Pictures of the Future     Fall 2003

What Customers Want

"Oh, no," says Olga Tsotsokou. "This makes you feel like you're three years old." Tsotsokou is one of 15 people who are testing a new text and graphics input device for use with cell phones. The tests are being conducted at Siemens Information and Communication Mobile (ICM) Usability Laboratory at Munich. "This thing obviously hasn't reached maturity yet. Will the knob stay up on top?" she asks. The test supervisor, Volker Bogacki, offers her an explanation: "No, this is only a prototype. When the stylus hits the market, it will be much more elegant – and much thinner." "This one is really bulky," Tsotsokou replies before selecting the design that she finds most appealing from among the five available versions.

"We prefer to hear candid answers from our test participants rather than polite replies," says Lutz Groh, who heads the Munich Usability Lab. Within the laboratory's walls, people of all ages test cell phones, accessories and cordless phones in all stages of product development. "We're integrated in the entire process," Groh explains. "Nothing is kept secret. Even poor test results help developers improve their products." Through a one-way window, Groh observes a woman in the next room who is inputting a sentence with the stylus. The device is an innovation of the User Interface Competence Center at the ICM, to which the usability laboratory also belongs.

Magic Stylus. Customers can use the stylus to write on any surface – even on their own pants, just as if they were using a ball-point pen. But the words that are written don't appear on that surface. Instead, they turn up on a cell-phone display. During the test, a computer monitor is used because the software has not yet been integrated into the cell phone. The stylus uses a sensor that is connected to a complex electronic system, and the system registers every movement before passing it on. The user can input words by typing them letter by letter on a keyboard that appears on the display. Handwritten symbols, like a mark on a map to identify a meeting location, can be transmitted as well. The stylus, which uses Bluetooth to transmit its data to the cell phone, is currently being developed to the point where it is suitable for market launch.

"Hey, this is getting to be fun," Tsotsokou says. After just a few minutes, she has gotten used to the stylus and begins to type the sentence again –but much faster this time around. And test supervisor Bogacki can also objectively measure this progress. Unseen by Tsotsokou, he records the time required for every activity. "You know, I would buy something like this," Tsotsokou says at last. "It's perfect for a Palm personal organizer."

Now, it's time for the new M55 cell phone to be put through its paces. The model comes equipped with a function called Dynamic Lights, which announces the arrival of calls or text messages with a rhythmically flashing red light signal that appears both on the side and on the front of the phone. "Interesting," Tsotsokou announces dryly. Bogacki tells her to try all of the various blinking patterns and then let the researchers know what she thinks. "Tell us everything that comes to mind," he says encouragingly. "That feature isn't bad," she says. "It's particularly handy for the deaf because they can see when it rings."

"Of course, the product manager is the person who makes the final call about a new cell phone's appearance and functions," says usability expert Groh. "But based on our findings, we have a pretty good idea about what people will like and won't like."

Take the M55, for instance. Experiments with a plastic model determined that the test persons had problems with the planned design of the keys. "As a result, the keys were slightly rearranged and the keystroke lengthened," Groh says (see photographs, below).

Customers in the Lab. A usability test begins long before the first test participant takes a seat in the laboratory – and it ends long after the last one has left. "We keep an eye on consumers to see how and where they use the the product in order to create typical user scenarios and demands," says Stefan Schoen, head of the User Interface Design Center at Siemens Corporate Technology. Experts also interview users. "What we're after is to know who does what, in which way, and with what goal in mind," says Schoen in summarizing the catalogue of queries.

The Soarian hospital information system shows just how indispensable contact with users is. To upgrade the system, medical doctors from Siemens visit hospitals, where they meet with physicians and other personnel and discuss their needs. And this pays off. As of September, 2003, over 50 hospitals had ordered the software platform. With Soarian, doctors can immediately sees what they need to do with each patient. The most urgent medical information is at the top of the list. Physicians also have instant access to each patient's diagnoses. If the doctor determines that other examinations are needed, the system draws up a list of the most medically beneficial and economic approaches. And, in a single step, the physician can make notations in the patient's electronic file and prescribe medications. In all other software products now on the market, the doctor can do this only by jumping between two user interfaces.

Siemens' usability experts also take a critical look at products. In Connexx software, for instance, which is used to fit hearing aids, Schoen's team recognized something at once. Hearing-aid acousticians had to use external equipment in order to obtain examples of sounds. In the new version, which will hit the market in 2004, sound data for various listening situations is built into the software. The software also helps retailers select and order the right hearing aids, and customers can view pictures of the hearing aid as it would look on them if they were wearing it.

Selecting Test Candidates. The actual usability test is conducted following a preliminary examination. All previous results are used in drawing up its concept, including the selection of test candidates, their backgrounds, education and possible experience with previous versions of the product that will be tested.

"We invite about five people from each target group to participate," says Schoen. The usability team uses the testers' observations and answers to create suggestions for improvements. How urgent are the changes and what sort of costs will they generate? Tests on Connexx software showed that it was too complex for use by dealers who didn't have any specilized training. But trained hearing-aid acousticians wanted to be able to perform sophisticated fine tuning of the aids. Today, both possibilities exist. One step allows the hearing aid to be tuned automatically to a great extent, with the dealer having to enter fewer than ten parameters. An additional step allows expert users to work with the full spectrum of more than 50 parameters.

Good Grades. At the ICM usability lab, test participant Tsotsokou has reached the end of her interviews. She was the last of the 15 people tested. Now, Groh and his team will get down to the job of evaluating the findings. For the stylus, the usability tests prove to be helpful. For one thing, the test group gave high grades to the stylus on ease of use, a finding that supports the decision to offer it as an accessory. "People would like to use something like this," Groh says. "Data entry even gives them a certain amount of pleasure." All of the test persons tended to like one particular design. Tsotsokou had a lot of fun taking the test. "At the start, it seemed a bit weird to me, like a real test," she says. But Groh pointed her in the right direction: "Just tell yourself we aren't testing you. You are conducting tests for us."
                                                                                                  Norbert Aschenbrenner