What research methods have you used for user interface development?

Question

I'm after experience of professionals who want reproducible results, and take a scientific approach to get it.

I really just want to know if any validated HCI/CHI research methods are used in industry. I'll mention (and tag) game development, given the huge investment in novel interfaces, and Apple given they seem to get some design decisions right, and I'd love to know the scientific methods that went into them getting there.

My limited experience indicates that there is a little, but like testing, the effort is too-little too-late.

Please no 'ask your mum' and dogfooding tips - they are well covered elsewhere, and discussions on the art/science tensions, and the 'art' of design are also OT.

Answer 1

In general, prototyping is the best solution.

Talking specifically about web development, it's common to look for existing web pages and grab some ideas.

Answering your question, in our company, we don't use at this moment any scientific methods.

Answer 2

For years, I've been reading the Alertbox on Jakob Nielsen's website.

Generally, Jakob and his company use gaze plots of websites. Other research methods, like a within-subjects study, were used for Kindle and iPad research.