Download Summary of Interview with Rick

ARTHRITIS SOURCE
Synthesis of Results of “Interview with Designer”
Goals of the Designer and Implications for Research & Re-Design
Julianne Fondiller, Jennifer Turns, Jake Burghar, Brett Shelton, Scott Macklin
24 January 2000 (Draft)
In order to gain a better understanding of the designer’s intentions with the Arthritis Source,
we conducted an interview with the designer, Rick Matsen, on November 15, 1999. Further,
we wanted to gather more information that would generate potential research questions for
the PETTT team as well as re-design ideas for the D3 team. Below is a summary of Rick’s
interview compiled from observations of four researchers, followed by the implications for
re-design and research questions.
Goals and Intentions of the Designer
Goal of the Source: Original goal was to provide a “single repository” of arthritis
information for many audiences (listed below).
History: The source was originally developed by Rick Matsen in collaboration with Michael
Burdett, a systems administrator. Rick claims to see the Source, and learning through the
source, as an extension of the educational mission of the university. In fact, Rick pointed out
that discussion of the Source is about teaching and learning as much as English 101 is about
teaching and learning.
Intended Audiences: Patients with arthritis, primary care physicians, families of people with
arthritis, medical/nursing/PT students and practitioners. Rick doesn’t want to prioritize the
importance of any audience group. He claims it’s for all these groups, no specific group.
However, as seen in the specific audience descriptions below, Rick has more knowledge and
feedback of Arthritis patients using the site.
Audience:
Arthritis patients
Characteristics of people with arthritis:
 Arthritis is a life-long, non-fatal disease, so their information needs are “life-long”
 May not have access to a specialist, such as a rheumatologist
 Easy to forget the information the doctor told them during a visit
 Majority are women. Rick notes that “women are courageous – fighting for independent,
to be self reliant, likens them to gladiators. He notes that the population is a “great
population to work with.” He provides examples of women who have problems that
would “devastate others”. Specifically he talks about a watercolor artist whose arm gets
broken because of weakness and is still trying to hold a brush.
 Motivated to learn
 May have sensitive/personal questions they don’t want to ask a doctor, which is provided
in the Source
Types of info people with arthritis need:
 To be their own “health maintenance organization”
 To take control of and manage their own life- since arthritis affects every aspect of one’s
life
People with arthritis may use the Source to look up:
 General information on “Living with Arthritis”
 Specific information on medications or a type of arthritis
 How-to perform exercises
 Information that may be embarrassing to ask about, such as sex and arthritis.
 Information about specific types of arthritis, when they are in a remote area where there
are no specialists.
Goals for patients
 Rick mentions an idea of “bonding patients” to the site.
Primary care physicians
Uses
 Primary care physicians may use the Source to look up information on arthritis for a
diagnosis.
 In particular, Rick suggested that possibly useful components of the Source for PCP are
exercises and information on types of arthritis.
 Rick claimed that the source could be “terrifically informative for users”.
Knowledge of Actual use
 However, Rick doesn’t know if it’s ever been used this way;
 Rick described how a doctor and patient might collaborate using the Source – the doctor
could suggest that the patient do particular exercises and that they can look up the
exercises on the Source. In fact, Rick suggests that he currently does this.
 Rick described how two doctors might collaborate using the Source – a less
knowledgable doctor may have questions about arthritis, call a hotline, and be referred to
the source. Rick suggest that the Orthopedics department currently has outreach to rural
doctors and that such doctors are currently referred to the site.
Students
Rick thinks students may use the Source for help in problem-solving class assignments;
however, Rick doesn’t know if it’s really used this way.
Advertising of Website
The website is not advertised much because he wants to “update” it. The URL is on
stationary and cards (business cards?). He sometimes refers patients to specific information
on the Source (ie. exercises), but not all the time.
Rick thinks the UW name lends credibility to the Source.
CD and Kiosk
The intended audiences are the same for the website, CD, and kiosk.
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CD’s were given to The Arthritis Foundation about 4 years ago. Rick thinks the CD’s were
important as “proof of principle” or proof of the Source. However, tThe Foundation is the
only place the CD’s been disseminated to. In the future, he’d like to distribute them to
libraries in WA.
The kiosk is “advertised” simply by its location in the facility. It’s surrounded by Arthritis
Foundation logos and brochures; it’s part of a “learning center.”
Future goals for the Source
1. In the future, Rick would like to make it easier for other doctors to add content to the site.
He put in a lot of work, and he would like it to be easier to encourage doctors/experts to
take ownership over a subject or area on the site.
2. Rick also talked about allowing users to tailor the site.
Video
Rick had many observations about the use of video. Video is currently used to demonstrate
exercises. He is concerned about technical issues – include size of files, download time,
different video presentation formats, etc. While some movies appear to have voice over, there
is no accompanying text description for most of them.
Overall Development Approach.
Rick made several observations about his overall development approach. He talked about
how the information is present at two levels of detail. Rick pointed out that there is more
information than can be used in one session and that “if they know it is there, at least they
know they can come back to it.”
The following are potential research and re-design issues that are suggested from the
interview results. Note that there are many issues areas could be researched. Therefore, we
need some criteria for choosing among these research areas.
Implications - Questions We can Ask Concerning the Site
Continuity between sessions
11. Continuity Between Sessions
- Do users have an ability to recall information they read, and to find information they wish
to revisit?
Collaborations
11. Collaboration between Doctor, Patient and Web
- Do doctor’s recommend web use (not yet, maybe Rick would like to see it)
12. Collaboration between Doctor, Patient, and Web
- what happens in the doctor’s office (field study, if we truly want to understand)
15. Scenario – Collaboration between Doctor and Patient
- Patient: goes to doctor and gets information
- Patient: goes home
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- Friend: What did doctor say
- Patient: I don’t remember
18. Rick gives URL for people to look up exercises
- Doing it more and more frequently
- Q: how often does he really do this? How many people actually follow-up? What
prevents these people from following up?
21. Patients Bonding to Site
- Rick talked about “Bonding patient to a site” – can we find evidence of this in the logfile
35. Collaborations between Bone/Joint and PCP
Julianne asked Rick – have you talked to any PCP – and he responded that “we often
direct them”. He talked about the UW participation in the UWa Physicians Network,
staffing physicians throughout King County. He noted that he gets emails with
symptoms and directs PCP to source along with a diagnosis. It sounds like he did all the
work. It would be good to document an example of this type of use.
Effectiveness of Current Information Organization
21. Effectiveness of Two Levels of Information
- He talked about how the information is present at two levels of detail
- One question I have – are the categories the best categories – what makes a good
category?
Controversy
25. The level of Controversy associated with Information in the Source
- We talked a bit about whether the site is meant to be a non-biased web site, and how truly
this can be done. For example, are exercises or medication doses controversial? Should
they be presented as fact or as controversy? If it is done, what role do controversies play
in the design and how do you communicate what is a controversy.
Credibility
36. Primary Care Physicians
Observations – for PCP, it may be more important to have some form of credibility
present. Rick suggested that the credibility of the site comes from the Arthritis
Foundation logo and the University of Washington logo. Is this sufficient? Should there
be some sort of review process?
Design / Science of Learning Research
General Areas

Information Needs of User Groups. Are the information needs are the same for arthritis
patients, medical students, primary care physicians, and all users? Are the “lessons” for
arthritis patients the same exact lessons as for medical students, as for nursing students,
etc.? Or are the learning goals the same for each audience? If we determine that the
many user groups (arthritis patients, primary care physicians, etc.) have different
information needs, can we provide one site for different users with different needs? What
information architecture would best support that?
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
Presenting Different Opinions. Since the medical field is full of differing viewpoints, do
we want to offer a range of viewpoints and opinions on the Source? If so, how do we
provide differing medical viewpoints, while keeping a cohesive site as well as
maintaining credibility?

Customizing the Site to Support Long-Term Relationships between Users and Source.
Since Arthritis patients live with this disease their whole life, they, therefore, have
continual information needs on arthritis. So, would a customized Arthritis Source be
more helpful? By "customized," I mean something similar to a news site, where you can
choose the sections for your home page, or something similar to Amazon, which keeps
track of your interests and makes recommendations.

Re-design to Acknowledge Physical Limitations of Arthritis Patients. Since arthritis
often affects people's hands, wrists and arms, we should consider the Source's navigation
system. Is there a navigation system appropriate for physically challenged users? For
instance, something with less "clicks"?
What are the "Right" or More Useful ways to characterize Users
30. Other User Distinctions
- The above observations and thoughts suggested that a useful distinction might be
between a browsing user and a revisit user.
Matching Users with the Right Information
8. Tension – Nuance
- “Old Idea” that of packaging information for specific users
8. Site Tailoring
- Creative environment site that allows users to tailor the site to their needs
- This suggests an open question – what does it mean for users to tailor the site, what depth
is required, how to set up the personal site
- Phases of tailoring: Rick suggested that Source is easy to tailor, that previously materials
were pre-tailored, and perhaps UCD suggests that users can tailor things themselves
35. If Multiple Users - Maybe Different Users want different information
a. Rick suggests that possibly useful components to PCPs include the exercises and
information on types of arthritis.
LongTerm Relationship between User and Site
36. Rick suggests that there is more information than can be used in one session and that “if
they know it is there, at least they know they can come back to it.”
31. “No need for user to file information away.” - We would need to better understand this
issue!
- Rick makes a comment that there is a lot of information yet there is “no need for user to
file information away.” How does this play out in practice? Do users print the
information? Do they read it? Can they find it again, when they are looking for it? Do
they bookmark specific pages?
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Collaborative Site Use - Distributed Site Use: How to promote?
36. With Primary Care Physicians - how to promote, model, synthesize with other
approaches?
b. The way Rick is talking suggests that he think PCP might use the Source on a patient
by patient basis. What does this suggest about how a doctor might configure the site
– as a portfolio on each patient? Further, the PCP might work with patient for the
patient to set up their own portal.
c. For PCP, the source provides doctors with the “basic tools”. This suggests a question
– how do PCPs get information in other contexts? For other diseases?
Use of Representations
33. Images
- One observation – there are movies in the web site but few diagrams or other images that
help to organize or make sense of the information. In general, there are few cues to help
you make sense of the information
Capturing Controversy:
Maybe this relates to different between user populations. Doctors may need more
information about controversy. How to decide level of controversy to present and present it?
25. The level of Controversy associated with Information in the Source
- We talked a bit about whether the site is meant to be a non-biased web site, and how truly
this can be done. For example, are exercises or medication doses controversial? Should
they be presented as fact or as controversy? If it is done, what role do controversies play
in the design and how do you communicate what is a controversy.
28. Age of the Information
- Medicines – how up to date is this information,
35. Primary Care Physicians
Observations – for PCP, it may be more important to have some form of credibility
present. Rick suggested that the credibility of the site comes from the Arthritis
Foundation logo and the University of Washington logo. Is this sufficient? Should there
be some sort of review process?
Design Implications for Video
4. Rick makes several comments about the use of Video:
- Time to download
- People “may not have resources” to download
- Some people said they downloaded and stored forever
- We didn’t design very well
- Consideration – shorter video (e.g., 1 repetition of video)
6. “Download connection tolerance”
- We talked about this as a factor that affects how long users will wait for videos:
- Download time depends on screen resolution, 15 vs. 30 vs. 10 frames per second
23. On the Motivation to Learn of Patients with Arthritis
- Scott made the connection between motivation and download tolerance – if the user is
motivated, then they might be willing to wait longer for a download.
36. Rick showed the movie of an exercise being demonstrated.
- While some movies have voice over, there is no accompanying text description.
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-
-
-
We talked as a group about the streaming technology (streaming at 15frames/sec,
30frames/sec, and download entire movie) and tradeoffs. If we could have more
information about the user, then we could give choices and suggest the type of choice that
they might find useful if they are a user with certain characteristics.
In the exercises – the movie shows what is right but not what is wrong. What additional
educational value is there is showing not only the right way but pointing out wrong ways
and how they are different?
Rick suggests that there is more information than can be used in one session and that “if
they know it is there, at least they know they can come back to it.”
Others Contributing
9. Future research needs
- Allow users to tailor web site
- Allow other researchers/developers to contribute to site
40. When asked about any other comments – he suggested that he would like to see it
possible for other doctor’s to add content, and make the construction a collaborative
venture.
Genres of Educational Technology
19. “Perfect Organization” – World Book Encyclopedia
- how does it relate to other encyclopedias
- Encyclopedia – pursue to see if people are doing research
- Maybe calling it an encyclopedia narrows it too much
- Are people at Encarta and other places looking at adaptable strategies?
Risks of Site?
36. What are risks of having this information available?
Rick provides an example of a doctor trying to make a diagnosis, he suggests a description of
the patient as a “bit stretchy”
Phases of Web Development
3. Phases of web development
- Re-purposing
- Learning environment
- Fully interactive
10. Phases
- Paradigm for web development – there may be an existing framework
- Aaron’s experience in making changes to the site provides lesson’s learned
- Not user centered design, tradeoffs
- Tension – making progress vs. full user centered design, suggest that we allow faculty to
put syllabus online before “forcing” them to be full user centered design people
- Aaron has seen industry resources on web development and discussion of types of stages
32. Creating Personalized Space on Source
- We talked about Phase 3 Development where users might create their own web site.
CNN, Amazon, and my UW were cited as examples
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Helping Instructors as Developers
Characterizing Novice Developers are Learners
What are the characteristics of instructor-developers such as Rick? Specifically, if instructordevelopers are one of our target populations (we want to help instructor developers create
useful information technologies) then we need to characterize our user population. How do
we characterize instructor-developers. Are Rick and his partners good models?
1. Rick explains some ideas about the starting of the source
- “we” – Rick and Michael Burdett (network administrator)
- Thesis – “body of information useful to all kinds of users, same core of information”
Motivation for New Developers (and Tension for UCD)
17. UCD for New Developers - Full UCD vs. Interest
- What motivates people to create a website for learners such as Rick has done. If we want
other potential developer to spend the time that Rick has (or even a portion of the time),
then we would need to understand how to balance UCD considerations with steps that
keep the participant excited. In this case, the use of videos seems to interest Rick. The
implication in such a case might be that the development should focus on videos early on,
even if such a focus seems premature from a UCD perspective.
8. Maybe Tradeoff UCD for Enthusiasm
- Paradigm for web development – there may be an existing framework
- Aaron’s experience in making changes to the site provides lesson’s learned
- Not user centered design, tradeoffs
- Tension – making progress vs. full user centered design, suggest that we allow faculty to
put syllabus online before “forcing” them to be full user centered design people
- Aaron has seen industry resources on web development and discussion of types of stages
14. Motivation for Developers? Fun – a lot of people who found “us” have contacted them
- Rick and colleagues have received emails from Japan, from remote users
Developer Ideas about Users
7. Intended Users
- Population at large – including the physical therapists
- Kids writing papers: he knows because of specific interactions he had with people
- He wants to do hits/tracks because he doesn’t know the exact use, who, how, where
- Users may not be able to leave home
22. Rick describes Female patients with great respect.
23. On the Motivation to Learn of Patients with Arthritis
- Rick says – “if you put information there, they are motivated and try to seek out the
information”
- Rick says – “you can be the greatest teacher, but if you don’t have students that don’t
want to learn…”
23. Expectations/Hope for Opportunistic Use by Users: When asked about the intended
users, Rick seems to respond with a broad list of people that he “hopes” the source will help,
rather than a list of people for whom he specifically designed the source to help.
- Rick say that some information is useful for nursing students and medical students – but
he does not mention the motivated issue.
9. Primary Care Physicians
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-
Rick suggests that possibly useful components to PCPs include the exercises and
information on types of arthritis.
- Rick states that the information is “terrifically informative for them [PCPs]”
37. Students
- Julianne asks Rick how students use the site and he responds that he doesn’t know
- He suggests that medical education is shifting to PBL and that with such a change might
be a stronger need for students to use a site such as the Source. He specifically says that
the “source would be tremendously valuable to them.”
- “Our hope is that these resources would be used by students.”
30. Assumption about user - does rick recognize that this might be a problematic
assumption?
- Rick makes a comment that there is a lot of information yet there is “no need for user to
file information away.” How does this play out in practice? Do users print the
information? Do they read it? Can they find it again, when they are looking for it? Do
they bookmark specific pages?
Developer Ideas about Role of Technology in Educational Context
What are the notions of the developer about the role of the educational technology in
context? This framing will lead to the developers understanding of the role of activities such
as advertising.
38. Advertisement
- Currently there is specific form of advertisement except the sign above the kiosk and the
URL being at the top of the letterhead.
- When asked is he refers his patients to the site, Rick suggested that he tells them to go to
the site, but his answer seemed reserved. Why not suggest that more users use it. He
later suggested that he resisted the temptation to advertise because he knows it is not very
good.
Developer Intuitive Philosophy
2. Issue of Pre-tailored Information vs. Self-tailored Information
- “Old Idea”: information packaged to each user, Rick suggested that the WEB lets people
tailor it themselves
35. Rick showed the movie of an exercise being demonstrated.
- Rick suggests that there is more information than can be used in one session and that “if
they know it is there, at least they know they can come back to it.”
10. Tension – Nuance
- “Old Idea” that of packaging information for specific users
- Creative environment site that allows users to tailor the site to their needs
- This suggests an open question – what does it mean for users to tailor the site, what depth
is required, how to set up the personal site
- Phases of tailoring: Rick suggested that Source is easy to tailor, that previously materials
were pre-tailored, and perhaps UCD suggests that users can tailor things themselves
20. Users
- Rick was very unwilling to prioritize users
21. Patients
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Rick talked about two areas of information – College and Arthritis, Questions that users
are embarrassed to ask such as Sex and Arthritis (How much are these components
referenced)?
- He talked about how the information is present at two levels of detail
- One question I have – are the categories the best categories – what makes a good
category?
21. Bonding Users
- Rick talked about “Bonding patient to a site” – can we find evidence of this in the logfile
-
Developer Process
What are his expectations about how valuable it would be to watch a user use the site? Does
he have ideas about differences between his expectations of their use and their actual use?
Does he have rich ideas about how they use it? His demonstration was much more limited
than his discussion!
26., Julianne asks Rick to demonstrate how a user/patient might actually use the source.
- Rick’s first response is that “he has to use his imagination because he has never
watched patients actually use it” This is an important issue, but one to be done during
design…
- He goes to front page and points out that there are 4 main categories on the page.
- He goes first to the overview (would an existing user go there?)
- Rick notes while he is using the site, “it’s not the world’s most perfect web site, it lacks
organization”
Developer Ideas about Quality of Site
4. When describing Video, rick comments about quality
- We didn’t design very well
- Consideration – shorter video (e.g., 1 repetition of video)
38. When asked about advertising, Rick says he is cautious…
- When asked is he refers his patients to the site, Rick suggested that he tells them to go to
the site, but his answer seemed reserved. Why not suggest that more users use it. He
later suggested that he resisted the temptation to advertise because he knows it is not very
good.
26. Developer ideas of quality
- Rick notes while he is using the site, “it’s not the world’s most perfect web site, it lacks
organization”
34. Developer ideas about effectiveness
- Rick says “it’s been hit a lot” although it is unclear why he knows this and how he knows
this
Developer Sense of what they need help with
This information provides a sense of their open questions. As such, it represents information
about their zone of proximal development.
39. When asked about CD’s – he commented that they are easier for video since the CD’s
require no download. He also suggested that “that is something you guys can help me
with.”
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40. When asked about any other comments – he suggested that he would like to see it
possible for other doctor’s to add content, and make the construction a collaborative
venture.
Sources of Information for Developers?
5. Places that focus on development issues, video issues
- Web monkey
- E-zine
- builders.com
What level of design/automation solutions?
19. “Perfect Organization” – World Book Encyclopedia
- how does it relate to other encyclopedias
- Encyclopedia – pursue to see if people are doing research
- Maybe calling it an encyclopedia narrows it too much
- Are people at Encarta and other places looking at adaptable strategies?
Draft
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