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Research and Analysis | Top  Home |
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Field Observations. Finding data and Studying environments, people and processes is a good way to find opportunities for design. Painful points call for improved solutions, while communications and work flows can often be optimized with better application of technology and/or process design. | Field Observation Paper (1.3 MB) |
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Physical Layouts. Mapping details about environments of use can help the design team understand the context of use. | Emergency Department Layout |
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Observation Database. By assigning several different categories to each observation, we can sort them and find patterns of behavior that suggest design criteria. | Sample Observation Data (0.07 MB) |
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Design Criteria Sort. Grouping design criteria suggests further opportunities for synergy in the design. Features that satisfy multiple design criteria give more bang for the buck. | Design Criteria Sort (0.1 MB) |
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"Day in the Life" Study. Following an electrocardiogram user around the emergency room revealed reasons why reducing bulk and going wireless could increase efficiency and data safety. | Hour in the Life of an ECG Tech (0.25 MB) |
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Function Structure. Organizing functions by affinity helps find synergy, whether the affinity is functional, operational, or in how the functions might be implemented. | Function Structure (0.22 MB) |
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Product Platform Analysis. Both hardware and software benefit from reusability and an eye toward interchangeable components. | Product Platform (0.67 MB) |
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Workflow and Task Analysis. Following users and data suggests requirements and opportunities for new products. | Workflow Stages Diagram (0.07 MB) |
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Problem Scenarios. The problems behind a project can be clarified with scenarios that break down the situation into chunks. Then each chunk may be analyzed for painful points to be addressed. | Problem-Solution Scenario Example |
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Era Analysis. Trends in technology and consumption may suggest further opportunities for innovation. | Era Analysis (0.77 MB) |
| Synthesis and Prototyping | Top Home |
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Conceptual Prototyping. By modeling systems at a conceptual level, it is easier to get agreement about project scope and functionality. | Conceptual Prototype (1.1 MB) |
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Solution Scenarios. Solution ideas for a project can be mapped to the painful points revealed in Problem Scenarios. Illustrations help communicate ideas with stakeholders. | Solution Scenario Illustration (0.14 MB) |
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User Interface Mockups. Showing people how a user interface could look helps drive decisions and agreement. | UI Ideation |
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Concept Development. HeartSense, a lighter, faster, safer and easier electrocardiography system with wireless data transfer. | Concept Development Paper (1.6 MB) |
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Low-Fidelity Prototyping. Hand sketching is a fast way to get ideas on paper, evaluate them, and use them to spawn other ideas. | Low-Fidelity Prototyping Example (0.06 MB) |
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System Elements. A format for consolidating design ideas based on Structured Planning. | |
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Interaction Design Specification. Storyboards describe the flow of how a user interface should work. | Interaction Design Description |
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Flash Prototyping. Nothing gets feedback quite like an interactive prototype that people can use. (This example requires the Flash plug-in, which is included in most browsers.) | Flash Prototype |
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Physical Prototyping. Grobot, a mobile office partition with plants. Honorable Mention, Taiwan Design Competition. | |
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Implementation-Safe Designs. I work closely with engineers to make sure that the designs we work so hard to optimize may actually be implemented. The result is great improvements in appearance and usability. | Interaction Design Improvements (actual app screen shots) |
| Usability Testing | Top Home |
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| Usability Test Protocol. A useful and valid usability test begins with a good test design. | Usability Testing Script | |
| Multi-Camera Data Capture. By filming both the situation and the user, extra information can be found to justify proposed changes or confirm good usability. | ||
| Test participant Recruiting. I use contacts, research, and gumption to find enough informants for usability testing, so that the results can be trusted. | ||
| Test Reporting. By organizing results and backing them up with data, the team can see patterns in user response and trust that they are true. | Usability Test Report | |
| Design Recommendations. With data from the testing, we can move on to defining the next iteration with confidence. | ||
