Research Workshop

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Agenda

1. Research Landscape2. Focus: Interviews, Usability Research3. Best Practices4. Examples (good, bad, and so-so)

5.Exercises6. Wrap-Up

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Workshop Goals

This half-day workshop will cover:•key types of research•best practices•actual practice

By the end of this workshop, you’ll have an awareness of and experience with research and best practices that will improve the quality and dependability of your findings.

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Research Landscape

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JJG’s Elements

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Research Methods by Data Source vs. Approach vs. Context of Product Use

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* updated from Christian Rohrer

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Research Methods by Data Source vs. Approach vs. Context of Product Use

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Workshop Focus

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Research Methods by Data Source vs. Approach vs. Context of Product Use

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Usability Studies

Interviews

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Interviews

strategy

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DescriptionGoal

Location

Context

Protocol

…to understand underlying motivations, attitudes, and behaviors (attitudinal).

strategy

... often in person, may also be via WebEx or phone.

... does not test a specific product.

Interviews

... describes areas of inquiries and sample questions, but the session is often wide-ranging.

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DescriptionNeed

Have

Can

...insight into customers or potential customers to discover new ideas or find inspiration for new ways to help or delight them.

strategy

...a hypothesis about a customer or product opportunity, time to conduct and synthesize research, access to 10 or so customers, with ~60-90 minutes, preferably in their environment, and a budget for stipends....comfortably conduct a relaxed open-ended research session, and can video record the session.

Interviews

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Limitations

1. Predictions often don’t work.2. Details aren’t always insights.3. Biases and assumptions show and

color our insights.4. Insights aren’t guaranteed.5. Synthesizing is critical!6. …

strategy

Interviews

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After the Session

Post-session synthesis focuses on identifying opportunities based on attitudes / problems. These activities include things like:1.design thinking2.language analysis3.experience maps4.affinity diagrams

strategy

Interviews

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Usability Research

structure /

skeleton / surface

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DescriptionGoal

Location

Context

Protocol

…to understand how they might use a product, and to uncover problems and opportunities (behavioral).

…may be in person, via WebEx or phone.

…tests a specific product (yours or a competitors).

Usability Research

...may start with a few attitudinal questions, but usually is longer and more closely followed.

structure /

skeleton / surface

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DescriptionNeed

Have

Can

...to get a sense of how potential customers will react to a specific product offering or feature, or fine-tune an interface.

structure /

skeleton / surface

...a prototype, competitor, or working code, a protocol, time do conduct research, access to 5 or so customers.

...comfortably conduct a relaxed usability research session.

Usability Research

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Limitations

1. Predictions often don’t work.2. Observer effect.3. Limitations of the artifact.4. False tasks give false results.5. …

Usability Research structure /

skeleton / surface

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After the Session

Post-research synthesis focuses on specific changes to a UI based on observed behavior, including:1.affinity diagramming2.visual queues with screen shots and photos and stickies3.analysis of detailed notes

Usability Research

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Best Practices

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Moderating (first steps)

1. listen, be quiet!2. be neutral and avoid value words

– use incomplete sentences

– parrot to probe and avoid answering ?s

– avoid asking for predictions

– use their language

– don’t assume their process

Best Practices

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Moderating (mastering that…)4. be calm5. observations ≠ recommendations6. note hypotheses up front — is success

proving them right or wrong?

Best Practices

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Moderating (bonus points)7. behavior first, then attitudes and

motivation, not the other way around– BUT if you’ve asked lots of questions about

behavior and still don’t have a good sense of attitude, it’s ok to ask a general question

Best Practices

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Note Taking

1. In person, sit behind and slightly to one side of the moderator. Remotely, sit off screen or in another room.

2. Be polite, attentive, and moderately interested. (Do not react too much.)

3. Remember, observations before ideas.4. Save your questions for the end.5. Note your top ~5 takeaways

immediately.6. Don’t take your own notes.

Best Practices structure /

skeleton / surface

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Examples

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Recording 1structure /

skeleton / surface

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Recording 1 Findings

1. He thinks my idea is great!

structure /

skeleton / surface

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Recording 2structure /

skeleton / surface

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Recording 2 Findings

• Looking at Toyotas• Doing research online using OEM sites

and Google• Uses web daily, not into Facebook

structure /

skeleton / surface

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Recording 3structure /

skeleton / surface

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Recording 3 Findings

• Looking at Toyotas• Shows concerns about safety, privacy• Doing test drives, renting cars, and

research online with OEM sites and Google

• Uses web three times a week, uses Facebook (mainly Farmville) every time he logs in

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skeleton / surface

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Exercise

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Exercise

1. Groups of three2. One computer recording3. Using our protocol, rotate through:

• participant• moderator• note-taker

4. For each moderator:• 10 minutes conducting session• 5 minutes for feedback

Usability Research structure /

skeleton / surface

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Giving Feedback

1. Try, “I like…” / “I wish…” / “What if…” (IL/IW/WI) or, “How might we…?”

2. State the specific observation and explain the impact.

3. Be direct, respectful, and sincere (don’t say, “You need to…”.)

4. If you have something nice to say, please say it.

5. Pause and wait for reactions.

Best Practices structure /

skeleton / surface

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Receiving Feedback

1. Be introspective — what do you think? Note your own positive and constructive feedback. (Hint: if you can’t identify any, this might not be your thing.)

2. It is personal, but even if you start doing this, it will be a small part of your craft. Don’t take it too heavily.

3. This isn’t for everyone — being this neutral is hard.

Best Practices structure /

skeleton / surface

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Exercise Complete

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Nota Bene

• For all of these, garbage in, garbage out.

• Agreements must be documented somewhere.

• These are some tools, not THE tools.

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More Reading1. Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug2. The User is Always Right, Steve Mulder and Ziv Yaar3. The Elements of User Experience, Jesse James Garrett4. “From Use to User Interface”, Jeff Patton

http://www.slideshare.net/abcd82/from-use-to-user-interface-presentation5. “Personas for Product Management”, Marty Cagan http://www.svpg.com/personas-for-product-management/ 6. “Summary of Usability Inspection Methods”, Jakob Nielsen

http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/inspection_summary.html 7. “When to Use Which User Experience Research Methods”, Christian Rohrer

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/user-research-methods.html8. “Usability Demo Test” by Steve Krug

http://www.peachpit.com/promotions/promotion.aspx?promo=1376029. User Interface Engineering - Articles about User Behavior

http://www.uie.com/browse/user_behavior/10. “Three Questions You Shouldn't Ask During User Research” by Jared Spool

http://www.uie.com/articles/three_questions_not_to_ask/11. Observing the User Experience by Mike Kuniavsky, pages 117-12712. “Meet the Respondents: Understanding User Personalities” (Part 1 & 2) by Mike Fisher - UX Consultant

http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/meet-the-respondents-understanding-user-personalities-part-1/http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/meet-the-respondents-understanding-user-personalities-part-2/

13. “My Best Advice for Conducting User Interviews” by Whitney Hess - UX Consultanthttp://whitneyhess.com/blog/2010/07/07/my-best-advice-for-conducting-user-interviews/

14. Understanding Your Users by Catherine Courage & Kathy Baxter, pages 275-29315. From Self-Prediction to Self-Defeat: Behavioral Forecasting, Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, and the Effect of

Competitive Expectations, by Kristina A. Diekmann, Ann E. Tenbrunsel and Adam D. Galinsky     

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Good Luck!

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or need help:

Audreyaudrey@designmap.com

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.