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Tag: Research

Posted
August 21, 2023
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Advice, Career
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25 Years in UX Research

It’s hard to believe that I first started in the field of User Experience 25 years ago. In 1998, I began the Master’s degree program in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at DePaul University. Since then, I’ve worked for four different companies—as both a generalist UX designer/researcher and as a UX research specialist.

I recently published an article on UXmatters about the changes I’ve perceived in the field of UX Research over the last 25 years: Changes Over the Last 25 in UX Research.

I cover the expansion of UX education, the change from “Usability” to “User Experience,” changes in UX job titles, increased business buy-in to the value of UX, surviving several economic downturns, usability testing moving earlier in the design process, the decline of heuristic evaluations, the increase in generative research, people increasingly demanding better user experiences, an explosive increase in the number of UX jobs, improvement in user experiences, the increase in remote research, the development of research operations, and the ability of UX research to easily adapt to technology changes.

Posted
November 13, 2022
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Advice, Career
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More Career Advice for UX Researchers

With 22 years in the field of User Experience, I felt it was about time to provide more career advice for UX researchers; this time for researchers in the middle of their careers.

In 2011, I published Career Advice for User Researchers, aimed at people trying to get into the field and with a few years of experience.

In 2022, I just published Updating My Career Advice for User Researchers, aimed at researchers in the middle of their careers.

I seem to do this every 11 years, so look for a part 3 in 2033. Maybe that one will be advice for researchers thinking about retirement?

Image by Víctor Villamarín under Creative Commons License

Posted
June 22, 2020
Category
Methods
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Remote User Research: Now More Than Ever

Stay Safe Keep Your Distance social distancing marker on pavement

With everything going on now with COVID-19, remote user research is the only type of research we’ll be able to safely do for the near future. In-person research, in which you need to sit close enough to interview a participant and observe what they’re doing, doesn’t really work with social distancing. At the same time, some people have questioned whether it makes sense to continue performing user research during such unusual times. Aren’t participants going to act differently, won’t that affect the results, and should we ask them to participate in user research at a time like this?

In my latest article on UXmatters, Remote User Research: The Time is Now, I discuss how to adapt to conducting all of your user research remotely and discuss whether it makes sense to continue conducting user research during this unusual time in our history.

 

“Coronavirus (COVID-19) Sheffield, UK” by Tim Dennell is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Posted
March 23, 2020
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Advice
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Overcoming User Research Fatigue and Maintaining Your Sanity

I love conducting user research. I’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now. However, I admit there are times when it can try your patience. As a researcher you often conduct the same sessions, asking the same questions, observing the same tasks, and often hearing similar answers – over and over and over again. So it’s inevitable that at times in your career you can suffer from user research fatigue.

In my latest UXmatters article, Retaining Your Sanity as a User Researcher, I provide tips for avoiding user research fatigue and maintaining your sanity, including:

  • Don’t schedule more participants than you need
  • Don’t schedule too many sessions per day
  • Take breaks between sessions
  • Get away from the research at the end of each day
  • Break up large-scale research
  • If you don’t have enough time, adjust your effort
  • Ensure your job provides enough variety
  • Continue to learn
  • Indulge your outside interests
  • Remember you’re making the world a better place

 

So check out the article, Retaining Your Sanity as a User Researcher, or to read more about user research fatigue, check out my article, Overcoming That Dreaded Malady: User Research Fatigue.

 

“Generic Sign Project – Fatigue” by Kevin H. is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

Posted
December 2, 2019
Category
Advice
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Should You Ask Your Clients to Help Recruit Participants?

Danger keep out sign

For some projects, your clients can be the best source of user research participants. When you’re looking for their employees, their members, or their customers, your clients are the best source for lists of potential participants. Also they often have a relationship with these potential participants. They may know them personally, or at the very least they are associated with a company with which the potential participants have a relationship. When people get a request to participate in a user research study, they are more likely to pay attention to it, and seriously consider it, if it comes from someone they know or at least if it comes from a person in a company they do business with.

However, there are some perils of asking your clients recruit participants, including:

  • They may not have the time or organizational skills it takes to recruit and schedule participants.
  • They probably won’t describe the research correctly.
  • They probably won’t know the right types of people to recruit.
  • They may not schedule the sessions logically and effectively.
  • They may give participants the wrong ideas about what they’ll be participating in.

 

In my latest UXmatters article, I describe these perils and provide tips to avoid them: The Perils of Client Recruiting.

Image credit: George Hodan

Posted
October 7, 2019
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Advice, Career
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Scary User Research!

The Scream by Edvard Munch

What’s so scary about user research? A lot, if you’re a semi-neurotic researcher. Since it’s the Halloween season, in my latest UXmatters article, I delve into some of the scariest aspects of user research, including:

  • What if I fail?
  • Can I learn something new?
  • What if we recruit really bad participants?
  • What if the research plan doesn’t work?
  • What if there’s not enough time to get through everything?
  • What if something goes wrong?
  • What if we don’t discover anything important?
  • How am I going to analyze all this data?
  • How can I present all of this?

But never fear! I also provide advice about how to overcome these fears. Check it out: Fears About User Research.

Posted
August 17, 2019
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Advice
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Some Really Bad Ideas for User Research

I’ve heard a lot of bad ideas for user research over the years. Most of these have come from people trying to get around the time, cost, and effort of user research. I write about these in my latest UXmatters article, The Worst Ideas I’ve Heard for User Research. I discuss:

  • Management trying to offshore UX work
  • Management thinking that anyone off the street could moderate a usability test
  • Using your own employees as research participants, because you can’t get the actual users
  • Clients wanting to conceal their identities to participants
  • Making research sessions too formal and uncomfortable by reading the opening instructions off a card
  • A field study participant deciding to move the session to a conference room
  • A participant changing an individual session into a group session with coworkers
  • Teams thinking that they can save time by skipping the research report

Luckily all these bad ideas failed, but we can learn from them. Check out more in the article at UXmatters.

“innovatiebroedplaats” by verbeeldingskr8 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

Posted
May 6, 2019
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Advice
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User Research When You’re Sick: The Show Must Go On

Various cold medicine bottles

It happens to every user researcher at some point. You’re supposed to conduct user research sessions, and you get sick. Sometimes you know in advance. Other times it happens during the sessions. Either way, it’s usually too late to do anything about it.

So much goes into planning, recruiting, and scheduling user research sessions that by the time they’re set, they must happen. And usually the only person who knows enough to conduct the research is the researcher him or herself. So, often there’s nothing else to do but suck it up and conduct the research while sick.

However, there are things that you can do to prepare for the chance that you’ll be sick, and there are ways to minimize the effects. In my latest UXmatters article, The Show Must Go On, I provide advice about how to prepare for the eventuality of being sick, to avoid getting sick, and how to conduct research when you are sick.

Read: The Show Must Go On

“Relief is on the way” by kylestern is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

Posted
November 5, 2018
Category
Advice, Methods, User Experiences
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Catch 22: Scoping User Research

Architectural Plan

Scoping a project’s user-research phase is a classic Catch-22 situation. Before the project begins, you have to plan the user research activities and the time involved, but you rarely have enough information to make these decisions until after the project begins. In my latest article on UXmatters, I discuss some of the problems you may encounter when trying to scope user research, and I provide advice about how to make scoping more accurate.

Check it out: Scoping User Research

Posted
September 16, 2018
Category
Advice, Methods, User Experiences
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What is Observation?

Observing a man doing work on several large monitors

In user research, we primarily do two things – observe people and ask questions. Ideally, we want to observe people’s natural behavior, without having our presence influence what they do.

Observation sounds deceptively simple. You sit and watch what people do. It seems like anyone can do that. But to get the most value out of observation, there’s more to it than passively looking and listening.

In my latest UXmatters article, I examine what observation involves, the different types of observation methods, and explore a more rarely used method in UX research – naturalistic observation. The Role of Observation in User Research

 

Image courtesy of: You Belong in Longmont

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