Milestone 2.5
Research Questions
Since Milestone 2, we have revised our research questions to be more specific and capture some of the tensions that we found in our designs (see Appendix below for original questions and insights):
Since Milestone 2, we have revised our research questions to be more specific and capture some of the tensions that we found in our designs (see Appendix below for original questions and insights):
- What components come together to make a hiking experience valuable?
- What types of hiking or nature artifacts do people think are meaningful to them?
- What are factors that influence people to take a certain hiking path? (eg. scenery, difficulty, time, other people)?
- Does having too much information hinder the overall hiking experience?
- What levels of intrusiveness from technology can people tolerate while hiking?
- How do people want to record and share their hiking experiences with others?
- How do people react when they are constantly having their hiking experiences recorded?
- How do different people in the same hiking group compromise when they have all have different hiking desires?
Participants
We recruited our participants through our personal networks. All participants are in their twenties and Master’s students. All of the participants have had various amounts of hiking experience.
We recruited our participants through our personal networks. All participants are in their twenties and Master’s students. All of the participants have had various amounts of hiking experience.
Participant |
Age |
Gender |
Occupation |
P1 |
24 |
Female |
Master's student |
P2 |
26 |
Female |
Master's student |
P3 |
23 |
Male |
Master's student |
P4 |
24 |
Female |
Master's student |
P5 |
23 |
Female |
Master's student |
How did you ground your participants?
We conducted all our user enactments at Nichols Arboretum to immerse our participants in an outdoors, “hiking” environment. Before we started our user enactments, we briefed them on what our project is about, what user enactments are, and how we would be conducting them.
We conducted all our user enactments at Nichols Arboretum to immerse our participants in an outdoors, “hiking” environment. Before we started our user enactments, we briefed them on what our project is about, what user enactments are, and how we would be conducting them.
User Enactments
User Enactment 1
Research Question: How do different people in the same hiking group compromise when they have all have different hiking desires?
Participants are on a group hike. One participant is an avid photographer who likes to stop often to take picture of the scenery and any interesting surroundings. The rest of the participants are more focused on completing the hike without paying too much attention to their surroundings. We observe how the participants act out this situation in order to better understand group dynamics and how people would compromise.
User Enactment 1
Research Question: How do different people in the same hiking group compromise when they have all have different hiking desires?
Participants are on a group hike. One participant is an avid photographer who likes to stop often to take picture of the scenery and any interesting surroundings. The rest of the participants are more focused on completing the hike without paying too much attention to their surroundings. We observe how the participants act out this situation in order to better understand group dynamics and how people would compromise.
User Enactment 2
Research Questions: What levels of intrusiveness from technology can people tolerate while hiking? How do people want to record and share their hiking experiences with others? How do people react when they are constantly having their hiking experiences recorded?
Participants are on a group hike. One participant is wearing a pair of sunglasses that allows the user to record everything they see on their hike as videos. These captured videos can be seen by other users later to create hiking trail previews. All participants are aware that they are being recorded. We follow up by asking the sunglasses participant about how they feel on using such a device and ask the other participants how they feel about being recorded.
Research Questions: What levels of intrusiveness from technology can people tolerate while hiking? How do people want to record and share their hiking experiences with others? How do people react when they are constantly having their hiking experiences recorded?
Participants are on a group hike. One participant is wearing a pair of sunglasses that allows the user to record everything they see on their hike as videos. These captured videos can be seen by other users later to create hiking trail previews. All participants are aware that they are being recorded. We follow up by asking the sunglasses participant about how they feel on using such a device and ask the other participants how they feel about being recorded.
User Enactment 3
Research Questions: How do different people in the same hiking group compromise when they have all have different hiking desires? What are factors that influence people to take a certain hiking path? (eg. scenery, difficulty, time, other people)?
Participants are on a group hike. They have been hiking for some time and are starting to feel fatigued. They reach a fork in the path and wear sunglasses to be able to preview the paths. One path looks rocky and difficult to climb. The other path looks flat and easy to climb. Participants decide amongst themselves which path they should take and whether they should go together.
Research Questions: How do different people in the same hiking group compromise when they have all have different hiking desires? What are factors that influence people to take a certain hiking path? (eg. scenery, difficulty, time, other people)?
Participants are on a group hike. They have been hiking for some time and are starting to feel fatigued. They reach a fork in the path and wear sunglasses to be able to preview the paths. One path looks rocky and difficult to climb. The other path looks flat and easy to climb. Participants decide amongst themselves which path they should take and whether they should go together.
User Enactment 4
Research Questions: What components come together to make a hiking experience valuable? What types of hiking or nature artifacts do people think are meaningful to them?
Participants are on a group hike. Along their hike, they take note of interesting artifacts (such as leaves, rocks, etc.) and asked to pick an item they would take home to help them remember their trip. We follow up by asking the participants why they would choose such artifacts.
Research Questions: What components come together to make a hiking experience valuable? What types of hiking or nature artifacts do people think are meaningful to them?
Participants are on a group hike. Along their hike, they take note of interesting artifacts (such as leaves, rocks, etc.) and asked to pick an item they would take home to help them remember their trip. We follow up by asking the participants why they would choose such artifacts.
User Enactment 5
Research Questions: Does having too much information hinder the overall hiking experience? What levels of intrusiveness from technology can people tolerate while hiking?
Participant is walking alone. They wear headphones in order to receive audio, hiking-related notifications. The moderator acts as the audio notifications by calling the participant and relaying the notifications.
Research Questions: Does having too much information hinder the overall hiking experience? What levels of intrusiveness from technology can people tolerate while hiking?
Participant is walking alone. They wear headphones in order to receive audio, hiking-related notifications. The moderator acts as the audio notifications by calling the participant and relaying the notifications.
- Participant hears a notification to take a detour - “Take a left.”
- 1 minute later, participant hears a notification to change posture - “Improve your posture by standing up straighter”
- 1 minute later, participant hears a notification to take a break - “You should take a minute break now.”
- 1 minute later, participant hears a notification to drink water - “You should drink some water now to stay hydrated.”
Reflection
After completing our User Enactment 1, we realized the results were predictable and did not garner many insights. Our initial prediction is that the participants would either stick with the photographer or leave them behind, which is exactly what happened in our enactment runs. This could possibly result from our enactment feeling too unnatural. Since we set up a strict scenario for our participants, they may have a hard time trying to act out the tension we were trying to set up. It also would have been nicer to get more variety in terms of our participants’ ages and gender.
By conducting user enactments, we were able to better understand and visualize how people act on hikes and interact with nature and other hikers. We were able to “test” some of our earlier potential ideas, such as the preview glasses and audio notification system, and see how users would respond to such systems and determine whether users find value in such systems. We also got a better idea of in what contexts users would want to use our proposed systems.
Initial insights:
After completing our User Enactment 1, we realized the results were predictable and did not garner many insights. Our initial prediction is that the participants would either stick with the photographer or leave them behind, which is exactly what happened in our enactment runs. This could possibly result from our enactment feeling too unnatural. Since we set up a strict scenario for our participants, they may have a hard time trying to act out the tension we were trying to set up. It also would have been nicer to get more variety in terms of our participants’ ages and gender.
By conducting user enactments, we were able to better understand and visualize how people act on hikes and interact with nature and other hikers. We were able to “test” some of our earlier potential ideas, such as the preview glasses and audio notification system, and see how users would respond to such systems and determine whether users find value in such systems. We also got a better idea of in what contexts users would want to use our proposed systems.
Initial insights:
- With the notification system, most participants said they would like having the audio notifications if they are on a hike alone because the voice would accompany them, but probably would not use it in a group setting because it would feel isolating.
- People are comfortable and open to recording their experiences, but not being recorded by others for a public video.
- When faced with different route options, people will usually conform to what the majority wants to do.
- People are open to using technology while hiking, but it depends on the context and level of intrusiveness.
- People are interesting in collecting memories from their hike, whether it's in a physical artifact or in photo/video form.
Appendix
Previous Research Questions
What gets you excited about hiking?
What environmental triggers remind people of hiking?
How do groups of hikers get together and go hiking?
What issues do hikers face while hiking?
Insights on tensions
Physical activity vs. injury
Comfort/safety vs. exploration
Being in control vs. unexpected
In situ planning vs. before planning
Capture vs. enjoy moments
Previous Research Questions
What gets you excited about hiking?
What environmental triggers remind people of hiking?
How do groups of hikers get together and go hiking?
What issues do hikers face while hiking?
Insights on tensions
Physical activity vs. injury
Comfort/safety vs. exploration
Being in control vs. unexpected
In situ planning vs. before planning
Capture vs. enjoy moments