Evaluating a Communication application


Designed for Connecting Grandparents and their Young Grandchildren Over Distance

OVERVIEW

This phase of the project is focused on the evaluation of the communication tool designed for distance-separated grandparents and grandchildren (G2G) in the field.

For this purpose I mainly focused on:

  • User Experience: Understand how users use and adopt G2G as part of their communication
  • Challenges: Understand the pain points and challenges that grandparents, parents and children face when using G2G.
  • Benefits: Understand how families can benefit from using G2G.

ROLE

HCI/User Research Lead



METHODS

  •  Filed Study
  • Interview
  • Observation
  • Questionnaire



Methods

Home Visit

I visited children’s families every 2-3 weeks. To build a trusting relationship with children, I spent a few hours with them at each visit, sometimes I had dinner with them or played with the children and then interviewed the children and their parents.

Interview

I interviewed grandparents, parents and children. I interviewed children and parents at their homes.

I interviewed grandparents over Skype on another day or if needed we skyped with grandparents while I was at the children’s homes.

Visual Diary

Grandparents and grandchildren were also asked to keep the visual or written diary every two weeks. Later on, I changed this method for children and asked their parents to informally bring up G2G with them in conversation and ask their opinions and then write them down.

 

Usage Log Data

In addition, the usage and all the exchanged posts were collected through our system logs. I looked at all the videos and other contents the users posted. I looked at the contents, the frequency, timing,  etc.  

 



User Profiles



Deliverables

I added some of the deliverables and results here. For full findings please see Chapter 7 here.

You can also watch some video clips here showing the messages exchanged between grandparents and grandchildren during the course of G2G. According to families, the awareness the grandparents and grandchildren built through G2G, led to more engaging conversation between them which was very different than their conversation prior to the use of G2G. Videos all blurry to protect



Learning Keys

  • Running a field evaluation needs proper planning and considering many details. I was in touch with participants very closely and in case of any problem, I was working with the developer to fix the issues. 
  • Field evaluation and UX research in general is even more crucial when two related families are involved. 
  • Running a field evaluation with older adults and children needs establishing stronger rapport with participants. You can read more about my strategies with building a rapport with children and older adults here (Page 135-137)
  • Half of my participants were participating remotely. I was ready to accommodate them remotely and walked them through instructions and any technical difficulties that could arise.