User research. Data is often misunderstood. It's more than just big numbers and math problems, it's a story told through feedback. But what is data anyways? If you think about it, it's really just a way to aggregate feedback. One way to get data is through design surveys.
User research. In this week’s UIEtips, we look back at a past article where I discuss several different user research strategies and the profound impact they can have on your products. Here’s an excerpt from the article: “Damn, I wish we’d done this a year ago. ” That’s what I hear right after I’ve started a team on their first user research project.
Books. Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights by Steve Portigal Rosenfeld Media To be published: early May 2013 Interviewing is a foundational user research tool that people assume they already possess. Everyone can ask questions, right? Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Interviewing Users provides invaluable interviewing techniques and tools that enable you to conduct informative interviews with anyone.
User research. Liverpool FC fans sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to their players during matches. UX research is best done when a team is involved. When you run UX research on your own without active observers, you are missing its point. This article describes and gives you a tool I created called the Rainbow Spreadsheet.
Books. Doing Design Ethnography By Andrew Crabtree, Mark Rouncefield, Peter Tolmie Springer Publishers – Human-Computer Interaction Series March 2012, 212 pages (Amazon link) Ethnographic approaches associated with social and cultural anthropology are common currency in systems design.
User research. For UX professionals, talking to real users is undoubtedly an important part of the process. Our clients are experts in their industries and we are experts in ours but the best way to learn what users do, think, and want is to ask them directly. Users aren’t fictional; who do you want to speak to? That’s where user workshops come in handy.
User research. Usability testing and its discontents As web professionals, we’re accustomed to putting out fine websites based on best practices, analytics data, competitor review, secondary research, and our own expertise.
User research. Increasingly companies are adopting the Net Promoter Score as the corporate metric. In many companies, all metrics, including user experience metrics, should roll up to the Net Promoter Score. Here are 10 things to know about the Net Promoter Score if you're concerned about improving the user experience.
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User research. The research is clear: The most valuable activity a team can do is collect user research on their design. Seeing the design through their users’ eyes will pinpoint areas of improvement, which will help with every business metric for the product or service. Choosing that first user research project is critical. If you choose right, you’re the hero that changed the path of things forever.
User research. Getting data from your users is a fundamental part of creating great user experiences. Surveys are a great way to get feedback and learn about your users. The problem is everyone has sat through a painful, monotonous survey that asked a series of frustrating and seemingly pointless questions. As with anything in UX, if your users sense they’re in for a painful experience they simply won’t engage with your survey.
User research. A challenge that has always plagued the web industry is understanding users. Whether it’s their habits, assumptions, interests, tendencies, or expectations, it all affects how any user will interact with and respond to a website. Since no group of users or customers is the same, it takes more than just a general knowledge of what users want in order to design something effective.
User research. By Jim Ross Published: February 6, 2012 “No one reads reports!” “PowerPoint must die!” “Conveying user research findings so people can understand them, believe them, and know how to act on your recommendations can be challenging.
User research. By Paul Bryan Published: January 23, 2012 In my new column, UX Strategy, I’ll explore the growing field of user experience strategy, which combines business strategy with user experience design to build a rationale and a road map for guiding an organization’s UX efforts.
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User research. Yeah, but this study will delay our launch date; Yeah, but we already know what the problems are; Yeah, but aren’t our designers suppose to know what people need? They are the experts; Yeah, but we can’t learn much from only five participants; Yeah, but we just want to launch and see if it sticks.
User research. Although I professionally design digital products, I’m fully aware many of those products will eventually function outside of the domain of user experience design. Because of this I’m always a little out of my element when a project begins, when I’m essentially tasked with conducting design research. To reduce overhead, I’ve recently turned to diary studies with surprising success.
User research. Don't spend years developing a product that doesn't have a market. "I wish someone had given us that advice earlier," says Cohen. "But maybe it's one of those things you have to learn yourself. You have to feel the pain before you appreciate it.
User research. By Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClain Published: December 5, 2011 “Research planning can reduce costs and decrease the time it takes to perform user research. One of the biggest challenges in performing user research is determining which research approaches to apply and when to apply them. ” Last month, we talked about ways that user research can go wrong.
User research. By Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClainPublished: November 7, 2011 “User research provides the information that product designers and stakeholders need to make decisions. ” As we’ve discussed in previous articles, the belief that some research is better than none is not accurate. This month we’ll explore this belief and its possible consequences in depth.
User research. By Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClain Published: October 3, 2011 “There are some key principles you should keep in mind that you aren’t likely to discover in any textbook…. ” We meet a lot of people who do user research, but don’t have a research background or extensive training in research. Sometimes they are UX designers or graphic artists at a company that doesn’t have researchers.
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User research. Thirty thousand new consumer products are launched each year and 95% of them fail — and this is after the marketers invested heavily to understand what their customers want. The quote above is from a great case study Clayton M. Christensen published in the Harvard Business Review. Marketers spend billions on brand advertising each year, Christensen says.
User research. [ Transcript Available ] You can’t ask people what they want. They can’t tell you. The answer is almost always narrow in focus, concerned with the here and now rather than the future. How do you get them to give you the observations you need to design what they will want? Conducting field research to actually learn about your users can lead to innovative new ideas.
User research. Gerry Gaffney interviews Steve Portigal about conducting interviews for user research. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www. uxpod. com.
User research. Innovation comes from observing customers. That's all. You'll find tons of product opportunities to capitalize on by observing how people are accomplishing everyday tasks. OXO comes to mind as a company that drives innovation from observing their customers.
User research. By Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClain Published: July 4, 2011 “Focus groups have gotten a bad rap over the years as UX research has shifted away from this very traditional method of market research. But focus groups can be quite useful for UX research if we approach them properly. ” Focus groups have gotten a bad rap over the years as UX research has shifted away from this very traditional method of market research.
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