Direct User Behavior Data Leads to Better User Centric Thinking than Role Playing: An Experimental Study on HCI Design Thinking

Abstract

This paper explores the difference in the effects of role-playing and usability testing on the design thinking process of novice designers. While usability testing helps in understanding user mental models by observing user behavior as the user interacts with a system, role-playing relies on a designer’s own perception about the user where the designer him/herself acts as a user. The difference in user research methods that leads to a different understanding of the user might reflect in the design thinking process of a designer while ideating for solutions of an HCI design problem. This paper presents findings from an experimental study done with novice designers to understand the differences in design thinking processes when designers themselves conducted usability tests versus when they designed using role-playing on persona data given to them. The findings suggest that direct observation of user behavior leads to more consideration for users and therefore better user-centered thinking process than the imaginative role-playing.