Developing a framework of new mixed method, social networking services group diary and its application in practice

Abstract

As understanding use context is considered a key factor to deliver better user experience, designers have spent much time and money investigating the context. Despite the presence of various user research methods, it is still insufficient to figure out the context of use in actual situations. On the other hand, as Social Networking Services (SNS) based on real time interaction have been popular, its potentiality as a research method has been spotlighted. Under this circumstance a framework of new mixed method, SNS Group Diary, was developed in which SNS technology was applied to better capture the real time use context. Therefore, this paper presents an empirical study that includes a case study on multi-refrigerator that was conducted through SNS group diary. For the study eleven housewives were recruited and an experiment was conducted for two weeks to prove the validity of the new method. The overall results indicate that SNS Group Diary is an effective method to figure out the actual use context. The implications and limitations of the SNS Group Diary are discussed as well.