Tablet PC Talk Forums

[ChrisD]

Greetings:

The Microsoft Tablet PC Usability Team is looking for a group of Tablet PC end users, whom they could arrange to meet and interview for a nationwide usability study they will be conducting in May/June. For more information about Microsoft's Usability Research program, please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/usability/faq.htm

The focus of their upcoming Tablet PC field research study is for Microsoft's Tablet PC team to meet and talk to active TabletPC users via a face to face interview to learn more about their Tablet PC usage scenarios in addition to getting their feedback on a couple of low fidelity prototypes they have. The focus areas are:

* learning more about how people are currently using the Tablet PC in slate mode
* learning more about how people are using the Tablet PC as a mobile device
* learning more about how people are using the pen (honing down on usability issues)

For this particular wave of field visits slated for the May-June timeframe, the Tablet PC team is targeting to meet with Tablet PC "end users" (non IT Pros or Developers), who use the Tablet PC regularly as part of their work (as their primary or secondary machine). The number one priority population of users they're interested in interviewing are people who work in organizations who got a Tablet PC rolled out to them by their corporate IT departments. Their second highest priority population of users they'd like to visit are people currently using the Tablet PC as part of their work, but who didn't necessarily get their Tablet PCs rolled out to them by their organization's IT departments. These individuals could be independent business owners, people working in small to enterprise size organizations, who are actively using the Tablet PC as their work machine for their line of work. Lawyers, Sales professionals, Consultants, Educators, Trainers, Physicians, Project Managers, Construction PMs, Insurance agents, etc. are all examples of folks who might be perfect candidates for this wave of site visits.

In more general terms, we expect that the type of people who will qualify for this particular study will be involved in specific scenarios like using Outlook on their Tablets for email, using some type of company line of business applications or Microsoft Office applications on their Tablets, and/or attending meetings fequently and taking notes on their Tablets.

The overall goal for this Tablet PC field research, as mentioned above, is for the Microsoft Tablet PC Usability team to learn from people who actively use their Tablets in slate mode and use it in mobile settings; so they are especially interested in people who are doing those things to tell Microsoft what they like/dislike and what Microsoft can do to make their experiences better.

If you're interested in learning more about this upcoming field research study, please contact tatsa@microsoft.com for more details. If selected to participate, the time commitment is 2 hours and the session will consist of a structured interview that will conclude with participants giving the Tablet PC team feedback on low fidelity designs of shell types.

This is a wonderful opportunity for Tablet PC users from the community to provide the Microsoft with direct feedback on what they can do to make the next version of Tablet more easier to use and to suit your business needs. All scheduled participants will receive a generous software gratuity for participating in these field visits. Due to high demand of users interested in participating, the Tablet PC team will most likely be conducting more of these site visits later in the year. Also, they will be conducting a separate set of site visits for the Developers and IT Pros who are involved in working on the Tablets. More information on this will be revealed later in the year.

Those of you interested in being a candidate for this wave of site visits taking place in the May-June timeframe should complete the Microsoft Usability Group's online enrollment form located at: http://www.microsoft.com/usability/enrollment.htm

Additionally, please complete and email the attached preliminary screener document to Tats Amase (tatsa@microsoft.com), who will be using this informatin to screen possible candidates. You can also email your brief biography to Tats Amase to help boost your chances of being selected for
this wave of site visits. Please note in your response to Tats that you
obtained this study information from the TabletPC Talk site. Tats can also be contacted at 425-706-2176, should you have any questions.