Paper Reading #7 - The Coffee Lab: Developing a Public Usability Space

Comments:
Steven Hennessy
Pape Youm

Reference Info:
The Coffee Lab: Developing a Public Usability Space
Maria Karam
CHI 2010, April 10-15,2010, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Summary:
This article shows us a coffee shop in Toronto used as a public usability space. It is a novel project to get users engaged with different hardware and software to be publicly displayed and evaluated by the average user. It has wireless internet connectivity as well as a touch display and web cameras. There are several computers as well to run different applications. The users of this ranged greatly from those who frequent the coffee shop.The author conducts public usability tests where the users are exposed to the technology. They then interact with researchers so that they may gain feedback from users. Different stages were used to explore and research the area for users to gain and see the users experience. These stages are: Exposure, Experience, Experiment. Extension, and Exploration. Each stage builds on the other. This provides a more relaxed and real setting opposed to some laboratory.

Discussion:
This seems like a fun and relaxing way to gain user feedback in the most natural of settings where the user can share their true experiences. It seems they could get a lot of feedback from a coffee shop location. I enjoy how it focuses on monitoring and getting data in the interaction of the system. I feel the exposure was excellent and a good location choice.