3 ms·
I'd like to step back from this from a moment and get a little more abstract and ask if this idea of shadowing applies to software products (or any other busine
by Periodic 12y ago
I'd like to step back from this from a moment and get a little more abstract and ask if this idea of shadowing applies to software products (or any other business, really).
Has anyone really sat down and shadowed one of their users for a whole day? I know small usability studies are pretty common. You get someone in a room, ask them to perform some tasks, see what they do. But if you have an app that people are going to spend their whole day in, e.g. email, office suite, productivity, does anyone really sit down and shadow a user for a day?
There might be things you don't notice if you only do it for an hour or two, or is it just not the same when the user isn't required by an authority to be present?
- wglb 12y agoI think quicken did this very early in their history. They would look over a new customers shoulder to fine any parts of the product that were hard to use.
- peteretep 12y agoSome people would argue that this is the meaning of "dog fooding"
- matwood 12y agoOne of my first jobs was writing software for call centers. The agents did things like CS, take payments, etc... I frequently went onto the calling floor and sat with the agents to see how they worked. Their bonuses were in part based on speed, so any software I wanted them to use had to not slow them down. They also had to deal with multiple separate programs, so additional software had to get out of the way when not being used. It was a great first job, and I learned a lot about writing usable software.
- jacalata 12y agoAbsolutely, this is known as user ethnography and has been around for a long time. Here's a random article: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/06/ethnography-in-ux.php http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/06/ethnography-in-...