Interaction Design Research to Industry Peter Reid

Overview Masters research at The University of Auckland 2008 Interaction Design at Orion Health 2009 From research to industry

Masters Research 2008

Advantages of doing a Masters Supervisors are plugged into the field Finally - a chance to apply the skills learned during undergraduate years Develop the ability to communicate and work with ideas

Masters Topic A Multimodal Collaborative Handwriting Training System for Visually Impaired Students

Two main strands Enhancements: make changes to an existing system Longitudinal Study: test it out with three visually impaired students

Enhancements Understand handwriting literature Participatory design with a visually impaired adult Cognitive Dimensions evaluation top line ascender base line descender body of the letter x-height line Spatial features of letters. Adapted from Taylor (2001)

Longitudinal Study Some promising results Signing a signature is still a difficult task for visually impaired students Before After May’s Signature

Personal Highlights Developing skills – writing, thinking Meeting new people – school staff, students, families. Truly worthwhile Learning to work in a team – research group

OZCHI 2008 Cairns, December 2008 Inspiration Session on Health Interaction Design Meeting people working on various HCI projects

Interaction Design at Orion Health 2009

Introducing Orion Health Limited: A New Zealand company Specialist in integration for Healthcare Mission: ‘Provide Universal Access to Patient information’ Founded in years of integration experience. Offices in US (CA, MD), Canada (Edmonton), UK (London, Birmingham), Australia and a development centre in Auckland.

Concerto

Clinical Design Team 8 people in Auckland, 2 overseas – Team leader – 2 Clinical Consultants – Nursing Background – 2 Clinical Staff, both Doctors – Spain and US – 5 Interaction Designers (3 Senior)

Interaction Design A relatively new field Heated discussion on the web on best techniques Plenty of books Some activity in NZ, but not much

Team Priorities Understanding user goals and the domain Elegant designs

Understanding user goals and the domain Interviews - Clinicians Observation – Hospitals Working with clinical staff

Designing a solution Lo-fi Mockups Balsamiq Hi-fi Mockups Fireworks Final Product Usability Testing Creativity / Idea Generation Design Patterns

Lo-fi Mockups Communicate ideas quickly Low cost Allows us to make mistakes Balsamiq is a great tool

Balsamiq

Hi-fi mockups Remove ambiguity (especially if pixel perfect) Allows the finer points of layout to be specified Colours and graphics can be shown Fireworks can be used

Techniques Wireframes – show the main pieces Storyboards – show a series of screens

Design Patterns Inspiration from other applications and websites Formalised patterns – For ideas – So we don’t have to reinvent the wheel – Quince.infragistics.com, welie.com

Design Patterns

Working with other Teams Development – what are we building? Solution/Software Architects – how will we make it work? Sales/Marketing – how do we sell and explain it? Testing – how should it work?

Research to Industry

Portable Skills Communicating with text and pictures – University: Constructing a thesis – Orion: Constructing deliverable documents to explain designs to clients and other teams within Orion

Portable Skills Working on problems as a team – University: Working within a research group, asking for ideas on how to solve problems – Orion: Working within a design team, designing with other interaction designers and clinical staff

Portable Skills Confidence in interacting with people – University: Communicating with school staff and families – Orion: Developing and maintaining contact with clinicians and other contacts, who may be in New Zealand or overseas

Portable Skills Oral Presentations – University: Presenting at university and the Ozchi conference – Orion: Presenting designs to a range of audiences – at client sites and within Orion

Portable Skills Defending design decisions – University: Understanding rationale for a thesis and research methodology – Orion: Understanding trade-offs and explaining the rationale for design decisions