[If embedded video fails, use link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFdo1jKphSQ]

Other perceived shortcomings were:
• Channel Preference: She only wanted to view items that were available in the store, because she was doing pre-shopping for a store visit
• View Products in Context: She wanted to see the products in a room setting similar to her own, to virtually try them on in her space
• Sharing Options: She wanted to share the product via Facebook with her roommates, because they don’t read emails
• Quick Save Bin: Once in the store, she had a hard time pulling up the items that she had decided on. She had to search through her email, and then did a search to finally locate the product. She wanted a quick save bin on the iPad that didn’t require any kind of registration.

On the positive side:
• Visual Impact: She responded very well to the visual aspects of the product catalog on the iPad
• Product Reviews: The product reviews were very helpful and impactful on her decision process
• Aisle Locator: Once she found the products on the iPad that she had come to purchase, the display had an aisle number so she found the location fairly easily

The Walmart app was more functional in terms of checking store inventory, but she didn’t see any way to share the products with her roommates.

This participant, as with many of her peers, found the iPad shopping experience generally positive, with some required fixes. Ultimately her shopping trip was a failure because of availability. The participant said she would like to have a combination of the visual impact and convenience of the app, but the more robust availability functionality of the web site, with a range of sharing options. There is no doubt that she will adopt multichannel shopping with an iPad when the customer experience reaches the next level of maturity.

If interviews will take place in a central location, then a list of the current day’s interview participants should be printed out and posted in the area where they will take place. This list should also be emailed to team members and stakeholders.

Check with security prior to the day of the sessions to figure out what kind of documentation will be required to bring participants into the research area. Checking ahead with security is relevant in all kinds of research settings, from office buildings to retail locations, to special facilities like airports. This is often overlooked, and can lead to big headaches. At a minimum, security should be given a list of each day’s participants. They usually have some kind of guest badges or passes that can be issued at the check-in desk.

The research protocol you wrote identified the materials that will be required for your customer interviews. The materials identified in the research protocol should be refreshed at the beginning of each day. Copy machines for some reason seem to break more often the day that interviews take place, so we usually make lots of copies prior to the day we will need them. We are especially careful to have extra copies of any paper forms that participants will write on directly, because if we are lacking those, then we will be lacking data we need. Recording devices, media for data and copies, markers, pads, etc., should all be checked at the beginning and end of each research day to avoid unpleasant surprises.

As a point of reference, the following are materials that Usography typically requires for customer interviews:

• Copies of research protocol
• Release form (permission to use likeness and responses)
• Payment received form
• Cards with content types, features, concepts
• Photos for brand impression analysis, photo elicitation
• Grid with topic relevance on one axis, perceived value on the other
• Digital camera, recorder, or video camera
• Map of physical location where activities or interactions take place
• Markers
• Blank wireframes for screen sketches

Copyright 2009, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (http://www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

In cases where there is consensus among participants on ideal interactions and experiences, you should create an interaction model that represents the compass and an overarching design goal to shoot for. Steve Jobs presented some very specific goals to his engineering team that designed the Ipod. It seemed impossible to some on the team that they could meet the goal, but after a long and arduous effort, they did reach it: Your music collection in your pocket. This vision was not contiguous with existing solutions. For innovative solutions, companies can’t rely on incremental improvements that result from assessment-focused research methods such as A/B testing and web analytics.

Objectives of the Ideal Experience module:

• Understand each participant’s view of the ideal web site in your field
• Obtain a “best case” experience that is generalized from all the participant interviews
• Understand what customers ultimately want, and the intermediate steps that could be taken to ultimately reach that point

Participatory exercises can be used to determine a participant’s ideal experience (the ideal design is in the next module). For example, participants can be asked to describe their ideal concept of a web shopping experience or application, or the ideal store section. A single customer’s view of the ideal experience will not necessarily be significant on its own, unless a customer happens to come up with a brilliant idea for a future design. However, when combined with the results of other similar exercises with other participants, a model may emerges of a future innovative design concept that would meet the needs of many users.

If the participatory exercises result in scenarios or descriptions of experiences that are fundamentally different, then the research team needs to ponder what this result means for the future design. It could mean that a personalized experience is required, since everyone’s ideal solution was different. Or it could mean that the solution is not obvious to users, and must be driven by the design team’s experience and skills rather than customer-initiated design ideas.

Components found within the ideal experience or design should be tabulated across participants to understand trends, although quantitative methods are necessary before the results can be generalized to a population of users.

Copyright 2009, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (http://www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

For example, in a resort web site or kiosk, guests may be looking for leisure activities, finding products they forgot, reading about the history of the area, etc. Each of these modes should be simple and straightforward to find in terms of access points, make it easy to achieve the most common and most valuable goals, and represent the task using design components that appear especially suited to the activity (i.e. high affordance). The modes should not be cluttered with lots of options that are unrelated to the mode customers have indicated they want to work in. Marketers often want to surround and interject this experience with lots of selling options, but many times this is interpreted by users as visual noise that damages the perception of the experience and isn’t effective. Looking at the analytics for such off-task design elements, I’ve nearly always found clicktrhroughs to be near zero. If they have to be there, make sure they are not obstructing progress in the primary activity. Billboards are okay, but on the side of the road, not in the middle of the road. And spaced apart so that the visual signal to noise ratio is at a reasonable level.

Copyright 2009, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (http://www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

Some activities in the list may be related to the system being researched, but may not specifically be conducted within the system. For example, participants may be asked to list resorts they have visited, or which areas within a resort they typically use, both of which are broader than asking what tasks they typically undertake using a guest information system. The purpose for capturing these broader activity indexes is to characterize the person being interviewed. The data can help the research team formulate an experience model.

When constructing an activity list, it is helpful to ask participants how they expect to go about the activity using a web site or information device. Their expected task path can be used to support the mental model and current or proposed interaction model.

Copyright 2009, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (http://www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

Sample script:

Establishing the behavioral and motivational context

Previous experiences

Now I’d like to talk about your last three vacations. Can you tell me about them?

Where did you go? What was it like? How did you get there? What kind of hotel or resort did you stay in? What was it like inside? Outside?

Please describe your room or suite in detail. How much did the room or suite cost?

Overall approach

When you think about taking a vacation, what do you think about first?

What are your favorite types of vacation? How do you go about planning them?

What is your approach for selecting one hotel or resort over another?

If prompting needed: For example, leisure, fun activities, mix with other people, be alone, beach, mountains, woods, water sports?

If you had to select one of these basic approaches to selecting a resort, which would you say you focus on most?

-       Luxurious sparkle

-       The time of my life

-       Unique experiences

-       Rejuvenation, R&R

-       Meet interesting people

-       Good times for good value

Where would you like to go, but haven’t yet had the time or resources to go there?

Is the choice of location and resort yours alone, or is it shared with someone else?

If shared: What is your role in terms of selecting the hotel or resort and location?

Information resources

When you were planning the trips, how did you find out about the places you would stay? What resources did you use?

Probe for comprehensive list.

What other resorts did you read about but didn’t go to? Why not?

4. Summarize motivation

As time permits, restate the approach in terms of steps

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• Description of the participant’s history, experience, and knowledge level in the subject matter
• Description of typical situations that precede the activity being researched
• Detailed account of an event that involved the use of the web site in question or a competing web site
• List of web sites used for information during the course of the activity, which either supplemented the use of the site for which the research is being conducted, or instead of that site. Details of information resources consulted, and the value of each to success of the event.
• Step by step description of activities related to the research topic, such as Category-specific purchase patterns or decision-making considerations.
• This task analysis focuses on the context of the purchase or event or subject matter; a description of web site usage comes later in the interview.
• Discussion of gaps, or missing information or support tools, in the experience
• Discussion of problem points other than information gaps that arose before, during, or after the activity
• Prioritization of factors using card-sorting or rating scale to reveal preferences, values, trade-offs related to satisfaction of needs and wants associated with the activity
• Perceptions about brands related to the need fulfillment that were confirmed, altered, or newly discovered
• Point(s) at which participant wanted to stop the process
• Description of what would be considered a success in this situation or topic

The main goal of the context of use module is to reach an understanding of the most important factors that influence a customer’s behavior when they are in situations that lead them to use web sites like the one you are designing. Some specific takeaways or inisights that the questions and exercises listed above could elicit to help shape web design include:

• Information typically needed to make a decision or selection
• Ranking of decision-making factors in terms of importance and frequency
• Mental model of the subject matter
• Obstacles in the activity that need to be overcome
• Opportunities for an improved user experience
• Tools that may be supportive or competitive with the web site in question
• Task steps that need to be accommodated
• Success metrics according to participant

Copyright 2009, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

• Demographics, such as household income
• Level of technical savvy
• Level of knowledge related to the subject matter
• Attitudes, behaviors, and personal attributes related to the category of interest, as revealed by semantic differential scales (e.g. willingness to provide credit card information to be stored on a web site)
• Frequency and value of purchases in the category of interest
• Degree of experience using tools or systems related to the research subject matter
• Need to handle a product in order to purchase it
• Need to have confirmation from other customers before purchase
• Need for deep product details and extensive research before purchases
• Willingness to opt in to on-going communications
• Attitudes about competing brands and loyalty
• Tendency to visit 3 or more web sites to find the best deal
• Tendency to use deal and coupon sites to get discounts
• Interactive preferences such as search vs. navigate
• Willingness to click ads while shopping for something else

Copyright 2009, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

The objectives of the Participant Characterization module are to:

• Capture personal characteristics of participant
• Define significant participant attributes using questions, scales, and exercises
• Measure dimensions that are most likely to differentiate online behavioral segments

When researchers conduct a survey, they attempt to eliminate participant bias by selecting a random population that represents the population of interest. When interviewing customers, most researchers do not have the resources to interview a statistically valid sample of participants, and therefore participant bias is always present. The characteristics of the individual participant put a “spin” on all of the data that is captured. However, instead of eliminating bias, the researcher attempts to gain a deep understanding of each participant, so that unique characteristics can be distinguished from characteristics that can be generalized to a portion of the population.

An important goal of in-depth customer interviews is to discover common characteristics that cluster participants into groups that behave in similar ways on web sites. From those clusters, researchers can extrapolate a behavioral segmentation of the customer population, and build an understanding of that segment in order to formulate mental models or interaction patterns that they have in common. These results are then the basis for a design strategy that will meet the specific needs and wants of that segment of your customer population. Customer characteristics, when combined into a profile, can be measured quantitatively to determine the prevalence or financial importance of a given customer segment.

Copyright 2009, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

In the remainder of this chapter, I present example interview modules that I have used for different e-commerce design research projects, which seem to have a generalized application. As I stated above each design research project has its own unique goals and requirements; so these example modules are provided as guidance for creating your own interview modules, not as a template or boilerplate. The interview modules I typically include in customer interviews are:

• Welcome
• Participant characterization
• Context of use
• Motivations
• Formation of the consideration set
• Case history of relevant online experiences
• Detailed task analysis
• Card sorting
• Description of ideal experience
• Participatory design of future system
• Evaluation of existing design work

I’ll describe each of these interview modules in a separate posting. 

The discussion guide consists of the interview script and notes to the interviewer. The high level objectives of the interview should be reflected in the questions and exercises that comprise the script. The script is divided into modules, each with a specific research focus, and intended to very directly and purposefully capture data that meets the predefined research objectives. The types of modules that are included in the script, and the way that they are executed in terms of specific questions and exercises, vary for every project according to the subject matter, the project objectives, and the participant sample. There is no one-size fits all for customer interviews. Research objectives and the interview scripts that achieve them should be uniquely tailored to each project.

I’m going to describe some example interview modules that I have used for different e-commerce design research projects, which seem to have a generalized application. As I stated above each design research project has its own unique goals and requirements; so these example modules are provided as guidance for creating your own interview modules, not as a template or boilerplate. The interview modules I typically include in customer interviews are:

• Welcome
• Participant characterization
• Context of use
• Motivations
• Formation of the consideration set
• Case history of relevant online experiences
• Detailed task analysis
• Card sorting
• Description of ideal experience
• Participatory design of future system
• Evaluation of existing design work

I’ll describe these interview modules in subsequent posts.

 Copyright 2009, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts