UI/UX Human Modeling

Contextual Design Approach

Protohaus has extensive experience and track record conducting user research studies. We follow the model first described by Holtzblatt & Jones CHI ‘92 employing Contextual Inquiry as a method for design research.

Protohaus has run a wide spectrum of studies from online sentiment analysis, micro-emotion & saccade tracking studies, ethnographic methods, and focus groups. We will often construct personas from this research to synthesize our understanding of the human factors driving the product development.

Our use of models is central to our process whether they are workflow diagrams, ecosystems, or value chains.

Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation

Analysis, synthesis, and evaluation are the three steps to the design process. Analysis is the examination of a thing to determine its elements or parts. Synthesis is the combination of elements or parts into a whole. Evaluation is the process of extracting insight from the whole.

We generally synthesize our research into frameworks and models that give us the language and understanding to build insights and solutions. Our attention is always understanding where the customer pain points are. This in turn helps to build the right value proposition.

User Discovery

When developing the UI models for product and experiences it is important to have a full spectrum view of the product and its environment/s of use.

For a product or system we might slice it in terms of function structure, information flow, operation, structures, and even social meaning.

We also need to develop the cast of users including; core users, influencers, decision makers, economic buyers, evangelists, and saboteurs. When looking at the core users we are also keen to craft the entire user journey from awareness, interest, purchase, up-sell, referrals, and keep.