Part Two of Observation Assignment

For the second stage of this exercise, pick the interaction you found the most interesting and observe and describe it in depth.

What is the setting? An apartment where there is a buzzer to unlock the front door of the building, plus an intercom.

What is the physical orientation of the person (sitting, standing, etc)? One person is standing at the entrance of the building, usually in a small interior foyer, waiting for the door to be unlocked (aka: to be buzzed in). The other person is standing inside the apartment at the buzzer.

What does the person physically do in the course of the interaction? The person who enters the building must first locate the interface and then figure out which buzzer corresponds to the correct apartment he or she is visiting. The person then presses the buzzer for several seconds as to make sure the person in the apartment hears the buzz (but not too long as to annoy the occupant). The occupant then must rush to their buzzer, and either press the talk button or simply unlock the entrance through the buzzer. If the person presses the talk button, then the other person waiting to be let in must listen (not easy to do) and respond by simply talking or locating a talk button (this always seems awkward). finally, the occupant now buzzes to let their friend in and holds down the button for several seconds to give their friend time to grab the door knob and open the door. Often this routine fails and the person must again buzz the occupant to let them know that they failed to open the door in time.


How many steps does it take? At least 2 or 3 steps on the part of each participant (the occupant and the visitor) assuming everything works as planned.

How many times is the person listening to the device? again, 3 or 3 times each IF everything works as planned... and often it does not.

How many times is the device "listening" to the person? It's not, it's simply a gateway for two people to interact.

What's the balance of that time? 30 seconds to a minute... assuming the people have interacted with the interface before, otherwise this could take minutes.