Update of a talk originally given as a Skillshare workshop. Given at BioRaft Drupal Nights in summer 2013, and to be given at UX Boston in September 2013.

1. USER RESEARCH
For the Web and Applications
Dani Nordin :: @danigrrl :: tzk-design.com

2. Dani Nordin
founder,thezenkitchen
• UX Designer, teacher
and author
• Work with Drupal
teams to envision,
prototype and test
new functionality and
make sense of
complex content
models.
• Author, Drupal for
Designers (O’Reilly,
2011/2012)
Contact
@danigrrl
dani@tzk-design.com
tzk-design.com

3. What happens during the UX phase
• Get an understanding of the site’s target users
• Map out how users will flow through specific key tasks, and
what information needs to be there to support them
• Find out what content exists for the current site, what needs
to be created, and how the content will be organized
• Come up with a set of assumptions and standards that will
govern the project as you move forward

4. USER INTERVIEWS AND
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
Learn more about the real people who will be interacting
with your project

5. User interviews: Why?
• Helps separate stakeholder whims from what actual users
will find relevant
• Includes perspectives from all the various user types
involved in your site:
• End users
• Content admins and moderators
• Marketing team
• Can uncover needs not addressed by current design
• Provides important and real data for personas, task flows
and other project deliverables

6. Contextual Inquiry: Why?
• Watching a user do their work gives new insights that can’t
be gained from an interview.
• Talking to users in their own environment builds trust and
repoire, makes participants more comfortable
• Works particularly well for redesigns of existing
functionality

7. THE PROCESS

8. Step 1: Define User Types
• Defined by behaviors they are looking to engage in
• Enthusiast vs. casual browser
• New account vs. existing customer
• What qualities do they share?
• Age, gender, education?
• Level of interest in, or knowledge of, your service?
• Specific goals?

9. Step 2: Create a research plan
• Define a goal for the study: what are you trying to learn?
• Questions should focus on behaviors, not desires:
• How does the participant solve this problem currently?
• What do they like or dislike about their solution?
• What tools do they use to solve this problem?
• How important is solving this problem to them?
• It’s not about what they want, it’s about how they work.

10. Step 3: Recruit users
• Goal: 2–3 users of each type (minimum)
• Enlist client’s help in recruitment
• Is there a budget to compensate participants?

11. Step 4: Conduct Interviews
• Have a set of open-ended, non-leading questions ready
• Record if possible
• Take note of key insights, quotes
• Take note of ideas you’ve heard in other interviews
• Timing: ½ hour for interview; ½ hour for notes

12. Step 5:Analyze
Findings
Pull out key insights,
quotes, ideas
Note duplicate
insights/comments
Tools: Post-Its, Sharpies,
butcher paper

13. POST-UPS
A quick and visual way to analyze research findings,
organize content, and solve sticky IA issues

14. Post-Ups: Why?
• Helps quickly identify and prioritize major research themes
• Helps quickly sort out content priorities
• Tools are cheap and easy to move around
• Butcher paper
• Post-its
• Sharpies
• Allows the team to work collaboratively, which is more
efficient than working alone—particularly for complex
navigational structures

15. The Post-Up IA Workshop
• Initial architecture posted up on butcher paper
• Include 4–6 people, all of whom have a stake in the site
(include content admins, not just execs)
• Post architecture on wall
• Each person gets 5 minutes to move things around
• Have them think aloud
• Videotape or record each person’s turn
• Offer help, but avoid criticism or debate during each person’s turn
• Take picture of result after each person finishes
• Finish with discussion and finalization of architecture
• Document result in content strategy documents

16. Congregational Library: version 1

17. Congregational Library: final post-up

18. Content Collection/Documentation: GatherContent

19. Results
• Ensured that all voices were heard, not just the executives
• Enabled discussion of pages’ relevance and usefulness
• Identified and prioritized new sections/pages that were
needed, and assigned stakeholders to them
• Accomplished in two hours what would have taken
weeks of back and forth over email

20. VISUALIZING
RESEARCH FINDINGS
UX Deliverables

21. Personas

22. Task/User Flows

23. Wireframes

24. Sketches and Prototypes

25. Functional Requirements

26. QUESTIONS?
@danigrrl on Twitter
dani@tzk-design.com