This document summarizes a presentation on collaborative research and user research. The presentation covers topics like understanding organizational stakeholders, conducting interviews and focus groups, analyzing user data, creating models and insights, and reporting research findings. It emphasizes that research should create a shared understanding, that asking questions is important but uncomfortable, and that clear goals and a collaborative approach are necessary for effective research. The presentation provides tips for different research activities and stresses selecting methods that answer key questions.
Workshop to provide insight on how to engage in collaborative research, and strategies to develop capacity for collaboration on the part of researchers
Getting started with UX research October 2017.pptxCarol Rossi
You know you need customer insights to make good design decisions but without a dedicated researcher on your team how do you run the research? These tips will help you get started.
Getting Started with UX Research OCUX Camp CRossi Aug 2017Carol Rossi
As user experience professionals, we all realize the importance of getting real insights from real users and not just making decisions based on a hunch. In this talk, you'll discover how to make those insights actionable within your company.
Workshop to provide insight on how to engage in collaborative research, and strategies to develop capacity for collaboration on the part of researchers
Getting started with UX research October 2017.pptxCarol Rossi
You know you need customer insights to make good design decisions but without a dedicated researcher on your team how do you run the research? These tips will help you get started.
Getting Started with UX Research OCUX Camp CRossi Aug 2017Carol Rossi
As user experience professionals, we all realize the importance of getting real insights from real users and not just making decisions based on a hunch. In this talk, you'll discover how to make those insights actionable within your company.
Exploratory user research (How to figure out what to test)Dhyana Scarano
A look at how we conducted open, exploratory user research to figure out how we could make significant jumps in conversion rates at CareerFoundry.
Analytics and tests only get us so far, but to have a bigger impact we need to explore, and learn something totally new. Something that we don't know we don't know.
This presentation and hands-on workshop will describe the process of conducting user interviews at Pivotal Labs Denver.
It’s a way of understanding your users problems, needs and behaviors. It’s not the only way but represents many of the same activities and exercises used within similar companies and agencies.
Tips for better surveys: better questions in your questionnaire, better overall survey process. From UPA2012 in Las Vegas.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Slides from a glass on personas I gave at General Assembly Melbourne.
Might not make a lot of sense without commentary next time i will record it i promise.
Design thinking is a problem solving process geared for ambiguous situations. There are four principles of design thinking: empathize, visualize, co-create and iterate. This presentation gives tips and techniques for empathizing includes how to interview and how to analyze research data.
Desirability Testing: Analyzing Emotional Response to a DesignMegan Grocki
In the design process we follow, once we have defined the conceptual direction and content strategy for a given design and refined our approach through user research and iterative usability testing, we start applying visual design. Generally, we take a key screen whose structure and functionality we have finalized—for example, a layout for a home page or a dashboard page—and explore three alternatives for visual style. These three alternative visual designs, or comps, include the same content, but reflect different choices for color palette and imagery. The idea is to present business owners and stakeholders with different visual design options from which they can choose. Sometimes there is a clear favorite among stakeholders or an option that makes the most sense from a brand perspective. However, there can often be disagreements among the members of a project team on which direction to choose. If we’ve done our job right, there are rationales for our various design decisions in the different comps, but even so, there may be disagreement about which rationale is most appropriate for the situation.
As practitioners of user-centered design, it is natural for us to turn to user research to help inform and guide the process of choosing a visual design. But traditional usability testing and related methods don’t seem particularly well suited for assessing visual design for two reasons:
1. When we reach out to users for feedback on visual design options, stakeholders are generally looking for large sample sizes—larger than are typical for a qualitative usability study.
2. The response we are looking for from users is more emotional—that is, less about users’ ability to accomplish tasks and more about their affective response to a given design.
With this in mind, we were very interested in articles we saw on Desirability Testing. In one article, the author posits desirability testing as a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods that allow you to assess users’ attitudes toward aesthetics and visual appeal. Inspired by his overview, we researched desirability studies a bit further and tried a modified version of the techniques on one of our projects. This presentation reviews the variants of desirability testing that we considered and the lessons we learned from a desirability study on visual design options for one of our projects. Interestingly, we found that while desirability testing did help us better understand participant’s self reported emotional response to a visual design, it also helped us identify other key areas of the experience that could be improved.
Audience Research on a Dime - Nonprofit of InfluenceCourtney Clark
You need it. You know you do. Audience research is a vital part of any project, but it’s often the first thing to be cut. “We know our audiences well enough,” they say. “We know what they want.” But is that true?
No! Of course not! If we knew what audiences wanted, we’d have an excess of donations, volunteers, newsletter subscribers, and report readers, and we wouldn’t be having conversations about how to get audiences to act or increase awareness.
During this session, you’ll learn about:
- My favorite lean audience research methods and why they’re awesome
- How to convince your boss that audience research is necessary
- How to conduct audience research when you have zero resources
By the end, you’ll have what you need to do some quick and dirty audience research and convince others that it’s necessary!
Presented at the Nonprofit of Influence Conference (hosted by the Colorado Nonprofit Association).
Why is this so hard? Understanding the challenges that inhibit design in your...Adam Connor
Design has been heralded as the savior of product and service offerings, and lately companies are scrambling to pick up designers everywhere they can find them. Innovation centers are springing up like mushrooms and it seems everybody is talking about the importance of knowing and understanding their audience. However, these new ways of working and thinking don’t seem to take hold, so people keep doing things the way they´ve always done them and users continue to suffer.
What causes these organizations with such good intentions and great talent to struggle?
An organization may be aware that it needs to change, but knowing what and how to change is hard. And for change to happen, organizations have to be ready for change. Using culture as a lens, we examine how people work together, how they believe things should work, and which values they share.
Learning 3.0 Wokshop - Presented and Facilitated by Caio Cestari Silva (@caiocestari) and Manoel Pimentel (@manoelp) at the Agile Conference 2015 - Washington D.C.
The lecture slides talks about the importance of analysing the worth of problems before we on to solve them. And how to identify the problems worth solving.
“Faux”cus Groups: Reimagining Groups to Uncover Behavioral Insights in User R...UXPA International
What if there was a way to take advantage of the benefits of group sessions without losing the individual depth of findings of 1:1 sessions?
Over the last 7 years, our team has applied numerous research methods to align with client needs and research goals. Having discovered firsthand that no research method is perfect, the team has created a new approach to group-based research. Inspired by Co-Design, Focus Groups, and Contextual Inquiry, we’ve combined individual activities with group sessions in order to bring to light individual’s experiences, motivations, and ideas without losing the creative aspect of the group dynamic. The approach, Collaborative Experience Mapping, allows participants to provide individual in-depth feedback while avoiding many of the pitfalls of group-based research.
We will present an interactive deep-dive into the nuances of our methodology; explain what we’ve learned throughout our projects and how you can apply it to your own research efforts.
This lecture talks about the importance of evidence in scientific, business, and innovation research. It lists down important examples to carry this process in perspective of the problem statement.
Building Character: Creating Consistent Experiences With Design Principles- ...Mad*Pow
Inconsistency is one of the most common points of breakdown and frustration in the interactions and experiences we have. Whether we’re interacting with other people, applications, our bank, our doctor, our government, anyone, we form expectations and understandings of what someone or something will do based on our previous experiences and their past behaviors. When something happens that doesn’t fit with those expectations–that seems out of character–we’re caught off guard. What do we do next? What should we expect now?
Principles act as rules that guide how we think and act. Formed by our motivations, values, and beliefs, we use them as “lenses” through which we examine information in order to make decisions on what to do. And because of their persistent influence on our behavior, they influence other’s views and expectations of us. Using these same kinds of constructs throughout the design process we can design interactions and consistent behaviors that set and live up to expectations for our audiences.
Diving Deep: Uncovering Hidden Insights Through User InterviewsSusan Mercer
User interviews are a great technique for getting to know your target audience. However, sometimes people don’t feel comfortable answering questions from a researcher completely honestly. Other times they don’t know how to articulate exactly what they need, want, or feel.
We will examine research from psychology and market research to understand techniques for interviews to help you uncover insights beyond people’s superficial answers. We’ll explore conversation theory, projective techniques such as image associations, collaging, and others to encourage participants to share their stories. You'll learn to uncover hidden, actionable insights to fuel your designs.
Medium Article version: https://medium.com/@farahnuraini/awesome-design-is-not-enough-improve-your-communication-skill-50a3bcbb5b6d#.6zovost0g
Awesome Design is not enough, improve your communcation skill.
My presentation on Product Design weekly sharing session at Traveloka.
Exploratory user research (How to figure out what to test)Dhyana Scarano
A look at how we conducted open, exploratory user research to figure out how we could make significant jumps in conversion rates at CareerFoundry.
Analytics and tests only get us so far, but to have a bigger impact we need to explore, and learn something totally new. Something that we don't know we don't know.
This presentation and hands-on workshop will describe the process of conducting user interviews at Pivotal Labs Denver.
It’s a way of understanding your users problems, needs and behaviors. It’s not the only way but represents many of the same activities and exercises used within similar companies and agencies.
Tips for better surveys: better questions in your questionnaire, better overall survey process. From UPA2012 in Las Vegas.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Slides from a glass on personas I gave at General Assembly Melbourne.
Might not make a lot of sense without commentary next time i will record it i promise.
Design thinking is a problem solving process geared for ambiguous situations. There are four principles of design thinking: empathize, visualize, co-create and iterate. This presentation gives tips and techniques for empathizing includes how to interview and how to analyze research data.
Desirability Testing: Analyzing Emotional Response to a DesignMegan Grocki
In the design process we follow, once we have defined the conceptual direction and content strategy for a given design and refined our approach through user research and iterative usability testing, we start applying visual design. Generally, we take a key screen whose structure and functionality we have finalized—for example, a layout for a home page or a dashboard page—and explore three alternatives for visual style. These three alternative visual designs, or comps, include the same content, but reflect different choices for color palette and imagery. The idea is to present business owners and stakeholders with different visual design options from which they can choose. Sometimes there is a clear favorite among stakeholders or an option that makes the most sense from a brand perspective. However, there can often be disagreements among the members of a project team on which direction to choose. If we’ve done our job right, there are rationales for our various design decisions in the different comps, but even so, there may be disagreement about which rationale is most appropriate for the situation.
As practitioners of user-centered design, it is natural for us to turn to user research to help inform and guide the process of choosing a visual design. But traditional usability testing and related methods don’t seem particularly well suited for assessing visual design for two reasons:
1. When we reach out to users for feedback on visual design options, stakeholders are generally looking for large sample sizes—larger than are typical for a qualitative usability study.
2. The response we are looking for from users is more emotional—that is, less about users’ ability to accomplish tasks and more about their affective response to a given design.
With this in mind, we were very interested in articles we saw on Desirability Testing. In one article, the author posits desirability testing as a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods that allow you to assess users’ attitudes toward aesthetics and visual appeal. Inspired by his overview, we researched desirability studies a bit further and tried a modified version of the techniques on one of our projects. This presentation reviews the variants of desirability testing that we considered and the lessons we learned from a desirability study on visual design options for one of our projects. Interestingly, we found that while desirability testing did help us better understand participant’s self reported emotional response to a visual design, it also helped us identify other key areas of the experience that could be improved.
Audience Research on a Dime - Nonprofit of InfluenceCourtney Clark
You need it. You know you do. Audience research is a vital part of any project, but it’s often the first thing to be cut. “We know our audiences well enough,” they say. “We know what they want.” But is that true?
No! Of course not! If we knew what audiences wanted, we’d have an excess of donations, volunteers, newsletter subscribers, and report readers, and we wouldn’t be having conversations about how to get audiences to act or increase awareness.
During this session, you’ll learn about:
- My favorite lean audience research methods and why they’re awesome
- How to convince your boss that audience research is necessary
- How to conduct audience research when you have zero resources
By the end, you’ll have what you need to do some quick and dirty audience research and convince others that it’s necessary!
Presented at the Nonprofit of Influence Conference (hosted by the Colorado Nonprofit Association).
Why is this so hard? Understanding the challenges that inhibit design in your...Adam Connor
Design has been heralded as the savior of product and service offerings, and lately companies are scrambling to pick up designers everywhere they can find them. Innovation centers are springing up like mushrooms and it seems everybody is talking about the importance of knowing and understanding their audience. However, these new ways of working and thinking don’t seem to take hold, so people keep doing things the way they´ve always done them and users continue to suffer.
What causes these organizations with such good intentions and great talent to struggle?
An organization may be aware that it needs to change, but knowing what and how to change is hard. And for change to happen, organizations have to be ready for change. Using culture as a lens, we examine how people work together, how they believe things should work, and which values they share.
Learning 3.0 Wokshop - Presented and Facilitated by Caio Cestari Silva (@caiocestari) and Manoel Pimentel (@manoelp) at the Agile Conference 2015 - Washington D.C.
The lecture slides talks about the importance of analysing the worth of problems before we on to solve them. And how to identify the problems worth solving.
“Faux”cus Groups: Reimagining Groups to Uncover Behavioral Insights in User R...UXPA International
What if there was a way to take advantage of the benefits of group sessions without losing the individual depth of findings of 1:1 sessions?
Over the last 7 years, our team has applied numerous research methods to align with client needs and research goals. Having discovered firsthand that no research method is perfect, the team has created a new approach to group-based research. Inspired by Co-Design, Focus Groups, and Contextual Inquiry, we’ve combined individual activities with group sessions in order to bring to light individual’s experiences, motivations, and ideas without losing the creative aspect of the group dynamic. The approach, Collaborative Experience Mapping, allows participants to provide individual in-depth feedback while avoiding many of the pitfalls of group-based research.
We will present an interactive deep-dive into the nuances of our methodology; explain what we’ve learned throughout our projects and how you can apply it to your own research efforts.
This lecture talks about the importance of evidence in scientific, business, and innovation research. It lists down important examples to carry this process in perspective of the problem statement.
Building Character: Creating Consistent Experiences With Design Principles- ...Mad*Pow
Inconsistency is one of the most common points of breakdown and frustration in the interactions and experiences we have. Whether we’re interacting with other people, applications, our bank, our doctor, our government, anyone, we form expectations and understandings of what someone or something will do based on our previous experiences and their past behaviors. When something happens that doesn’t fit with those expectations–that seems out of character–we’re caught off guard. What do we do next? What should we expect now?
Principles act as rules that guide how we think and act. Formed by our motivations, values, and beliefs, we use them as “lenses” through which we examine information in order to make decisions on what to do. And because of their persistent influence on our behavior, they influence other’s views and expectations of us. Using these same kinds of constructs throughout the design process we can design interactions and consistent behaviors that set and live up to expectations for our audiences.
Diving Deep: Uncovering Hidden Insights Through User InterviewsSusan Mercer
User interviews are a great technique for getting to know your target audience. However, sometimes people don’t feel comfortable answering questions from a researcher completely honestly. Other times they don’t know how to articulate exactly what they need, want, or feel.
We will examine research from psychology and market research to understand techniques for interviews to help you uncover insights beyond people’s superficial answers. We’ll explore conversation theory, projective techniques such as image associations, collaging, and others to encourage participants to share their stories. You'll learn to uncover hidden, actionable insights to fuel your designs.
Medium Article version: https://medium.com/@farahnuraini/awesome-design-is-not-enough-improve-your-communication-skill-50a3bcbb5b6d#.6zovost0g
Awesome Design is not enough, improve your communcation skill.
My presentation on Product Design weekly sharing session at Traveloka.
The Prime Directive. How To Charter Your Team Best (With LEGO Serious Play)Michael Tarnowski
Team chartering is generally used at the start of a project only, and team charters tend to be quite general and abstract.
In this hands-on session of Agile Cambridge Conference 2015, we will use the 'Lego Serious Play' method to develop a team-specific team charter, which fits individual team goals and can be adapted continuously.
UX design (or user experience design) is becoming an increasingly important field for business owners around the world. Good UX design can make a website many times more profitable, while poor UX design can put a company out of business in the right situations. It's worth taking a look to determine if YOUR business could be furthered by some great user experience design.
Inside you there is a secret product idea...some problem you are just itching to solve. Yet it falls prey to that deadly statement: “Someday, when I have more time...”
In this action-packed 180 minutes, UX Lisbon participants got their ideas out and into the world. Using Lean Startup principles and these fun and rapid methods, they created a coherent, lo-fi product concept and got peer feedback on it. From identifying the problem it solves for people and understanding the role it plays in customers’ lives to identifying a key metric to indicate traction, they explored the idea in full. They wrapped up with practical, actionable (and simple!) next steps to propel the ideas forward.
Things I've Learned (& Am Still Learning) from Leading (UX Designers)Russ U
I've worked for a lot of idiot managers in my career. And then, one day, after I had become a manager, it dawned on me: Now I'm the idiot! Most of my career has been an exercise in “trial by fire” and this process worked well when I was a designer and was trying to master the art of the site map, wireframe, personas, and so on. In leadership, the option to start over or iterate hasn't always been readily available--nor as painless to my pride and my pocketbook.
Many of these lessons haven’t been easy for me to learn. It’s been tough to simultaneously remove obstacles without becoming one, or learning how to say “no” (and the flavors of yes and no!) when I've also wanted people to be satisfied with me and the work I'm doing. However, these lessons have all helped me become better at managing to some degree, while instilling a strong sense of empathy for those people who either report to me, or bless their souls, manage me in one way or another.
An introduction to the Jobs to Be Done customer research/insights framework, with a focus on how product managers can put Jobs to Be Done into practice with key tools such as customer interviews, surveys, prototyping, and A/B testing.
This presentation aims to teach others how to use the user centered design methodology known as personas.
Personas are archetypes (models) that represent groups of real users who have similar behaviors, attitudes, and goals. A persona describes an archetypical user of software as it relates to the area of focus or domain you are designing for as a lens to highlight the relevant attitudes and the specific context associated with the area of work you are doing.
The elements of product success for designers and developersNick Myers
All software, whether it's for consumers or workers, needs to meet the ever growing demands people have in today’s world. Greater user expectations and influence are forcing companies to create and deliver better products, but not every organization has a rich heritage in software creation like tech giants Apple and Google. Most companies need to be more customer-focused, become design specialists, and transform their cultures as they shift to become both software makers and innovators.
Myers, head of design services at Cooper, will share the elements of product success that companies need to possess and be market leaders: user insight, design, and organization. Myers will share principles and techniques that successful innovative companies use to truly understand their customers. He’ll also discuss the methods effective designers use to support their customers and create breakthrough ideas and delightful experiences. And he’ll finish by sharing the magic formula organizations need to deliver ground-breaking experiences to market.
This talk was given at UX Day.
You aren't your target market. - UX Research BasicsAngela Obias
Originally presented in an IT Entrepreneurship Ideation class in the Ateneo de Manila University, February 2015.
Bare-bones advice on how to get minimum, but necessary, validation about the class's digital product ideas.
Highlights from Just Enough Research by Erika Hall - User Experience Abu Dhab...Jonathan Steingiesser
The User Experience (UX) Abu Dhabi Meetup is a monthly gathering for UX practioners, UX fanatics and anyone curious about User Experience Design. All are welcome! UX Abu Dhabi is sponsored by UX UAE which looks to grow User Experience awareness and practice in the UAE and MENA.
This presentation was created for the October 2014 meetup and has highlights from the book Just Enough Research by Erika Hall .
Product Anonymous: After Research - Creating Useful & Well Executed Research ...Jess Nichols
So you’ve completed your customer interviews - but now what?
How do you make sure that you’re creating the right insights based on all of your data? How do you advocate for your findings across product development, especially when they conflict with business objectives?
In this presentation, Jess will share how to set yourself up for success in the most important part of the user research journey - After Research. Learn how to effectively synthesise your qualitative data, create reusable and actionable insights & advocate your research across your team.
A mini workshop designed to prepare teams with the knowledge and practice they need to better understand their problems and project gaps, determine appropriate participants, ask the right qualitative questions, and gather information in an unbiased and thoughtful way.
Stephanie Cooper - Genuine Curiosity - Conversations for ChangeAgileNZ Conference
People often ask for the golden phrase, the silver bullet they can use to convince their teams, managers or executives to ‘go Agile’. While it would certainly help to talk about outcomes and benefits over practices and methods, it can sometimes be your own mindset that is holding back your ability to influence change.
In this session, Steph looks at mindsets (the values and assumptions you make) and explore how a lack of genuine curiosity can provoke defensive behaviours in others and stop organisations from resolving the issues that really matter, but are challenging to address.
She’ll use the setting of a small conversation to explore and better understand these ideas. While organisational change is big, the momentum for change can often be won or lost in small conversations. Becoming better in small conversations will help you grow your role in influencing organisational change. When you approach conversations with genuine curiosity about the other person’s point of view, you will not only have a more productive conversation, but build the trust needed for the work ahead.
These ideas and techniques are popular as they are accessible and relatively easy to adopt.
White wonder, Work developed by Eva TschoppMansi Shah
White Wonder by Eva Tschopp
A tale about our culture around the use of fertilizers and pesticides visiting small farms around Ahmedabad in Matar and Shilaj.
Expert Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Drafting ServicesResDraft
Whether you’re looking to create a guest house, a rental unit, or a private retreat, our experienced team will design a space that complements your existing home and maximizes your investment. We provide personalized, comprehensive expert accessory dwelling unit (ADU)drafting solutions tailored to your needs, ensuring a seamless process from concept to completion.
Hello everyone! I am thrilled to present my latest portfolio on LinkedIn, marking the culmination of my architectural journey thus far. Over the span of five years, I've been fortunate to acquire a wealth of knowledge under the guidance of esteemed professors and industry mentors. From rigorous academic pursuits to practical engagements, each experience has contributed to my growth and refinement as an architecture student. This portfolio not only showcases my projects but also underscores my attention to detail and to innovative architecture as a profession.
Book Formatting: Quality Control Checks for DesignersConfidence Ago
This presentation was made to help designers who work in publishing houses or format books for printing ensure quality.
Quality control is vital to every industry. This is why every department in a company need create a method they use in ensuring quality. This, perhaps, will not only improve the quality of products and bring errors to the barest minimum, but take it to a near perfect finish.
It is beyond a moot point that a good book will somewhat be judged by its cover, but the content of the book remains king. No matter how beautiful the cover, if the quality of writing or presentation is off, that will be a reason for readers not to come back to the book or recommend it.
So, this presentation points designers to some important things that may be missed by an editor that they could eventually discover and call the attention of the editor.
Dive into the innovative world of smart garages with our insightful presentation, "Exploring the Future of Smart Garages." This comprehensive guide covers the latest advancements in garage technology, including automated systems, smart security features, energy efficiency solutions, and seamless integration with smart home ecosystems. Learn how these technologies are transforming traditional garages into high-tech, efficient spaces that enhance convenience, safety, and sustainability.
Ideal for homeowners, tech enthusiasts, and industry professionals, this presentation provides valuable insights into the trends, benefits, and future developments in smart garage technology. Stay ahead of the curve with our expert analysis and practical tips on implementing smart garage solutions.
Top 5 Indian Style Modular Kitchen DesignsFinzo Kitchens
Get the perfect modular kitchen in Gurgaon at Finzo! We offer high-quality, custom-designed kitchens at the best prices. Wardrobes and home & office furniture are also available. Free consultation! Best Quality Luxury Modular kitchen in Gurgaon available at best price. All types of Modular Kitchens are available U Shaped Modular kitchens, L Shaped Modular Kitchen, G Shaped Modular Kitchens, Inline Modular Kitchens and Italian Modular Kitchen.
101. Phone Interviews
What do we
need to know
about?
What kind of
decision will it
inform?
How long do we
have?
What is our
budget?
Contextual Inquiry
In-Person Interviews
Usability Testing
Competitive
Analysis
127. Basic Stakeholder Questions
What is your title? How long have you been in this role?
What are your essential duties and responsibilities?
What does a typical day look like?
Who are the people you work most closely with? How is that going?
What does success mean from your perspective, what will have changed
for the better once this project is complete?
Do you have any concerns about this project?
What do you think the greatest challenges to success are? Internal and
external?
128. For each stakeholder, note the following:
What’s their general attitude toward this project?
What’s the goal as they describe it?
To what extent are this person’s incentives aligned with the project’s
success?
How much and what type of influence do they have?
Who else do they communicate with on a regular basis?
To what extent does this stakeholder need to participate
throughout the project, and in which role?
Is what you heard in harmony or in conflict with what you’ve
heard from others throughout the organization?
129. Stakeholder power moves
“Why are you asking me this?”
“I don’t understand that question. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t feel comfortable talking to you about that.”
“No one pays attention to anything I have to say, so I don’t know why I
should bother talking to you.”
“How much more time is this going to take?”
131. 10 minutes practice. Find a partner. Take turns.
What is your title? How long have you had this job?
What are your essential duties and responsibilities?
What is a typical day like?
Who are the people you work most closely with? How is that going?
What do you think the greatest challenges to your success are?
Internal and external?
134. To Review
Team + Goal + Shared Reality = Good
Research is a simple process you can apply to however you work. You
shouldn’t be dogmatic.
Even though this sounds obvious, some people will resist this because
questions can feel threatening.
Facts will not change the minds of people who are threatened.
You need to appeal to what you know is important to them, and fit
your facts into their story.
So, understanding what is important to your stakeholders is necessary
for design and research to succeed.
155. Interview Checklist
Create a welcoming atmosphere to make participants feel at ease.
Always listen more than you speak.
Take responsibility to accurately convey the thoughts and
behaviors of the people you are studying.
Start each interview with a general description of the goal,
but be careful of focusing responses too narrowly.
Avoid leading questions and closed yes/no questions. Ask
follow-up questions.
Prepare an outline of your interview questions in advance, but don’t be
afraid to stray from it.
Also note the exact phrases and vocabulary that participants use.
159. Interview Scenario
You work for an e-commerce site
that wants to develop a new service
to help people give gifts.
The goal of the research is to
identify unmet needs people might
have with regard to giving gifts.
160. Interview Practice
Break into groups of 3-4 people
1 interviewee, 1 interviewer , 1 notetaker, 1
observer (optional),
Switch in 15 minutes
2 rounds
166. 14
“Even when the subjects are well
selected, focus groups are supposed to
be merely the source of ideas that need
to be researched.”
–Robert K. Merton, Sociologist,
invented focus groups
169. How else might your
target customer solve
the same problem?
170. Competitive Review
What do they say they offer?
Who is their customer? How is this the same or different from your
target audience or users?
What are the key differentiators—the factors that make them uniquely
valuable to their target market, if any?
How do the user needs or wants they’re serving overlap or differ from
those that you’re serving or desire to serve?
What do you notice that they’re doing particularly well or badly?
Based on this assessment, where do you see emerging or established
conventions in how they do things, opportunities to offer something
clearly superior, or good practices you’ll need to adopt or take into
consideration to compete with them?
173. A good research activity:
•Answers a key question
•Addresses identified
assumptions
•Informs specific decisions
•Involves your team
•Fits your level of expertise
•Fits your schedule and budget
174. •Fundamentally research is a simple process
•There are many activities and definitions
•No pressure!
•Select the methods that inform decisions
•Begin by understanding your organization
•Never ask what people like
•People are lazy, forgetful creatures of habit
•Keep each other honest
•Practice and learn
175. Research and Collaboration
Working together across disciplines and making decisions based on
evidence shouldn’t be hard, but they can be.
Done right, research and working collaboratively reinforce each other
through a shared understanding of reality.
Start with your goal in mind, not with any process or buzzword.
Asking questions and cutting across traditional roles can both be
threatening to the established order.
Commit to clear communication and critical thinking.
Research questions follow from goals, assumptions, and risk.
Always have a framework and a plan.
179. Basic Analysis
Closely review the notes.
Look for interesting behaviors, emotions, actions, and verbatim quotes.
Write what you observed on a sticky note (coded to the
source, the actual user, so you can trace it back).
Group the notes.
Watch the patterns emerge.
Rearrange the notes as you continue to assess the patterns.
186. Ground rules
Acknowledge that the goal of this exercise is to better understand the
context and needs of the user. Focus solely on that goal.
Respect the structure of the session. Refrain from identifying larger
patterns before you’ve gone through the data.
Clearly differentiate observations from interpretations (what happened
versus what it means).
No specific solutions until after you’ve gone through insights and
principles. Solutions come next.
189. 20 minutes analysis.
Break into groups of 6-8 people
Each group work together to fill out one diagram with the strongest
patterns.
Negotiate and advocate for your perspective.
192. 20 minutes analysis.
Break into groups of 6-8 people
Each group work together to fill out one diagram with the strongest
patterns.
Negotiate and advocate for your perspective.
208. In summary
Research creates a shared understanding of reality.
Asking questions is uncomfortable. Embrace that feeling.
A truly collaborative approach and environment is necessary for research to be
effective, and it also makes it more fun.
Clear goals and good questions are required.
Choose only the research activities that answer real questions and inform your top
priority design and development decisions.
Practice! Observe and listen every day.
Document! Report! Share! It’s easy to lose what you learn.
210. Additional sources:
Designing Together by Dan A. Brown
http://www.designingtogetherbook.com/
LeanUX by Jeff Gothelf
http://www.leanuxbook.com/
Remote Research by Nate Bolt & Tony Tony Tulathimutte
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/remote-research/
Interviewing Users by Steve Portigal
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/interviewing-users/
Google Ventures Library | Design
http://www.gv.com/library/design/
Pacific Standard Magazine
http://www.psmag.com/
Helsinki Design Lab (closed, but excellent publications still available)
http://www.helsinkidesignlab.org/pages/publications
211. Brief books for people who make websites No.
9
JUSTENOUGH
RESEARCH
Erika Hall
You might
enjoy the
book.
www.abookapart.com
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