I don't believe in "mission statements", but if Designing for Humans had one, it might be "to realize the application of emerging technologies in support of design research". While I discuss various technologies, many are specialized or several years away from general applicability. But I recently learned of the LiveScribe smartpen, and I can honestly say this is a technology that can have a valuable, near term impact for virtually all researchers.
The device is an electronic pen set to launch in the first quarter of 2008. It has several features, but the one that stands out is called Paper Replay. This feature:
"allows total recall... by simply tapping on your notes. When used to take notes during a discussion or lecture, the smartpen records the conversation and digitizes the handwriting, automatically synchronizing the ink and audio. By later tapping the ink, the user can replay the conversation from the exact moment the note was written. Notes and audio can also be uploaded to a PC where they can be replayed, saved, searched or sent."
In other words, the pen records audio in synch with your writing ,and indexes the audio with your writing. As a result, subsequently tapping on a particular written note will play back the audio segment corresponding to the time when the note was written. Still not clear? - then watch the comic-book style demo.
So what does this mean for design research? Well, note-taking is a challenging skill, and typically we rely on a combination of hastily written notes and audio (or audio-video)recordings to document research. The LiveScribe brings these two approaches together in an integrated way, potentially reducing equipment and streamlining workflow.
While the LiveScribe was not designed for user research applications, consider how it might be applied:
- During user interviews, the researcher can reference what he or she writes or sketches directly back to the interviewees words for clarity and idea expansion.
- In usability testing the facilitator can reference recorded comments directly back to a discussion guide document to quickly drill-down to supporting quotes.
- For ethnographic observations informant conversations and environmental sounds can be unobtrusively recorded while taking notes.
The potential paradigm shift is moving from using handwritten notes and recordings as separate, complimentary tools to truly integrated ones. Well, perhaps not paradigm shifting, but damn convenient.
Reality Check: I should caveat that I have not used this product yet directly and am basing my assumptions on what I have read, but expect a full review as soon as it becomes available. Also the pen requires special gridded paper, for tracking purposes. I also wouldn't expect the audio quality recorded on the pen to be of high caliber, which is pretty important.
With that all said, I wouldn't be surprised if the LiveScribe (or a similar product), become a part of the user researcher's tool belt, along with the camcorder, notepad, and granola bar.
