This is a technique designed to illicit the emotion behind why people respond positively or negatively to your services, by asking them to write a letter to that service either declaring love or "breaking up" with it. This is by far the most jarring technique described here, and although potentially very revealing it has to be used with care. The concept is to ask the participant to write a Love Letter or a Break-Up Letter to a Service you provide, or potentially to an area or space (but never to a member of staff or indeed any other person…). By using the construct of a letter rather than just asking someone to describe what they like or dislike about a service, you sometimes get to the emotional heart of how the user feels. You see not just the fact that X annoys or delights them, but WHY this is the case: as such it’s good for identifying pain-points or things people really appreciate. After all, it is so many small things that make up the User Experience. You will need to book a meeting room as Love and Break-up Letters usually happen in a one-on-one setting (but of all the techniques discussed here, are most likely to work in a small group setting, perhaps as part of a focus group). They also require specific and informed, signed consent from the user. We used Love and Break-Up Letters in Summer UX and PGRUX. Here are a couple of examples: firstly a break-up letter, then a two love-letterletters. Section |
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title | Break-Up Letter Example |
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| "Dear online journals, I'm afraid that I must break-up with you. It has been 3 years and I see no improvements year on year. When I use you on campus it's generally easy, search opens up with little effort and making things so much better for me. However as soon as I try to contact you away from campus, all hell lets loose. I have to login to actually manage to find the right paper (the search function on the uni website being terrible). I need to click through a whole load more links.And repeat for the next paper. Surely when I am even VPN onto the university it would be OK to have automatic access, but this is not the case. There are also journals we have no subscription to which is disappointing and I am already contacting other friends at other unis to have them access the papers and send them to me as their relationships are so much better. So we must end this, sorry." |
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title | Love Letter Example |
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| "Dear flexible loan system. Thank you for existing!!! I have never studied at a university that has a program of borrowing like this. Thanks to you, I have been able to keep many useful books in my room for almost a whole year, because no one else other than me needed them. Please always stay this way and don't change - You even give reasonable time to return books someone has recalled!" |
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title | Love Letter |
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| "Dear lovely library, Hello. I’m a postgraduate student from China but I’m leaving you in a month. That’s a sad news, isn’t it? I think I’ll miss you when I return to my hometown. Will you miss me? I love you especially the Morrell part and I think you love me as well. Thank you for providing me such great study and research resources. I enjoy the quiet and nice places you provide me. However, you also trouble me during examinations cause I never find a suitable seat then. Crowded! Crowded! Crowded! How could I wish that you always reserve a private place for me. Finally, I also thank you for the cafe. I enjoyed the hot chocolate although it tastes different every day. I’ll visit you again some day. Love you! Thank you soooooo much!" |
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