Chapter 3 Research Methodology
3.6 Research Design
3.6.6 Methods and Techniques in Information Systems …………………….……..49-50
study research method is a car eful study of an individual by means of interviews, observation, experiments and tests.
The researcher’s main research strategy is the case study method. Therefore the researcher will follow a case study research, according to the interpretive paradigm by using observations and interviews for fieldwork.
3.6.5 Quantitative research methods
In this section a brief overview of quantitative research methods will be given.
3.6.5.1 Experiments
Experimental researchers manipulate variables, randomly assign participants to various conditions and seek to control other influences.
3.6.5.2 Surveys
Conducting r esearch us ing a s urvey i nvolves g oing out a nd a sking que stions a bout the phenomenon of interest. In survey research, the researcher selects a sample of respondents from a population a nd c onducts a que stionnaire a mongst t hem. T he que stionnaire or s urvey c an be administered in any on e of the f ollowing w ays: a w ritten document tha t is c ompleted by the person be ing s urveyed, a n onl ine que stionnaire, a f ace-to-face i nterview, or a t elephone interview.
using c omputer s ystems. S ocial goals a re de fined a s t hose t hat f ocus on t he pe ople s ide of computers. Social goals are most frequently achieved through empirical methods (Olivier, 2004).
The goal of the study is social and therefore the need for empirical method. The researcher will use case s tudy r esearch as t he em pirical m ethod. In contrast, technical g oals ar e s upported by creative methods and philosophical goals are achieved through the use of tautological methods.
3.6.7 Methods and Techniques in HCI
Human–computer int eraction (HCI) i s t he s tudy of i nteraction be tween pe ople ( includes bot h defines human-computer interaction as "a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive c omputing s ystems f or hum an us e a nd w ith t he s tudy of m ajor phenomena surrounding them (Baecker, Card, Gasen, Perlman and Verplank, 1996). HCI is also sometimes referred to as man–machine interaction (MMI) or computer–human interaction (CHI).
The main goal of HCI i s to improve the computers more the best interface for everyone to use b y using t echniques for evaluating and comparing these interfaces. According t o C arroll ( 2003), a long t erm g oal of H CI i s t o design systems that minimise the barrier between the human's cognitive model of what they want to accomplish and the computer's understanding of the user's task.
The following sub section provides an overview of the main techniques used in HCI:
3.6.7.1 Usability Inspection Method
Usability i nspection i s t he generic n ame f or a set of m ethods t hat are a ll ba sed on ha ving evaluators i nspect a user i nterface aimed at finding us ability problems i n t he design (Nielsen, 2005). The following are the usability inspection methods described by Jakob Nielsen that the researcher will be using (2005):
• Heuristic e valuation is t he m ost i nformal method a nd i nvolves h aving us ability specialists judge whether each dialogue element follows established usability principles (the "heuristics"). The goal of heuristic evaluation is to find the usability problems in the design so that they can be attended to as part of an iterative design process.
• Cognitive w alkthrough uses a m ore ex plicitly detailed procedure t o simulate a us er's problem-solving p rocess a t e ach s tep t hrough t he di alogue, checking i f t he s imulated user's goals and memory content can be assumed to lead to the next correct action.
• Feature inspection lists sequences of features used to accomplish typical tasks, checks for long sequences, cumbersome steps, steps that would not be natural for users to try, and s teps t hat r equire e xtensive know ledge/experience i n or der t o a ssess a pr oposed feature set.
• Formal u sability inspection combines i ndividual a nd group i nspections i n a s ix-step procedure with strictly defined roles to which elements of both heuristic evaluation and a simplified form of cognitive walkthroughs.
• User t esting is a c ommon us ability i nspection m ethod pr oven e ffective f or f inding accessibility pr oblems ( Nielsen, 2005) . T he N ielsen N orman G roup ha s publ ished extensive findings on the nature of user studies with participants with disabilities. These studies a re qui te e ffective be cause t hey f ind t he pr oblems a ctual us ers ha ve with a n interface. H owever t he dow nside of us er t esting w ith bl ind a nd vi sually i mpaired individuals is more time consuming than other methods.
• ‘Think aloud’ protocol is a popul ar t echnique used during usability t esting where t he participant i s as ked to voc alise h is or he r t houghts, f eelings, a nd opinions w hile interacting w ith t he pr oduct; i n t his c ase a w ebsite ( Dumas and R edish, 1999) . By thinking a loud while a ttempting to complete the ta sk, the pa rticipant c an explain their method of attempting to complete the task, and express any difficulties they encounter in the process.
The usability inspection method that the researcher will be using is user testing and ‘think aloud’
protocol.
3.7 Empirical research
Empirical research is carried out to answer a specific question or to test a hypothesis to help the researcher get a better understanding of the study. Empirical Research can also be defined as
“research based on experimentation or observati quality of e mpirical research de pends on t he accuracy of obs ervations a nd de gree t o w hich observed results can be generalised to other cases.
3.8 Selection of research strategy
The following table will be used as a means to justify the techniques and methods adopted for this study.
Table 3.2 Research strategy characteristics and the research questions [adapted from (Van der Merwe Kotze and Cronje, 2005)].
Approach Characteristics Research
question 1
Research question
2
Research question Action 3
research Focus on what practitioners do Explicit criteria
Practitioners and researchers with mutual goals
Apply t heory w ith g oal t o enhance
Case study Investigator has little control
Contemporary ph enomenon w ith
real-life context
Explores a s ingle e ntity o r phenomenon bounde d by t ime
and activity
Study life cycles
Content
analysis Study of w ritten documentation
or texts
Study o f a uthorship, a uthenticity and meaning
Explores unde fined nu mber of
variables
Ethnographic
research Active participation
Observational data
Social contact with participants Extended depth study
Limited to one field study
Experiments To s tudy t he e ffect of a n influence on a car efully controlled sample
Observational m easures of dependent variable
Manipulation of va riable t o determine level and kind
Grounded
theory Start with a phenomena
Data sampling with perspective Theoretical account of the general features
Generation of theories of process, sequence, and change p ertaining to or ganisations, pos itions, a nd social interaction
Survey-based
research Aimed a t pr oducing r eliable
statistics on specific issue
Description of data characteristics Used t o i dentify c ause based on data
User test Users interact w ith websites b y
performing specific tasks.
The researcher will follow an empirical approach with a combination of case studies (Yin, 2003) which is a social science research; user testing, observation using the ‘think aloud’ protocol and an interview t o determine i f w ebsites ar e acc essible or not . A ccording t o Gerber (2002) a combination of methods, in particular focus groups and individual interviews, works best with the blind and visually disabled population. The researcher chose 10 participants to take part in the research. These students are not necessarily representative of the total population and were selected based on convenience and access (Khurana and Aggarwal, 2009). According to Nielsen (2000) generally five users is a sufficient sample size to determine 80% of the site level usability, however there are some exceptions to this "rule”.
The only other research to date conducted with people who are blind or visually impaired was a pilot study. In this research Barnicle (2000) identified a number of important questions, such as:
How must the testing techniques be adapted to accommodate the needs of participants; Would the s tudy yield useful ( that is , generalisable) d ata; a nd how the researcher w ill know if the obstacles encountered were due to the mainstream software application, the assistive technology or t he unique ch aracteristics of an i ndividual us er? T he pi lot s tudy can be accessed at
3.9 Strengths and weaknesses of research strategies