Contextual Inquiry and Card Sorting – Mobile Phonebook

Focus: To understand the patterns in which the user’s save their contact numbers
To understand the extent of the phone usage and the problems faced.
The card sort method was used to understand how the users could differentiate there, contact details from each other and recollect them.

Method:Following are the steps in which the User studies were carried out.
a) Introduction/screening questions:
1. Do you have a mobile phone?
2. Since when you have it?
3. Is it your first mobile phone?
4. May I know your education, occupation details?
5. Where do you store your contact numbers?
6. How many contact numbers you have in your mobile phone book?
7. Can I see your mobile phone?

b) Detailed questions:
1. Do you store contact numbers in your mobile phone book? How do you store them? (We go through their, pocket diary so that we would get some key points on how exactly they write down their contact details – the language in which they write or any other specifications.
2. When you had saved your first contact number in phone book?
3. Had you faced any problem at that time? if yes, who had helped you?
4. How often you store numbers in phone book?
5. Which number you have saved most recently?
6. Can you recall that number?
7. How often you receive or dial call from your mobile phone?
8. Which are the maximum dialed calls?
9. How was your experience while using new mobile phone?
10. How many features you have used from your phone?

We have a kit of 10 A4 paper sheets for next task1 paper for simple classification exercise.
5 paper for five different categories suggested by us for user, to motivate him for suggesting his own categories for phone book numbers.
4 blank paper sheets for user to write/express his own categories, ideas. c) Simple classification exercise for user.We give one blank paper to user with three columns for fruits, vegetable and extra column if needed. We write 4 vegetable names, 4 fruits names and 2 miscellaneous names on post its. We ask the user to classify all of them in three columns. So we can test his ability to understand classification.

d) We give him, few category options that he could go through and give his suggestions, regarding the same (as which are helpful for him to recollect the numbers and so on)
1. People : Close friends, Friends, Relatives, Professional contacts
2. Age: kids, teenagers, Adults and elders.
3. Frequency of calling: Once in a day, Once in a week, Once a month & Once a year
4. Colors: Red, Yellow, Blue & Green
5. Taste: Sweet (Gode), Hot (Tikhat), Bitter(Kadu), Salty (Kharat)
6. Shapes: Circle, Square, Triangle, Rectangle, Star, Heart

e) After the user performs his task of classification as per his interests, We request the user to suggest his own categories for phone book contact numbers which will help him recollect the numbers/ details easily and to use them in a better way. We even ask him, if he has any other difficulties in using his cell phone.Any other specific, details regarding the cell phone and even his pocket/ personal diaries that he accesses to use the mobile.While finishing interview, we thank user for his co-operation for this interview.

STUDY OF ADDRESS BOOKS - I

User type: housewives in the age group of 30-45, graduates, and use their mobile phones for calling and recieving calls only.

Location: Harihar town, Karnataka.

Observations:

1. The phone entries in the diary are made by all the family members, its in English and following the alphabetical order of the diary in most places.

2. The names followed with either the profession of the contact or the location, for unique identification, as shown in figure 1.

3. Notes, like the availability of the person, direction to the address, etc. are added, as shown in figure 1.
DESIGN IDEA: Possibilty of writing notes/ extra info about contacts- location maps, addresses, birthdays, etc.



figure 1

4. The nicknames are also added as to identify the contacts.

5. Sometimes, when noting down in a hurry, the alphabetical order is broken, as shown in figure 2 below.

figure 2

6. The numbers, when wriiten in a hurry, were written on the top of the page, so as not to disturb the order, and also to search easily later on.

7. Some were just numbers without any names, and the user identified the number as that of her sister's by remebering the last 3 digits, as in figure 3. The user dialled this number atleast once a day- hence could easily remeber the number.
DESIGN IDEA: A Phone book based on frequency of calls- where the user can just remeber the numbers easily...

8. The names in the address book were followed by the abbrevated locations in brackets (figure 3), for easy identification of the contacts, and also the brackets distinguished the loactions from names.
DESIGN IDEA: Contacts could be arranged according to the locations...
9. Similar technique was observed while writing STD codes - to distinguish from the phone numbers and to identify easily the location of contacts.
figure 3

10. The change of numbers are indicated by different colors and different size of writing (figure 4). This is to identify the changed numbers. DESIGN IDEA: Space for marking change of numbers and usage of colors to identify the change?



figure 4


11. The names of the contacts written on the top page, are highlighted by marking a box around them (figure 5) to identify important contacts. Also, these numbers are written breaking the diary's aplhabetical order - these were noted down while taking numbers on the call.
DESIGN IDEA: A quick access - notepad to jot down numbers when on call, which could be later updated to the phonebook...

figure 5

12. The user also had doodled the figure of a person while noting down the number on the phone (figure 5).

DESIGN IDEA: icons that the user could create/ draw for a particular contact name.