FieldCREW User Research Technology Concept

FieldCREW (Contextual Research Workstation) addresses the dissatisfaction with current tools identified by a recent survey of design researchers and was inspired by years of product research experience in complex domains such as surgery and building construction. In such situations, researchers must observe and understand behavioral, ergonomic and information flow amongst multiple people simultaneously – challenging the observational bandwidth and coordination of the researcher team.

Imagine
The concept creation was driven by an analysis of emerging technologies that could be applied to support the needs of user researchers. FieldCREW brings together a number of "near-future" tools to support user research in two contexts:

• When a researcher is working by him/herself and needs to play the role of both note-taker and videographer
• When a team of observers is working together and needs a way to synchronize their observations around multiple events, without disrupting the research environment

Implement
The Workstation consists of the tablet and several wireless data gathering modules including:

• Wireless, remotely controlled tracking video cameras for audio and video recording
• Handheld wireless taggers that allow each observer to tag key events of their choosing for later review - tagging is synched to a common timeline on the tablet
• Subvocalization sensor allows observers to silently dictate notes that are automatically transcribed to text and stored on the tablet

The tablet manages and receives data from these wireless components and provides features including:

• Video notation (i.e. telestrator) for annotation of events as they happen
• Speech-to-text translation of recorded audio (and subvocalizations)
• Access to stored and online project and research reference materials
• Built-in storage and recharging for wireless components
• Synchronization of all input sources (video, tagging, notes) for streamlined analysis

Impact
In the short-term, FieldCREW challenges the status quo of technical limitations constraining user researchers. By no means intended to shortcut the observation process, the concept brings efficiencies to the tedious work of prioritizing and associating data from multiple observers and sources. By providing a new set of integrated tools for mapping insights to observations, FieldCREW inspires us to consider not only how research can lead to innovative products, but, how innovative tools can improve research capabilities.