designing for experience

After my committee meeting yesterday, I feel confident that the foundation of my research is sturdy enough to start exploring visually. This move forward is slightly involuntary at the moment, because I know that there are still blind-spots in my data, but I am excited about working concretely.

This week, it is important that I create a scenario with my persona—to define parameters—and develop visual studies. The earlier I can get feedback, the earlier that I can make improvements, and the earlier I can start writing analytically. Phew.

The big question that my project has turned into is: How could a cognitive artifact engage participants of online social networks to think about behavioral changes they would want to make, assess what those personal goals are, and then encourage them to meet and sustain those goals?, which essentially means: How could my cognitive artifact take the participant through the Adkar model of change?

Accordingly, I chunked my big question into four different visual studies that I could do. For the purposes of this time frame, I am going to be speculating on Visual Study 02 and Visual Study 03, as seen below. There is something interesting about the point when the participant tells the artifact what their goals are, and then when the artifact helps them during a potential step away from that goal.

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01. WHY
EMOTIONS AND NEEDS THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED

After pinpointing where my time will be spent until May, I wanted to take steps towards a user-centered design process. I went through the Adkar model of change and listed what the participant should ideally be feeling during each step in the process.



Awareness
+ curiosity
+ reassurance
+ guidance
+ secure

Desire
+ motivated
+ sure of myself
+ committed
+ relieved that there is help
+ necessity

Knowledge
+ safe
+ control
+ clarity
+ competent
+ prepared

Ability
+ don't feel self-conscious
+ I appreciate the coaching
+ I feel safe and guided, like my best interests are at heart
+ don't feel attacked
+ comfort in invisible bumper guard
+ still feel in control
+ truly not surprised because the artifact is doing exactly what I expect
+ encouraged that I will remember next time

Reinforcement
+ appreciate that it noticed
+ personal gratification
+ enjoy visual indicator of progress
+ anticipation and surprise
+ never gets old

Afterwards, I looked for themes in the moments that I will be speculating for: Awareness and Knowledge. The three themes I noticed were safety, control, and appeal. I wanted to understand what it meant, from a system's standpoint, to facilitate the participant's optimal experience.

Safety Safety*
+ secure information
+ unjudgemental
+ credibile
+ dependable
+ reassuring

Control Esteem*
+ easy
+ clarity
+ no surprises
+ ability to opt-out
+ full agency
+ full transparency
+ respectful
+ customizable

Appeal
+ visually attractive
+ functional
+ not obtrusive to SNS
+ tolerable interruptions
+ variety, anticipation
+ cater to curiosity
+ ease of use
+ fun

* Maslow's Hierarchy of Need

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02. WHAT
WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IT

+ have your social networking experience mediated
+ assess your goals
+ be alerted of behaviors that do not align with your goals
+ have your behaviors visualized
+ be helped to change behaviors
+ customize the artifact to fit your needs
+ have the meaning of your language input understood

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03. HOW
HOW YOU INTERACT WITH IT

mediating
+ opt-out
+ direct hub
+ transitions to overlay

assessing
+ give concrete examples
+ see how the artifact understands my goals
+ manipulate dichotomized variables
+ refine

alerting
+ agency to listen or not
+ can be audio or visual
+ can either interrupt, be periphery, or temporal
+ I am aware that the artifact is activated
+ can control emphasis

visualizing
+ can control variables
+ can easily be read
+ can access deeper levels of information
+ can "wipe slate clean"

customizing
+ intuitive
+ quick
+ see change immediately
+ clarity
+ quickly enter/exit

understanding
+ guide
+ enter into a dialogue
+ debate meaning