or don't like, but more importantly, the user may not be able to aptly convey that (such as why or how). By having an expert posing as a user, the expert will be more easily able to determine what makes the interface good or bad, and be able to explain why, so that it can be fixed.

I did enjoy reading about the REI website, and thinking about it analytically. Mainly due to the fact I'd been to the website before, so it was neat to see it in the book, and think about its redesign :)

I also liked reading about Fitts' Law, because I never knew that such an idea existed, but now after having read about it, and looking at buttons on various things, it does hold up. It's interesting looking at its application on various things (and whether designers actually took it into account when designing a product, or the face that the law holds is just a coincidence).

Lecture

If there's any topic I really enjoyed in this class, it was ubiquitous computing. I really do think that computers are eventually going to be anywhere and everywhere (even more so than they are now), and it's also inevitable. In my opinion, this is a great thing. I really enjoy technology and computers, and I think they make life much easier and much more enjoyable. The idea that one day they're really going to... permeate life is awesome. Definitely not anything like the Borg, but just being able to have a supercomputer always at hand.

I also really liked being able to see some of the more cutting edge research going on, and also being able to see where to go to do some more research on my own.

I know, it's nerdy, but technology is exciting.