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Wendy Herman, Nortel Not that many years ago, 'build it and they will come' for communications providers meant stringing a wired network across a region, then letting the subscriber fees roll in. User research amounted to little more than assessing the number of residents needed to support the cost of delivering dial tone. Today, competition for users is so fierce among communications providers and makers of devices or software that anthropologists and psychology-trained researchers are as essential to the R&D technology process as engineers. Principles of ethnography that assess consumers' behavior as well as their wants and needs, have become a growing trend for both marketing research and design that's now inseparable from the technology development process. In-house researchers are supported by user experience consulting firms that go well beyond focus groups to collect data worldwide. If you're sitting in Starbucks, WiFi-ing on your laptop and feel someone is watching you – they very well could be. Planting observers and placing hidden cameras in coffee shops, airports or shopping malls provide real-world feedback on how communications are being used across age groups, countries and cultures. "In the UK, seniors expressed strong interest in environmental sensing features, such as automatic ring tone boost for noisy surroundings and a display that automatically adjusts to compliment surrounding lighting," Christopher Dodge, user experience analyst at Strategy Analytics, noted in a news release. "In Spain, strong vibrating alert, voicemail slow-motion and text-to-speech readout were among the most valuable features according to seniors." And, as developed markets like North America and Europe become increasingly saturated for new sources of revenue, ethnographers are roaming the villages of emerging hot markets like India and China, assessing local cultural trends. They're interviewing people who may have never owned a cell phone, or even seen a computer, about what features would be most useful to their everyday lives, knowing products designed for Europe can flop among rural users in China. "Communications technology companies that aren't applying the latest approaches in user experience research, to every market where they plan to launch new products, are driving really fast on a freeway, at night, with no headlights," says Steve Brown, head of the Design and User Experience group within Nortel's Chief Technology Office. "When isolated from the real-world day-to-day experience, traditional focus group approaches can end up validating bad ideas," Brown says. "Individuals tend to fall in line with the opinion of the entire group's dynamics. As a result, a prototype can be sent back to the lab for commercialization with market researchers saying – hey, everyone in the room loved this thing. But the users never got to take it home to see how it might fit into their lives and determine if it actually solved some real problem and need they might have, or if it was just another gadget.. That's where extensive user experience research is now vital." "There's such wide variations around the world for the level and sophistication of connectivity that it's no longer just a question of what technology is capable of doing, but how useful it is perceived to be by each culture and how easily it can become a part of any user's daily business or personal routine," says Brown. "South Koreans, for example, are intrigued by technology and are among the most connected in the world. You can already buy a fridge there with an Internet web browser imbedded in the door and it's popular," he says. "That same 'connected fridge' introduced into North America doesn't have the same appeal because the culture of connectivity isn't as pervasive as it is in South Korea." As the leading advocate of the global business and consumer opportunities of Hyperconnectivity, Nortel's R&D researchers are helping to develop a holistic approach to understanding key factors driving the acceptance of technology-based services and solutions. The goal of this project is to design a "service acceptance model" (SAM) that can be applied to quantify factors likely to impact the success of technology-based services. It's currently focused on RFID sensors that collect continuous physiological information about individuals. Collaborating with academic researchers at North Carolina State University as well as Indiana University and researchers in the U.K. and Singapore, students and staff at the North Carolina campus are being equipped with a flat disc, electronic sensor. These sensors will collect data such as how far individuals walk each day, remotely across a wireless network. Ultimately, these types of wireless communications capabilities can be applied to healthcare. Sensors could help get more from existing medical facilities, freeing up beds by allowing patients to wear sensors that monitor their vital health signs while in their homes. How simple and convenient the sensors are to use is key to the findings of the current North Carolina trial, says Nortel's project leader and behavioral scientist, Kathy Bharrathsingh. "We're looking to validate the quality of the user experience. If people don't put the sensor on because it's complicated to wear, or they simply forget, that's valuable information that can be applied within the design to ensure broader acceptance of a final commercial product." "A model like SAM for scientifically quantifying user acceptance and satisfaction will help technology companies get the needs of their customers right before technology design is complete," Bharrathsingh says. |
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