march 2008
I remember when I began my residency in the Human
Computer Interaction Lab (HCI) on March 4th in
2008 and was introduced to the HCI team, consisting of five members who mostly worked together in a
small office space. Sandra Roth and Alex Tuch were
my scientific advisors and they gave me a tour around
the Institute for Psychology facilities and showed me
the Usability Lab for their research experiments. The
first weeks were filled with learning about their
psychological approach to HCI and their usability
tests, research projects and working methods. It
was immediately clear to me that the word ‘experi-
ment’ is a very loaded word in Psychology. Moreover,
Peter Schmutz integrated me into his weekly seminar
and included my project as a case study for evaluation of appropriate research methods for his own
students. It turned out that my investigation should
consist of multiple studies. At first I should conduct
a series of qualitative interviews with ten to fifteen
people who I consider as ‘constant travellers’. These
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results would be a starting point for the formulation
of my thesis about what their needs are in relation to
mobile interfaces. However, to support my findings,
it would be necessary to conduct quantitative studies
with over a hundred people.
april 2008
In the second month of my residency, I studied how
psychologists conduct their research, I read their
books and asked endless questions during regular
weekly sessions. Moreover, I conducted an extensive
literature research on mobility paradigm and classification models. Consequently, I formulated selection
criteria and a list of open questions for the qualitative interviews with the ‘constant travellers’. These
questions were grouped by the following topics:
professional background, their travel pattern, mobile
lifestyle, emotions, and behaviour in transportation
hubs (airports and railway), and personality. The next
step was to find potential interviewees according to
defined selection criteria and to arrange interviews
with them.
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