Keywords
User profiles, usability engineering, surveys, questionnaires, design, research.
WORKSHOP THEME
As product designers, we need to know our "end-users": we need to know about their skills, expectations
and problems, and also about the environment in which they will be using our products. There are many
methods and tools available for collecting information, but often our budgets are limited. By taking
advantage of an available group of potential end-users for a proposed product, this workshop will provide
an opportunity for designers of computer products to share and to improve on their techniques for gathering
and assimilating information about their end-users.
It is vitally important for us to know the end-users of our products. Who are they? What do they expect?
What do they want? And how do we obtain the answers to our questions? Especially when the research
budget is limited. There are many methods available: how do we use them most effectively? How can we
recognise and take advantage of opportunities for collecting user information, such as at conferences and
exhibitions? How representative are the users who attend these events?
AIM OF THE WORKSHOP
The aim of this workshop is to investigate and propose methods of collecting user information without a
large market research budget. This will be done by brainstorming methods for collecting information and by
participating in an exercise during the CHI'95 conference. The skills learned during this exercise will be
valid for any product or project that requires information about end-users.
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
- Day One: full day session before start of formal CHI'95 conference
- Exercise: information gathering and assimilation during CHI'95
- Day Two: half-day presentation and results session at end of CHI'95
WORKGROUP EXERCISE
The exercise will be the definition of user profiles for a hypothetical new product. The exercise will take
advantage of the large group of members of the target market segment who will be gathered together for
CHI'95.
A description of the proposed product and its target marget will be presented to the workshop participants.
The participants will use this information, together with material developed during the workshop, to collect
information about the potential end-users and to define one or more user profiles.
PARTICIPANTS
There will be fifteen to twenty workshop participants who will work together in groups of three or four
during the workshop exercise. The participants should represent a wide variety of backgrounds, with
representatives from both large corporations and small companies, and from various locations worldwide.
WORKSHOP GOAL
The goal of the workshop is to share and test techniques for gathering information about end-users. The
workshop organizer will collate and make available the results of the workshop for publication in the
SIGCHI Bulletin. The results may also be presented to a SIG.
The report of the workshop results will include:
- information gathered during the workshop, and the user profiles that have been created from it
- a description of the methods used for gathering the information
- the guidelines defined by the workshop
- the conclusions drawn at the end of the exercise.
