Arizona State University

Rutgers University

- Motor Behavior 
- Feature Detection (Ware)
- Common Ground
- Extrema 
- IDEO Methods Cards
- Observation 

Design Techniques 

- Feature Detection (Ware): People respond to certain characteristics, such as color, slope, length, texture, value, angle, and motion extremely fast, while responding to characteristics such as shape, area, orientation, curvature, connection, and containment relatively slower. 
- Explanation: The former set of characteristics are processed in the primary visual cortex(V1) area in the back of the brain, and the second set of characteristics are processed in V2 (Ware). 
- Application: Designers should avoid manipulating too many characteristics because too much information could confuse the brain (Ware).

Feature Detection (Ware)

The movement is inescapable in human-computer interaction (HCI). This is an important concept for user interaction with devices. Motor movements include: Typing, Pointing, Clicking, Dragging, Drawing, Pinching 

Motor Behavior

Common ground is a concept of achieving effective communication between users and the system through mutual agreement. The common ground includes three forms: conversational conventions, communal common ground, and personal common ground (Monk, 2003, p. 272). All three forms work together to help users understand and adapt to a system more efficiently.
- Conversational conventions refer to the assumptions of conducting a conversation. 
- Communal common ground refers to the assumptions based on experience.
- Personal common ground refers to the mutual understanding between individuals.

Common Ground

Extrema

The idea of the methods cards is to make a large number of
different techniques accessible to all members of a design team
and to encourage a creative approach to the search for
information and insights as their projects evolve. The intention is
to provide a tool that can be used flexibly to sort, browse, search,
spread out, or pin up. I find myself using the cards after a typical
project briefing meeting, working my way through the pack as if
in a game of patience and selecting the most useful set for that
particular project in its various phases. When I meet with the
team, I deal the set I’ve chosen and talk about why they might be
useful in this context.

Each of the fifty-one cards contains explanatory text about
how and when the method can be used and a brief example of its
application to a real design project, with an illustrative and
sometimes whimsical image on the other side. The cards are
divided into four categories, ranging from the objective to more
subjective—Learn, Look,Ask, and Try:“Learn” from the facts you
gather, “Look” at what users do, “Ask” them to help, and “Try” it
for yourself

IDEO Methods Cards

“Observation” was the label we used for the best way to learn
about people in the context of a particular design problem,
implying that you needed to look at what people really do in a
situation, rather than rely on the conventional technique of asking
them about what they think and do. When you are trying to understand the latent needs and desires of potential users before a
design is created, it is important to learn about their existing
habits and context of use—things they are rarely able to tell you
about explicitly.

Learn Before

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