Amsterdam Meetup, 16-3-2016

Miel de Zwart

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Bad UX Research

But Were Afraid to Ask

Miel de Zwart

8 years @ Valsplat

Loves

Judith

Hates

Checking in and out

But first ...

What would you REALLY like to know about your users?

Please write down those burning questions. On a Post-it. In the

next 5 minutes.

Inspiration

Validation

Opinions& feelings Behavior

Moderated user testing

Remote unmoderated user testing

Diary studies

Personas

User interviews

Focus groups

Card sorting

Sitemap testing

Eye tracking analysis

Structured feedback tools (Usabilla etc.) Web analytics

A/B testing

Questionnaires

Inspiration

Validation

Opinions& feelings Behavior

Usability research

So now you got your research method of choice

But how to get in the head of your users?

Time for some BadThe Worst Interview in History

Last Friday the band Sigur Rós showed up promptly at 11am and commenced to give what is possibly the worst interview in the history of

electronic media. Seriously. It was that bad.We’re not sure if they were tired, or if it was a

language thing, or what … but wow. And to repeat, we love this band.

Just never invite them on your radio show.Luke Burbank

Radio Host of The Bryant Park Project, National Public Radio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIMGPlH4XPo

The Blame Game Was it the band?

Was it the interviewer?

And how does this compare to user research?

To what extent do you like this website?

What do you miss in this check out flow?

What’s your first impression of this website?

Do you think you’ll use this website in the future?

Did you understand the content on the page?

To what extent do you find this form easy to use?

Why didn’t you click this button?

This has not yet been developed, but how would you like it

if the site did this …

The Good ModeratorWhile interviewing people as they use your website or app,

pose probing questions and get the answers you need,

without leading them to a particular answer.

The Ugly What it feels like to watch a user

test of your product

Where’s Wally?

The Good ObserverWhile observing people as they

use your website or app, focus on what they do or don’t do. What

users say has a role only in determining the satisfaction

element of usability.

The Good ObserverNote any difficulties users have

during the process, regarding noticing, using, understanding

and valuing all important content, interactive or design

elements.

How to convert user insights into actionable design decisions?

We don't know how to approach to converting insights into design decisions.

I try to make "action points". I divide insights by things that are easy to change

and things that are more for future releases. I just discuss this with the designer and then

he applies it.

How to convince stakeholders to make use of these insights?

Make the findings visible to the team. People do care in the end and everyone wants to

have impact. To convince people, show raw data, allow people to talk back and ask

questions about your method and findings.

At current client we mostly look into analytical data to see how users behave and interact with the website and products. This

usually answers mostly ‘what’ users are doing, but not ‘why’. The numbers do often

help to convince stakeholders however.

UX researcher

Design team

Design team

Design team

Avoid big reports

Focus at tiny changes that will make a massive difference

How to shift from reactive research to UX research that actually

driveschanges in design and organization?

Every monthIn depth UX tests with real users

Every monthIn depth UX tests with real users

Every monthIn depth UX tests with real users

Insights for nest iteration

Every sprintFast, quick guerilla / online tests with real users

ContinuousUX support

Continuousmonitoring of usage

(Helpdesk calls, community, social media)

The perfect scoreUX research developed into a change agent

A shift from reactive research to UX research that actually

driveschanges in design and organization

Vertical campfire @ PostNL

Insights from withinthe team, not some external UX expert

Thank you!

Miel de ZwartSend your e-mail to miel@valsplat.nl