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Get out of the lab and into theREAL WORLDJames Chudley

This is a case study taken from a client project I worked on last year. I hope it will change the way you think about your user

research.

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I work at cxpartners

@chudders

I run large UCD and research projects at cxpartners, a UX consultancy based in Bristol.

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I’m fortunate to work with companies like

@chudders

I’m lucky to get to work with the great and the good, helping

the to design great digital products.

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‘I would happily never conduct research in the lab ever again’

@chudders

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Let me tell you a story

@chudders

I was asked by a client to benchmark the usability of their

ecommerce site. They sold frozen ready meals to

customers of an average age of 83.

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A day with a delivery driver

@chudders

I spent a day with a delivery driver and got to meet all sorts of

customers. It made me wonder if any of them would order online

due to their age and health.

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Default position isn’t going to work

I usually conduct my user research in some sort of lab

environment. It’s a convenient and reliable method that works

well.

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What the hell am I going to do?!

There was no way I could get 83 years olds to come into the lab,

what the hell was I going to do?!

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...so I worried about

Their computers won’t work properly

My client won’t be able to see anything

How am I going to record stuff?

What about rabid dogs?

Is it ok to go into a 80 year olds house?

How can I do this within the budgeted time?

How will recruitment work?

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...so what happened?

The research was a truly wonderful and memorable experience. My client came with me and we got a great

insight into her customers lives.

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Recruitment worked in a similar way to lab research

How will recruitment work?

My client recruited people via a survey and we got our recruiter

to screen them as we usually would for lab research.

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My client got a perfect viewing experience

My client won’t be able to see anything

My client came with me so had a better experience than she

would have had in the lab.

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Their computers didn’t work properly, this was good

Their computers won’t work properly

@chudders

We saw all sorts of issues with peoples computers that had an impact upon how they used the website. This was fascinating!

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You can get to more people in a day than you think

How can this work within the budgeted time?

With a bit of careful pre-planning we worked out a great

route with google maps that got us to 4 people per day.

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I didn’t get eaten, which was good

What about rabid dogs?

@chudders

People who had dogs and other pets just kept them out of our

way.

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How am I going to record stuff?

I didn’t record anything and it didn’t matter

How am I going to record everything?

@chudders

I abandoned trying to record things, my client was there so it

didn’t matter too much and I got good notes.

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People welcomed us into their homes

Is it ok to go into a 80 year olds house?

People expected us and were very welcoming. They really

enjoyed the novelty of ‘someone from the website’ taking the

time to hear their views.

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What did I learn?

@chudders

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Go in mixed pairs

Going in pairs is safer, and if you are in mixed pairs its less

threatening than two males for example.

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Do a dry run (in a suitable environment)

Our dry run was invaluable to work out who would do what

and also what it was like going into someones home to do this

kind of research.

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Get to know people before you visit them

I called everyone beforehand to check on logistical things and

also to get to know people.

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Have a plan for if it all goes wrong

I took a spare laptop with a wifi dongle so we could switch to that if their computers broke

(which they did).

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Lean on your recruiter to make it work

Our recruiters really helped with the planning of the

sessions, they worked out some of the tricky logistical stuff for

us.

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Keep sessions to an hour (or less)

I kept sessions to an hour as that it what I usually do in the

lab. It felt like a suitable time to be in someone elses homes for

too.

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Prepare for the unexpected

When going into peoples houses you are likely to see some ‘different’ things (like

100’s of fairies - don’t ask!) You have to suck it up and crack on.

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If you can take photos....

If you take photos make sure you shoot wide to get people in their environments. If you are

in pairs then get the non facilitator to take the photos.

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Take your client with you

I loved having my client with me, she had a great experience and it gave her loads of stories to share with her colleagues.

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...benefits of this approach...

@chudders

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You see things you won’t see in the lab

@chudders

This is the whole point of this technique. You will see their own kit and how they use it

together with the workarounds they employ to get stuff done.

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People are surrounded by distractions

In one home our session was interrupted by all of these

things, another great reminder of the realities of everyday

usage environments.

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Loads of informal time with client

I got loads of extra time to chat through what I was seeing with my client. I wouldn’t have got this had I done the research in

the lab.

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It’s more natural, ‘users’ put you at ease as opposed to other way round

Because I went to peoples homes they made an effort to make me comfortable. In the

lab you spend a lot of time doing this to compensate for an

artificial environment.

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Wonderful experience, truly memorable (empathy)

The people you meet are far more memorable because you attach their homes with their

faces in your memory. This makes it easier to design for them because your level of

empathy for them is greater.

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‘This is knackering isn’t it!’

A client remarked to me recently how tiring it is being sat in the

dark watching endless sessions, why do we use a technique that

tires our clients out?!

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No distractions in the observation room like email etc.

There are lots of distractions in the observation room that

make it hard to focus on the research. My client was 100% focussed because she was sat

next to her customers.

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Amazing experience for client

This approach provided a great experience for my client. She

saw the problems first hand and had already worked out her priority list of things to fix

before we got home.

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...problems I found with this

approach...

@chudders

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More complicated to organise

Home visits took longer to plan that a comparative lab study

would have taken.

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Harder to have spare participants

Luckily everyone was available when they said they would be so we didn’t need to use our spares. Had certain people dropped out

we would have struggled.

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Harder to manage the clients experience

It was so much more chaotic than testing in the lab. You lose

control over the experience your client has (if that’s a

problem).

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Extra time to do research

We managed 4 in a day whereas I will usually do 6 in the lab so the research took longer as a

result.

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...in summary...

@chudders

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Going to peoples homes is not the point, go to where they are using your stuff

as above! If you are designing an app to score squash matches with then test it out at the local

squash court!

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Just getting out of the office can be really useful

We are all guilty of sitting in our own offices too much and not

venturing outdoors.

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Use a blended approach if you need to

Why not try a few home visits combined with lab research if it’s a struggle to convince your

decision makers.

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Just question your default approach to keep work fresh & interesting

Professionally speaking it’s good to change the way you do things every so often. It keeps you fresh and ensures you are

continually learning.

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These might be helpful

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

‘Definitive and complete UX book for practitioners and clients’

@chudders

Smashing UX Design has a dedicated chapter on contextual

research. My photo book will help you plan your photos so they help you to tell stories.

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Thankyou!So please try to get out of the lab more often and into the real world

I’ve summarised this into an article on UX Magazine too so

do check that out.

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Thanks !@chudders