Drawing and acting as user experience research tools

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of participant-generated drawings and drama workshops as user experience research methods. In spite of the lack of background literature on how drawings can generate useful insights on HCI issues, drawings have been successfully used in other research fields. On the contrary, drama workshops seem to be increasingly popular in recent participatory design research. After briefly introducing such previous work, three case studies are presented, illustrating the use of drawing and drama workshops when investigating the relationship between media technology users and two specific devices, namely televisions and mobile phones. The paper focuses on the methods and discusses their benefits and the challenges associated with their application. In particular, the findings are compared to those collected through a quantitative cross-cultural survey. The experience gathered during the three case studies is very encouraging and calls for additional reports of UX evaluations involving drawingand theatre-based exercises.

Enhancing the Design Process with Drama-Related Methods

“…When conducting international research or design work, cultural and linguistic differences may need to be addressed. Fleury (2012) found when conducting studies using drawings and drama workshops that Japanese (child) participants went into greater detail than their American counterparts, with the conclusion being drawn that 'these differences are explained by cultural clues of how children are raised in both societies'. The authors also observed differences between Japanese and Danish participants when investigating the emotional relationship between users and their mobile phones and TVs.…”

“…Drama appears to be useful to encourage participation around unforeseen futures or new technologies, and can bridge the distance between user and designer. It also appears most useful in situations where communication would otherwise be difficult, such as in international workshops where language barriers may be an issue (Fleury, 2012). Acting sessions can facilitate the communication of emotions which are difficult to convey with words (Mehto et al, 2006).…”

“…Exploring user needs, generating new ideas and evaluation of novel product concepts are well-known aspects of UCD (Maguire & Bevan, 2002). Although standard UCD methods such as interviews, observations and field studies have been long established, these approaches lack the opportunity for creativity, for example the envisioning of future scenarios around a product concept (Fleury, 2012). In contrast, methods which draw upon aspects of drama have been used in design processes to offer inspiration and to explore contexts of use from new perspectives, and in collaboration with end-users (Salvador, 1998;Kuuti et al, 2002;Brown et al, 2014).…”

SketchingDIS

“…Hand-drawn sketches are lightweight and easy to create and by varying the fidelity of sketches they can be an integral part of all stages of HCI research and the design process [10]. Such flexibility makes them a valuable tool that can increase access; break down boundaries to concept expression; support the thinking process; and communicate ideas to others [12]. As such, hand-drawn sketching has trickled into HCI researcher's everyday practices -with a particular focus on the gathering or reflecting on user research data, designing of novel user experiences, [6, 8, 3, 7 & 9].…”

Towards a Culturally Independent Participatory Design Method: Fusing Game Elements into the Design Process

“…Describing possible futures and enacting scenarios are known to represent a multi-faceted design tool [1]. By acting, stakeholders can simulate the targeted users' experiences and feelings, which can contribute to understanding challenges and designing services and products [6,18]. The experiences from previous games are condensed, empathy for the users and the use-situations is developed, and also the design concept is elaborated while the players take on roles, create scenarios, and act them out in physical space such as kitchen.…”