Graphical User Interface interaction interview (GUI:ii) : Design and elicitation of requirements early in the design process

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to elaborate the Wizard-of-Oz (WOz) technique by using it at a distance for design and elicitation of requirements and requests as part of a Participatory Design process (i.e. remotely - where the wizard and participant are located in different geographical locations). This study aims at evaluating what the salient traits in the participatory discussions are by using the WOz technique at a distance, what similarities there are in function or expression between non-verbal expressions in GUI-ii and ordinary physical interviews, and how WOz at a distance fit into the current state of the Participatory design field. In an early design phase of a project, ten experimental WOz-at-a-distance sessions and five face-to-face interviews were held. The experimental sessions’ focus was on the codesign of early drafts of the interaction design for a digital tool for the planning of crisis management exercises. The interaction design was developed with a WOz system. The sessions offered co-design between a designer and a co-designer by having joint access to a graphical user interface (GUI), and to verbally communicate with each other. These sessions had a twofold approach where the focus could shift seamlessly between design and walkthrough. The results from this study show that WOz at a distance, as used in this study, offers an approach for a seamless switch between design-phase and evaluation-phase in the form of walkthroughs. Having the GUI present as a boundary object whilst discussing the GUI and its interaction design enables a natural way of designing and evaluating the functions and interaction design of the upcoming system. The results also show that even if the participatory discussion lacks the face-to-face meeting between the interlocutors there are some similarities between those discussions and the face-to-face interviews in function and use of non-verbal expressions. Participatory discussions, when using WOz technique at a distance is a method where the participatory mindset is prominent and is a flexible approach that fits well with the overarching views on Participatory design.