[SOUND]. This week, we are going to learn about the basics of design. To introduce this topic, I've invited three design experts from the University of Maryland to talk to us about their ideas in design and how they use it in their work. Dr. Tammy Clegg, Dr. Mona Leigh Guha, and Dr. Allison Druin. I'm going to ask them about design and how it relates to usability and HCI. They're going to talk about some specific topics in this discussion, and those are things that we'll probe more in depth in the lectures that come later this week. >> Design is really two different kinds of things. It's process, okay, but it's also, I mean, it, it, are you designing the visual look of it? >> Mm-hm. >> Are you designing the functionality? >> Mm-hm. >> There are many different ways to look at design. >> Mm-hm. >> So, most of the work that we do is in participatory design. And, Allison and I, and Tammy as well design mainly for children. So our design process, comes out of the philosophy that if you're going to design for children you design with children. So our process includes children along every step of the way of the process, from brainstorming through iteration, through you know, iterative testing. We include our users the whole way through. And I think that, that should, from my philosophy, transfer to any population you are designing for, right? So if you're going to go and design for bankers, you probably want to have bankers working with you because you are not a banker, right, or if you are going to design for dogs you gotta have the dog around because you are not a dog, right? So you have to have your population working with you, and that's what ends up at the end you have a product that has a lot more insight than if you didn't have that voice all along the way. >> Actually it, it turns out that this process was not originally for children. >> Mm-hm. >> In fact it came, [SOUND] in the 1970s, it came out of Scandinavian countries. >> Mm-hm. >> From the Social Democratic Movement. >> Mm-hm. >> And what happened was there were factory workers that said, how do these computer scientists know how to make you know, computer systems that I'm going to use in my factory. They have to know about me, and so it was from the Scandinavian co-designed experiences that, that, those were the first times in which it was, people talked about participatory design. We applied it in the 1990's and through to today, and people continue to iterate on this. But, probably the most, I would say the most used, used design technique may not necessarily be co-design or participatory design. It may be in testing. Once you make something, you test it with people. It might also be in what people would call informant design, where you bring in your user, just at the beginning of a design process where you most need to be informed. And so, you know, you ask, so, so, Tammy, tell me what it's like to jump rope? And then, you know, and so, you know, Tammy jumps rope, and we find out what's going on with her, and things like that. And then and then, Tammy goes away, and then the adults or the designers or the, or the computer scientists go off and make great things, and then we bring back the user at some point or another to, to test and so on. >> Yeah, and a lot of times people will use like interviews and observations too, sort of at the beginning of a design phase. Where they'll actually go out and kind of just, well they make us go out in public and like if they're observing like a technology that might work, some, something that might be used out in public. And just go see people who don't even know that they're being observed. You have to you know, for those types of things. But, but a lot but or if you're going to design something that's supposed to easy to work with that might be used in the work place you might go in the work place and to see, to see like how people are actually using the existing technologies and kind of what does the existing system structures and things like that, that are that are, that are kind of going on. And then people in the house, we interviewed to sort of get an inside perspective >> That reminds me, that there are certain populations that you're more likely to see certain kinds of design processes used. >> Mm-hm. >> So with children it's now become the most used design process is a participatory design, the co-design process. Particularly because we really can't be children in 2014. However you know, for, particularly like certain professions or a certain older adults and so on, you can do different kinds of design processes and they're more common. So one of the things that I always suggest to people is take a look at what other people are doing, so that you know that you're actually probably doing something similar and, and it's going to, it's going to make sense. >> Mm-hm. and, and another type of design, if you were unable for some reason, to work with your target audience at all, there are some, you know, sometimes you're in a company and there's restrictions on, you can't work with children or things like that. There's also a type of design called persona design, where, basically you kind of start out by doing what Tammy said, really observing the target population. And then you create these personas, and you make really detailed people, right? >> Mm-hm. >> And you say, okay, so this persona is Jackie. And Jackie is 12 years old. >> Mm-hm. >> And she likes to play sports and she does all these things. >> Mm-hm. >> And you make a few of these and you keep them in mind and constantly refer to them. >> Mm-hm. >> Throughout your design process. >> Mm-hm. >> You know, of course, in, in my opinion, that's never going to get you as, as much wonderful, rich design as it would if you had the children working with you. But if there's restrictions where you can't work with your user population, I think personas can help you with that. >> They do this a lot with the military, because obviously sometimes you can't get clearances if you're, if you're designing for high security situations, and, so this is now it happens that you guys might be designing for high security, in which case, then you might consider personas. >> Mm-hm. >> You might consider limited testing. People also do distance distance design, okay, where they will interview somebody via Skype. They may ask people to give a tour via Skype, they may you know you might not even be in the facility because you're not allowed to be in the facility, but you can use distance technologies to actually get you in there in some way. >> Well, okay. One of the ways to do it, and there's a, there's a bunch of different, sort of continuums you can look at, is that where in the design process are you? So, have you have you or you decided on the idea and then in which case then it's it's just iterating on that. Okay? Then there's a set of design processes you might use versus are you in the ideation stage, and, and then you use differences on your processes. There's also how many, how much resources. Okay. I mean, do you have have a lot of money to, to and a lot of time, and a lot of people. Okay? Many times people end up working with you know, with universities to, to work on these kinds of things because they don't have a lot of resource and they don't have a lot of time to deal with this. The other is what's their goal? You know, is it to make better product? Is it to, is it to create a theory? Is it something else entirely? And depending on what your goal is in terms of the design process, that will also tell you what you need to do. So if you're trying to be theoretical, then you're going to need more you know, generalizable and scientific ways of understanding what users are doing, and you may end up testing with thousands of people. >> Mm-hm. >> To make sure that this thing is bulletproof. Okay. >> Mm-hm. >> Versus you know, is your goal making a really good piece of technology and you know, be innovative and so on, and the co-design might be a different kind, a different method for you. >> Mm-hm. >> I think if you're, if you're some guy building an app in your basement think about who you're building it for and then go talk to those people. And I, my, my instinct is that probably if you've decided to build this app you have a reason to. You know, so that you could talk to, maybe it's for a certain set of your friends, or you know, a certain, people you work with. I think that getting input from the user as, as early as you can is probably a good idea. So I think that even, even if you have no resources and you're just by yourself, that you can probably find someone who's, if not a part of your end user group, at least somewhat tangential to that user group to talk to and say what ideas you have on this. And I think sometimes you're surprised, we are not as much anymore, but still when we think, wow we have this great idea and then we put it in front of the kids and they're like wow that idea's over here. You know, the, the, good space, and, and if you hadn't talked to them initially you wouldn't know that. And then, and then you spend months in your basement, and then you take it out, and the person's goes the idea's over here, not over there. >> And I think that that kind of raises some interesting points too about when, when and how you take things to users. So you know, like as well when we said, you want to take it to them early and often. So you shouldn't feel like you want to make this like polished, polished prototype, right? And then take that to them, because then what do you, what, your problem is that your users will be a lot more hesitant to give you their ideas about about it. >> Mm-hm. >> To elaborate with you on it. Because they'll think it's already, it's already finished. And you'll be a lot more hesitant to accept what is it they say. >> Mm-hm. >> Because you've already put so much time and, and energy into this particular, going down into this particular design, you know, design effort so. So, yeah, so, so taking those paper prototypes and building them out and building them out and building them out. Kind of be- >> Hardest thing is, is that there's no right answers. >> Yeah. >> Mm-hm. Mm-hm. >> There's only good directions to try. >> Yes. Yes. >> There is no universal, must be. There is also no can't do it that way, absolutely not. Because it's, it's, it depends on your user, it depends on your resource, it depends on what you're doing, you know, the whole nine yards. >> And design is messy and that's okay. >> Yes. >> But that's, that's, you have to be comfortable with a certain amount of mess and uncertainty because that's how the process works. Because it's a creative process. >> Yeah, some people don't like that- >> Yeah. >> That messiness. And that like, wow, there's no right answer? Wait a second. >> Yeah. >> What am I doing it for? >> Yeah, yeah. And sometimes, I mean, you'll run into, like, constraints, right? Like, you'll come up with some idea or sometime like that, and then there's all these constraints. Like, oh you want to make this great big mobile system, but now it needs to be plugged in. So how are we going to do that? And you can get, it can sometimes be overwhelming, but the, what I've learned is that you have to take those constraints and let those be, like, let those motivate your creativity, right, you know? So, like I have to plug this thing in, right, so what new can we do, how can this make me more innovative. Right? So thinking about it like that instead of, you know, getting overwhelmed by some of those things.
