Mobile User Experience Research

Juliette MeltonIDEO

flickr.com/coldtaxi

3 thingsWrite this down, we’re coming back to it.

What do we mean by “research?”

Inspiration

Fixing

What do we mean by “research?”

Inspiration (formative research)

Fixing (usability testing and analytics)

What do we mean by “research?”

Getting the right idea...

... getting the idea right

What do we mean by “research?”

Getting the right idea...

Media DiaryDistance done right

flickr.com/zzd

Punchcut Diary Study

Users generate data all the time.

People produce rich data.

Don’t exclude participants unnecessarily.

Paper iPhoneEarly-stage prototyping

flickr.com/stelladauer

Getting the right idea...

A quick formative research exercise

A quick note on concept validation

...getting the idea right

InstagramLessons in Beta distribution

MeexoMoving fast

AOL MailTesting iteratively, internally

Medical ReferenceHas to be right before release

The Smallest MobilePhysical usability

...getting the idea right

Usability Basics

Find some participants

Ask them good questions

Make sure the findings get to the right people

Repeat!

Participants

Existing users? (Twitter, newsletters)

Potential users? (Craigslist, flyers, Mechanical Turk)

Good Questions

“What are you goals and frustrations today?”

“Here’s this thing. I’m just going to watch you use it.”

“How many people signed up for this last month? How many of them completed the signup process?”

Three questions to avoid

Future

How they’d design a service

Asking by providing their reason

- Jared Spool

Sharing the findings

Good idea: brief topline, longer report only if necessary

Bad idea: Long report hanging out as an attachment in someone’s email

Sharing the findings

Good idea: talk directly to whoever’s responsible for making that change

Bad idea: expecting colleagues to pay attention to research

Make it repeatable

Plan appropriately for your organization’s goals -- guerilla-style or formal? Conference room or testing lab?

Internal traction

Agile

Parallel research track

Regularly planned research sessions

Research looks both backwards and forwards

Focus on product quality

Expectation that the project will shift course

Agile UXR Sample Schedule

Back to your 3 things...

How will you get the right idea and get the idea right?

What’s next

Screensharing

Data

Special thanks to...

Blake Engel, Punchcut

Dav Yaginuma and Romain David, Meexo

Ron Goldin, Akku

Carla Borsoi and Krista Sanders, AOL

Mike Krieger, Instagram

Brynn Evans, UX Researcher

Thanks!Juliette Melton

jmelton@ideo.com@j