BarCampBangalore presentation on MindCanvas

MindCanvas what online user research can be.. MindCanvas Reimagine what online user research can be..

Who am I ?
www.amitranjan.com
www.uzanto.com (@ silicon valley / new delhi)

Uzanto
usability & user experience company
research & consulting
data & research driven approach
background in cognitive psychology, software
engineering & market research

www.themindcanvas.com

MindCanvas is a research tool that empowers designers to make product design decisions quickly & convincingly…

What is MindCanvas ?
research tool for designers
- interaction/information designers, GUI designers, user experience &
usability professionals, web designers, product managers
design decisions on the basis of data rather
than gut feel or intuition
mashup of
- online surveys
- online games
- data driven statistical methods
unique & innovative
- ‘ one of its kind ’

MindCanvas - current status ?
private beta >>> public beta
demos to clients
‘ the customer is always right’
initial response has been excellent
“ Filling out this survey was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. It was a brilliant application of computer technology. Ask me again sometime….PLEEEEEEEEEASE.”
Fun and interesting way to obtain feedback!”
Neat idea. I like the interactive nature of your design.”

small fun exercise ...

Death by HTML….. - HTML surveys are mainstay of online research worldwide - boring, cumbersome, ‘click & wait’ - product design based on data from bored users clicking through HTML surveys like mechanical robots - Why use HTML in the age of GoogleMaps, Flikr & Ipods ?

Divide-the-Dollar : back to the future! MindCanvas interpretation

Why we built MindCanvas..
Qualitative research is great, takes a lot of time
Online tools suck, get used anyway
Business stakeholders respond to quantitative analysis & large sample sizes
Deliverables do not cater to designers
Research findings remain locked up with analyst
Design Research Process Data Collection Analysis Reports/Findings Inefficiencies

Guiding principles…
Online data collection
users should enjoy giving design feedback
simple, intuitive research methods
ability to collect data even from non tech-savvy users
anywhere across the globe
Analysis
designers need not know any statistics or data analysis methods
visualise data : ‘helicopter-view’ & ‘deep-dive’
Findings
present to business stakeholders via user-friendly, intuitive deliverables

MindCanvas Research GameLike Elicitation Methods Data Mining & Statistical Analysis Interactive Visualizations
proprietary,
off- the-shelf &
open source APIs & algorithms

GameLike Elicitation Methods (GEMs)
online surveys do not engage people
games are fun! everybody loves to play games
frame questions into gamelike tasks;
use task based methods instead of simple self-reporting
allows you to ask complex questions & get complex answers
gamelike elements - interactive animations, visuals, screen build up, graphics, sound

MindCanvas focuses on the mind
Inspiration from cognitive anthropology, psychology, market research
Capture users’ thoughts & feelings by use of associative methods
Explore the subjective, the implicit & the unconscious
Users ‘do’ instead of ‘tell’ ; bridges gap between what people say & what they do
Mental Models Preferences Language

- TreeSort - ClickMap (early prototype) Some other research methods…

Rich Interactive Visualizations
Large datasets need statistical analysis & data mining
Visualizations-to-go
no excel sheets or pie-charts/bar graphs etc
interactive visualizations based on popular contemporary visual paradigms
adjust with slides & knobs !!!
‘ helicopter view’ plus ‘deep dive’
visualization-to-go
self-contained Flash files that can be emailed, embedded into PowerPoint

Rich Internet Application
“ Enterprise-Level” Flash
1000s of lines of ActionScript code
AJAX UI for Client tools
Still under development
Server: XML over HTTP
Xml, java, SQL
Technology powering MindCanvas…

Where MindCanvas could help…
Web Product Development
prioritizing features / outcomes users care about
initial understanding of domain from user’s perspective & vocabulary
Information Architecture
understanding how people think for information design
design, test & validate information architecture
Product & Brand Positioning
- understanding how people think about your product & brand

MindCanvas - current & future….
Current Research Methods
OpenSort : Dendogram, VocabularyBrowzer, SimilarityBrowzer
TreeSort : ClusterBrowzer, SimilarityBrowzer
Divide-the-Dollar : WeightMap
FreeList : ListMap
Utility Questions : MultipleChoice, EssayType
Upcoming Methods
address every stage of the design cycle
MenuTrace, MindMontage, LikertSort, ImageAnnotate, ClickPath, MindCollage
Upcoming Visualizations
OnionMap, CategoryMatrix, MDS among others
Long Term
extend MindCanvas for testing/validating mobile interfaces

Thank You

BarCampBangalore presentation on MindCanvas

by Amit Ranjan

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