Interactions - March/April 2013

a small company that did user
research for new product design. A
small group of designers, anthro-
pologists, and social scientists
studied the world and the prod-
ucts we use as a performance. We
observed people’s behavior with
snack food, automobiles, shaving
products, electricity, chewing gum,
and more. We collected and coded
data, drawing out perceptions,
attitudes, beliefs, and new product
opportunities. We placed motion-
sensor cameras in people’s kitch-
ens, in their bathrooms, and in the
aisles of grocery and convenience
stores. We did guerrilla research
ing fieldwork. It was a crazy
time. Doing field research was
exhilarating. It was fun to go to
a family’s home, introduce your-
self, break the ice, and conduct
the interviews and observations
that allowed you to snoop on their
private lives. Once they trusted
you, they would talk, and they
often forgot about the cameras.

at casinos and convenience stores. We observed people serving donuts and putting salt on fries.

As a project manager, I led
teams comprising new staff, vet-
eran staff, and clients—some
from other cultures—in conduct-
Fast-forward again in time,
where, as a faculty member in
design and human-computer inter-
action at CMU, I teach our students
to embrace the mantra, “The user
is not like me.” It’s exhilarating
to see new students understand,
through observation and research,
that they cannot rely on their own
biases and judgments about others
to create better futures for them.
Instead, they need to develop a
deep empathy for those they seek
to understand.