target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_7517cf54-6d95-5f2c-9f3e-ba282058f4af">1] From the book Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project, Chapter 9, “Empathy is a Journey, Not a Destination,” p. 183.
[2] Jay Morgan, Applied Cognitive Scientist, MS in Applied Cognition and Neuroscience, University of Texas at Dallas, 2004.
[3] “A Conversation with Michael Bierut,” http://www.tinyurl.com/pkruo
[4] Adaptive Path blog entry “Designing for Luck ,”http://www.tinyurl.com/2hh9oc
[5] Favorite mantra of Mary Piontkowski, researcher, information architect, interaction designer, and a frequent collaborator of mine, and contributor to mental-model process adaptations and improvements.
[6]House Beautiful, June 2006, “Giants of Design” awards article, page 120.
[7]Future of Web Design conference, London, UK, April 2007, http://www.futureofwebdesign.com/
[8] Jared Spool’s UI11 conference article “Innovation is the New Black,” http://www.tinyurl.com/olwgh
[9]BusinessWeek online article “Experience Is the Product” by Peter Merholz on June 22, 2007. http://www.tinyurl.com/2cqcbz
[10] “Experience IS the Product...and the only thing users care about” by Peter Merholz in June 2007 for the Industrial Design Supersite Core77, http://www.tinyurl.com/2dtrvb
[11] Brandon Schauer presented in “Connecting Design to Real Business Value” at Adaptive Path’s Managing Experience through Creative Leadership conference, in San Francisco, February 2007. Slides at http://www.tinyurl.com/3bg3c7. Brandon has a Master of Design degree from the Institute of Design in Chicago and an MBA from the Stuart School of Business. For more of Brandon’s writing, see his blog at http://www.brandonschauer.com/blog
[12]Harvard Business Review, “What is Strategy?” by Michael E. Porter, November 1996. http://www.tinyurl.com/ypqzfs
[13] Institute of Design, Strategy Conference Perspectives 2005, Issue 2, “Interview: The Emergence of New Innovation Disciplines,” Brandon Schauer interviews Larry Keeley. http://www.tinyurl.com/2ajpeb
[14] Jeff Veen of Google talks about designing from the user’s perspective during an interview with Josh Owens and Chris Saylor on the Web 2.0 Show, http://www.tinyurl.com/ywaonn. For more of Jeff’s writing, see http://www.veen.com/jeff/index.html.
CHAPTER 2
When? Using Mental Models with Your Other Work
Determine Your Research Method
How Mental Models Hook into Other UX Techniques
Shortcuts and Other Ways to Use Mental Models
Mental models are just one tool in your toolbox. Here’s an explanation of how they work in conjunction with other methods.
Determine Your Research Method
The best way to choose a user research method is to know what each technique is good for. Most user research techniques can be categorized into three groups: preference, evaluative, and generative. The first of these groups is the most widespread—preference. Not only do you see marketing departments sending out surveys and conducting focus groups, but you also see opinion polls flourishing in the media. Preference research is the most common type of customer research. It is perfect for canvassing a large number of people to determine how the product will be accepted or preferred by people. In Figure 2.1, you will see a sampling of techniques that support preference research. In the last column, there is a set of uses for preference research, such as branding. You’ll notice that you don’t use preference research to design interaction or information architecture. And, you don’t use it to find out how well a solution works.
In the second row of Figure 2.1 you will see evaluative research. In the past few years, it has become more common to hear decision-makers call for product testing before releasing an item to the market. This request is also fairly frequent when the “market” is a large internal organization and releasing an efficiency tool can make a difference in the bottom line. In the table, you will see that “card sort” and “customer feedback” appear for evaluative research as well as preference research. Card sorting[1] can be used for a wide variety of purposes. The feedback you get from customers also ranges from complaints to opinions about how to fix your product. Note that the uses for evaluative research are specific: You can improve existing interaction functionality and the visual design of the screen layout for software, hard goods, or a service. You also can find out which labels, nomenclature, and instructions make the most sense to the user.
| DATA | TECHNIQUE | USES |
| Preference Opinions, likes, desires | Survey Focus Group Mood Boards Preference Interview Card Sort Customer Feedback | Visual Design Branding Market Analysis Advertising Campaigns |
| Evaluative What is understood or accomplished with a tool | Usability Test Log Analysis Search Analytics Card Sort Customer Feedback | Interaction Functionality Screen Layout Nomenclature Information Architecture |
|
Generative
|
