Questions for About Face 2.0 by Cooper & Reimann:

Chapter 3 - Beginners, Experts, and Intermediates

1. Are most users beginners, intermediates or experts?  Why?

2. Who in an development organization is most likely to think about beginners?  experts?

3. Why is online help a poor mechanism to help beginners?

4. What is the value of support for expert users to intermediates?

Chapter 4 - Understanding Users: Qualitative Research

1. What are some things you can learn from qualitative research that you can not easily learn from quantitative research?

2. What are the key steps of a successful interview?

3. Criticize the questions below and change them if needed:

   • "Do you think this keyboard is better than the traditional ones because it reduces long-term wrist pain?"

   • "Is adding a sliding bar on an MP3 player a good idea for selecting a song to listen to?"

   • "Do you think this functionality is good for students or businessmen?"

   • "When you purchase a digital camera, what is the most important factor in your decision?"

   • "Please choose your favorite design from the pictures below."

   • "Are you willing to pay more (around 10%) for products from well-known companies?"
     

4. Why is it useful to interview in the natural context of use?

5. How many designers should participate in an interview?

6. Why is it useful to use artifacts during an interview?

7. What are the key techniques one can use to be sure that an interview is nondirected?

8. What are typical tools you should bring with you during a user interview?

9. What are the commons problems during an interview?

10. What kinds of information can be acquired by videotaping that could not be captured on audio?  

Chapter 5 - Modeling Users: Personas and Goals

1. Compare archetypes vs. stereotypes and personas vs. user profiles.

2. You can't always get users' goals directly since they might be inaccurate or unable to articulate their goals. Then how can you obtain them?

3. Make a context scenario from a primary persona for a portable MPEG-4 Video player. Create a narrative, and present your narrative to a friend to see if it is complete.

4. What does the author mean by Contextual Inquiry?

5. It often said that a designer often has to serve several masters. What does that means? Provide an example from the reading, and one from your everyday life. How can personas help address this problem?

6. In the early stage of the design, why is it important to focus on goals, instead of tasks?