Probes force designers to think about the context and motivations of use, thus building a stronger understanding of the target audience and potentially leading to more informed designs.
John Murphy
John Murphy is a practicing human computer/human factors industry consultant. He has qualifications in mechanical engineering and computer science and a masters degree in ergonomics and human computer interaction. His commercial work spans all phases of design and testing of user interfaces and interaction for the web, mobile telephones, and software applications. He is also involved in research as the industry partner in a government-sponsored project with the University of Melbourne in Australia. Through this research, he has participated in the design, data gathering, and examination of cultural probes.