• Introduction
• Thesis   
  • Personal Design Research definition
  • Human Centered Design Research
  • Thesis goals
  • Work completed
• Project and Methods   
  • Introduction
  • Pre-research   
    • Bounding terms
    • Exploration of terms
  • Recruiting  
    • Overview
    • Process
    • Screening for ambivalence
  • Probes  
    • Overview
    • Evocative probes
    • Blank probes
    • Cameras
    • Distribution
  • Interviews  
    • Overview
    • Teams
    • Spaces
    • Photography
  • Analysis  
    • Approaches
    • Content based
    • Reflections
  • Findings  
    • Overview
    • Reflections
  • Outcomes
• Conclusion

Project and
Methods:
Probes:
Distribution:

Mailing as obstacle

Passing on the Future distributed their probes in person, because of their bulk. Similarly Mattelmäki suggests delivering probes in person and picking them up in person as a way of forming greater bonds with subjects. The most common practice is mailing the probes to the participants and having them returned by mail or brought to the interview.

There are obvious issues of size when it comes to mailing. In the Living Profiles study we had to change the size of some large poster probes several times and experiment with several shipping options before being able to get all the probes in one box that could be FedEx-ed. Size was not an issue for the Women Who Play probes, but weight was. There was no problem sending them out. However, because the US Postal Service requires packages over a certain weight to be brought to their offices in person, returning the probes became a burden to the participants. Two of the four women that activity packs where sent to received them, but never returned them. If this was due to general ambivalence or to the burden of returning them to the post office, is not known. It is important throughout the probe design process to consider the user experience. How the probes are returned is a part of that experience.

<<previous next>>