Seminar 2 - Jacob Sörme

Evaluation is an important part of the design process. To evaluate means that one collect data and information about users and user experience. This is made to improve the design. As the creator of a product everything might seem easy and obvious. However, this is seldom the case for the majority of the users. It is important to get the outside view of the product and not see everything from your own creator view. To evaluate means that one observe users and how they react to using the product. There are other methods of evaluation that does not take users in account, instead taking for example collected data in account. The level of control can differ, from controlled experiments in laboratories to uncontrolled in field studies.

Controlled experiments in laboratories enables evaluators to control the environment and social influences. This method is good for collecting data, for example to measure the time it takes for users to complete a task or the number of times a situation occurs.

Field studies are evaluation studies with little or no control of the study. This method shows how users use the product in their every-day lives, in contrast to controlled experiments that show how users perform in special laboratories or environments. This method is more messy, and it is often hard to tell what causes what. On the other hand this opens for the qualitative analysis of behaviour and feelings.

Controlled experiments and field studies can be combined. One can for example set up a sort of lab out in the field. An example of this is collecting data from a skier that has different modules of measuring fastened to the gear, while the skier is skiing. This is called in the wild study.