Design Science
a method for product design
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dave@davehogue.com
name
website
David M. Hogue, Ph.D.
Design Lead at Google
Mountain View, California
Science!
Scientist-Practitioner
Boulder Model of Applied Psychology
Scientific method
Make an observation
Form a theory & hypotheses
Run experiments
Record & analyze data
Draw conclusions
Modify the theory
Repeat
Observe
Ideate
Design
Build
Measure
Modify
UX Design method
Science is rigorous
and reproducible.
Hypotheses & conjectures
Hypotheses + conjectures
guess, speculate, surmise, infer, fancy, imagine, believe, think, suspect, presume, assume, hypothesize, suppose
Pinteraction = × Cprediction
Voutcome
Weffort
How is “work” quantified?
What is “moderate value”?
Pinteraction = × 0.85C = 62.3%
0.55V
0.75W
Models & conjectures
targetaccuracy = f ( target size, contrast, contact area, press force, distance, velocity, dexterity )
time = ɑ + β × ( distance / size) (Meyer’s Law)
accuracy = [ ɑ + β × (( vi × t ) + (( at2 ) / 2 ) / (size + area)) × force-1 ] × [ Dx / Ct ]
a = 𝜕v / 𝜕t and t = ( vf - vi ) / a and d = ( vi × t ) + (( at2 ) / 2 ) (physics)
⎷
⎷
What are these values?
accuracy = [ ɑ + β × (( vi × t ) + (( at2 ) / 2 ) / (size + area)) × force-1 ] × [ Dx / Ct ]
⎷
Choose one variable
and run an experiment
to collect data,
accuracy = [ ɑ + β × (( vi × t ) + (( at2 ) / 2 ) / (size + area)) × force-1 ] × [ Dx / Ct ]
⎷
then just keep doing this.
Conjectures have a tendency
to become assumed truths.
Question everything.
Always.
Science & UX
Divergent thinking
Abductive reasoning
Rigorous methods
Plausible rival hypotheses
Experimentation
Systematic analysis
Designer-Scientist
a pragmatic approach to UX Design
R. Buckminster Fuller, 1957
History of Design Science: Origins
1957 R. Buckminster Fuller defined Design Science as a systematic form of designing.
1961 Fuller expanded on this concept in his World Design Science Decade proposal to the International Union of Architects in 1961.
1965 S. A. Gregory referred to Design Science in 'The Design Method' Conference where he drew the distinction between scientific method and design method and proposed that design science referred to the scientific study of design.
1968 Herbert Simon, in his Karl Taylor Compton Lectures, popularized Design Science in his argument for the scientific study of the artificial (as opposed to the natural.)
1969 Simon published The Sciences of the Artificial and built on previous developments and motivated the further development of systematic and formalized design methodologies relevant to many design disciplines. His ideas about the science of design also encouraged the development of design research and the scientific study of designing.
design as a science
or
scientific study of design
History of Design Science: Discourse
1970s - 1980s The design-science relationship is debated.
History of Design Science: Deep Theory
1990s The design-science relationship continues to be debated with many efforts to reframe or reform design as science.
The axiomatic theory of design (Suh, 1990) presented a domain independent theory to explain the design process.
Gero’s (1990, 2004) Function-Behavior-Structure (FBS) ontology presented a domain independent ontology of design and designing.
Early efforts using mathematics to formalize the design process include Formal Theory of Design (FDT) (Braha, 1998), a domain independent mathematical and computational theory of the design process.
History of Design Science: Information Systems
2000+ Emphasis on design as a science within information systems emerges.
Hevner & Chatterjee (2010) provide a reference on Design Science Research (DSR) in Information Systems and the integration of action research with design research.
Vaishnavi, Kuechler, & Petter (2004, 2017) offer a resource on design science research in information systems that outlines the origins and philosophical grounding for design science research, explains the design science methodology, and offers a bibliography of articles that discuss design science methods or offer exemplars of design science.
History of Design Science: Applied Methods
2004 Hevner, March, Park, & Ram (2004) present seven guidelines to help information systems researchers conduct, evaluate, and present design-science research. The seven guidelines address design as:
Today Design Science may have both meanings: a science of design and design as a science.
Design + Psychology
a model for thinking through design
Relevant Fields of Psychology
Behavior
Emotion
Cognition
Social
Motivation
Sensation & perception
Ecological / Environmental
Psychometrics
Quantitative / Mathematical
Developmental
Personality
Physiological / Neurological
Industrial / Organizational
Human Factors / HCI
and much more...
Context
Experience &
Expectations
Goals & Needs
Productivity
Creativity
Perception
Motivation
Cognition
Emotion
Social
Context
Experience &
Expectations
Goals & Needs
Productivity
Creativity
Perception
Motivation
Cognition
Emotion
Social
Behavior
Behavior
Interaction
Psychology of
Context, Experience, & Expectations
Who are the people?
Demographics, experiences, skills, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, expectations
When and where are they?
Place, environment, situation, conditions, circumstances
What are the devices, objects, and tools they are using?
Phones, computers, kiosks, cameras, pen & paper, books, chisel & stone…
What is their prior experience?
None, prior use, similar products, instructions, taught or shown
What do they expect to happen?
What do they expect to do?
Mental models, schemas, analogous experience, familiar or new, novice or expert
Goals, Productivity, & Creativity
Who are their objectives?
What is the desired outcome?
Specific task and goal, or playing and exploring with vague purpose
What is the value of their goals and objectives?
Important, essential, necessary, optional, nice-to-have, elective
How urgent are their goals and objectives?
Time-sensitive, critical, compelling, casual, open-ended
Do they have a clearly defined task and a specific outcome?
Task-focused, productive, functional, goal-directed, clear end state, often trying to minimize time and effort
Are they playing or exploring?
Playing, gaming, pleasure, recreation, leisure, amusement, exploration, diversion, distraction
Value vs. Urgency
Do not conflate value and urgency.
Perception
How do people sense and perceive the world?
Sensation and perception
Vision, audition, and touch (not quite taste and scent, yet…)
Color perception (and color deficient vision)
Motion, depth, texture, and timbre
Image and shape recognition
Gestalt Principles
Pre-conscious processing and attention
Attention
Attention is the process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information while ignoring other perceivable information. It is:
Pre-attentive processing is the collection and processing of information and filtering it for relevance and importance without conscious action or awareness.
Gestalt Principles
Describe how we visually perceive objects as distinct from one another and from backgrounds.
Complex images may be reduced to simpler shapes to make perception easier.
Law of Prägnanz
Figure-Ground
Simplicity
Proximity
Similarity
Continuity
Closure
Common fate
Symmetry
Synchrony
Gestalt is more than visual
Form
Shape, fit, color, rotation, structure, appearance
Space
Position, placement, negative space, distance, arrangement, perspective
Time
Sequential, simultaneous, discrete, continuous, continual, motion, antecedent and subsequent states
Meaning
Synonym, antonym, relevance, association, model, schema, corollary, analogous, metaphor, opposite, dissimilar
Function
Outcome, condition, state, process, method, change, actions, transformation, operation
Motivation
Why do people do what they do?
Motivation is the force that initiates, directs, and sustains behavior.
Motivations vary from person to person and from situation to situation. What motivates one may not motivate another, and what motivates today may not motivate tomorrow.
Some motivators are stronger than others.
A few selected theories:
Achievement, affiliation, & power
all people have three basic needs that vary in degree
Existence, Relatedness, & Growth (ERG)
a flexible hierarchy of needs through which we progress
Taxonomy of Fundamental Human Needs
a matrix of satisfiers between existential and axiological needs (human values)
Biological drives
hunger, thirst, sleep, temperature (comfort), pain, and sex
Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
internal vs. external sources of motivation drive behavior
Motivation & social media
Why do we spend so much time on social
networks, and what do we get from it?
Affiliation with others
We are social creatures.
Personal achievement
We compete with ourselves and others.
Social influence & credibility
We seek to earn “social currency.”
Recognition, praise, & social rewards
We like to be liked and acknowledged.
Cognition
How do we know and understand things?
Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thinking, experience, and the senses.
We use cognition to apply existing knowledge and generate new knowledge.
It is often described as thinking, awareness, and information processing.
Cognition is often biased.
Attention
Learning
Memory
Language
Recognition
Comprehension
Spatial operations
Computation
Decision-making
Problem solving
Reasoning
Logic
Judgment Evaluation
Concept formation
Metacognition
Cognitive biases
Our cognitive abilities are fallible.
Framing
Anchoring
Confirmation Bias
Availability Heuristic
Salience Bias
Functional Fixedness
Hyperbolic Discounting
Recency Bias
Base-rate Fallacy
and dozens more…
Mental models
System Model
Conceptual Model
Mental Model
Emotion
What are feelings and where do they come from?
Emotions are complex, subjective experiences resulting in physiological and cognitive changes that influence thought and behavior. They occur in response to internal and external events.
The basic emotions may be combined and modified along a continuum that results in many more nuanced emotional experiences.
A few different approaches:
Ekman’s Primary Emotions
anger, happiness, surprise, disgust, sadness, fear
James-Lange
physiological reaction precedes emotion
Cannon-Bard
physiological reaction and emotion are concurrent
Schachter-Singer
physiological reaction precedes cognition
Lazarus
cognition precedes physiological reaction and emotion
Classifying emotions
Representing emotions with color
Red is anger.
Green is envy.
Blue is sadness.
Yellow is cowardice.
The color of grief varies around the world.
India (Hindu)
Egypt
New Guinea
Korea
Thailand
USA
Even typography can be evocative.
You will always be mine...
You will always be mine
Social
How are we influenced by the people around us?
Social psychology seeks to understand how people's thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
The way we perceive ourselves in relation to others influences our choices, behaviors, and beliefs.
The opinions and actions of others also influences our behavior and the way we think about and perceive ourselves.
Self concept
Social perception & cognition
Attitudes
Persuasion & influence
Group processes
Interpersonal processes
Attribution theory
Attraction & relationships
Prosocial behavior
Aggression
Stereotypes, prejudice, & discrimination
“I am not who you think I am.
I am not who I think I am.
I am who I think you think I am.”
Charles Horton Cooley
Selected social psychology theories
Attribution theory
We attribute the behaviour of others to either external ("situational") attributions by assigning causality to an outside factor, or to internal ("dispositional") attributions by assigning causality to factors within the person.
Social identity theory
We categorize people (including ourselves) into in-groups or out-groups, which affects perceptions, attitudes, and behavior.
Social influence theory
Others may have authority over our behavior and attitudes along a continuum of influence: conformity, compliance, and obedience.
System justification theory
People are motivated to defend and bolster the status quo so they can continue believing that their social, political, and economic systems are legitimate and just.
Behavior
What are people’s actions and reactions?
Behaviors are the actions by which an people react and adjust to their environment, other people, and other factors.
Stimuli indicate the opportunity for a response which leads to a consequence. The consequence (or outcome) may reinforce or punish the behavior and serve as a stimulus for subsequent responses.
A few selected theories:
Classical Conditioning
form an association between two stimuli
Operant Conditioning
form an association between a stimulus and a response which is then modulated by reinforcement or punishment
Social Learning Theory
learn new behaviors through model, observe, and imitate
Drive Reduction Theory
behavior is driven by biological drives toward homeostasis
Relational Frame Theory
behavioral-cognitive theory of language learning
Behavior modification & product design
Reinforcement schedules
Reinforcement may be delivered at fixed or variable intervals of time or fixed or interval ratios of the number of correct responses.
Reinforcement value
Behavior may be increased by presenting desirable states or removing undesirable states.
Modeling and instructions
Provide illustrations, videos, demonstrations, and/or instructions demonstrating how to use a product.
Manipulating salience
Modify the perceivability, meaningfulness, and desirability of content and interactive features.
Manipulating attention
Craft and place signals (stimuli) in the product and schedule their presence (by time or condition) to draw attention and create connections.
Accessibility and availability
Design to include (or exclude) people based on ability and/or access.
There is a dark side.
Dark patterns
As UX designers we are in the business of changing behavior.
Sometimes we are asked to make design decisions that lead people to choices and actions that are not always in their own best interests.
Dark patterns mislead people to interact in ways they would not otherwise have chosen.
Be the good one.
Interaction
Psychology of
Interaction
Design
A model of
Internal
Consistency
Ignore
Abandon
Error
Quit
Misunderstand
Forget
Mistake
Perceive
Predict
Feedback
Learn
Remember
Practice
Interact
External
Consistency
Perceive
Perceive
Predict
Predict
Interact
Interact
Feedback
Feedback
Learn
Learn
Practice
Practice
Remember
Remember
Consistency
Doubt
Prior Experience
Transfer
Misinterpret
Perceive
More than visibility – we must craft accessible experiences where people can perceive the opportunities to interact in any modality.
People are less likely to interact if…
We do not perceive the opportunity to interact, even if we need or want to interact.
Signals
Signs
(indexical, iconic, symbolic)
(signifier & signified)
Affordances
Perceived affordances
Predict
The ability to accurately and confidently predict the outcomes or results of an interaction and that it will move us toward our goal(s).
People are less likely to interact if…
We are not confident in our predicted outcomes or if we believe the results are not what we want or need.
Interact
The moment of interaction occurs when we believe we know what to do to make progress toward our goal and are confident that we can do it successfully.
People are less likely to interact if…
Importance and urgency of the goal are low, the value of the outcome is too low, the effort necessary to interact is too high, and/or the confidence that they know what to or that the results will meet the needs is too low.
Pinteraction = × Cprediction
Voutcome
Weffort
Feedback
Meaningful information about the status and outcomes of an interaction and the process(es) it started, modified, or terminated.
People are less likely to interact if…
We do not receive meaningful information about status, progress, outcomes, or results.
Learn
We can learn and remember interactions when we accurately predict desirable outcomes, avoid errors, and when the feedback is understandable and relevant.
People are less likely to learn if…
The outcomes are not expected, relevant, or valuable, or feedback is absent, ambiguous, or meaningless.
Practice
We practice to understand, explore, learn, remember, and increase confidence to make our future interactions easier and more efficient.
People are less likely to practice if…
Friction is high, outcomes are unpredictable or have low value, feedback is ambiguous or confusing, our confidence is not increasing, and/or our needs and goals are changing.
friction =
× Weffort
Value × Urgency
Timelearn
Remember
We generalize across similar situations and transfer knowledge and skills from one context, device, or domain to another when they are identifiably analogous.
People are less likely to transfer if…
We do not perceive and understand the similarities between two situations, or we think two situations are analogous when they are not.
Cohesiveness
Consistent appearance, behavior, feedback, meaning, and outcomes makes it easier for us to:
Internal
Consistency
Ignore
Abandon
Error
Quit
Misunderstand
Forget
Mistake
Perceive
Predict
Feedback
Learn
Remember
Practice
Interact
External
Consistency
Perceive
Perceive
Predict
Predict
Interact
Interact
Feedback
Feedback
Learn
Learn
Practice
Practice
Remember
Remember
Consistency
Doubt
Prior Experience
Transfer
Misinterpret
Interaction Design Model
Psychology
Perceive
Predict
Feedback
Learn
Remember
Practice
Interact
Cognition
Emotion
Motivation
Perception
Social
Behavior
How might we apply this model?
Let’s put this $#!+ into practice.
Tim Hortons mobile app
Context, experience, & expectations
Who is the audience?
Where are they while using the app?
Are they using the app alone or with others?
Why did they download and install the app?
What is their prior experience with similar apps or devices?
What do they expect the app to be able to do?
Context
Experience
Goals
├ Productivity
└ Creativity
Behavior
Cognition
Emotion
Motivation
Perception
Social
Goals
What do they need the app to do for them?
What benefits do they think the app may offer?
Do they have a specific task or outcome?
Are they playing, creating, or expressing themselves with the app?
How valuable are the desired outcomes?
How urgent are the desired outcomes?
Context
Experience
Goals
├ Productivity
└ Creativity
Behavior
Cognition
Emotion
Motivation
Perception
Social
Perceive or ignore
What is perceivable about the product? (vision, audition, touch)
What might people perceive as information or interaction?
What might people ignore or fail to perceive?
What available signals or interactions might be “invisible” until they occur (e.g., modals, haptics, or gestures)?
Context
Experience
Goals
├ Productivity
└ Creativity
Behavior
Cognition
Emotion
Motivation
Perception
Social
Does not work offline.
Predict or abandon
Which interactions might help you achieve the desired outcomes?
What do you expect to happen?
How much effort might it take to complete the task or interaction?
Does the value of the outcome exceed the effort for the task?
Are there any social considerations prior to interaction?
Pinteraction = × Cprediction
Context
Experience
Goals
├ Productivity
└ Creativity
Behavior
Cognition
Emotion
Motivation
Perception
Social
Voutcome
Weffort
?
?
?
Interact or error
Are you interacting individually or in conjunction with others?
What are you going to do?
What do you expect will happen when you do that?
How confident are you that this will happen?
Will this help you meet your need?
Context
Experience
Goals
├ Productivity
└ Creativity
Behavior
Cognition
Emotion
Motivation
Perception
Social
?
?
Feedback or quit
What are the results of the interaction?
Are the results understandable, meaningful, and relevant?
Does the product provide status and progress information?
Are error messages informative, helpful, and actionable?
Are next steps clear and actionable?
Context
Experience
Goals
├ Productivity
└ Creativity
Behavior
Cognition
Emotion
Motivation
Perception
Social
?
Place an Order
Learn or misunderstand
Are the results consistent with expectations and prior experience?
Are the outcomes useful, meaningful, and valuable?
Have you achieved or are you closer to your goal?
Does the product help complete multiple tasks?
Is there more than one way to complete a task?
Are there multiple variations or conditions of a task?
Context
Experience
Goals
├ Productivity
└ Creativity
Behavior
Cognition
Emotion
Motivation
Perception
Social
Practice or mistake
Are you able to complete the same tasks on subsequent uses?
Are you able to complete a broader range of tasks?
Were you able to avoid or easily and effectively correct errors?
Are you becoming more proficient (e.g., fewer errors, faster)?
Is the product internally consistent for presentation and behavior?
Context
Experience
Goals
├ Productivity
└ Creativity
Behavior
Cognition
Emotion
Motivation
Perception
Social
?
?
?
Internal inconsistency
Remember or forget
Are you able to remember how to use the product after long delays?
Are you able to recognize similarities (i.e., identifiably analogous) with other products?
Are you able to effectively apply past experiences to new situation?
Are you able to re-learn prior skills quickly?
Are you able to explain or demonstrate how to complete a task to others?
Context
Experience
Goals
├ Productivity
└ Creativity
Behavior
Cognition
Emotion
Motivation
Perception
Social
?
quick review
Context
Experience &
Expectations
Goals & Needs
Productivity
Creativity
Perception
Motivation
Cognition
Emotion
Social
Context
Experience &
Expectations
Goals & Needs
Productivity
Creativity
Perception
Motivation
Cognition
Emotion
Social
Behavior
Behavior
Internal
Consistency
Ignore
Abandon
Error
Quit
Misunderstand
Forget
Mistake
Perceive
Predict
Feedback
Learn
Remember
Practice
Interact
External
Consistency
Perceive
Perceive
Predict
Predict
Interact
Interact
Feedback
Feedback
Learn
Learn
Practice
Practice
Remember
Remember
Consistency
Doubt
Prior Experience
Transfer
Misinterpret
Interaction Design Model
Psychology
Perceive
Predict
Feedback
Learn
Remember
Practice
Interact
Cognition
Emotion
Motivation
Perception
Social
Behavior
dave@davehogue.com
name
website
David M. Hogue, Ph.D.
Design Lead at Google
Mountain View, California
o u b l i e t t e