This document provides an overview and plan for user research activities over the next few weeks. It discusses the importance of understanding users and their needs and perspectives to guide product development. The plan outlines qualitative research methods like observations and interviews to understand what users do and their attitudes in their natural environments. Interviewing techniques are covered, emphasizing open-ended questions. The document also provides guidance for conducting research ethically and avoiding bias by staying out of "solution land" and documenting emerging patterns rather than assumptions. Students are assigned to create a detailed research plan by the end of the session.

1. User Research Planning
INTERACTION DESIGN | FEB. 16, 2016
WEEK 4

2. Warm Ups

3. Review

4. LAST WEEK
Understanding the business / subject matter research
THIS WEEK
Understanding and researching our users
WEEK 5
Summarize research, sketch & b
WEEK 6
Choose your best product idea and start refining it
DISCOVER
DEFINE

5. VALUE FOR
THE
BUSINESS
VALUE FOR
CUSTOMERSWIN!

6. Revenue-driven: “I need 5 million units sold.”
Brand-driven: “I need 10 million Facebook likes.”
Value for the Business

7. “I want to find a bathroom.”
Value for the Customer

8. Presentations

9. Why Conduct
User Research?

10. Because most designers design outside of familiar territory
Gives designers ammo for defending their work
Gives designers empathy with people (eliminates bias)
Can lead to moments of inspiration
WHY RESEARCH?

11. What should
we research?

12. What our users do (as it relates to the subject matter)
Their attitudes in the context of our product environment
What they know about the product space
What they desire – they may not know this themselves
SO…WHAT DO WE RESEARCH?

13. “If I had asked people what they wanted,
they would have said faster horses.”
– Henry Ford

14. Qualitative vs. Quantitative

17. Research Methods

18. OBSERVATIONS
INTERVIEWS
ACTIVITIES/SELF REPORTING

19. You’re either watching from afar or operating covertly
Documenting on the field – camera phones!
Study people in their own natural environments
Be discreet
OBSERVATIONS

20. Let the subjects do the talking; open-ended questions are good
Stay away from focus groups
Don’t ask leading questions
Work in pairs
INTERVIEWS

21. DO NOT CONDUCT FOCUS GROUPS.

22. ACTIVITIES/SELF REPORTING

23. How to Interview

24. Do you usually run late to catch your flights?
OR
Walk me through a day when you have to catch a flight.

25. It pisses me off when I don’t know what’s happening
to my flight. What about you?
OR
What do you think or feel when you don’t know
what’s happening to your flight?

26. Do you use the airport kiosks to check in?
RE-PHRASE THIS:

27. DESIGNER AS RESEARCHER

28. Stay out of “solution land”
(don’t focus on finding a solution)

29. Put away everything we think
we know, believe, or suspect.

30. Take note of new phenomena,
but pay closer attention to emerging
patterns.

31. See or hear it once – it’s a phenomenon.
See or hear it twice – it’s either a coincidence or an emerging pattern.
See or hear it three times, and it’s a pattern.
In all of the above cases, write down your observations!

32. Be responsible. Be ethical.

33. Assignment for end of class:
Create a detailed research plan.

34. One more idea:
Conduct a usability study
of a competitor