CS2003 Usability Engineering

User Characteristics

Dr Steve Love

Slide 2

Overview

• Why user characteristics are important• Age• Personality• Cultural influences• Summary• References• Further reading

Why individual differences are important

• Many designers often have a generic set of users in mind when designing a product (e.g. mobile phone applications)

• A “one size fit’s all approach” is not appropriate

• Why?• Have to develop products that are

accessible and usable by a wide range of users

Age• Gregor, Newell and Zajicek (2002)

argue that it is important to critically assess the methodology of design for older users as they have greater variability in:

• physical, sensory and cognitive characteristics than younger users.

• user sensitive inclusive design• Tailored, personalised and adaptive

interfaces

Personality• Regarded as our most stable

individual characteristic• Atkinson, Atkinson and Hilgard (1983)

define personality as follows: “personality describes the characteristic patterns of behaviour and modes of thinking that determine an individual’s adjustment to the environment”.

• Personality can influence our interaction with technology

Examples from the research• Turkle (1984) found that users had a tendency to

project personalities on to computer systems. • Reeves and Nash (1999) conducted a series of

experiments whereby they asked people to rate the personality of the computer service they were interacting with (via text dialogue on a screen).

• Reeves and Nash found that by manipulating the dialogue on the screen, they could change people’s perception of the personality of the system

• Found that people preferred interacting with a computer system whose personality was perceive

by participants’ to be similar to their own.

Aim of study• Participants feel they are being

drawn into the personal space of person having mobile phone conversation

• Participants feelings would be mediated by the perceived nature of the conversation

• Find out participants attitudes towards mobile phone conversations in public places

Hall’s theory of personal space (Hall, 1966)

• Intimate zone: up to 45cms from individual, e.g. wife, girlfriend, boyfriend

• Personal zone: up to 1.2m from individual, e.g. family or friends

• Social zone: about 1m-3m from individual, e.g. space between work colleagues

• Public zone: about 3m-8m from individual, e.g. lecturer giving a lecture

Method

• Design: observational design combined with a quasi-experimental approach

• Participants: 7 female and 3 male participants

• Data collection method:• analysis of video recordings of

participants• answers given to open-ended questions

Procedure• Participants asked to take part in an

HCI experiment • On arrival asked to wait next to

another participant (approx. 1ft apart)

• Confederate had a mobile phone conversation (friend or bank)

• Participant informed about the true nature of experiment & asked open-ended questions

Video-tape analysis• Pre-mobile conversation

behaviour: participants engaged in conversation

• Behaviour during mobile conversation: some moved away, others stared down at floor

• Post-mobile conversation behaviour: participants engaged again in conversation

How did you feel once the conversation started?

“I didn’t want to listen but I didn’t know what to do”

“I felt embarrassed listening to the guy’s conversation with the bank”

“I can tell you every word of the conversation as I was listening”

Mobile phone usage in public places

“I generally hate them, it’s an intrusion”

“I find it embarrassing. They don’t care what others think”

“It does not bother me in the slightest”

“It can be quite good fun listening in”

Using mobile phone in public places

“I would only switch it on in public if I was expecting a call from my daughter”

“I would not answer my phone if it went off in public”

“It doesn’t bother me making calls in public”

“They’re mobile phones, they’re supposed to be used in public places”

Conclusions from study

Personality appears to effect peoples’ perception of mobile phone conversations

Introverts: do not like using phones in public and “get drawn” into other person’s conversation

Extroverts: will use mobiles in public and do not feel uncomfortable with mobile users

Other individual differences

• User experience• How long/often• Functions used

• Cross-cultural differences• Text messaging behaviour

• Gender• Reinforcing stereotypes?• Aesthetic differences should be

considered (Moss, Gunn and Heller, 2006)

Summary

• Individual differences do have an impact on people’s perception of the usability of an application/service

• Key aim is to identify the salient individual characteristics to be accommodated in the design of product

• Personalisation is very important for new media

ReferencesAtkinson, R.L., Atkinson, R.C. and Hilgard, E.R. (1983), Introduction to

Psychology, Harcourt Brace Janovich

Gregor, P., Newell, A. F., & Zajicek, M. (2002). Designing for Dynamic Diversity – interfaces for older people. In Proceedings of ASSETS 2002, The Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies, 151-1155. July 8-10, Edinburgh, UK.

Hall, E.T. (1966). The Hidden Dimension: Man’s Use of Space in Public and Private. Bodley Head: London.

Moss, G., Gunn, R. and Heller, J. (2006) Some men like it black, some women like it pink: consumer implications of differences in male and female website design. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 5, pp328-341

Reeves, B. and Nash, C. (1999), The media equation: how people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places. Cambridge University Press, New York

Turkle, S. (1984) The second self: computers and the human spirit. Granada Publishing

Further readingArning, K. and Ziefle, M. (2006) Understanding age differences in

PDA acceptance and performance. Computers in Human Behaviour, 23, pp2904-2927

Choi. B., Inseong, L, and Jinwoo, K. (2005) A qualitative cross-national study of cultural influences on mobile data service design, CHI 2005, April 2-7 Portland, Oregon

Faulkner, X. (2000),Usability Engineering, Chapter 2: Usability- know the user

Howell, M., Love, S. and Turner, M. (2008) user characteristics and performance with automated mobile phone systems. International Journal of Mobile Communications, vol 6, no 1, pp 1-15

Moss, G., Gunn, R. and Heller, J. (2006) Some men like it black, some women like it pink: consumer implications of differences in male and female website design. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 5, pp328-341