Janni Nielsen

Getting access to what goes on in people's heads?: reflections on the think-aloud technique

One of the basic usability testing techniques the HCI community draws on, and which stands out as unique, is thinking aloud. We introduce the many names, uses and modifications of the classical think aloud technique, and ask the rhetorical question: What do researchers think they get when they ask people to think aloud? We answer it by discussing the classical work of Ericsson and Simon(1984), in particular their distinction between vocalisation, verbalisation and retrospective reports and the relation to short term memory. Reintroducing the psychological perspective and the focus on higher order cognitive processes, we argue that access to subjective experience is possible in terms of introspection and describe a technique that invites the user to become a participant in the analysis of his or her own cognitive processes. We suggest that use of think aloud has as a prerequisite explicit descriptions of design, test procedure and framework for analysis. We point out, however, that if the aim is to get access to human thinking, HCI research may benefit from experimental research.

Dialogue design - With mutual learning as guiding principle

This article describes a large European research and development project on Multimedia and Network in Co-operative Research and Learning (MANICORAL) from the point of view of participating human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers. The project developed the methodology of dialogue design, drawing on two sources: participatory design (PD) and dialogue research (DR). Action research is understood as the historical basis for the two strands, where PD has focused on research in working life, and DR has focused on living conditions. However, dialogue design as a methodology differs in a number of aspects. In dialogue design, the carrying principal is mutual learning, focus is on working life of high resource groups, and users are themselves developing parts of the technologies. The techniques applied and the role of HCI researcher as mediator creating dialogues are introduced and reflected upon. Dialogue design is discussed within the theoretical concepts of communication and learning.

Children's informal learning in the context of schools of the knowledge society

This paper builds on a key finding of a 5-year Danish research project con-cerning children in the 7 to 15 age group: children’s principal use of computers and the internet takes place in their spare time, and it is during their spare time that the majority of children really learn how to use interactive media. The project shows that in children’s spare-time use of ICT they employ informal forms of learning based to a large extent on their social interaction both in physical and virtual spaces. These informal learning forms can be identified as learning hierarchies, learning communities and learning networks; they are important contributions to the school of the knowledge society. The ICT in New Learning Environments project based on anthropologically inspired methods and social learning theories shows that students bring their informal forms of learning into the school context. This happens particularly when the school has undergone physical alterations and when its organisation of learning and teaching are also restructured, with project-based learning becoming an important part of the school work and with the media available in the learning environment. Using organisation theory, the school working with ICT and project-based learning is shown to simultaneously constitute a mixed mode between the school of the industrial and the knowledge society. The research shows that it is possible to tip the balance in the direction of the school of the knowledge society, and thus of the future, by comprehensively using ICT and project work in the day-to-day activities of the school, alongside and integrated with the traditional forms of learning, and not least by employing the informal learning processes children develop outside school. For teachers this will mean an extension of their function: no longer merely communicators of knowledge, they will have to become knowledge managers and overall leaders of projects, and this entails much more dialogue with the pupils.

Vision labs: seeing UCD as a relational practice

Relational aspects in user-centered design, UCD, are largely overlooked in the literature. We use criticism of UCD to facilitate a discussion of how discourse, activities, and materials give shape to user involvement in design activities. Drawing on experiments with the workshop format for devising innovations and creative solutions with users, we introduce some criteria and points of interest in the development of a workshop format we call Vision Labs.

Tracing cognitive processes for usability evaluation: a cross cultural mind tape study

Cultural differences in cognitive processes and cognitive tools have been extensively documented. Design and use of culturally sensitive interfaces have been in demand in HCI for sometime. In this study the method of stimulated retrospective verbalization which is called here as Mind Tape study, has been used to capture cognitive differences of Danish and Indian users while interacting with chosen websites on a given task. The recording of the interaction captures screen activities and video of user. The replay of the recording is used as stimulus during a voice over interview. Using Mind tape, not only the sequence of activities during task fulfillment is observed, but also an insight into the users cognitive processes, motives and intentions, regarding the choices made and activities done are recorded. The paper reports the cultural sensitivity and suitability of the mind tape method for cross cultural usability evaluations in light of the study conducted.

Collaborating with users: cultural and (I)literacy challenges

With the development of the global market, users become a competitive factor since successful diffusion of IT systems lie with them. However, users have different IT competences and they are embedded within cultures. These are two central challenges that must be addressed in the development of HCI techniques and tools suitable for handling the complexity of designing for users across cultures. User-Centered Design is a first step, and for this paper we frame it specifically within the Scandinavian IS tradition to ensure direct participation by - and cooperation with - users through all phases of the design process. This approach serves as the basis for conceptual and experimental work-in-progress in our VisionLab. We describe the different techniques we are exploring, the essentials of which are to work with users in open dialogue. We point out that when working across cultures, virtually mediated cooperation with users is the next challenge, and conclude by sketching two digital techniques for virtual cooperative design using digital media and how they could be useful.

Innovating Design for Learning in the Networked Society

The transition from the industrial to the knowledge or networked society has, together with the worldwide digitalization and e-permeation of our social, political and economic lives, brought challenges to the educational systems. The changes call for new key competences in terms of self-initiated and lifelong learning and digital literacy. At the same time, the implementation of new public management in educational institutions put pressure on students’ available time for studying and the qualitative outcome of learning processes. These conditions give birth to emerging tensions at the organizational level between effectiveness, quality and summative evaluation and at the individual level between personal cost-benefit-based choices of study approach and the demands for study activities related to problem-based project pedagogy within a (social) constructivist paradigm. What the authors meet in their practice are students who are (if at all) only familiar with the curriculum at a surface level and who expect the teachers to present digested versions of the curriculum. This chapter presents a design for teaching and learning approach in the shape of a design for learning model that aims to scaffold students’ self-initiated and reflective study practice that matches learning in the networked society and at the same time bypasses the consequences of the emerging tensions in the learning context. We believe that the model can be operationalized various specific educational activities.

User requirements capture for a multimedia CSCW system

The early stages of a Europen Union funded multimedia CSCW project scheduled to run for several years are described. The project, called Manicoral, concerns the definition, design, development and implementation of a CSCW as well as a study of cultural, collaborative and communications aspects of a scientific community to whom the interaction media are new. The CSCW system encompasses both data visualisation and communications tools. These are being developed iteratively together with user requirements which are expected to change as the project matures and the user groups become accustomed to using the tools. The Scandinavian perspective and Human Factors analyses are broughttogether in a wholistic conceptual framework in the project to cover both technical requirements and collaboration, communication and cultural issues. Methods applied so far and early results are reported.

Designing user interfaces—the role in intuition and imagination (1992)

It is argued that too little Is known about the cogn]tl} e aspccls of dcslgn. This knowledge IS essent]al if lhe man! guldclincs, models and tools tha{ ha\e emerged ]n the f]eld of user Inwrfacc dcslgm arc to ha} c a signiflcan[ impact on dcslgn pract]cc. Emplnctd studies of dcslgncrs de~cloplng user lntcrfaccs arc reported, showng that the context in whtch design takes place !n an organlsattonid semng IS (urbulen[ and the des]gn task (Jl[cn unclear. ln\ estlgal]mrs ol dects]on makng in the design pr(xess sh(mcd II IS one of graduallj cioll Ing comm[tmcnt. w here Intulllon, lmwynauon and unswucturcd wral!sls urc csscnuul cognllllc processes during ctcslgn u (wk. The u~cfulncs~ ol dcslgncr supfxm tmi~ IS dlscusscd. Ittlrodm Iitw. C(~gn]ti\ c aspcc[~ of Ihc dcslgn procms ha\c been ln~ cwgatcd in a number of studlcs of dccls]on making in user In[crfacc dcslgn (c, g, BcltMII 1990, Jorgensen 1990). The studies were rctr(lspcctlt c and based on Inten iews or questionnmrcs The stud]cs ha

Visual communication and interaction

e been \aluable to the HC1 communtt> how cl cr, the! do not tell us w hat design IS all alxmt and h(~w des]gncrs reason during the actual dcslgn pr~wcss II has been argttcd tha[ design problems arc ambiguous (hfdh[)tra 1%30) and III dcl’lncd, and u III thcrclorc rcslst formal anal! lical rncthods (Klein 1987). The speclflc ct)gnllltc quullflcit[t{)ns of (hc cics]gners wc of kc) ]mpfvlanc’c. H(n\c\ cr, the dcl cl(~pmcn[ of [hconcs of dcwgncrs’ ct>gnllll c pr(wcsw