I realized that I forgot to post online my master thesis, which I finished more than month ago. It is focused on User Interface design performed in a small team and I tried to identify suitable methods for User Research, Analysis, Interaction and Visual Design. PDF version of the thesis in full length. It is available only in Czech, sorry. I will be glad for any feedback.
I was thinking a lot about sustainability of desktop applications recently. Few years ago, everything was moving to web. Now, everything is going mobile. There are predictions, that desktop apps are going to die and everything will be either on web or mobile. They are wrong.
There are types of applications, which can’t go online or mobile (at least not in a foreseeable future):
These are not going to die on desktop.
Moreover, I expect even opposite trend. I think that there will be tendency of many web apps to be cloned for desktop again. Because of these reasons:
What is going to change is online data storage. Cloud storage is very popular already. Synchronization among many devices (or desktops) is not being a problem anymore. Why would you use a web app, when you can use the same native app on different computers or platforms?
So don’t get caught up in a panic, desktop is not over yet.
When developing an application or website which should be used (not just developed), it is likely that you will do some kind of user research before diving into design. At least you should. However, user research is usually time consuming activity without bullet proof benefits. Recruiting subjects for interviews is difficult and often expensive (unless you have big family). Surveys need large sample of people and usually does not answer most essential questions. Moreover, even if you do huge user research, it is worthless until you do its analysis. So is it really worth the effort? It IS!
Luckily, there are social networks with thousands of potential subjects. Our friends, colleagues, group members, all at our fingertips. These are people, you are usually at least vaguely familiar with, so you know their ethnographic information. They are practically just waiting to be asked nosy questions. (Well, you should try to be subtle, you don’t want to make everybody angry with your surveys)
So what networks are we talking about? For example Twitter. There is a big chance that you are using it. You have probably at least couple of hundres of followers. These people are likely to be people with similar interests so you already know something about them. Even if your followers does not fit into your desired focus group, there is a big chance that followers of one of yours friends will.
You can think that your followers doesn’t care about some surveys, everybody hates them afterall. This is wrong assumption. These people are following you, so to some extent they are interested in you. This makes them likely to help. You can utilize twitter for quick survey, or you can recruit subjects for interviews. In case of surveys, try to be considerate and keep in mind all the rules for surveys (small amount of questions etc.).
One more example: Groups at Linked.in are full of people willing to pitch in and help, if you ask nicely. And you doesn’t even have to ask about theirs demographic details, because these are already included in their profiles.
Of course, you would want to double check your research in case of mission critical systems (Nuclear plant etc.), but for web applications and simple dekstop apps there is big potential. Both in reducing cost and time of your research.
What do you think?
I have been using Dropbox app on my Android phone to download photos to my desktop for some time. It is very handy because after I take a picture, I can just tap “Share”, select “Dropbox” and tap “Send to this folder”. On the desktop I am instantly notified about new picture in my Dropbox folder. I couldn’t find any easier way. It is as easy as it gets. Great example of well streamlined process.
Jon Hicks is describing the same process for iPhone at his blog The Hickensian.
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