Project Group Discussions for Reading Seminar 1

Tasks

Discuss each chapter and your questions and list the key points from the text, your discussions and any open questions you may have.

Questions

• What is an appropriate number of people we should conduct an interview on?
• What is the difference between a direct and indirect interview?
• What is collecting data automatically(Using sensors or other devices to automate collection of data or crawling the web to get user feedback about services or products)

Key points

• Random sampling and convenience sampling
• Triangulation

Discuss how the theory relates to your project. What are the pros and cons of the methods you use?

Methods we use:

• Interviews
• Direct observation in the field
• Focus group

Interviews:

Pros:

• Interviewer can guide interviewee if necessary. Encourages contact between developers and users
• Interview in groups allows diverse or sensitive issues to be raised that might otherwise to missed. Interviewees are in a supportive environment where they are encouraged to say more.

Cons:

• Time consuming
• Artificial environment may intimidate interviewee
• Interviewees may act differently when they know the interview is recorded.

Have you been able to apply them in an "appropriate" way according to the theory?

Appropriate way to do interviews:

• Semi-structured interview
• Audio recording with permission from interviewee

If you had endless resources (time and money) how would you carry out your project?

• I would probably conduct interview on more travelers on the ferry rather than the current 6 per group for the next few months.
• Install a device to automatically collect feedback from the travelers
  

Reading Seminar 1 reflection --Jinchen Liu

Chapter 7:
The Data Gathering Chapter describes five key issues respectively in the beginning, these issues are offering the format or pre-thinking questions about how the data gathering should be done, like setting goals and identifying participants. The next part is related to the method about recording the data, video and audio are always the best choice as long as the participants agree with that; The mean context is about three data gathering methods, which are commonly used in interaction design; Interviews, Questionnaires, and Observation.  Each of them has main using area and performs better for some respect. Here I just brief mention the main methods I will use for the project as a example. Interview is good for exploring issues and always gathering quantitative and mostly qualitative data.  on the other hand, it strengthens the communication between the interviewer and interviewee. But obviously it consumes lots of time as considering the preparing and analysing, and also needs the cooperation with the participants.

Chapter 8:
The Data Analysis chapter describes the difference between qualitative and quantitative data in a detail, and how to analysis between them. Quantitative and qualitative data can be analysed for  different patterns or trends by using simple and graphical data representatives. Qualitative data can be dealing with  using various  approaches, such as categories or themes, or using theoretical frameworks(grounded theory), distributed cognition and activity theory.

Chapter 10:
For the last chapter, The importance of the requirements activity has been mentioned again in more details, as well as how to establish requirements for the interaction design. Contextual inquiry, studying documentation, and researching similar products are techniques which are widely used in gathering requirement data.

Questions:
1. How to combine the data gathering methods during one research?
2. How many data do we need for analysing for our project?
3. The success example of using Contextual Inquiry.

Reflection- Seminar 1

For our project we are tasked with designing an interactive interface for travelers between Slussen and Allmänna Gränd. Gathering data is one of the important steps in designing a solution as it allows us to gather information about the requirements of the users we are targeting. Moreover, we have to  identify goals which allows us to narrow down on the type of data we are looking for. For our case, we will be targeting tourists who are travelling with their kids. Informed consent is also an important issue depending on the type of study. Sometimes, there maybe certain risks or benefits of participating in the study and the participants have to give their consent to be part of it. Since we are handling a problem related to people, its useful to use triangulation which allows us to look at a problem from various perspectives. This technique may not be 100 percent useful but sometimes its worth the effort as you might never know what kind of data you might get. Personally I like to record audio for interviewing people as it is unobtrusive as compared to recording a video. For the analysis of the data, there will be a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis as we might be looking at various kinds of data such number of people using iPhone vs Android or opinion about the ferry ride experience. As mentioned earlier, establishing the requirements is the fundamental step  in creating a successful solution. The simple way to achieve this is to ask questions which start with Where, What, When, Why, Who and How etc. For example we could ask the following questions:

• What is the suitable number of interviewees for our study?
• Can we justify our solution based on the interviews conducted on 6 people?
• Since all of our team members are foreigners and tourists ourselves, how can we put our perspective to good use and avoid any bias that we might have?
• How do I create a better ferry ride experience?
• What is wrong with the current system and how can it be improved(task analysis)?
• How do the people scan their ticket in the current system(use cases)
• What kind of information does SL app or Google maps provide about the ferry(researching similar products)?

The questions I have for the seminar are:

• What is the suitable number of interviewees for our study?
• Can we justify our solution based on the interviews conducted on 6 people?

Reading Seminar 1 Notes: Agneev Guin

Chapter 7: Data Gathering

Determination of the data requires a good amount of sample for the perfect analysis. Saturation sampling requires an access to the complete population. However, at most times this type of sampling is the most toughest part and its better to have a probability sampling containing. Thus it is very important for a good data gathering to include samples with a large domain. This widely helps in the triangulation considering the common points from the huge set of data. The pilot study is a sample study which gives an analysis of what could be expected out of the results.

There are different data recording techniques. Even though the notes comply to a good amount of data but there is always a tendency to miss out on the data. Thus, an audio or video recording would provide a definite approach to examining the data. Further on, interview conduct is an approach which could be directed towards the target group and the questionnaires designed in a way that it accomplishes the desired objective. A semi-structured interview is best handy as the planned interviews doesn't always go as expected and an unplanned one could be quite blunt in its approach. The responses in terms of ratings and differential scales are easier to interpret, however it also causes an inconvenience to understand the participant's state of mind.

Chapter 8: Data Analysis

The data analysis needs to collate the data qualitatively as well as quantitatively. The categorizing of the data is quite challenging considering the segregation of the categories distinctly and ensuring that there is no overlap. Critical incidents might occur where the participants are given a unique consequence and the results might not signify the actual outcome but a hypothetical one. There are multiple tools available for categorization, theme based analysis and quantitative analysis.

Chapter 10, Identifying needs, Establishing requirements

The activities of data gathering, analysis, interpretation, and presentation follows a pattern which is to first gather some data, analyze and interpret it, and then extract relevant requirements from it. Knowing and framing the requirements is must to keep every member of the team on the same page. The customer must be delivered with what he exactly wants. Thus, the functional and non-functional requirements are what are expected to be met which says what a system must do and the constraints with its development respectively. Brainstorming is what brings the design into the picture.

Question: Who decides if a product/design is good?

Interview Review: Agneev Guin

The age of Individualization

Individualization, as per Merriam Webster means to make (something) different from other things, or, to change (something) so that it fits each person's needs. Due to the busy schedule and lack of family time, everyone needs a break. Skansen and Grona lund are one of the main attractions of Stockholm considering the young generation and the enthusiastic people. This could be a major reason for the huge crowd at the ferry on Saturday morning when all the families and the children are excited to spend their joyous time at Djurgarden with the amusement rides of Grona lund and the pleasing animals and birds at Skansen. While the monocausal reason is just a part of the actual story, there are many commuters who travel to work at Djurgarden or Skeppsholmen.

Considering the 'Fact-gathering' experience, even when the Google maps is the most suggested app  [1], it fails to inform that the ferry is an option to go to Djurgarden as it tries to pick out the routes which have lower transfer time. However, the Stockhom Commute (SL) map picks out the ferry as one of the alternate routes during the same weekend time.

The ferry from Slussen to Stockholm Allmänna gränd is shortest route for the commuters from South of Stockholm. This is an information unaware to the people living in the North. The conceptualization of the travel between Tekniska to Slussen relied on the forced travel of the ferry. This was observed with personal experience that the walk from the Slussen station to the ferry station is atleast 10 minutes walk due to the construction work compared to the 4 minutes walk as per the Google map.

The huge crowd at the ticket station made us believe that the commuters are not SL card holders and they are mostly amongst our target group with people accompanying their kids. The weather played the major role as it was the last days of summer and people going outdoors to spend time with their families. The delay in the arrival and departure of the ferry was interrelated to the increase in the number of people in the queue. The weather and the day of the week were undoubtedly the dependent variables in our experiment. The SL card commuters were able to join the ferry queue without the ticket queue and the usability of the SL across all the public transports enables it to achieve its specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in its context of use [2].

The interview provided the genuine details of a common ferry user carrying their children and being scared of the dangers of riding on the ledge of the boat. As per Emelia, she generally gets to interact with strangers. However, when we rode as part of a participatory observation, the people were within their families and there was no interaction with strangers from the ferry queue until the end of the boat ride. With the experience of moving around inside the busy boat, it could be observed that the families with prams were sitting indoors under the shade while it was mostly the teenagers and young adults on the outside. Even though the windows were available but not many were interested in the view outside. It was a recurring pattern that the the families with prams were eager to find a seat where they could cit through their ride holding onto the prams. Also, it was an indirect observation that the people were unaware of the safety measures to be considered inside the boat. There was no mention of the exits as the people were just expected to know the same.

While we look towards improving the ferry experience with technology, SL company was collecting surveys about the ferry experience. Due to the Swedish language, they refused to share the survey sheet but the copy contains many experiences which might help in our aim.

The task analysis provides a list of improvements from the people like including toilets on-board and providing of maps of the destination of the tourists. The cultural probe suggests that we can incorporate the technologies like music, some selfie options and more of sharing and caring to benefit the people continuing their journey. Every journey for the Stockholm residents and every once-a-lifetime user of the ferry should have a memorable experience.


[1] https://www.routesnorth.com/planning-your-trip/10-useful-apps-for-a-trip-to-sweden
[2] ISO 9241-11– Ergonomic requirement of office work with visual display terminals, part 11: Guidance on usability

Contextual Interiew with the Captain: Agneev

The joy ride driver

A: May we know your name please?

P: P******** (hidden to preserve identity).

A: And your age if you don’t mind.

P: 58.

A: How many trips a day do you drive the boat?

P: I don’t really know. Today I just started and this is my first trip. I start at 10 to 11 and continue till 20 past 11 at night. So ya, but we get 2 hours break between 5 and 7.

A: So does somebody else drive at that time?

P: Ya ya. So we have 4 persons running 3 boats. So the fourth person arrives at 1:15 and we change boats. So it’s like 1 trip every 15 minutes. And today, during weekends there are 3 boats running usually in the summer time, it runs 7 days a week. But in autumn and the spring there are 2 boats running in the weekdays and 3 boats running in the weekends. But from Monday, there is a winter schedule when there is only 2 boats every day and we stop running the boat at 7 o’clock in the evening. Last trip is at 7pm. After that Grona lund also closes so there are not many people in the night.

M: So do you record the number of people everytime?

P: Yes we have to. All the time I have to know how many persons are on board in case we have to evacuate the boat. In case there’s an accident. There hasn’t been any actually, but I have to know whether there are 10 or 50 or 200 people to evacuate. Also for the company to know how many people are travelling.

A: So people say that sometimes you take to Skeppsholmen directly.

P: So ya today all the trips to Djurgarden and then to Skeppsholmen and then back.

A: Is there a change of route also?

P: Yes, from Monday, every trip is to Skeppsholmen. Old town to Skeppholmen to Djurgarden and then to Old town.

A: So the change of route happens on weekly basis?

P: You can’t say this or that. It’s based on the schedule. Depends on a lot of people. If there are lots of people then we cannot go to Skeppsholmen because we might get delayed.

A: So most of the people go to Grona lund?

P: Yes and no. There are a lot of people going to Djurgarden for work. This is a short cut if you are coming from the southern part of the city and you want to go to Djurgarden, then it’s a short cut. Hop off the underground slussen and a lot of people come to skansen or for a stroll on the park. Then also they take the ferry. There are so much more people during spring who come for walk but we close down at 7pm in the winter as there are no people after 7.

A: In that case they take the tram?

P: Yes, they can take the tram.

A: Does the water freeze in the winter?

P: If it’s very cold, then yes. I’ve been running this boat in the ice.

S: Is it dangerous in the ice?

P: Dangerous? No, not in here. But it depends, there hasn’t been much of ice in here.

A: Do you interact with the people regarding any kind of complaints?

P: No. I have no contact with the people. In case they have any complaints, they need to go to the company.

A: Do you have any suggestions regarding improving their travel?

P: Passengers like to have a toilet but I say we don’t need as there are toilets at both sides at Slussen and grona lund and it takes additional maintenance to keep it clean.

A: Anything from your side?

P: Maps on the walls for Djurgarden, Skeppsholmen and everywhere to where the ferry is going and that would be amazing for the passengers and us.

A: Thank you so much and your help.

P: Thank you.

Contextual interview: Agneev Guin

The frequent ferry rider Swede

A: Hello, my name is Agneev. May I know yours please?

E: Emelia.

A: Nice to meet you Emelia. Me and my friends are conducting a short interview as a part of a School project to improvise this ferry ride for you and others. Would you like to help us with the same? We would also like to record the conversation in case you don't mind.

E: Sure. I would love to.

A: So Emelia, you seem to be traveling with your family. Would you tell us a bit about your family.

E: Yes, me and my husband. We have 2 kids and we are going to Skansen.

A: How often do you travel here?

E: On the ferry on this route?

A: Yes.
E: Once every other month. Something like that.

A: How old are your kids?

E: Three and six.

A: Do they love the ride as well.

E: Yes.

A: Are they more eager about traveling by this route or is there some other reason

E: Well its nice to not take the underground, not take the bus as its quicker as it is the quickest way to go to Djurgarden.

A: So you go to Djurgarden for visiting the zoo?

E: Because of Skansen.

A: Skansen, okay. How do you generally come till here? Where do you stay?

E: Live in Stockholm so we come from home.

A: Do you use the car to commute till Slussen?

E: No, we take the underground.

A: Do you check the ferry timings?

E: No, its quite regular so not required.

A: Do you see the beauty while in the ferry or just like to sit and travel?

E: Depends but its usually many people so you try to find a space, with the pram.

A: Do you have any problem with the pram?

E: As you can see the crowd, it becomes pretty hard.

A: In the buses, you can tie the pram but here you need to take care of it.

E: Yes.

A: Do you stand on the outside?

E: From time to time, yes. With the kids you are afraid that they might fall. So usually are inside when we have the kids.

A: Do you own the SL card?

E: Yes.

A: Is it a monthly pass?

E: Yes. A monthly pass.

A: Do you use social networking sites like facebook or twitter?

E: Facebook yes.

A: So do you share your experiences?

E: In general yes. But not of the ferry.

A: How often do you interact with strangers in the ferry?

E: Quite often. Almost every time.

A: That’s interesting. Anything that you suggest might be improved

E: That’s a good question. There could be toilets. There are no toilets which could be annoying.

A: Have you come across anyone having sea-sickness?

E: No. It’s a short ride.

A: Do you feel you need any kind of information while on the ride?

E: Sometimes. There are 2 stops and sometimes it stops at Skeppsholmen and when I want to go to Skeppsholmen I don’t get to know when to get down. Sometimes its just by demand and I don’t know what to do. So I don’t know whether its stopping at Skeppsholmen or is it directly going to Djurgarden. That’s something that I don’t like.

A: Do you look out to know?

E: Ya I usually ask as it’s not that often that I go to Skeppsholmen. When I need to, I look out for the helpers but they are generally not easy to find. They are not that many. It’s a bit of a trouble.

A: I don’t see any lifeguards here. There’s just one driver and everyone else is just traveling.

E: Yes. Exactly.

A: So for this monthly ride, is it like you like to travel with your kids?

E: Yes. It’s something that we like to do as a family. It’s not for work or business. It’s also when we have some visitors staying or with tourists or when we like to spend time with the kids.

A: Do you like to sit inside or does it depend on the crowd and weather?

E: It’s mostly the weather deciding and also you don’t have much space to put the pram outside. So we stay inside when we have the pram with us. It’s also safe inside compared to outside that they don’t climb onto something and fall into the water. I personally, when I’m on my own I prefer to stay on the outside.

A: When I traveled, it was like an empty ferry and I was standing in the front with the water splashing all over.

E: Really? (She was surprised that the ferry could be empty.)

A: Does everyone got to Skansen?

E: Grona lund and Skansen. You can see they are going to Grona lund(As she pointed at 3 young jolly girls). We are more of the modest people going to Skansen. But that’s the 2 main attractions.

A: Other than these, there is the Abba museum.

E: Yes, there’s the Abba museum. People also go walking along the Grona lund. There is the Vasa museum and the Nordiska museet also.

A: On the generally note, people travel by tram or ferry?

E: People take the tram as well. But if people are coming from the south of town, then they prefer to take the ferry.

A: We reached our destination. Thank you so much for your time.

E: Thank you and good luck with your project.