Used for a guest lecture delivered for students at the Art Institute College of Design in Pasadena, California.

1. FOURTHINGS
YOU GOTTA KNOW
about UX Research
in an hour
@JohnAmirAbbassi
UX Research Manager, StubHub

4. MY PATH
“You can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect
them looking backwards…you have to trust that the dots will
somehow connect in your future.” - Steve Jobs
Talking to 50 frustrated
customers a night!
Improving experiences and
measuring them.
Marrying what people are doing
with why…
Building a maturing
UX Research practice

5. ISO 9241-210[1] defines
user experience as "a
person's perceptions and
responses that result from
the use or anticipated use of
a product, system or service"

6. UX = how users feel
and respond to what
you have created

7. You are an awesome designer.
!
Why should you care?

10. “Successful invention is inventions that
customers care about. It’s actually
relatively easy to invent new things
that customers don’t care about.”

11. Great Success
Not so much
Source: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/lessons-from-jeff-bezos/

13. How do
you know
your design
or idea is
great?
!
You test it!
(The right way).

14. UX Research = provides
insights about possible
and actual users of your
products and their
abilities to the right
people at the right time
Adapted from Tomer Sharon’s from Google’s definition found here...
Source: https://speakerdeck.com/tsharon/winning-that-elusive-buy-in-for-ux-research-webdagene-2013

15. Adapted from source: http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/14/32/61/143261c496a06e51ed69c000d1cc2dfc.jpg
TYPES OF RESEARCH
Typically comes
from market
research
Attitudes - what people tell us Behaviors - what people do
“IS IT EASY
TO USE?”
aka
Usability
Testing

16. USER RESEARCH BELIEVES IN
!
OBSERVATION OF PEOPLE IN ACTION
OR
ASKINGTHEMTO RECALL WHAT
THEY’VE DONE INTHE PAST
!
WE DON’TTYPICALLY ASK
“WOULDYOU WANTTHIS?” or
“WOULDYOU DOTHIS?”

17. George Brett

20. Attitudes vs Behaviors

22. 4TIPS FOR GREAT RESEARCH
1 - GET OUT OFYOUR BUBBLE
TALK AND WATCH REAL PEOPLE

23. THINGSTO REMEMBER
You will always be surprised by how people you are
designing for think.

24. AVOIDTHE MYTH OFTHE GENERIC USER
Who are you
creating for?
What are his/her
needs? beliefs?
Recruit a
representative
group of people
and observe and/or
interview them
GOAL: EMPATHIZE

26. 4TIPS FOR GREAT RESEARCH
1I - USETHE RIGHT METHODSTO
GETTHE RIGHT ANSWERS

27. 4TIPS FOR GREAT RESEARCH
1I - USETHE RIGHT METHODSTO
GETTHE RIGHT ANSWERS
Low Fidelity High Fidelity
USERTESTING
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
EYETRACKING
ETHNOGRAPHY
RAPID ITERATIVETESTING AND EVALUATION
(R.I.T.E.)
5 SECONDTEST
A/BTESTING
FOCUS GROUPS
Conceptual
FIRST CLICKTEST
BENCHMARKING
SURVEYS
DIARY STUDIES
GENERATIVE
WHAT SHOULD WE MAKE?
EVALUATIVE
HOW SHOULD IT WORK?
CARD SORTING
TREETESTING

29. 4TIPS FOR GREAT RESEARCH
1I - USETHE RIGHT METHOD
WHATYOU NEED

30. 4TIPS FOR GREAT RESEARCH
1I - USETHE RIGHT METHOD
WHATYOU NEED
WEBCAM FOCUSED ON THE PARTICIPANT
LAPTOP W/GO TO MEETING OR CAMTASIA
SLED W/WEBCAM OR APPLE TV
PARTICIPANT
MODERATOR

31. 4TIPS FOR GREAT RESEARCH
3 - GARBAGE IN = GARBAGE OUT
TEST WITH AN OUTPUT IN MIND
Create a research plan:
!
Objective - We are testing the usability of the login for our registration
system.
!
Hypothesis/Assumptions -
The login for the registration system will streamline the class registration
process by reducing the average number of steps it takes to register by
25%.
!
The login will be intuitive, all users tested will be able to login without
assistance.
!
Recruitment Criteria - Recruiting students (current and prospective),
teachers. 10 total.
!
Tasks - what do we want them to do, so we can measure them doing
it? (Log in, Register).

32. 4TIPS FOR GREAT RESEARCH
RECORD PEOPLE SOYOU CAN REVIEW WHATTHEY DID:
!
!
DOWNLOAD THE
RAINBOW SPREADSHEET
HERE: http://bit.ly/1nIBW2T
GOOGLE “GOTO
MEETING” OR “CAMTASIA”
FOR SCREEN CAP
SOFTWARE

33. 4TIPS FOR GREAT RESEARCH
For the hardcore geeks... www.measuringusability.com
SUS scores
Probabilities

34. 4TIPS FOR GREAT RESEARCH
4 -TIMING ANDTEAMWORK IS EVERYTHING
Pay at the Pump New Mobile App Home Screen

35. THINGSTO REMEMBER
4 -TIMING ANDTEAMWORK IS EVERYTHING
3 -TEST WITH AN OUTPUT IN MIND
2 - USETHE RIGHT METHODSTO GET
THE RIGHT ANSWERS
1 - GET OUT OFYOUR BUBBLE,
TALK AND WATCH REAL PEOPLE
Peeps to follow on twitter:
@jmspool @cydharrell @boltron @uie @usertesting @adaptivepath @measuringu
Sites to bookmark
www.nngroup.com - Great source for tons of info on testing and usability
www.optimalworkshop.com - Card sort/tree test/first click testing tool
www.usabilityhub.com - Almost free first click and 5 second testing (with designers)
www.usertesting.com - Remote usability, build a prototype and post it.They will do the rest.

36. Book suggestions
Don’t make me think
by Steve Krug
Eye tracking the
user experience
by Aga Bojko
Measuring
user experience
byTomTullis/Bill Albert

37. Thanks!
!
linkedin.com/in/jabbassi
@JohnAmirAbbassi