Does the field of user-centered design mystify you? Does user research seem like the last thing you have time to think about? Any team can look at analytics to understand what users are doing and how often they’re doing it. What analytics won’t tell you is *why* users are doing certain things — sometimes you need more context. That’s where user research comes in. This session will map out a framework for incorporating user research into your development cycle.

1. Homespun UX: Going Beyond
Web Analytics
September 13, 2014, NERD Summit, Amherst, MA
Mary Ann Petti, MPH, CHES
@MaryAnnPetti

2. Source: Damien Newman, Central

3. Source: Damien Newman, Central

4. Source: Damien Newman, Central

5. The UCD Process
① Research the user
① Design a prototype
① Test it
① Tweak it
⑤ Test it again

6. Web Analytics vs. UX

7. Web Analytics vs. UX
Web Analytics
+Learning how users interact with websites and
mobile apps by recording aspects of users’ behavior
and analyzing the data.
User Experience
+Utilizing user research and design techniques —
including usability testing, user personas, and user-centered
design — to make a product usable, useful,
and delightful.

8. Defining UX
Photo credit: http://www.mommytesters.com/

10. Answers: What?

11. Answers: What?
Answers: WHY?

12. Speaks to the organization’s goals

13. Speaks to organizational goals
Speaks to users’ goals

14. Lou’s TABLE OF
OVERGENERALIZED
DICHOTOMIES
Web Analytics User Experience
What they analyze Users’ behaviors (what’s
happening)
Users’ intentions and
motives (why those things
happen)
What methods they
employ
Quantitative methods to
determine what’s
happening
Qualitative methods for
explaining why things
happen
What they’re trying
to achieve
Helps the organization
meet goals (expressed at
KPI)
Helps users achieve goals
(expressed as tasks or
topics of interest)
How they use data Measure performance
(goal-driven analysis)
Uncover patters and
surprises (emergent
analysis
What kind of data
they use
Statistical data (“real” data
in large volumes, full of
errors)
Descriptive data (in small
volumes, generated in lab
environment, full of
errors)
Source: Louis Rosenfeld, Seeing the Elephant: Defragmenting User Research,
http://www.slideshare.net/lrosenfeld/beyond-user-research

15. STORY TIME!

16. Making Room for UX Research

17. Making Room for UX Research
Step 1: Discover and strategize
Step 2: Plan a user research study
Step 3: Talk to users
Step 4: Communicate results

18. Step 1: Discover and Strategize
Goal: Focus and guide a project, setting the team
up for long-term success
Key Questions:
+ What do you plan to fix through UX design?
+ What is the vision for the UX?
+ What are the nuts and bolts of the project?

19. Step 1: Discover and Strategize
Possible Methods
+ Discovery meeting
+ UX project plan
+ Analytics review
+ Environmental scan

20. Sample Method
UX PROJECT PLAN

22. Users

23. Users
Users’
motivations

24. Step 2: Plan User Research Study
Goal: Plan a study that will get your team the
information it needs to create something
useable, useful, and delightful.
Key Questions:
+What are the goals of the research study?
+What do you know?
+What don’t you know?
+How are you going to learn it?

25. Step 2: Plan User Research Study
Possible Methods:
+Research plan
+Moderator’s guide
+Prototype*
*This is slightly out of turn, but if you want to test a
prototype, you’ll need to decide what you’re testing and
make sure it’s built during this phase.

26. Sample Method
Moderator’s guide

28. Include
instructions
and cues for
the moderator
Include screen
shots to help the
moderator to not
lose their place

29. Step 3: Talk to Users
Goal: Learn as much as you can about who your
users are and what motivates them
Key Questions:
+ What concerns are top of mind for users? How
do they *really* behave?
+ How does a user experience the product or
tool from start to finish?

30. Step 3: Talk to Users
Possible Methods:
+ Interviews (in-depth, contextual)
+ Focus groups (stakeholders, friendship circles)
+ Observation
+ Usability testing
+ Collaging
+ Card sorting
+ Tree testing (IA testing)
+ Click testing

31. How many people do I need to test?
+ It depends.
+ 1 is better than none.
+ Between 3 and 8 is
great.*
* 4 users catch 80% of
usability issues
[Source: Nielson Norman Group, 2000]

32. SIDEBAR! NNgroup.com

33. Sample Method #1
COLLAGING

34. Sample Method: Collaging
+ Participants create a
collage that represents
the characteristics they
would like to see in a new
website
+ Result: Provides insights
into users’ needs normally
not revealed in interviews
and focus groups

35. “This is how I feel, free and full of energy. I
want my doctor to understand that this is
how I want to feel with her help.”

36. Sample Method #2
OBSERVATION

37. 7
Sample method: Observation
Computer is positioned so it's diagonal from
the exam table. The clinician and the patient
sit next to the computer for most of the visit.
At the end of the visit, the clinician gives the
patient an EMR print out with a summary.

38. Sample Method #3
TREE TESTING (IA TESTING)

39. Sample Method: Tree Testing
+ A technique for evaluating how easy it is for
people to locate information within a material
or website structure
+ Participants are given a topic to find within a
text version of a site map or table of contents

40. Sample Method: Tree Testing

41. Sample Method: Tree Testing
Tree Testing Report for HealthyPeople.gov 41

42. Step 4: Communicate Results
Goal: Communicate results clearly to team
members and clients, and advocate for users’
needs.
Key Questions:
+What are the key findings from user testing?
How can they be prioritized?
+What are the recommendations?
+How can this information be presented in a
visual way?

43. Step 4: Communicate Results
Possible Methods:
+ Post-it notes
+ Personas
+ User journey/storyboards

44. Sample Method #1
POST-IT NOTES

47. Sample Method #2
PERSONAS

49. Source: Dan Mall, “Memoirs of a #RWD Survivor,” An Event Apart, July 2014

50. Source: Dan Mall, “Memoirs of a #RWD Survivor,” An Event Apart, July 2014

51. Source: Dan Mall, “Memoirs of a #RWD Survivor,” An Event Apart, July 2014

52. Source: Dan Mall, “Memoirs of a #RWD Survivor,” An Event Apart, July 2014

53. The bottom line?
Involving users will help:
+ Improve user satisfaction
+ Increase trust and credibility
+ Increase success rate and reduce user error
+ Attract more/new users over time

54. If you only do one thing…
There is only one key requirement when
conducting user research:
Talking to users. Even 2 or 3 is better than
none at all.

55. Thank You!!
Mary Ann Petti
maryann@communicatehealth.com
www.communicatehealth.com