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Figure 4. Pattern of deployment based research
deployed systems then create a new context for
observation of user behaviour and thus lead to
fresh insights, discoveries and refinement of
theoretical understanding. The deployed systems
take a role on a continuum between technology
probes (Hutchinson et al.., 2003; Graham et al.,
2006) and traditional field prototypes (i.e. work-
ing prototypes evaluated in the field or in-situ)
and support a single main functionality and use
logging as a main method to generate data. Their
goal is to identify long-term user needs as well
as to study appropriation of the technology. We
adopt an iterative and user centered design based
approach to each deployment where the obser-
vation and involvement of users serve the dual
purpose of traditional user centred design and
source for further theoretical analysis The chal-
lenges of carrying our such user centred design as
part of a rapid prototyping development context
is discussed in (Fitton et al., 2005). In order to
achieve real use, the systems must meet real or
emerging needs, and avoid interfering with the
activities usually carried out at the location of
their deployment, perhaps even taking advantage
of these activities. In order to elicit the empirical
data used as part of the reflective process we em-
ploy a variety of mostly ethnographic techniques
(Bernard, 2005) on a continuum from the informal
to formal and qualitative to quantitative. Inductive
analysis techniques like grounded theory (Glaser
& Strauss, 1967) are then used to code the data,
build categories, sort them and build theory. A key
aspect of our approach is applying the tenets of
existing techniques (technology probes and ethno-
graphic methods) in order to carry out evaluation
during a 'real world' deployment at low cost and
where traditional usability studies receives higher
priority later in the design phase. This contrasts
slightly with existing ambient display evaluation
research where often heuristic evaluation is car-
ried out with lab-based prototypes (for example
(Mankoff et al., 2003)).
BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF
EVALUATION TECHNIQUES
To obtain data for analysis, we use a variety of
ethnographic methods. In this section we compare
our experiences for different techniques for the
specific case of public display interaction with
mobile phones.
Observing Users
Casual Observations proved a major source of in-
formation especially for the displays where we are
often in the vicinity. For example, in the iDisplays
deployment, it could easily be observed that most
people only have very short glimpses between a
half and two seconds while they pass the display,
without stopping. However, the only available data
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