Applications are for Humans

Understanding Human Behavior

Design Research Methods & Applications

TopicsI. Behavior

II. Context

III. Intent

IV. Motivation

V. Research

VI. Analysis`

I. Behavior

“Human-centered approaches to industrial and interaction design have long focused on studying human behavior to create informed and appropriate designs.”

Gentry Underwood “Social Software: The other ‘Design for Social Impact’”

Design needs to support human behavior

Technology needs to support Design

“We need to observe behavior in order to support it in design”–

Joshua Porter “Behavior First, Design Second”

Intuitive design anticipates end-user behavior

II. Context

Behavior is influenced by environment

Humans do not live or work in a lab

• The lab is not a great place to study human behavior

– Labs are unfamiliar environments– Lab machines have unfamiliar

configurations

Don’t study their behavior in one

They use apps at home, together!

III. Intent

Humans use apps to complete tasks

End-users engage with applications to complete tasks

If tasks are easy to perform, the application interface is intuitive

Good app design facilitates task completion

IV. Motivation

Emotions motivate actions

“The essential difference between reason and emotion is that reason leads to conclusions while emotion leads to actions.”

Neurologist Donald Calne

Successful Design creates emotional bonds. It isn’t just “fluff.”

Here’s how it works…

Design Research

Behavior

Tasks (intent)

Motivation

CONTEXT

CONTEXT

CONTEXT

V. Research

When do we conduct Research?

Discovery Design Validation

2 31

Strategy & Benchmarking Stakeholder Interviews Competitive Analysis Analytics & KPI

Research & Analysis Qualitative Contextual Inquiry Persona & Mental Models Quantitative Survey Study Heuristic Evaluation

Information Architecture Taxonomy & Information Architecture Usage Scenarios & Task Flows Wireframe Prototypes

Visual Design PSDs/comps

Development & Testing HTML/CSS/etc. and QA Testing

Measurement & Optimization Usability Testing Analytics & KPI

Design Research

Design Validation

Plan Recruit Interview Develop Personas

How do we conduct Research?

Planning for Research

1. Identify research

objectivesAssess gaps in knowledge

2. Recruit study

participants

Develop/deploy screener

3. Develop a line of

questioning

Non-leading, open-ended questions to prompt users to perform key tasks

Recruiting for Research

• Recruit “real” end-users• Avoid “professional test takers”• Recruit on widely adopted platforms

Contextual Inquiry – Empathy Lab’s Research Practice

• Maximize the time with end-users to inform the content, brand, information architecture, and design strategy.

• Empathy Lab conducts contextual interviews with end-users where they live, work, play, and, most importantly, where they are likely to interact with our clients’ brands.

• Conduct research with end users using a portable usability lab and user-driven scenarios.

• Empathy Lab believes that the goal of any usability test is to measure how a participant would behave in a real-world environment, as opposed to an artificial lab setting.

• Use realistic prototypes in usability tests.• Empathy Lab believes that having end-users interact with realistic design

prototypes produces the most reliable and valid usability results. Although useful and practical in some cases, low-fidelity prototypes cannot ultimately ensure valid results and experience.

VI. Analysis

Identify Behavioral Trends

• Cut across all personas

• Have major implications on overarching architecture

Develop Behavioral Personas

• Document behavioral differences in the form of personas

• Aggregate key tasks as mental model

Design Taxonomy & Information Architecture

• Develop application taxonomy to satisfy mental models

• Identify existing content that fulfills key tasks, note gaps in content

PERSONAS

VI. Analysis

INFORMATIONARCHITECTURE

INTERACTION DESIGN

Task

Content

Content

MENTALMODELS

Empathy Lab is a digital strategy and execution firm that designs intuitive and engaging user interfaces. 

Jonathan LupoSVP / Experience Design & Co-Founder

Provides clients with Creative and User Experience strategy by gaining an in-depth understanding of their business and end-user needs.

SERVICES

• Behavioral Research

• Information Architecture

• Interaction Design

• Creative Direction

• Digital Strategy

EXPERIENCE

• Empathy Lab

• R/GA

• Agency.com (NYC)

• Euro RSCG

• Masters Degree (ITP – NYU)

@userexperience