Data gathering and requirements

This module covers week 9 of the course.

Data gathering

Five issues in data gathering

• Setting goals (How will the data be used?)
• Identifying participants (Who are the users/stakeholders? How many to work with?)
• Relationship with participants (Keep it professional; get consent when appropriate)
• Triangulation (look at data in multiple ways)
• Pilot studies (conduct a small trial run of the main study)

Data recording: Notes, audio, video, and photographs all useful.

Interviews

Different ways of conducting interviews:

• Structured
• Unstructured
• Semi-structured
• Focus groups

Questionnaires

• Well-established technique for gathering demographic data and user options
• Rely on users to be motivated enough to answer without being prompted
• Questions must be clear because interviewers isn't there to clarify anything (Sharp et al. 2019).

Questionnaire structure

• The order of questions is important
• Do different groups require a different version of the questionnaire?
• Consider how long the questionnaire is. Keep it focused and compact.
• Think about the layout and pacing.

Format

Consider which formats - such as ranges or check boxes are appropriate for the type of data you want to collect.

Likert scales (an example here from N/N group) are a useful way of measuring opinions, beliefs, attitudes, and so on.

Participants

As a student, you aren’t expected to conduct a survey of hundreds of participants! In interaction design research, it isn’t unusual to have fewer than 20 participants.

Online questionnaires are relatively easy and quick to distribute—common to use Google Forms or Microsoft Forms.

Observation

Can occur directly (for example, as an ethnographic study, where the researcher interacts with participants), or indirectly (through the use of diaries, video equipment, online tracking/logging, etc.). Ethnography can now occur online (See “Netnography”).

Data

• Can be quantitative or qualitative.
• Quantitative = numbers
• Quantitative analysis means numeral methods used. Useful for larger sample sizes.
• Qualitative = words (useful when numbers don't explain adequately)
• Qualitative analysis = Themes or patterns emerge. Useful for capturing more nuanced information.

There are also mixed methods that rely on both quantitative and qualitative data and analyses.

Data analysis tools

• Spreadsheet software, such as Excel and Numbers, which include basic graphs
• Google forms (also includes basic graphs)
• Statistical packages such as SPSS
• Qualitative data analysis software such as Nvivo and CAQDAS

The System Usability Scale (SUS)

Though created by John Brooke in 1986, the SUS is still used frequently because it's a "quick and dirty" way of measuring usability. It's used to measure usability of all kinds of software and hardware systems and applications.

usability.gov (n.d.). System Usability Scale (SUS). https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/system-usability-scale.html

What is a requirement?

"A statement about an intended product that specifies what it is expected to do or how it will perform" (Sharp et al. 2019, p. 387).

User stories are a useful way of creating requirements. Often stated as:
“As a <role>, I want <behaviour> so that <benefit>” (Sharp et al., 2019, p. 388)

Different kinds of requirements

• Functional requirements
• Data requirements
• Environmental requirements
• User characteristics
• Usability goals
• UX goals (Sharp et al., 2019)

Requirements

Requirements can be presented in a number of ways, such as the requirements shell in the reading.

See also this simple software requirement document template from Asana (2023):

Further reading: Team Asana (2023). How to write a software requirement document (with template). https://asana.com/resources/software-requirement-document-template

Data gathering for requirements

• Interviews, observation, and questionnaires
• Studying documentation
• Researching similar products (useful for students doing assignments!)

Bringing requirements to life through personas and scenarios

Personas: Rich descriptions of typical users, not specific people

Scenarios: An informal narrative story, simple, ‘natural’, personal, and not generalizable (Sharp et al., 2019).

Example personas: Users of a bushfire information map application in rural Western Australia.

Illustration by Medley (2013). Note that the following details were elaborated for each in the research project they were used in:

• Overview
• Computer skills, knowledge and abilities
• Internet-enabled devices
• Expectations of the application
• Experience with existing map websites

Use cases focus on functional requirements and interactive elements. See these example use cases.

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