A Tool for Supporting Protocol Analysis

Protocol analysis is extensively used for detailed empirical studies of design processes, both for understanding designing ‘as is’ and for evaluating design support in detail. Protocol analysis involves manual transcription of videos of design sessions where a think-aloud protocol is often used by participant designers. In this paper we discuss the need for protocol analysis, identify the requirements for support required, review available aids, and propose a new aid for transcribing video protocols. The requirement list for such a support is developed using feedback from experienced design researchers who had completed many hours of transcription and coding in the past. A tool called ‘Idea-Transcribe’ has been developed with this set of requirements. The tool has been extensively used by many design researchers in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, who found it useful. The tool was able to reduce transcription time by half, and provide many essential facilities which were opted by the researchers, such as automatic time stamping and integrated typing environment.