It’s hard to understand peopleHow to get and make sense of qualitative insights
Johanna Kollmann - @johannakollImperial College London, 20 November 2012
Photo by NASA JSC Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_jsc_photo/7257865176
(Some) research methods (yeah we have a lot)
Generative
Evaluative
Contextual inquiryMental modelsInterviewsDiary studies
Quantitative Qualitative
Adapted from figures by Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
Automated card sortSurveysAutomated studiesAnalyticsA/B TestingMulti-variant testing
SurveysInterviews
Usability testingModerated card sortWizard of Oz
Before you leave the building
Photo by angelamaphone http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelamaphone/2663422833//
Plan who to talk to where about what and why
What topics shall the interview cover?
Buying
food
Preparing
food
Eating out
Dieting
Exercise
Busy
lifestyle
Struggles
Prompts rather than set questions
Day-in-a-life (today,
yesterday)
Decide what to eat
Last time on a diet
How active (want vs. do)
Preparing food for oneself
Preparing food for
family/friends
Have a ‘softball question’ ready
Please tell me a little bit
about your cooking this week.
Could you tell me about the
last dish you prepared
yourself?
Photo by TheeErin: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeerin/4729019845/
Out in the wild
Ask open questions – don’t lead
YAY
• Who
• What
• When
•
Wher
e
• Why
• How
NAY
• Did
• Have
• Are
• Were
• Will
Were you trying to do A or B?
What were you trying to do?
Some great all-purpose questions
By Janice Fraser
• Has there ever been a time when you had x
experience?
• Could you tell me about that?
• What was great about that?
• What was awful about that?
• Why did you do that?
• And then, what happened?
• If you had a magic wand, what would you make the
situation be like?
Photo by Hilde Skjølberg http://www.flickr.com/photos/hebe/3004800079/
Do’s and don’ts
DoBe the learner, not the expert
Ask naïve questions
Ask for specific stories
Allow people time to think
Listen!
Take notes or record
Take photos or collect artefacts
Photo by Tomas Hellberg http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomhe/35312882/
Don’tBe an interrogator
Ask questions that sound like blame, or argumentative
Ask for solutions
Try to solve problems during the interview
Ask what features people want
Ask people to imagine theoretical situations
Photo by G Meyer http://www.flickr.com/photos/kainet/144703613/
Making sense of what you saw and heard
Photos taken at DesignJam London events by Rachel Winch and falkowata
Source: http://www.uie.com/articles/research_to_personas/
Business Model Canvas
Peter Checkland
Human activity systemsSoft Systems Methodology
Leverage points…
…places within a complex system where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.
…are often counterintuitive.
Rich Picture
1. Construction of the Humber Bridge (adapted from Stewart and Fortune, 1994) © The Open University
2. Distance Learning Situation © Wood-Harper et al, Information Systems Definition: The Multiview Approach, Blackwell Scientific Publications 1985
Rich Picture elements
Stakeholders
Worldview
Connections
Conflicts
2. Distance Learning Situation © Wood-Harper et al, Information Systems Definition: The Multiview Approach, Blackwell Scientific Publications 1985
Notes from my Leancamp session on this topic http
://johannakoll.posterous.com/ux-research-tips-for-customer-development-not
Mental Models by Indi Young
Storytelling for User Experience by Whitney Quesenbery & Kevin Brooks
Remote Research by Nate Bolt & Tony Tulathimutte
Undercover User Experience by Cennydd Bowles
Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin
LUXr resources and materials by Janice Fraser (
http://www.slideshare.net/clevergirl/) and Lane Halley (
http://www.slideshare.net/LaneHalley/)
Articles on User Interface Engineering (
http://www.uie.com/browse/usability_testing/)
Resources
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
We will not solve the problems of the world from the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. More than anything else, this new century demands new thinking:
We must change our materially based analyses of the world around us to include broader, more multidimensional perspectives.
~Albert Einstein
