Theme 5: Design Research (before)

For the lecture with Haibo Li:

1. How can media technologies be evaluated?

In the paper Réhman et al considered three aspects of usability: effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. To measure effectiveness the failure ratio is used as an indicator which describes if a task could be fulfilled with the specified system or not. Efficiency points out the required effort to accomplish a special task. Best case scenario is that the participant needs as little effort as possible. The third aspect satisfaction describes how comfortable and acceptable the use of a specified system is for the user.

2. What role will prototypes play in research?

Prototypes are a very important part of developing new products and functions. Not only the design but also the functionality can be tested with a prototype which helps to improve the final outcome.  A very common mistake is to miss out on defects on the prototype because you are to involved in the product itself. People who have never used this kind of product are more critical when using it and can help the researcher monitoring strengths but also improvable points. It is important to let people without any bias test the product.

3. Why could it be necessary to develop a proof of concept prototype?

It could be necessary to develop a proof of concept prototype because it must not always bring the research a step forward when using a prototype. The use of the prototype should be tested if it brings the researcher closer to the goal they want to achieve and if it is a efficient way to do so with a prototype. Another important point is that the researchers need to have the resources to create a good and helpful prototype .

4. What are characteristics and limitations of prototypes?

Prototypes help to improve the development of a product because weak points can be eliminated or at least improved. It also shows how people actually use the product and what is good and bad about the design and the function of a certain product. The limitation of using prototype that a prototype is never the same like the actual product. Most of the time limited resources only allow to create a similar product out of lower quality and not exactly how it is going to be. That can affect the outcome of the research with the help of prototypes, because the users describe their experience with the prototype and not with the final product.

5. How can design research be communicated/presented?

Design research can be communicated with the use of models and prototypes, but also trough the use of stimulation material like videos, pictures, presentations and also explanations of a product. It always depends on the type of the research, the question, which should be answered and of course the topic and how the goals of the research are described. 

For the lecture with Ylva Fernaeus:

1. What is the 'empirical data' in these two papers?

The empirical data in both papers is collected trough testing on prototypes. Anders Lundström collected additional empirical data from interviews.