Your favourite thing Add/remove

Purpose:

The purpose of ‘Your favorite thing’ is to observe how the user interacts with an artifact, and to ask them to point out different elements that you would find useful to get insights regarding. Those can either be the ones that are specified in the template:

  • Your favorite thing
  • The thing that is most convenient
  • Thing that makes you most proud
  • The thing that is missing
  • The thing you would most like to change
  • Or you can create your own prompts using the blank templates.

By using the prompts as boundary objects you can increase your chance of gathering insights that the user might not otherwise think of if asked directly.

Step by step Facilitating tips Materials needed Goes well with Download template (pdf)

Tips to include participants who are not able to:

See

If participants are unable to see, verbally let the participant with the limited sight know at what aspects of the artifact, the user is placing the prompt. Make sure to have a facilitator, documenter or group member, who is able to take a picture of the artifact and prompt.

If the user is unable to see, the exercise can be performed in oral manner. The prompt should be read out loud, and the user should describe where to place the prompt.

Move

If participants are unable to move, pair up with another group member who can take the picture of the artifact and prompt. If a helper, documenter or facilitator is available, getting help from these is also an option.

If the user is unable to move, the prompt should be read out loud, and the user should describe where to place the prompt.

Hold

If participants are unable to hold, pair up with another group member who can take the picture of the artifact and prompt. If a helper, documenter or facilitator is available, getting help from these is also an option.

If the user is unable to hold, the prompt should be read out loud, and the user should describe where to place the prompt.

Speak

If participants are unable to speak, sign language or other symbol language could be used if an interpreter is present. If not, introduction as well as step 3 can be done in written form.

Hear

If participants are unable to hear, sign language or other symbol language could be used if an interpreter is present. If not, introduction as well as step 3 can be done in written form.

Focus

If participants have a hard time focusing, narrow down the amounts of prompts to 1 or 2 per exercise and include breaks to heighten focus.

Think

If participants have a hard time grasping the task, narrow down the exercise to 1 or 2 simple prompts.

Touch

If participants are unable to touch, pair up with another group member who can take the picture of the artifact and prompt. If a helper, documenter or facilitator is available, getting help from these is also an option.

If the user is unable to touch, the prompt should be read out loud, and the user should describe where to place the prompt.

Overview

Input

An artifact

Output

Insights, pictures

Complexity

Moderate

Time

10-30 min

Participants

1-2

Activity

Core abilities: The user needs to be able to communicate their thoughts

Step by step:

  1. You hand the user the prompt cards you have chosen as being the most appropriate, and in line with the insights your would like to collect.

  2. Ask the user to place the first prompt near the corresponding element of your artifact and take a picture.

  3. Ask the user to explain why they chose to place the prompt there. Make sure to ask open ended questions to heighten the chance of deep insights.

When doing this method you should consider:

Depending on what your desired output is, consider how in depth the follow up questions you ask should be. Would you rather focus on a few prompts and have longer in depth discussions for each? Or would you benefit more  from having a larger number of prompts and thereby gathering a broader number of insights, but not as in depth?

Materials needed:

Prompts, camera