Interview- mental models and their development

This image is from Andrea Provaglio. It describes how people utilize and develop their mental models. What I am interested in is how people use their existing mental model to explore new stuffs, and how people develop new mental models.

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Interviewee Ming

To explore how to interview others, I came back to Ming, and did a “testing interview” with Ming.

In previous interview (see more details here), Ming said she uses red temperature button to turn on the air conditioner, and uses fans’ speed to turn off the air conditioner.

I did a further exploration on what is her existing mental model of the air conditioner in her car, and then I let her sit in my car and try to use the air conditioner in my car.

Here are some main differences between her mental model and my mental model (here is my mental model):

1. She uses temperature bottom to open the air conditioner
2. She uses fans’ speed to turn off the air conditioner
3. She also considers safety and smell from outside (she talks about the differences between Thailand and here, in Thailand, people don’t open the window because of the air pollution and hot temperature.)——— different environments influence behavior
4. There is a feedback loop from others. “I will ask others how they feel and check with them if the temperature is alright for them.”

Here is the audio about her mental model of the air conditioner in her car:

Then, I let her sit in my car and see how she transform her mental model. Here is a short video about how she is trying to turn on the air conditioner:

Here are some takeaways from the exploration:

1.  What stuck her for a while was how to turn on the air conditioner, she was trying to push the “off” button to turn it on. video:1:01
2. She wants to turn up the temperature to turn it on. video:1:08
3. She understands the implementation model of A/C, I can ask someone who are not familiar with it later.
4. She confuses about the adjusting the direction of fans function
5. The circulation function is clear and easy to control
6. Hard to tell it is on or not because it is very quiet when the fan’s speed is very slow. the display is not clear either.

I am thinking about what mental models she uses to explore the new air conditioner. The first model is probably from other devices: on and off are almost always together, press the button can switch on and off.

However, the feedback, which is the air conditioner isn’t turning on, tells Ming that press the button can’t turn on the air conditioner. And then she is trying to push the red temperature button. Maybe it is because her previous experience on her car, or maybe because the red button looks like “turning on.”

It reminds me what Scott talks about—“pattern matching”, is the exploration simply an activity of pattern matching?

Besides all the things above, I asked Ming to draw her mental model. However, I found it is not an appropriate approach.

She is trying to draw what I want, but not what she actually thinks about. Thus, there are gaps between what in people’s mind, what they are describing, but their behavior is more honest and more close to what they are thinking about.

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Interview Protocol

After Ming’s interview, I was more clear about how to interview others, and what’s more important is I was more clear about what I want to know.

What I want to get:

1. the boundary of their mental model of this task
2. how they turn it on/off
3. what are the concepts they have in their mind?
4. what are the attributes they mostly care about or mostly interact with?
5. what are the main use cases.
6. how they think about the A/C and auto buttons. what are the out comes of this two buttons. “how does it work?” unfamiliar buttons
7. How they use their mental models to explore new products
8. How they create another mental model for this new product

How to interview:

• Explore their mental model of their cars:

1. What you usually do when entering the car?
2. Observe how they turn it on/off
3. How you control the temperature in your car?
4. What is this button for?

• Let them(people who are familiar with and not familiar with cars) use a new air conditioner. Two tasks: the first is “what will you do if it is too cold?”; the second is “what will you do if it is too hot?”

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 Interviewee Ryan

Ryan has 6 years driving experience, he has a 2011 Volkswagen Jetta at home. He has no car here in San Francisco, but he rents a lot of cars. He said “I like to rent Honda cars, because their interior designs are consistent and easy to use.”

His existing mental model of air conditioner:

1.fans’ speed to turn on/off

“I just wanna on or off button..If it’s too cold or if it’s too hot, I can just turn it off immediately. I don’t need to find a way to adjust the controls.  ”

2. If it is really too hot or too cold, he will turns it to highest setting— faster fan’s speed and coldest or warmest temperature, and after a while, he will turns to lowest fan’s speed.

“I will prefer me to control verses automatic control, because it doesn’t work that well…if it is too hot, it will blasting a huge amount of cold air, and it is very annoying.”

“I like controls at the string wheel, because it is easier and I don’t need to take my hands off the wheel and reach over there.”

3. A/C produce only cold air, or colder air. he has a drawing for the A/C

4. Fans’ direction: generally fans blowing away off me, when it is cold, he like air towards face.

Here is the audio about his mental model of the air conditioner in his car:

Explore Prius’ air conditioner:

1. He uses fan’s temperature (the red button) to turn it on
2. He likes knobs better than buttons, because in his car, there are knobs to adjust the temperature and fans speed.

Here is the video about how he turn on the air conditioner

Why Ryan pushes the red temperature button? Is it because of the red color or is it because the button is closer to him?

I asked him why he was trying to push the temperature button, he said because it displays 72 degrees right now and it will produce air automatically according to the target temperature, press the temperature button would trigger it produce hot air. I am thinking is it because I asked him “what will you do if it is too cold inside?” Did the question drive him to press the red temperature button? Then, he was trying to push the “off” button, he said “because I thought the off button will turn on the air conditioner.”

I also asked him about how does the A/C work, here is his drawing about describing how does it work.

I asked him “if the fans are blowing hot air right now, what will happen if you press the A/C button.” He says “it will make the air dryer, but stays the same temperature.”

I found A/C button is very tricky, everyone’s understanding of it is different.

Is the A/C button necessary? Why isn’t it automatically turns it on or off?

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Interviewee Victor

Victor has 12 years driving experience, he has a 1995 toyota tacoma at home, and he has motorcycle here in San Francisco. He hasn’t used his car for several months.

His mental model of the air conditioner in his car:

1. There is no A/C in his car. When adjust the temperature to cold, the air is directly from outside.
2. If it is too hot, he will roll down the window. If it is too cold, he will turn on the heater. “I usually drive old cars, they are very easy to use.”

Here is the audio about his mental model of the air conditioner in his car:

Explore Prius’ air conditioner:

1. The primary difficulty for him was to turn on the car. He couldn’t find a way to turn on the car. He was not sure the car was on or not.
2. When he was trying to turn on the air conditioner, he tried to push the off button and the up red temperature button.
3. His understanding of A/C: if the heater is producing hot air, the A/C will still produce cold air, and mix with the hot air. Thus, the A/C will make hot air colder.
4. The auto function was very confusing, and he needed to turn off everything to turn off the auto function.
5. He thought the wield arrow with a sitting man’s button will filter the air.

Here is the video about how he was trying to turn on the air conditioner ( without turning on the car)

Takeaways from his interview:

“No touch screens! ….(In my car, ) you know how to control it without looking at it. But for this car (the prius), especially for the fans’ directions, you needs to look at it even when you know your car.”

This video is his critique about push buttons:

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 Is it wrong to use touch screens in cars?

I asked this question in the workshop with Wendy Ju and her car research team in Center for Automotive Research at Stanford.

They are very passionate about my project and this question, and they start to argue with each other. Wendy said it is not wrong to have touch screens in cars, but there should be better design solutions to help people control it without looking at it. Some people mentioned how blind people use iPhones. There is a silicon cover, if blind people want to type the icons will pop up.

Can we use this technology in the touch screens in cars?

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Interviewee Kat

 Kat is not familiar with cars, but dives her husband’s car sometimes. His husband has a Honda Accord, and she is not sure about the year.

Her mental model of the air conditioner in his husband’s car:

1. “First of all, I will choose where does the air come from by pressing the fans’ directions buttons.” Then, she will adjust the fans’ speed and finally the temperature.
2. She was not sure how did the A/C work, it is especially for the cold air.

Explore Prius’ air conditioner:

She uses the arrow with a men’s button to turn on the air conditioner. Can’t believe it works?!

We can see how did her previous mental model influence his behavior.

Here is the video of how she turned on the air conditioner:

Takeaways from her interview:

It is very interesting to see a totally different thought process of how to control the air conditioner. Previous interviewees mostly use the fans’ speed to turn on the air conditioner, but she uses fan’s direction to turn it on. Moreover, she uses this mental model to explore new air conditioners.

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Here a video about how they turn on the air conditioner: