The PDA Guerilla: Designing for an easier life

Recently I talked to Diane Elabidi, human factors resource planner at Plantronics about designing the new generation of gadgets to better fit human needs and desires, and how pervasive devices are changing how people live.

Q: How is device design changing?

DE: At one time engineers designed everything on their own, and whatever they decided was it, rather like Henry Ford saying customers could have a car in any color they wanted, as long as it was black. That has changed. I have been at Plantronics for the past two-and-a-half years. I do human factors engineering into how people live and how earphones insert themselves into their lives. For instance, I found out that MP3 cell phones use a different sized connector than MP3 players, so you cannot use the same wired earphones for your player and your cell phone.

Q. What do you mean by "human factors engineering"? Is this a fancy name for ergonomics?

DE: Ergonomics focuses on physical layout. That is certainly part of it, but human factors is more than ergonomics. It gets into the emotional realm. For instance, I know a couple who were shopping for a car. They had a long list of requirements that they wanted. Then the wife saw a cute little sports car, and she said, "Forget the list. I want that one."

Purchases are based on emotions. That's what we are trying to tap into -- designing the user experience.

In terms of headsets, we look at physical layout of course -- weight, distribution, size, etc. We also look at human factors engineering: controls, LEDs, and the whole language of earcons, which are all the beeps that earphones can make, like icons for the ear. Then I look at how users will incorporate the product into their lifestyles — storage, sharing issues, getting the technology to work for them and increasing the quality of life.

Q: How do you do that? Do you use focus groups?

DE: We really go beyond that to in-depth ethnographic research. We choose 10-15 people and then I spend a day with each of them, follow them around as they go through a normal day and observe. For instance, someone may have a hearing problem and need technology to help her but not want to deal with all the controls and earcons. One subject worked in a store and had earbuds strung up under his shirt. He would listen to his music when no customers were around, but if a customer or his boss came around he would quickly drop them out of his ears and they would disappear under the counter.

Q: Can you give me a specific example of the kind of experiences you have?

DE: One of my subjects, Charlotte, is 35 with two kids, a home business, and a husband with a full-time job outside the home. She wants to make her multitasking easier. I start my day with her riding along as she drives her kids to school. She is driving and talking on her cell phone — without a headset — setting up a dental appointment. She has a stick shift car, so she is holding the phone in her left hand and shifting with her right and turning around to discipline her kids, who are fighting in the back seat. I am wondering if my health insurance covers this. She stops at McDonalds for breakfast and is juggling her phone, money and food, the steering wheel and shift, and she is on hold with the dentist. In this case a headset can add safety as well as convenience.

Then where does she put the phone to hold onto it? I have seen people hold it between their legs. If she puts it on the seat next to her, it will slide off onto the floor when she hits the brake. Then she has to stop the car to find it under the seat.

Then does she ever share the phone? For instance, if the grandparents are on the phone does she want to share it with the kids?

Through all this I am observing silently. I go through the whole day with her into the evening when I can observe the interaction between her and her husband and for instance sharability issues between them.

Then at the end of the day I ask her questions to verify my assumptions. For instance, why did she gasp suddenly when she was talking to her husband on the phone while driving the kids home from school? She says it was something her husband said. I thought it was because a dog ran across the road in front of her.

Q: How do you reach the emotional level you spoke about?

DE: That is the next step. I ask the subject to write down words that describe how they feel about specific situations on Post-Its. Then we arrange the words in ways that make sense emotionally.

Then I try to get to the real reason they do something. Often I ask the "five whys". Why did you do that. Well, because of this. Why is that? Etcetera. It is a technique to get back to the underlying reasons.

Q: What do you do with this information?

DL: I give it to the designers so they can understand what customers want and can design headsets that better meet users' needs.

I don't think that there is necessarily one answer to all needs. For instance, you might want a full stereo headset for your home and office but a single-ear headset for driving, or earbuds at work and a larger stereo headset at home for better sound reproduction.

Q: So beyond the issues of earphone design, have you seen ways in which people's lives are being changed by the profusion of pervasive devices?

DE: Certainly it is changing things in the area of privacy and sharability. Back at one time privacy meant being alone somewhere. Now you can be in a room full of people and be listening to something on your earphones that no one else can hear.

You can have cell phone calls and nobody else can hear what is being said to you. They can hear what you say, so it is not completely private. When we saw someone talking to themselves we used to think that he was a little strange. Now we look for the headset.

Q: Do you have any concluding thoughts?

DL: Yes. Drive safely.