The document discusses user experience (UX) research methods that can be used to understand users and improve products. It outlines both qualitative research methods like surveys, focus groups, interviews and contextual inquiry as well as analytical methods like personas, user stories, affinity diagrams and qualitative models. The goal of UX research is to speak the user's language and ensure that if a user cannot use a product, it does not work. Examples are provided of how UX research has been applied in industries like aviation, healthcare, hotels and developing new cereal products.
User experience (UX) research is important to understand users and ensure products meet their needs. UX research involves various qualitative and quantitative methods like surveys, focus groups, interviews, and testing to understand how users interact with products and what improvements could be made. It is important that research speaks the user's language and tests whether a product can actually be used by the intended users. UX research should happen throughout the design, development, and testing process to continuously improve products from the user's perspective.
This document defines users and the process for conducting user experience research. It discusses identifying a problem area, exploring questions about the problem, choosing which questions to solve, defining the types of users, creating a "hunt statement" to investigate a specific user, and conducting user research through field research, desk research and studying industry competitors. The facilitator is introduced as a UX researcher based in Nairobi, Kenya with a Masters from Carnegie Mellon University.
Beyond Task Based Testing: Interviews and PersonasJeff Wisniewski
The document discusses personas and how they can be used in conjunction with task-based testing to improve user experience design. It defines personas as hypothetical archetypes created to represent primary user groups. Personas are derived from user research like interviews and are given names and details to make them realistic representations. The benefits of personas include keeping the focus on users, supporting evidence-based decisions, providing focus for where to spend design efforts, and communicating design decisions effectively to stakeholders. While task-based testing provides valuable insights, personas allow raising the base level of a design before testing to improve the quality of tasks and make more representative samples. The document outlines how to create personas through research methods and how to use them to frame discussions and decisions.
Day 2 slides from a two-day workshop on UX Foundations by Meg Kurdziolek and Karen Tang. Day 2 covered research methods that can be used throughout the design process to evaluate and validate design.
This document discusses applying user experience research and provides examples of research methods. It begins by stating the importance of focusing on the user and understanding their language. A variety of research methods are then outlined, including surveys, focus groups, interviews, contextual inquiry, stakeholder interviews, and more. The document explains that research informs design, development, testing and analysis to create products that users can effectively use. It concludes by providing background on the presenter and inviting questions.
User experience (UX) research is important to understand users and ensure products meet their needs. UX research involves various qualitative and quantitative methods like surveys, focus groups, interviews, and testing to understand how users interact with products and what improvements could be made. It is important that research speaks the user's language and tests whether a product can actually be used by the intended users. UX research should happen throughout the design, development, and testing process to continuously improve products from the user's perspective.
This document defines users and the process for conducting user experience research. It discusses identifying a problem area, exploring questions about the problem, choosing which questions to solve, defining the types of users, creating a "hunt statement" to investigate a specific user, and conducting user research through field research, desk research and studying industry competitors. The facilitator is introduced as a UX researcher based in Nairobi, Kenya with a Masters from Carnegie Mellon University.
Beyond Task Based Testing: Interviews and PersonasJeff Wisniewski
The document discusses personas and how they can be used in conjunction with task-based testing to improve user experience design. It defines personas as hypothetical archetypes created to represent primary user groups. Personas are derived from user research like interviews and are given names and details to make them realistic representations. The benefits of personas include keeping the focus on users, supporting evidence-based decisions, providing focus for where to spend design efforts, and communicating design decisions effectively to stakeholders. While task-based testing provides valuable insights, personas allow raising the base level of a design before testing to improve the quality of tasks and make more representative samples. The document outlines how to create personas through research methods and how to use them to frame discussions and decisions.
Day 2 slides from a two-day workshop on UX Foundations by Meg Kurdziolek and Karen Tang. Day 2 covered research methods that can be used throughout the design process to evaluate and validate design.
This document discusses applying user experience research and provides examples of research methods. It begins by stating the importance of focusing on the user and understanding their language. A variety of research methods are then outlined, including surveys, focus groups, interviews, contextual inquiry, stakeholder interviews, and more. The document explains that research informs design, development, testing and analysis to create products that users can effectively use. It concludes by providing background on the presenter and inviting questions.
In this session we looked at the different kinds of UX research. Primary and Secondary research, foundational research, post launch research, qualitative and quantitative research. Attitudinal and behavioral research. We also looked at the benefits and drawbacks of different UX research methods. Lastly we covered how to chose a UX research method
International Business User Research: Methods and ToolsYong Zhang
Qualitative Research on International Business Users
How to interview (business) users
Cross-cultural user research
Online (remote) User Research
Mouse tracking heatmap
Remote user testing
User feedback system
Users are Losers! They’ll Like Whatever we Make! and Other Fallacies.Carol Smith
Presented at CodeMash 2013.
If this sounds familiar it is time to make big changes or look for a new job. Failing your users will only end badly. In this session we look at the assumptions that are all-too-often made about users, usability and the User Experience (UX). In response to each of these misguided statements Carol will provide a quick method you can conduct with little or no resources to debunk these myths.
The webinar discussed combining lab and online usability testing. In a case study, a lab study with 10 participants and an online study with 100 participants tested Amazon's grocery website. Both found navigation of grocery categories confusing. In the lab, participants struggled to find dishwasher detergent and schedule deliveries due to poor information architecture. The online study validated these findings and found searching for discounts difficult as well. Combining methods provided a more comprehensive understanding of usability issues than a single approach alone.
Webinar: Combining Lab and Online Usability Testing: Lessons LearnedUserZoom
How does one pair online usability testing with lab usability testing? On May 6th, 2010, UserZoom joined forces with Bentley University’s Design and Usability Center to present how online, unmoderated usability testing can be combined with lab usability testing to produce rich, actionable results.
We examined Amazon’s e-commerce grocery store and compared the results of each method to reveal the secrets and lessons we have learned.
Contextual Inquiry: How Ethnographic Research can Impact the UX of Your WebsiteRachel Vacek
Ethnographic research methods like contextual inquiry were used to understand user experiences of the university library website. Contextual interviews were conducted with students, faculty, and staff, followed by interpretation sessions to analyze the data. This involved creating sequence models of user tasks, affinity diagrams to group themes, and personas. The goal was to gain insights into how users work in order to design services and a website that better meet their needs. Challenges included the time and resources required, but advantages were an in-depth understanding of users and their research processes to inform improvements.
Product Innovation Academy take great pleasure in inviting you to the monthly webinar series. Our theme for this webinar will be about
"Relevant UX research Methodologies"
Speaker:
Sanmitra has work experience of over 10 years in Design Management, Marketing and User Experience-Insights research, Graphics design, Visual Merchandising, Communication design, and Design strategy and User Interface Design. She is a trained Z-MET (Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique) Interviewer and Analyser. Expert in converting insights to tangible actions i.e Design brief.
Know more about our upcoming events : http://www.prodinnov.co/upcoming-workshop/
UXDX Stockholm - Is user experience research a science? Piotr Sliwa May 8th 2018UXDXConf
1. The document discusses whether user experience (UX) research can be considered a science.
2. It outlines various UX research methods and the academic disciplines they draw from such as psychology, social sciences, and cognitive sciences.
3. While UX research currently can't be definitively called a science, the document argues it has the potential to become one as it follows aspects of the scientific method through paradigms and methodology similar to other scientific fields.
This document discusses quantitative research methods for museum projects. It covers when quantitative data is needed, such as for audience profiling, trends analysis, and reporting to funders. It also discusses common quantitative methods like interviews, surveys, and online/mail surveys. The document provides guidance on designing effective questionnaires, including determining what to ask, question wording and order, and sample sizes. It concludes with an exercise to design a questionnaire to understand usage of a museum coffee cart.
Getting Started with User Research - Stir Trek 2011Carol Smith
Presented at Stir Trek: Thor Edition, in Columbus, Ohio on May 6, 2011.
Once you know who uses your product, all sorts of new questions start to emerge. How are they using the product? Why are they using it? What else might they want? In this session you will learn about three quick and easy methods to understand the users desires, needs and abilities. The basics of observations, interviews and card sorting will be covered. You will also learn ways to effectively share and communicate what you learn with your team.
35+ Frequently Asked UX Interview Questions In 2022.pdfTemok IT Services
The interview procedure for a UX Designer job can differ depending on the company. Some UX design interviews will feel like it is a casual conversation, while others will follow a more formal structure. Though the style may differ, all interviews share common objectives—employers are looking for the best candidate for the role.
https://www.temok.com/blog/ux-interview-questions/
Practicing Anthropology in User Experience, Design and BusinessAmy L. Santee
User experience, design and business are perfect fields for anthropological practice, but what does it look like to work in them, and how do you get there in the first place? Amy will share her journey as a practicing anthropologist, touching on her transition from academia, work experience, use of anthropology skills, project examples, career reflections, and advice for those who are interested in this particular line of work.
Amy Santee is an independent user experience and design research consultant based in Portland, OR. Her work spans a breadth of sectors and industries, including retail, e-commerce, healthcare, computer hardware and software, consumer technology, automotive, insurance, home improvement, and community development. In addition to freelancing, she has worked within corporate, agency and start-up design teams. She combines her anthropology training with a user-centered design approach to solve real problems, advocate for people and their values, and help businesses feel confident in their decisions. She received her MA in Applied Anthropology from The University of Memphis (2011) and her BA in Anthropology from Eckerd College (2009). She blogs about business, design, anthropology and careers at www.anthropologizing.com.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Bad UX Research But Were Afraid to...Valsplat
This document summarizes an Amsterdam meetup on March 16th, 2016 about user experience (UX) research presented by Miel de Zwart. The presentation discussed different types of UX research methods like user interviews, usability testing, and analytics. It highlighted both good practices for moderating interviews and observing users without influencing them, as well as common pitfalls to avoid. Miel also provided suggestions for how to shift from reactive UX research to more proactive research that drives design changes, such as conducting frequent user tests and integrating UX insights directly into development processes.
Mobile application use has grown exponentially. Testing mobile experiences brings additional challenges and opportunities because the context-of-use is not a static location like a workplace, but instead wherever a user happens to be with his or her phone. Field studies are useful because they help researchers collect more naturalistic data since they observe users in their context-of-us instead of a lab.
In this course you will learn:
The variety of methods and tools for field testing mobile experiences, and the pros / cons of each
How to develop a research plan for mobile field testing
Recruitment strategies for field testing
How to moderate a field test and record participants’ behaviors
You will learn by doing an actual field study of a mobile application near the conference location.
Optimizing Mobile UX Design Webinar Presentation SlidesUserZoom
Optimizing Mobile UX Design: Webinar on Mobile User Experience Research Methods & Tools
Most businesses are investing in mobile apps and mobile commerce. Recently, more emphasis has been placed on the interactive experiences users have on mobile devices
To explain how to optimize the user experience on mobile interfaces, UserZoom will be joined by special guest User Centric in a complimentary webinar. The webinar will focus on how user experience research methods and tools can add extremely valuable insights into the design process and help brands optimize their mobile site or application’s performance. Attendees will hear presentations from the following experts:
Gavin Lew, Managing Director, User Centric
Gavin’s 20 years of experience in corporate and academic environments have given him a strong foundation in user-centered design and evaluation. In addition to managing User Centric, he holds particular expertise in mobile technology, among other interests. He is a frequent presenter at national conferences, adjunct faculty member at DePaul University and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and the inventor of several patents.
Kim Oslob, UserZoom Director of Client Services
Kim has extensive experience with both qualitative and quantitative UX Research through her work at Claris (now Filemaker), Macromedia (now Adobe) and VistoCorp (now Good). She has managed projects with companies in the mobile space such as Vodafone, Nokia, Sprint, and Roger’s Wireless to improve the user experience of over 10 different mobile operating systems.
This document provides an introduction to user experience (UX) design. It begins with icebreaker exercises for students to learn about each other. It then defines UX design and discusses the user-centered design process. This includes conducting user research, creating user personas and journeys, wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing. The document outlines common UX design roles and skills. It emphasizes that UX design is about understanding user needs and designing products to meet those needs through the entire development process. Students then participate in exercises to practice elements of the UX design process like research, sketching solutions, and creating a prototype.
ResearchOps Berlin Meetup #2 - UX Maturity - How to Grow User Research in you...ResearchOps Meetup Berlin
In our spring edition of ResearchOps Berlin we will likewise talk about growing and maturing.
Our host FlixBus will give us insights into how they started UX in their organization and how they accelerated research in terms of such as their team set-up or research methods. Luky Primadani, Katja Borchert, Carolina Schomer and Pietro Romeo will provide us with use cases and how they see the next steps in becoming more UX mature.
Usability testing involves planning studies to test a digital product. Key steps in planning include defining goals and participants, designing tasks, scheduling tests, and determining testing methods. Tests can be conducted remotely or in-person. Moderated tests involve a moderator guiding participants through tasks while they think aloud. Unmoderated tests use automated tools to gather metrics from participants remotely. Findings are analyzed to identify usability issues and improve the product's design. Mobile testing requires adaptations for its form factor. Fitting research into agile development requires parallel or staggered sprints.
This document discusses various methods for conducting UX research for startups, including contextual inquiries, surveys, focus groups, card sorts, usability studies, and A/B testing. It also discusses crowdsourcing options like Usabilla, CrazyEgg, and Amazon Mechanical Turk. Game mechanics and flow theory are covered as ways to track user satisfaction. The concept of Net Promoter Score is introduced for measuring user recommendation likelihood.
More Related Content
Similar to Applying user experience research - NRBuzz presentation by Kagonya Awori
In this session we looked at the different kinds of UX research. Primary and Secondary research, foundational research, post launch research, qualitative and quantitative research. Attitudinal and behavioral research. We also looked at the benefits and drawbacks of different UX research methods. Lastly we covered how to chose a UX research method
International Business User Research: Methods and ToolsYong Zhang
Qualitative Research on International Business Users
How to interview (business) users
Cross-cultural user research
Online (remote) User Research
Mouse tracking heatmap
Remote user testing
User feedback system
Users are Losers! They’ll Like Whatever we Make! and Other Fallacies.Carol Smith
Presented at CodeMash 2013.
If this sounds familiar it is time to make big changes or look for a new job. Failing your users will only end badly. In this session we look at the assumptions that are all-too-often made about users, usability and the User Experience (UX). In response to each of these misguided statements Carol will provide a quick method you can conduct with little or no resources to debunk these myths.
The webinar discussed combining lab and online usability testing. In a case study, a lab study with 10 participants and an online study with 100 participants tested Amazon's grocery website. Both found navigation of grocery categories confusing. In the lab, participants struggled to find dishwasher detergent and schedule deliveries due to poor information architecture. The online study validated these findings and found searching for discounts difficult as well. Combining methods provided a more comprehensive understanding of usability issues than a single approach alone.
Webinar: Combining Lab and Online Usability Testing: Lessons LearnedUserZoom
How does one pair online usability testing with lab usability testing? On May 6th, 2010, UserZoom joined forces with Bentley University’s Design and Usability Center to present how online, unmoderated usability testing can be combined with lab usability testing to produce rich, actionable results.
We examined Amazon’s e-commerce grocery store and compared the results of each method to reveal the secrets and lessons we have learned.
Contextual Inquiry: How Ethnographic Research can Impact the UX of Your WebsiteRachel Vacek
Ethnographic research methods like contextual inquiry were used to understand user experiences of the university library website. Contextual interviews were conducted with students, faculty, and staff, followed by interpretation sessions to analyze the data. This involved creating sequence models of user tasks, affinity diagrams to group themes, and personas. The goal was to gain insights into how users work in order to design services and a website that better meet their needs. Challenges included the time and resources required, but advantages were an in-depth understanding of users and their research processes to inform improvements.
Product Innovation Academy take great pleasure in inviting you to the monthly webinar series. Our theme for this webinar will be about
"Relevant UX research Methodologies"
Speaker:
Sanmitra has work experience of over 10 years in Design Management, Marketing and User Experience-Insights research, Graphics design, Visual Merchandising, Communication design, and Design strategy and User Interface Design. She is a trained Z-MET (Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique) Interviewer and Analyser. Expert in converting insights to tangible actions i.e Design brief.
Know more about our upcoming events : http://www.prodinnov.co/upcoming-workshop/
UXDX Stockholm - Is user experience research a science? Piotr Sliwa May 8th 2018UXDXConf
1. The document discusses whether user experience (UX) research can be considered a science.
2. It outlines various UX research methods and the academic disciplines they draw from such as psychology, social sciences, and cognitive sciences.
3. While UX research currently can't be definitively called a science, the document argues it has the potential to become one as it follows aspects of the scientific method through paradigms and methodology similar to other scientific fields.
This document discusses quantitative research methods for museum projects. It covers when quantitative data is needed, such as for audience profiling, trends analysis, and reporting to funders. It also discusses common quantitative methods like interviews, surveys, and online/mail surveys. The document provides guidance on designing effective questionnaires, including determining what to ask, question wording and order, and sample sizes. It concludes with an exercise to design a questionnaire to understand usage of a museum coffee cart.
Getting Started with User Research - Stir Trek 2011Carol Smith
Presented at Stir Trek: Thor Edition, in Columbus, Ohio on May 6, 2011.
Once you know who uses your product, all sorts of new questions start to emerge. How are they using the product? Why are they using it? What else might they want? In this session you will learn about three quick and easy methods to understand the users desires, needs and abilities. The basics of observations, interviews and card sorting will be covered. You will also learn ways to effectively share and communicate what you learn with your team.
35+ Frequently Asked UX Interview Questions In 2022.pdfTemok IT Services
The interview procedure for a UX Designer job can differ depending on the company. Some UX design interviews will feel like it is a casual conversation, while others will follow a more formal structure. Though the style may differ, all interviews share common objectives—employers are looking for the best candidate for the role.
https://www.temok.com/blog/ux-interview-questions/
Practicing Anthropology in User Experience, Design and BusinessAmy L. Santee
User experience, design and business are perfect fields for anthropological practice, but what does it look like to work in them, and how do you get there in the first place? Amy will share her journey as a practicing anthropologist, touching on her transition from academia, work experience, use of anthropology skills, project examples, career reflections, and advice for those who are interested in this particular line of work.
Amy Santee is an independent user experience and design research consultant based in Portland, OR. Her work spans a breadth of sectors and industries, including retail, e-commerce, healthcare, computer hardware and software, consumer technology, automotive, insurance, home improvement, and community development. In addition to freelancing, she has worked within corporate, agency and start-up design teams. She combines her anthropology training with a user-centered design approach to solve real problems, advocate for people and their values, and help businesses feel confident in their decisions. She received her MA in Applied Anthropology from The University of Memphis (2011) and her BA in Anthropology from Eckerd College (2009). She blogs about business, design, anthropology and careers at www.anthropologizing.com.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Bad UX Research But Were Afraid to...Valsplat
This document summarizes an Amsterdam meetup on March 16th, 2016 about user experience (UX) research presented by Miel de Zwart. The presentation discussed different types of UX research methods like user interviews, usability testing, and analytics. It highlighted both good practices for moderating interviews and observing users without influencing them, as well as common pitfalls to avoid. Miel also provided suggestions for how to shift from reactive UX research to more proactive research that drives design changes, such as conducting frequent user tests and integrating UX insights directly into development processes.
Mobile application use has grown exponentially. Testing mobile experiences brings additional challenges and opportunities because the context-of-use is not a static location like a workplace, but instead wherever a user happens to be with his or her phone. Field studies are useful because they help researchers collect more naturalistic data since they observe users in their context-of-us instead of a lab.
In this course you will learn:
The variety of methods and tools for field testing mobile experiences, and the pros / cons of each
How to develop a research plan for mobile field testing
Recruitment strategies for field testing
How to moderate a field test and record participants’ behaviors
You will learn by doing an actual field study of a mobile application near the conference location.
Optimizing Mobile UX Design Webinar Presentation SlidesUserZoom
Optimizing Mobile UX Design: Webinar on Mobile User Experience Research Methods & Tools
Most businesses are investing in mobile apps and mobile commerce. Recently, more emphasis has been placed on the interactive experiences users have on mobile devices
To explain how to optimize the user experience on mobile interfaces, UserZoom will be joined by special guest User Centric in a complimentary webinar. The webinar will focus on how user experience research methods and tools can add extremely valuable insights into the design process and help brands optimize their mobile site or application’s performance. Attendees will hear presentations from the following experts:
Gavin Lew, Managing Director, User Centric
Gavin’s 20 years of experience in corporate and academic environments have given him a strong foundation in user-centered design and evaluation. In addition to managing User Centric, he holds particular expertise in mobile technology, among other interests. He is a frequent presenter at national conferences, adjunct faculty member at DePaul University and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and the inventor of several patents.
Kim Oslob, UserZoom Director of Client Services
Kim has extensive experience with both qualitative and quantitative UX Research through her work at Claris (now Filemaker), Macromedia (now Adobe) and VistoCorp (now Good). She has managed projects with companies in the mobile space such as Vodafone, Nokia, Sprint, and Roger’s Wireless to improve the user experience of over 10 different mobile operating systems.
This document provides an introduction to user experience (UX) design. It begins with icebreaker exercises for students to learn about each other. It then defines UX design and discusses the user-centered design process. This includes conducting user research, creating user personas and journeys, wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing. The document outlines common UX design roles and skills. It emphasizes that UX design is about understanding user needs and designing products to meet those needs through the entire development process. Students then participate in exercises to practice elements of the UX design process like research, sketching solutions, and creating a prototype.
ResearchOps Berlin Meetup #2 - UX Maturity - How to Grow User Research in you...ResearchOps Meetup Berlin
In our spring edition of ResearchOps Berlin we will likewise talk about growing and maturing.
Our host FlixBus will give us insights into how they started UX in their organization and how they accelerated research in terms of such as their team set-up or research methods. Luky Primadani, Katja Borchert, Carolina Schomer and Pietro Romeo will provide us with use cases and how they see the next steps in becoming more UX mature.
Usability testing involves planning studies to test a digital product. Key steps in planning include defining goals and participants, designing tasks, scheduling tests, and determining testing methods. Tests can be conducted remotely or in-person. Moderated tests involve a moderator guiding participants through tasks while they think aloud. Unmoderated tests use automated tools to gather metrics from participants remotely. Findings are analyzed to identify usability issues and improve the product's design. Mobile testing requires adaptations for its form factor. Fitting research into agile development requires parallel or staggered sprints.
This document discusses various methods for conducting UX research for startups, including contextual inquiries, surveys, focus groups, card sorts, usability studies, and A/B testing. It also discusses crowdsourcing options like Usabilla, CrazyEgg, and Amazon Mechanical Turk. Game mechanics and flow theory are covered as ways to track user satisfaction. The concept of Net Promoter Score is introduced for measuring user recommendation likelihood.
Similar to Applying user experience research - NRBuzz presentation by Kagonya Awori (20)
7. Research
Surveys/Questionnaires
Focus Groups
Interviews
Competitive analysis
Contextual Inquiry
Stakeholder interviews
Web eavesdropping
Photo diary
Shadowing
Storytelling
Fly On The Wall
Literature Review
Design & development
Wireframing
Prototyping
A/B testing
Testing
Card sorting
Tree Testing
Keystroke Level
Modeling
Wizard of Oz
Heuristic evaluations
Think Alouds
Remote testing
Ideation
Bodystorming
Speed dating
Sketching
Branstorming
Concepts
Storyboards
Analysis & synthesis
Affinity Diagram
Data bucket
Personas
User stories
Data models
Qualitative models
UX process(es)
8. Questionnaires
Client : New cereal
User: urban working class in their 20s
Focus GroupsInterviews
1. What have you had for breakfast this
week?
2. Where?
3. What other meals/snacks do you have
apart from breakfast?
4. What did you have yesterday/over the
past three days?
5. How much are [breakfast items]?
6. Roughly how often do you shop for
them?
7. Where did you buy them from?
8. What do you think about cereals?
etc
9. Tell me about the last time you had
cereals for breakfast?
Storytelling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnT2F
cuZaYI
9. Bodystorming
“To know your Enemy, you must become
your Enemy.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Speed
Communication
Convenience
Repeat customers
Complaints
WOW factor
11. What UX is not..
1. ..user interface design
2. ..a step in the process
3. .. about technology
4. ..just about usability
5. ..just about the user
6. ..expensive
7. …easy
8. ..the role of one person or department
9. …a single discipline
10. …a choice
12. About the presenter
Kagonya Awori is a User Experience
Researcher in Nairobi, Kenya.
She holds a Masters in Human-Computer
Interaction (MHCI) from Carnegie Mellon
University, the birthplace and world leader in
user experience studies. She is the first
African with an MHCI from Carnegie Mellon.
Kagonya is passionate about catalyzing the
knowledge and application of user
experience research in the burgeoning tech
community in Kenya.
Contact:
kagonya@kagonya.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kagonya
Picture source: Amazon.comWhat is User Experience Research? What is user experience research and design, to me..Upon going to school, I learnt the reason why this site did not offer me the maximum satisfaction, because it did not apply these principles…..understand the user, context, If the user cant use it, its brokenThese are three principles each of you can, and should apply in whatever field you are on. The user comes first…the UX on Amazon is great, infact it is unparalled when it comes to e-commerce sites. The reason younger Kagonya had difficulty with this site is because I was not the user this site was built for. It appears that the site’s primary user is the Eng speaking North American online shopper. Who is your primary user? This is the first thing you need to decide before you write a line of code, before you read motivational books to inspire you to great ideas, before write your business proposal, or expand your services. Who are you building the product for?Secondly, speak the users language. It can be their verbal language…Kiswahili, French, Maasai. OR it can be their mental language. When I go to Uchumi, I ask to pay, I don’t check out.-My favourite, infact this is a quote from a well known UX researcher, known as Susan Dray. It is a rule for me. If the user cannot use it, it does not work. To often than not, we as programmers make the mistake or creating beautiful software, good looking apps, then when it does not work for someone, we tell ourselves that its probably because they have never used a computer before. No, the problem is that your software was not realistic, it did not consider the likely fact that one day Kagonya will visit your site and she will want to buy something for the very first time.Now, UX does not only apply to websites. It does not only apply to mobile applications, in fact and wait for it , this will surprise you, it does not only apply to technology. Let us explore some examples from other fields…aviation, healthcare and hospitality
Picture source: http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/1/8/4/1796481.jpgAviation.“Korean Air had the most airplane crashes than almost any other airlinein the world for a period at the end of the 1990s….” MalcolmGladwellHigh power distance culture.
Sources: IDEO http://www.ideo.com/work/nurse-knowledge-exchange/Client: Kaiser Permanentea crucial exchange of information and duties must take place in order to ensure safety, quality of care, and efficiencyno risk to patients or staff.IDEO and Kaiser Permanente conducted observations in four hospitals, watching shift changes around the clock in an attempt tounderstand the ways that information gets transmittedAlso looked at staffing, the lab, bed management, transport, and different nursing roles. Findings:The team found that each nurse had their own way of prioritizing and communicating information. In response, IDEO and Kaiser Permanente created a framework that highlighted the key issues to be designed for: schedules, software, information hand-offs, and patient interactions.Ideation and brainstorming sessions followed in which nurses, doctors, and administrators participated and helped to inspire prototypes. These prototypes were then tested for three weeks in a single unit, during every shift change. Changes to the prototypes were made continuously based on feedback from the nurses, who were excited and relieved to be directly shaping the outcome.- Having proven successful in a handful of hospitals, Kaiser Permanente has implemented the co-developed IDEO/KP program for nurse knowledge exchange in every ward in 35 hospitals. -Since implementing IDEO’s program, Kaiser Permanente has reported a reduction in prep time, improved patient safety and praise by the Institute of Healthcare Improvement as “best practice” in health care.
Picture and case study source: www.ziba.comMarketingDesigning for the future. To make your product stand out, or remain relevantHow many of us have heard, or even been to the Holiday Inn? Well, the HI is one of the largest hotel chains in the States with over 3,400 hotels worldwide, started in 1952. In the 50s and 60s, checking into a HI meant a warm welcome, a familiar space to unwind or socialize whether you are a business traveler, a couple or a family. However, today with demands on speed, time and independence, hotel experience has ceased to be about the hotel, and instead its about the room. The rooms have been designed to keep the guest there, with room service, TV in the room, blow drier, meeting rooms, etcHoliday Inn wants to bring back the public space, and retain the reason it was a special place in the 50s and 60s.Ziba, is a design and innovation consultancy that loves to create experiences people love. They came up with a this concept to transform HI from a collection of rooms put together by cement and wood, to a social hub which reflects the behaviour of travelers now while retaining the company’s values.Let us look at the example of this room here, the cafeteria which was previously walled off, now has an open bar and kitchen, that evolves from cafe to takeaway counter to cocktail lounge depending on the guest’s needs and the time of day. The result is nothing less than a transformation of the entire Holiday Inn experience. Instead of getting just a room, guests get an entire hotel—a 24-hour open public space where things happen and people interact. They might enjoy a conversation with a fellow traveler, watch the game on TV, or simply read a book by the fire. Holiday Inn has always been expert at letting each guest stay the way he or she wants, and the Social Hub extends this ability by filling the needs of those who want activity as well as privacy.
Picture source: depositphotos.comSo how do we get there? The roadmap?
UX can be applied at different stages of product or service design. It is not a step in the process, it is THE process. It is not a set of 3 tools you apply to your website at the end, or a two day training you do at the end of each project. It is the entire project.
Are market research and UX research different? Qualitative vs quantitative
Picture source:Depositphotos.comIt is common for a techie to test his product after he has coded, all or a bit of it. Afterwhich he/she demos it to you by telling you how it works then asking you what you think of it. This method will give you some feedback, but not as rich information as you would get by allowing the user to test it themselves.The reason I love wizard of Oz is …
Info source:http://mashable.com/2009/01/09/user-experience-design/ byWhitneyHessPicture source ( honeycomb) : http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php by Peter Morville