Don Rickert Research and Design Work: Mostly (but not all) Things

Interactive Television (ITV) Introduction

Interactive Television (I-TV) and Video-on-Demand (VOD)

Prior to the advent of the World-Web Web, the Internet was viewed simply as a system for research collaboration. It was definitely not an entertainment medium for consumers. Interactive TV was the dream of many organizations, especially telephone companies, as a way to put to use what was then a new and revolutionary DSL technology. The Bell Atlantic Stargazer ITV/VOD market trial went live in May of 1995. It was first video-on-demand service designed for commercial deployment.

Many of the user experience (UX), usability and ergonomics (relating the the set-top boxes and remote controls) principles discovered are now expected basic features of contemporary digital cable. This is particularly true of the the interactive programming guides that digital cable and satellite TV users have become accustomed to.

Remote Control Devices for Interactive TV

Click on any of the thumbnail images in this post for larger views.

Don Rickert and his team at Bell Atlantic had TOTAL responsibility for design research, industrial design, human factors / ergonomics and usability evaluation of a suitable remote control device for effectively interacting with an Interactive TV/VOD system. This was completely uncharted territory.

Two unrelated outcomes involved:

1. Don Rickert going on to get a Ph.D., writing the first known Doctoral Dissertation on the psychological principles of interacting with a TV using a remote control device (yes, it is really true!)
2. Don becoming a Professional Member of the Industrial Designers Society of America...that's what the IDSA title after Ph.D. refers to.

Stargazer Baseline Remote Control Device

This ugly little beast was the starting point for user interaction with an ITV/VOD system prior to any user research. It met all engineering requirements and almost none of the user experience (UX) requirements. But...you've always got to start somewhere and it DID send codes that made things happen on the television screen!

Stargazer Remote Control Concept Based on an Existing Device

A concept based on the RCA 'Simple Remote'. The concept is the one with the paper image of buttons (the navigation buttons are purple) pasted on.

Whatever you may be thinking about this design and what Sigmund Freud might have thought about it if he were alive, it won't be written here! Let's just leave it at it was a bit too simple for the needs of ITV.

Existing Design from Patton Design for Scientific Atlanta

Patton Design, one of top industrial designers specializing in remote control devices at the time, designed a cable remote control for the once mighty but now defunct (we think) set-top box manufacturer, Scientific Atlanta. This remote control, pictured from two angles, is shown below. This device was the inspiration for other variations, including those designed by Don Rickert.

Variations of the Patton Design Remote Control Adopted by Pacific Telesys, at joint-venture partner of Bell Atlantic and later Tele-TV.

  

The Evolution of Remote Control Designs of Don Rickert for Interactive TV

The final image shown below is what actually went into production for the Stargazer Interactive TV Market Trial. It is not the best design (confirmed by subsequent research by Don Rickert), but the one that could be manufactured for what was deemed the "right price". Pragmatic concerns like cost of manufacture are the bitter pills that product designers have to learn to swallow.

   

Design Based on User Research Insights

The production remote control device was carefully evaluated as part of the overall Stargazer Market Trial. Ethnography and depth interviews were used extensively as part of the evaluation research. The design, pictured at the right, was developed in response to actual research findings.

Don Rickert actually used the device pictured as part of his doctoral dissertation research.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Bell Atlantic's Stargazer Interactive TV / Video-on-Demand (Summary)

The Bell Atlantic Stargazer Interactive TV market trial went live in May of 1995. It was first video-on-demand service designed for commercial deployment. Many of the user experience (UX), usability and ergonomics principals discovered are now part of contemporary digital cable. Note: Bell Atlantic Video Services, which developed Stargazer and ran the market trial, changed its name along the way to Tele-TV.

As Director of Human Factors & Consumer Research for Bell Atlantic Video Services (later called Tele-TV), Don Rickert directed all research activities related to Stargazer. This included ethnography, questionnaires, usability testing, depth interviewing and focus groups.

This consumer research conducted by Don Rickert and his multi-disciplinary team of usability engineers, behavioral and social scientists, industrial designers and interaction designers, collaborating with marketers and product managers, defined the total customer experience for Stargazer, including—

• Packaging and the consumer “out-of-the-box” experience (Customer satisfaction from the first minute—the most important!)
• User interface / UX design (useful, usable & desirable = happy & loyal customers)
• Industrial design of remote control devices (high "coolness" factor—emotional appeal)
• Training procedures for cable installers and Customer Support (Greatly reduced costs + much improved total customer experience)
• Collateral materials (e.g. “quick guides”) for consumers (Marketing messages that customers really care about)

The images below are some of the few that exist today. The technology for capturing screen shots from television screens was not as well-developed as what is available today. Click on the thumbnail images for larger views.

 

To see some later versions of the Stargazer UI, go to Peter Stonier's website. Peter was one of the great thought leaders behind ITV and VOD and a wonderful colleague of the highest order.

Link to some later Overview screens on Peter Stoniers site

Link to some later Electronic Program Guide screens on Peter Stonier's site

ATMs

Don Rickert was engaged at the NCR Human Interface Technology Center (HITC) as a consultant in the User-Centered Design Group from 1995-1998. One of the most interesting of the many projects Don worked on for NCR involved a new ATM design.

NCR is, of course, known for its Automated Teller Machines. NCR needed a "portable" (a relative  term!) unit to compete with a new product from another company. The new machine had to be usable by very small people as well as very large people, driving up in a wide variety of vehicles. Of course, the goodness of the design needed to be established before going to production!

Don Rickert designed the consumer research methodology, which involved approximately 100 participants in a comparative experiment. A competing unit was purchased on the "gray market" and weighed something like five (5) tons, as the machine still had part of the parking lot where it had been installed attached to it...our supplier swore that the branch had closed BEFORE the ATM had been removed.

To make the NCR prototype appear to function in a realistic manner, NCR staff members took turns sitting inside of the prototype, receiving and dispensing cash, typing messages to appear on the screen, and so forth. This is called the "Wizard of Oz" technique for obvious reasons.

The ATM unit that evolved from the research is shown above. Click on the image for a larger view.

Self Checkout Terminals

Don Rickert was engaged at the NCR Human Interface Technology Center (HITC) as a consultant in the

User-Centered Design Group from 1995-1998.

In addition to ATMs and point-of-sale (POS) terminals, NCR is also the leader in the manufacturer of the Self-Checkout Terminals (SCOTS) that are appearing with increasing frequency in retail establishments. Don Rickert served as a research design/statistical analysis adviser during the consumer research stages of its Self-Checkout Terminal development. Don designed a number of User Experience (UX) and Usability studies as part of this initiative. He also performed many of the complex statistical analysis on the data from these studies.

Click on any of the images for larger views.

Usability Research Facility Design

While the most valuable things to be learned from people in process of product development mostly happen "in the field" (i.e. ethnography and depth interviewing)--places like peoples' homes, their offices, where they shop, etc., there are times when a fixed-location usability lab serves its purpose. Usability labs main useful purpose is allowing for product designers, engineers, managers and other stakeholders to actually see their "baby" being used by real people.

An example of one of Don Rickert's usability lab designs is shown in the image at the right. Click on it to see a larger view.

Don Rickert has been involved in the design and implementation of several consumer research facilities (e.g. usability labs). Some examples:

Bell Atlantic Video Services

Established the Usability Laboratory at Bell Atlantic offices in Reston, VA and a Design Research lab at the offices of Pacific Telesys in San Francisco. Also helped to design (working directly with the vendor on their first portable lab) a complete high-end mobile usability laboratory. Note that usability testing at Bell Atlantic Video Services as carried out within a consumer research program that put a very big emphasis on field studies, which occurred in consumers living rooms, customer service help desks, and so forth.

James Martin & Company: Designed and built the Usability Laboratory in Reston. VA.

Systems Center (VM Software): Consulted with Systems Center on the layout and implementation of their usability lab.

United Way of America: Designed and built a full usability lab as part of the organization's Video Production Facility.

Online Reference Products

The term "online reference" can apply to everything from a CD-ROM or DVD-based reference to a multi-million dollar online virtual medical conference. Some of those that Don Rickert has worked on are:

The Brain Attach Virtual Conference Website (NCR)

This was a large "virtual conference" (massive website) on stroke (a.k.a. Brain Attack).Don Rickert, as Project Lead, was responsible for ALL aspects of this project, including managing a large team of expert contributors, including world-renowned specialists in artificial intelligence, information retrieval, streaming video (WAY before YouTube, when you needed a Teradata(tm) supercomputer to stream large video files), cognitive science, design, software engineering, video direction, video production and neuroscience.

APRICOTS (NCR)

APRICOTS was a produce identification training system for grocery store cashiers. It was developed by the NCR Human Interface Technology Center. Don Rickert was responsible for the usability evaluation research of this project.

IE-Expert (Product of James Martin & Company)

A comprehensive online and print reference to the Information Engineering Methodology (IEM). Don Rickert led user interface design, creation of end-user documentation and usability testing on this product.

AD-Expert (Product of James Martin & Company)

An online repository of detailed knowledge and experience in using the Information Engineering Methodology within IBM's AD/Cycle environment. Don Rickert led user interface design, creation of end-user documentation and usability testing on this product.

FastPROJECT and FastPACE (Products of James Martin & Company)

FastPROJECT was an online tool that assisted in generating project plans. FastPACE was a related step-by-step online guide to project completion that provided detailed procedures for every development task. Don Rickert conducted usability research as part of both of these related initiatives.

Help Desk Assistant (The George Washington University Computer Center)

This was a hypertext system for a University help desk that supported over 100 software products and systems, with a user population of over 20,000. Its purpose was to assist part-time help-desk personnel in referring problems that they could not solve to the appropriate full-time staff expert. Don Rickert directed all aspects of this product, including user research.

Problem and Solution Knowledge Base for Help Desk Personnel (The George Washington University Computer Center)

This was a related hypertext system, also for a University help desk that supported many products for many users. It's purpose was to collect solution sets in a format that was easy to retrieve. Rickert directed all aspects of this product, including consumer research.

Electronic Brochure for the George Washington University

This was a hypertext brochure on a diskette. It was implemented in Hypercard for Mac computers and IBM Linkways for Intel computers.Don Rickert directed all aspects of this product, including user research.

Computer Purchase Configuration Assistant for Students (The George Washington University Student/Faculty Computer Purchase Program)

This was a hypertext "decision tree" tool to help students and faculty to navigate a complex set of purchase options in a computer purchase program. Rickert directed all aspects of this product, including consumer research.

Program Guide and Related Collateral Materials for the Bell-Atlantic (now Verizon) Stargazer Interactive TV Market Trial

These guides were print catelogs of available videos-on-demand. Don Rickert and his team developed, through extensive user-centered design and user testing, the portion of the guides dealing with the use of the equipment, especially the remote control device.

The NCR Human Interface Technology Center

The NCR Human Interface Technology Center in Atlanta, GA was established in 1988. For a period of about 6 years, it was the AT&T Human Interface Technology Center, but then went back to its original name after AT&T divested itself of what had been NCR. In any case the Human Interface Technology Center (HITC) was one of the greatest human-centered R&D labs in the world.

It existed to meet NCR's customers' business needs through the application of new human-interface technologies. The HITC designed and developed these user-interface solutions through a user-centered design (UCD) process, in which user needs and expectations guided all design and development decisions. In its height, the HITC employed about 100 engineers and scientists with expertise in such areas as user experience, usability, human factors, ergonomics, cognitive engineering, graphic design, computer science, artificial intelligence, intelligent tutoring, database mining, and new interaction technologies.

Many HITC alumni, including Dr. Don Rickert, have gone on to great things for other companies and academic institutions.

APRICOTS: System to Teach Cashiers How to Correctly Identify Produce Items by Name

APRICOTS was a project of the NCR Human Interface Technology Center (HITC), where Don Rickert consulted for several years.

While the whole concept of a system to teach fruit and vegetable recognition sounds funny (it did to Don Rickert at first), this is actually a big deal for grocery chains. Millions of dollars are lost every year from cashiers confusing some kind of really expensive leafy green for iceberg lettuce, and so forth.

The system taught cashiers to identify produce items by name and price lookup (PLU) code. The training provided external instructional events to support the cashier's internal processes of learning. Interviews and observations were used to understand the cashiers' job and relevant issues in produce recognition training. Then, an adaptive instructional design strategy and associated graphical user interface was developed.

Don Rickert designed the user research of APRICOTS in order to obtain feedback from cashiers on the effectiveness of APRICOTS' underlying instructional design compared to current training methods.

Introduction to this Portfolio

This portfolio section shows a variety of examples of Don Rickert's work, relatively current as well as prior to the establishment of Don Rickert Research & Design. While there are, indeed, a number of physical innovation and designs included here, many are simply projects that did not seem to fit anywhere else...in other words, "Miscellaneous". The project examples are grouped into the following categories.

• Online References
• ATMs & Self-Checkout Terminals
• Interactive Television (ITV) and Video-on-Demand (VOD)
• Remote Control Devices
• Research Labs (the actual design and construction in most cases)
• Questionnaires could be force-fit into this category; however, there will be a separate Surveys and Questionnaires Portfolio at some point