SEM 1: Chapter 7-8, 10

The three main techniques of gathering data are interviews, questionnaires and observations. Often it’s useful to use more than one technique. Triangulation is a word for investigating something from different perspectives, which I think is helpful in many cases. Before starting our study, I thinks it’ll be important to reflect about the fact that different data gathering methods will result in different kinds of data. Which method suits the goal of the data gathering best? It’s also important to understand the context and a good way is to use the keywords why, where and who. Interviews and observations might be a good start to understand the best way of fulfilling the purpose of our project, while questionnaires can  back up the findings from the other methods and be used as a follow up. It’s also important to try to do some test or pilot studies to see how the study is functioning.

Chapter 8 talks about different ways of analysing the data that has been collected. Qualitative data is data that often can be transformed into numbers, while quantitative data often consists of descriptions and quotes. I think that in our case, qualitative data might be to prefer in the beginning to see how people are thinking about the situation, although it’s sometimes harder to analyse, though the key is to look for patterns in the answers. I also like the idea of trying to use the knowledge about the three theoretical frameworks discussed in the book, grounded theory, distributed cognition and the activity theory while analysing the data.

In chapter 10, the focus lies on how to put up requirements for a product. The three main questions are what do we want, how do we want it to be and why? One way might be for us to develop a scenario and use a case study to know how the product could be used. The sooner we set up good and precise requirements, the less we might need to change along the way. I think that the most important thing for us to think about in this aspect is the environmental aspect, user characteristics, usability goals and which experience we want to give the user.

Seminar question: What is the best way of doing research without interfering with the result or being bias? When is it good to be participating verses being a passive observer?