Field Oriented Design Techniques: Case Studies and Organizing Dimensions

OVERVIEW AND GOALS OF WORKSHOP

While these techniques hold great promise, have shown results [6, 11], and have attracted attention and interest in the CHI community, they have not been widely adopted or systematically discussed. The goals of this workshop are intended to address this deficiency. Specifically, we aim to:

• Review the application of field research methods in other domains.

  Field research is used extensively in the areas of educational evaluation, program evaluation and consumer product design. [3]

• Create a taxonomic framework for field research.

  There is a wide diversity in the methods used and questions addressed in field studies. Creation of a taxonomic framework will provide both conceptual frame of reference. and guide to practitioners much as it has done in the areas of participatory design. and usability methods [4, 5].

• Develop a model for incorporation of field methods and findings into development cycles.

  The relationship between field research and the development process has not been extensively explored. It constitutes a challenge since field research methods often product "rich descriptions" of work [9] while many development processes produce lists of requirements which can be checked off as development progresses.[1].

• Relate field research methods to other user interface design techniques and criteria for choosing between them.

  The roots of many user interface design methods can be traced to software design and experimental psychology. In contrast, field research methods stem from sociology, anthropology, phenomenology and hermeneutics. Many of these user interface design methods are oriented to the evaluation of an existing design at various stages of completion and address specific concerns about the design. (e.g. how productive are users of this system). However, field research methods are oriented toward generating product concepts and designs and may not have a pre- determined design concern such as productivity. While, traditional usability methods have been discussed in terms of their relative cost and benefit [2], such analysis has not been applied to field research techniques.

• Generate an organized set of case studies. In a number of disciplines (medicine, business analysis, law, architecture) the field is developed and extended through the documentation and study of cases [8]. Such a rich body of "case" literature does not exist for field based design techniques.

  Outline the relationship to usability methods. In general usability methods stem from experimental psychology and human factors. This their philosophical roots and epistemological foundations are different than field research methods. At the same time field research results can provide valuable input to other usability methods.

PREPARATION AND WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES

1. How did your field work fit into the development process?
2. How did you prepare for your field work?
3. How did you conduct your field work?
4. What were the findings of your field work?
5. How did these findings influence the product design?
6. Estimate the cost and the benefit of using these methods.

As preparatory work each participant will be asked to share a bibliography of references on field oriented design methods, and to construct a glossary of terms which they use in their discussion. The bibliographies from each participant will be combines and the glossary of terms will be shared. We will conduct an exercise to review the entire set of terms and develop a common glossary.

The workshop itself will consist of the following activities:

• sharing of cases studies (prior to workshop and with directed discussion during the workshop)
• mapping field work and its results into the development process
• mapping field methods to traditional usability methods developing common terminology creating a framework for understanding field research how to make field research successful.

The workshop will be documented in the SIGCHI bulletin.