This paper describes observational research and verbal protocols methods,
how these methods are applied and integrated within different contexts, and
how they complement each other.
The first case study focuses on nurses’ interaction during bandaging of
patients’ lower legs. To maintain research rigor a triangulation approach
was applied that links observations of current procedures, ‘talk-aloud’
protocol during interaction and retrospective protocol. Maps of interactions
demonstrated that some nurses bandage more intuitively than others.
Nurses who bandage intuitively assemble long sequences of bandaging
actions while nurses who bandage less intuitively ‘focus-shift’ in between
bandaging actions. Thus different levels of expertise have been identified.
The second case study consists of two laboratory experiments. It focuses on
analysing and comparing software and product design teams and how they
approached a design problem. It is based on the observational and verbal
data analysis. The coding scheme applied evolved during the analysis of the
activity of each team and is identical for all teams. The structure of
knowledge captured from the analysis of the design team maps of
interaction is identified.
The significance of this work is within its methodological approach. The
maps of interaction are instrumental for understanding the activities and
interactions of the people observed. By examining the maps of interaction, it
is possible to draw conclusions about interactions, structure of knowledge
captured and level of expertise. This research approach is transferable to
other design domains. Designers will be able to transfer the interaction
maps outcomes to systems and services they design.
DRS 2012 Bangkok
