Role: Researcher
Size: 5 MHCI Students
Client: HCI Methods Course at Carnegie Mellon
Duration: 4 months
Skills: User Research | Visual Design | Prototyping
Methods: Contextual Inquiry & Design | Think-Aloud | Keystroke-Level Modeling

Download Full Report 

Overview:
In the HCI Methods course at CMU, our homework assignments were cumulative in nature regarding one specific design challenge to which we would apply the key HCI tools and techniques learned in class. In Fall 2010, each of the homework teams were given the challenge of designing a digitally-augmented environment to support parents in dealing with the transition from being parents of dependent children to parents of adult children. This experience simulated a realistic design process that emphasized designing from data. We started with selecting a research focus, then modeled and analyzed contextual data, derived key insights from the data, and finally came up with a couple designs that were evaluated using results from a “think-aloud” evaluation.

Project Description:
Parents who have adult children leaving the home are faced with a transition into the the role of “empty nesters.” Much of the burden of sorting through the children’s belongings falls on the shoulder of the parents, who are trying to reclaim space in their homes while making sure to keep useful or emotionally significant items. In order to facilitate this process, our team designed the Empty Nester iPhone app.

Process:
Our group applied the following methods to this design challenge:

Contextual inquiry & design – The design team followed parents as they sorted and organized the items cluttering their home. The parents’ activity was then examined from 5 different perspectives and translated into models: Flow, Sequence, Cultural, Physical, and Artifact.

Think-aloud – A parent was recorded as he uploaded photos of his child’s belongings to Flickr, a photo sharing website. The parent voices all of the thoughts that go through his head as he performs the task. Our group then analyzed the recording and identified critical incidents that could be used to inform design decisions.

Keystroke-level models – Our group built software models of an expert user uploading photos to two photo sharing sites: Flickr and Picasa. The user and system performance was then broken down and explored for ways to optimize the process.

Based on the data collected with these methods, our group designed a powerful and highly usable smartphone application targeted at parents with children moving away from home. Key design aspects we developed from our data are:

• Providing the user with a logical workflow for organizing their child’s possessions and removing clutter from his or her home.
• Integration with smartphone contacts
• Asynchronous communication between the parent(s) and children
• Gathering input remotely from the children
• Batch notifications between users
• An alert/alarm system to keep the parent(s) on track with their house-cleaning goals
• Saved history of processed or archived items
• Tips, tricks & useful information to help anyone reclaim the cluttered spaces in their home

The result is an application perfectly suited to its task, integrating a novel set of features to provide the end user with a solution that truly meets their needs.

To view our design walkthrough and rationale, a retrospective account of the methods we used, and an appendix of models/artifacts created, please see our Full Report.