Reading seminar #1

(I used an old edition of the book)

Chapter 7 - Identifying needs and establishing requirements:

Chapter 7 is about the requirements needed from the potential users, how to identify these requirements from users by analysing gathered data, and why we need this information when designing a product. There are two main different requirement types identified for designing software: non-functional requirements, and functional requirements.
Functional requirements is requirements about the functions in the software, for example being able to change the font in a word processor. Non-functional requirements is requirements that's not about functions in software, but rather things such as operating system compatibilities.

The chapter also discusses different methods used in the iterative data gathering processes.
Some examples of the different discussed gathering methods are: focus groups/workshops, 
interviews, observation, studying documentation, and questionnaires. The different methods has pros and cons and needs to be picked depending on the situation.


Chapter 12 - Observing users: 

This chapter is about observation, or rather how, what, and when to observe.
One discussed subject is goals, questions and paradigms.
You need to know the main goal of the observation in order to get good data out of it.  For example, when gathering data you don't always have obvious goals, the observation may be to find the goals for your projects next step, or finding a target group.

Indirect observation is when observing results from an activity after the activity has been conducted.
When you need deeper understanding about the way users conduct an activity, you could use think aloud observation, the user then say every thoughts behind different processes without the need to ask about each and every process.


Chapter 13 - Asking users and experts:

Chapter 13 discusses different interviewing techniques and how to prepare interviews.
There are multiple kinds of interviews: unstructured, structured, semi-structured, and group interviews. Each type has different uses depending on situation.
For example, a structured interview has pre specified questions or "closed questions" using an interview script.
A structured interview is often used when you already have set goals about the interview in mind.
Unstructured is when you come up with questions while undergoing the interview,
the questions are then called "open questions".
Semi-structured is somewhere between an unstructured and structured interview.
When conducting an interview, you want as little dissonance as possible, that is, as little "leading" on with your questions as possible so that you don't interfere with the answers. You can avoid this by not asking questions that has "expected" answers.