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Personal
Site of Fariza Hanis Abdul Razak, Infolab 21 South Drive Lancaster University
LA1 4WA U.K. |
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My PhD...
Synopsis
Studying one person is more
common in social sciences than computer science. Two main advantages of doing
one person study (OPS) are: it is easier to handle - only need to study one
person, and it is purely rich in information. However, the main criticism for
OPS is that the results are hard to apply onto a general population. Yin, Feagan,
and other qualititative scientists argue that the results are hard to apply
because social sciences study the natural phenomenon of everyday lives. Thus,
they are very detail and context-dependent.
As a designer, I am very
much interested in the rich data. I am investigating how the results from OPS
can help design a usable system. Thus, I am interested to know:
- what we can learn from
OPS - understanding one person helps understand some other people, thus helps
design for these people, better
- what OPS is good for
- as an exploratory study or an individual in-depth study or both?
- can OPS be used as a
niche study? - is it justifiable to study only one person for a niche design
market?
- the kind of application
or system might be developed from OPS - the affective values - "emotionally
connected"
What
I have done so far...
For my thesis, I have done
several user studies, starting
from mid 2004 until 2005:
- Mobile
Phone Use and Experience (April - May 2004) -
The first study involves (6)SIX mobile phone users who have come from different
backgrounds - age, gender, culture, and education.
- Diary
Study of Mobile Phone Use (August
- September 2004) - The first study
focusing on ONE person. A lot of details and emotions have been revealed in
this study. The diary study was done for a period of SEVEN days.
- Study
of Text Messaging (October 2004)
- In the diary study, it shows that The Subject has used a lot of text messaging.
Therefore, I conducted an interview to find out more about text messaging
- reasons of using it, examples of text messages, styles of writing text messages,
messages from whom and to whom, etc.
- A
Survey of Text Messaging (November 2004)
- This study involves 17 mobile phone users to find out both affective and
social issues of text messaging.
- Diary
Study of Mobile Phone Use Among Women (December 2004 - January 2005)
- This study investigates how FIVE other women use their mobile phones in
their everyday lives. This study was undertaken to find out whether there
is a relationship between the first diary study and the second ones.
- Follow-up
studies on Mobile Phone Use and Text Messaging (ONE PERSON STUDY) (March -
April 2005)
- A series of face-to-face meetings were carried out to re-confirm the previous
data and at the same time, better understand adoption of both technologies
in everyday life. Since my study is focused on ONE person, I have to compromise
a lot with the Subject - "give and take" - it is highly important
to make sure that my subject feels least pressure and tension during the studies
so that she can contribute her best in this work.
The experiments
I have conducted for my research:
- Motivation
thru Text Messages (1st prototyping) (July 2005)
-
a Text Message (TM) model has been developed based on earlier studies. Based
on this model, the kind of motivational phrases were determined. In the first
prototyping, all of these text messages were sent out to her mobile phone
everyday, for a week.
- Motivation
thru Text Messages (2nd prototyping) (October 2005) -
after refining the Text Message (TM) model, I further tested the prototype
on the same subject. This time, instead of sending messages from my mobile
phone, I sent them out through a Web system, Text
Messages for Business (TM4B). The final model for Text Message is finally
constructed.
- Motivation
thru Text Messages (October 2005 & March 2006) -
based on the Text Model, I then applied the model to other mobile phone users.
I have carried out this test in two phases:
- October
2005 - four people were selected to experiment Personal Messaging.
- March
2006 - a further study involving eleven more people.
A list of what I am doing
and have done is found on My Knowledge Activities page.
What
I will be doing next...
.....submit
my thesis and viva...
Publications
- Razak, F.(2004)
Understanding
Interaction Experience in Mobile Learning. 6th Asia Pacific Computer
Human Interaction (APCHI), Rotorua, New Zealand. June 29 - July 2, 2004.
- Razak, F. and Dix, A.
(2006) What women actually do with their mobile phones. International Malaysian
Research Group, University of Manchester, United Kingdom. June 19 - 21, 2006.
- Razak, F. and Dix, A.
(2006) Mobile Phone: A tool for expressing co-actualisation. 13th Eropean
Conference of Cognitive and Emotion (ECCE), Zurich, Switzerland. September
20 - 22, 2006.