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Yu-Hsaun Cheng's Portfolio
How I conducted Human-Centred Design Research?
My Contributions
Applying thematic analysis
Organize the data and let the findings emerge that can answer the research questions
Conducting qualitative & quantitative interviews
Gather first-hand and detailed information from the interviewees to generate knowledge and understanding of the research questions
Designing a probe kit that is personalized to the participant
Understand the participant's personal context and perception to discover the design opportunity
Designing semi-structured interview questions
Allowing guided yet flexible-flow conversation to understand interviewees' insights, perspectives, and experiences
Communication of findings
Deliver my findings into HCI research papers
Human-Centred Design Research Process
Interview Questions Design
Carefully craft the interview questions, which can help better understand and address research questions
Research on the literature to better understand the context
Outline the broad topics that are relevant to answering the research questions
Develop open-ended questions that surround the corresponding topics that could gain the most of their insight and experience
Rephrase and rearrange the order of the questions that help the interviewees answer and respond in a clearer flow
Add intro questions as an ice breaker to get familiar and build rapport with the interviewees and outro questions as a cool-off period
Intentionally avoid the sensitive words and questions to conduct the research ethically
Probe Kit Design (with the paper of memory cues)
A cultural probe kit with 5 diverse activities for participants to self-report their perceptions and perspectives on the topic.
Define the focus of the probe kit: five senses as memory cues to trigger migrator's autobiographical memories
Conduct an intro interview to personalize the cultural probe kit based on the participant's background and interests
Design the activities of the probe kit which can better prompt the participant to revisit and reflect on their autobiographical memories
Have two weeks of involvement for the participant to interact with the activities in the probe kit
Conduct an exit interview to let the participant interpret his actions, thoughts, and behaviors of the probe kit to gain an in-depth understanding of his relationship with memory cues and autobiographical memories as an immigrant
Thematic Analysis
Provide the opportunity to go through the data in a thorough way to identify themes and patterns
Review the transcripts to have idea about the content
Use NVivo to analyse and generate codes
Paste the code to Google Sheets to find pattern and organize themes and sub-themes
Reorganize the themes and sub-themes to make each theme distant and representative, fitting into the overall presentations of the data and the areas of the research questions
Define and finalize the themes that are ready for the presentation in the paper
Finish the research papers as a representation of the findings and the interpretations of the research topic
Link the findings to HCI to provide a design opportunity to the field
20 Semi-Structured Interviews
Conduct qualitative and quantitative interviews to have not only enough data and statistics but also rich research findings
Choose 20 interviewees who meet the criteria and diversity and also maintain a sample size that is manageable yet diverse for qualitative research to gain sufficient in-depth responses
Explain the consent and ethics to the participants, then let them sign the consent form
Conduct twenty one-on-one interviews, listen to their experience with empathy, and gather first-hand and detailed information to generate knowledge and understanding of the research questions
Transcribe the interviews which is ready for the thematic analysis
For My Graduate Research Project, I want to understand...
"How does reflecting on memories of childhood and adolescence with family and friends influence one's understanding of their personality and foster self-growth?"
I selected 20 participants, following Creswell et al.'s guidance for a manageable sample size in qualitative research. Only individuals aged 20 and above were chosen, as they are more likely to have stable identities for reflective analysis based on Erikson’s Stages of Development
Carefully craft open-ended interview questions that include introductory (lighter) questions, deeper questions, and closing (cool-off period) questions for the semi-structured interviews. These questions should help better address the research questions while creating a lighter, safer, and more comfortable space for interviewees.
I conducted 20 interviews after obtaining signed consent forms from the participants, ensuring they were informed of their rights and gave permission to use their data. All interview recordings were then transcribed into written transcripts for analysis.
After generating initial codings in NVivo, the themes and sub-themes supported with codes have been grouped and categorized. In the end, four themes each with three to four sub-themes have been made. (supported by 136 codes with 1024 references)
The research was delivered as a 12500 words paper to answer the research questions: How does reflecting on childhood and adolescence memories with family and friends influence one's understanding of their personality and foster self-growth?
For My Probe Study, I want to understand...
"What's the relationship between memory cues and the migration-related memories for immigrants and how the feelings come with each?"
I made a participant recruitment post on a Taiwanese group to recruit an immigrant over 40 who has migrated to Sydney for over six months. After confirming the criteria, I chose him as my participant.
After the participant read and signed the consent form for the intro interview, the intro interview was conducted which the purpose is to get to know the participant's initial story and experience of five senses and immigration. Then, the codes were generated to design a probe kit.
I designed a probe kit, especially for the participant based on the intro interview with him. The probe kit contains five fun and diverse activities, ranging from all five senses and the mood check-in to engage participant and to understand what the role of five senses play in his migrate autobiographical memories.
The probe kit was retrieved after two weeks, which was documented and interacted with by the participant. I also conducted an exit interview with him to gain a sense of clarity on what this documentation means to him.
Besides annotating the probe kits, I analyzed both interviews and probe kits using thematic analysis. After several iterations and categorizations, the final themes, three main themes and four sub-themes were made.
The probe study was delivered as a short paper to understand the complex relationship between the memory cues and the migration-related memories and how the feelings come with each by allowing the participant to engage in tangible activities.
