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User-Centered Design and Research Ethics
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User-Centered Design and Research Ethics
User-Centered Design and Research Ethics
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1
Question
Why is relying solely on functional specifications and design heuristics insufficient for interface design?
Page 5
Answer
Functional specifications only define what a tool technically accomplishes without addressing real user needs. Interface guidelines and heuristics provide general rules, but effective design requires direct user interaction, observation, and empirical evaluation.
2
Question
What fundamental requirement does the first ISO principle of user-centered design establish?
Page 7
Answer
The design must be grounded in an explicit understanding of users, their tasks, and the environments where those tasks occur. This understanding must be actively leveraged throughout the entire design process.
3
Question
Why does user-centered design treat the development lifecycle as an iterative process?
Page 8
Answer
Systems are never finalized after a single development and release cycle. Continuous evaluation and refinement are required post-deployment to repeatedly adapt the interface based on user feedback.
4
Question
Why does user-centered design emphasize multidisciplinary skills and perspectives on the design team?
Page 9
Answer
Addressing the complete user experience requires diverse expertise across multiple disciplines. Teams incorporate psychologists, designers, computer scientists, and domain experts to balance human behavior, technical feasibility, interface usability, and domain-specific needs.
5
Question
How do primary, secondary, and tertiary stakeholders differ in their relationship to an interactive system?
Page 10
Answer
Primary stakeholders use the interface directly. Secondary stakeholders do not use the tool directly but interact with its output. Tertiary stakeholders neither use the tool nor its output, but are affected by its existence.
6
Question
How do primary, secondary, and tertiary stakeholders differ in user-centered design?
Page 11
Answer
Primary stakeholders interact directly with the system. Secondary stakeholders interact only with the system's output. Tertiary stakeholders do not interact with the system or its direct output, but are still affected by its existence.
7
Question
What core design problem is illustrated by the circus dancing bear metaphor?
Page 12
Answer
Users often marvel at technology merely because it functions at all, rather than because it works well. The metaphor demonstrates how raw technical functionality is frequently mistaken for good usability.
8
Question
Why is developing multiple design alternatives necessary during the design life cycle?
Page 13
Answer
Generating multiple alternatives prevents designers from fixating prematurely on a single concept. Exploring various early ideas ensures broader coverage of potential solutions before committing resources to prototyping.
9
Question
How does an interface designer's workflow mirror the end user's feedback cycle?
Page 16
Answer
Users execute actions within an interface and assess the system's output to judge goal completion. Similarly, designers build interfaces and evaluate user performance to determine whether their design goals were achieved.
10
Question
What trade-offs exist between qualitative and quantitative data during system evaluation?
Page 18
Answer
Quantitative data allows formal statistical analysis and objective comparisons, but only examines a narrow scope. Qualitative data provides a broader, more flexible picture of user experience, but resists formal statistical conclusions and remains more susceptible to bias.
11
Question
How do quantitative and qualitative data differ in the questions they answer during the design life cycle?
Page 21
Answer
Quantitative data answers what is happening through numeric metrics and counts. Qualitative data explains how or why phenomena occur through descriptive user feedback.
12
Question
Why is a 1-to-5 rating scale classified as quantitative data despite its analytical limitations?
Page 23
Answer
It provides numeric measurements that can be quantified. However, because intervals between ratings may not reflect equal perceptual differences, it is discrete rather than continuous.
13
Question
How do stakeholder considerations in educational technology differ from technical considerations in virtual reality design?
Page 25
Answer
Educational technology requires balancing multiple user groups like students, teachers, parents, and administrators. Virtual reality focuses heavily on overcoming technical constraints and hardware interaction limitations.
14
Question
What sequence of four stages comprises the general iterative design life cycle?
Page 26
Answer
The cycle starts with needfinding, moves to constructing design alternatives, advances to prototyping, and finishes with user evaluation before repeating.
15
Question
What role does the Institutional Review Board fulfill in university research, and what historical abuses prompted its creation?
Page 30
Answer
The Institutional Review Board governs human subjects research to safeguard participant rights. It was established following unethical studies such as the Milgram obedience experiment and the Tuskegee syphilis study.
16
Question
Why was the National Research Act of 1974 enacted, and what institutional oversight did it create?
Page 31
Answer
It was passed in response to unethical human experimentation such as the Tuskegee syphilis study and the Stanford prison experiment. It established Institutional Review Boards to oversee human subjects research at universities.
17
Question
What three core ethical mandates are established by the Belmont Report for human subjects research?
Page 32
Answer
Societal benefits must outweigh participant risks, research subjects must be selected fairly, and rigorous informed consent must allow voluntary participation and withdrawal at any time.
18
Question
Why does an Institutional Review Board evaluate whether study data will be scientifically sound and useful?
Page 33
Answer
If a study has poor design or coercive elements, the data becomes useless. When research provides no useful benefits, even the smallest risks to human subjects outweigh the nonexistent benefits.
19
Question
How must researchers handle modifications to a project after its initial IRB protocol has been approved?
Page 36
Answer
Researchers must submit an amendment to the original protocol. Any proposed changes, such as adding new researchers or modifying procedures, require separate IRB approval before implementation.
20
Question
What institutional status and listing requirement must the Principal Investigator meet on an IRB protocol?
Page 39
Answer
The Principal Investigator must always be added first on the protocol and must hold status as a faculty member.
21
Question
How does a waiver of consent differ from a waiver of documentation of consent in human-subjects research?
Page 47
Answer
A waiver of consent eliminates the requirement to obtain participant agreement entirely, typically used when studying anonymized existing records or passive public observation. A waiver of documentation of consent still requires informing participants, but waives the signed form because the signature itself would be the only identifying record linking the subject to the study.
22
Question
How does the scientific justification for sample size differ between quantitative and qualitative studies?
Page 43
Answer
Quantitative studies justify enrollment numbers using statistical power calculations to detect a specific effect size. Qualitative studies base participant numbers on the breadth of perspectives needed to analyze a problem or on practical boundaries like classroom enrollment caps.
23
Question
Why is participant coercion a critical ethical concern when instructors recruit from their own classrooms?
Page 45
Answer
Students may feel implicit pressure to participate out of concern that refusing will negatively impact their academic standing or grade. Instructors must explicitly communicate that opting out carries no negative consequences.
24
Question
How do inclusion criteria differ from exclusion criteria in study population design?
Page 44
Answer
Inclusion criteria define the specific target audience possessing attributes needed for the study. Exclusion criteria identify specific factors that disqualify potential subjects who otherwise match the general inclusion profile.
25
Question
How does deception differ from concealment in human-computer interaction research protocols?
Page 49
Answer
Deception occurs when researchers deliberately provide false information to subjects, such as claiming an automated system is operating when responses are generated manually. Concealment occurs when researchers intentionally withhold specific study details in advance without stating active falsehoods.
26
Question
What key security measures and descriptions must researchers provide in the Data Management section of an IRB protocol?
Page 51
Answer
Researchers must describe how participant data is safely stored, how participant information is defined, and how data is safeguarded through encryption or password protection.
27
Question
Why are commercial software companies able to conduct behavioral A/B testing on users without standard federal Institutional Review Board oversight?
Page 55
Answer
Institutional Review Boards legally govern research institutions that receive federal funding. Private commercial research conducted without federal support falls outside mandatory federal IRB jurisdiction.
28
Question
Why do social scientists argue that general Terms of Service agreements fail to qualify as valid informed consent for psychological research?
Page 56
Answer
Valid informed consent requires research-specific disclosure, a temporary defined duration, and freedom from coercion. General terms of service lack study specificity and coerce users by requiring agreement for basic service access.
29
Question
How does the inability to selectively opt out compromise research ethics during large-scale platform experiments?
Page 59
Answer
Participants cannot decline participation in a specific experiment without deactivating their whole account. Additionally, unawareness of ongoing studies prevents participants from making timely, informed decisions to withdraw.
30
Question
What workflow and timeframe govern an Institutional Review Board protocol after initial draft completion?
Page 54
Answer
The protocol is first forwarded to the primary investigator or department head for sign-off. After official submission to the board, researchers typically receive a decision or change requests in about three weeks.