17.2. Collecting the users opinions

Purpose - check users opinions during design in order to avoid future problems.

Structured interview	Unstructured (flexible) interview
Predetermined questions	Themes for discussion
Opinion for given questions	Opinions for wide range of topics
Structured notes	Free form notes
Makes statistical processing possible	Qualitative analysis

Semi-structured interviews may be used to find out how the user understands the interface and the actions at the interface

Questions - themes	What to find out?
Why do you do this?	The user's goal
How do you do it?	The subtasks
Why do you do this in the following manner?	Rationale for choosing among alternative mathods
What are the preconditions for doing this?	Rule consciousness
What are the results of doing this?	The users mental model of the results
May we see your work product?	Reality vs. perception
Do errors ever occur when doing this?	?
How do you discover and corect these errors?	Method knowledge

Questionnaires and surveys

Reaching a large audience
Get general opinions
Suitable for structured questions
General opinion or details of the interface

Closed questions - given alternatives
Open questions - the respondent can phrase the answer
Possible to analyse using statistics

Simple checklist

Can you use the following text editing commands
	yes	no	don't know
DUPLICATE
PASTE

Multi-point rating scale

Rate the usefulness of the DUPLICATE command on the following scale
very useful	.	.	.	.	.	.	of no use

Likert scale

Computers can simplify complex problems
.	.	.	.	.	.	.
strongly agree	agree	slightly agree	neutral	slightly disagree	disagree	strongly disagree

Semantic differential

Rate the drawing package on the following dimensions
	extremely	quite	slightly	neutral	slightly	quite	extremely
easy	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	difficult
clear	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	confusing
fun	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	dreary

Ranked order

Place the following commands in order of usefulness
Paste		Duplicate		Group		Clear

Guidelines

Make questions unambiguous
Change scales for good and bad