Post on 20-Jul-2015
Humanizing DataAlex Wrightalex@agwright.com | www.alexwright.org
About me
1991 1995 1999 2007 2013
“It isn’t the consumers’ job to know what they want.”
“When the point of contact between the product and the people becomes a point of friction, then the designer has failed. !On the other hand if people are made safer, more comfortable, more eager to purchase, more efficient – or just plain happier – by contact with the product, then the designer has succeeded.” !
Henry Dreyfuss, Designing for People,1955
Why do user research?
To build empathy with others
To identify “trouble spots” in a design
To find the “negative space” where new ideas can emerge
to
Etsy’s mission is to re-imagine commerce in ways that build a more fulfilling and lasting world.
“Production by the masses, not mass production.” - Gandhi
Etsy is a certified B Corporation — a new kind of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.
the NSA surveillance scandals).
Credit: Mike Brittain
Credit: Mike Brittain
Credit: Dan McKinley
Experimentation
But data is … people!
UX Research Market ResearchWhat people do Behavior and context
What people say Attitudes and emotions
Interaction Storytelling
Methods
Usability testing
Ethnography
Focus groups
Segmentation Personas Scenario design
Eye-tracking
Surveys
Customer panels Contextual inquiry
Card sorting Sentiment analysis
UX Research
Market Research
Heuristic analysis Market trends
Sold Orders
Analyzing insights
Quantitative vs. qualitative
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/LR-slide-2-resized.jpg
Qualitative
Inductive
Subjective
Emergent
Deductive
Objective
Conclusive
Quantitative
15© January 12, 2010
Attitudinal
BehavioralQ
ualit
ativ
eQ
uantitative
Formative usability testing
Ethnographic research
Participatory design Card sorting
Focus groups
Eye tracking
Surveys
Individual interviews
A/B Testing
Analytics
Diary studies
Customer panels
Summative usability testing
Identify “trouble spots” in a design Ensure an early focus on user goals Increase likelihood of adoption
Why usability testing?
Nielsen
Usability heuristics
Nielsen’s heuristicsBased on a factor analysis of 249 usability problems
Widely accepted as the baseline principles of usability engineering
Molich, R., and Nielsen, J. (1990). Improving a human-computer dialogue, Communications of the ACM 33, 3 (March), 338-348.
Visibility of system statusThe system should keep users informed of what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
Match between system and the real worldThe system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than syste-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order
User control and freedomUsers often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
Consistency and standardsUsers should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
Error preventionEven better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place.
Recognition rather than recallMinimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another.
Flexibility and efficiency of useAccelerators - unseen by the novice user - may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be express in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
Help and documentationEven though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.
Interviewing
“Tell me more”!
“Help me understand”!
“Why do you say that?”!
“Talk about ...”!
“Walk me through this...”
Probing
Avoid leading questions
Ask questions grounded in personal experience
Avoid complex, lengthy questions
Don’t defend; don’t offend
Controlling for bias
Three kinds of interviews
Structured
Semi-structured
Unstructured
Structured interviews
Exacting wording and sequence of question is predetermined
Good for quantitative research (e.g. opinion polls)
Produces highly valid, comparable results
Semi-structuredTopics selected in advance
Sequence and wording determined over course of the interview
Some questions may go unasked
Script may evolve over the course of the project
Unstructured
Questions emerge in context
Good for early stage, exploratory research
Most likely to produce unexpected results
Assessing validityCredibility Is the participant believable?
Transferability Can the findings be applied to others?
Confirmability Can the findings be replicated?
Exercise
KJ Analysis
Created by Jiro Kawakita (1960s) !
Powerful method for fostering group consensus !
Very well-suited to analyzing research results !
KJ Analysis
Put one idea/observation on a post-it note !
Place the notes on the wall !
As a group, cluster them into categories !
Then, label the categories !
No talking! !
Ground rules