Practical UX Design Mini-Course References

This article, written by Amanda Stockwell, discusses various "UX research methods that researchers can learn as research is very much needed in business, healthcare and education. The reason for this is that more organizations are using UX research to create products or upgrade products for their customers. This article's objective is to help the reader gain some understanding about the process of UX research. The first concept of UX research is for the researcher to know when to do the research since, there is no set time to conduct it, whether it is in the beginning stages of design, in the halfway into the project or near the final stages when the product has already been designed. Next, the researcher needs to determine his or her research goals. For example, tasks like determining where the project is with regards to design or finding out what information already exists with regards to user needs or even finding out what the company's goals are. Once the researcher determines the goals, he or she can can move to prioritizing by placing critical research tasks first. Next, the researcher should look at data types. For example, Quantitative data for  technical information about websites, applications and other user interface interactions. Also, Qualitative data where information collected consists of described data with questions surrounding things like 'why certain things happen to a product' are then researched. As for the actual research, the methods are as follows:  usability tests where users are selected to perform basic steps with a product. The next method is the UX interview where a meeting takes place between the researcher and selected users over what emotions occur when the user interface is engaged. The other methods cited in the article are Focus groups, surveys, diary studies, card sorts, tree testing, and A/B testing. In conclusion, UX researchers have a wealth of research methods available. The method selected will ultimately depend on what the particular project calls for. Now in addition to the information contained in this summary, the author has provided a link to a class on UX research methods to readers of this article.

After delivering a world-shattering report on usability that was fully hyperlinked with reproducible methodology, the expectation was that academics would be praising it all over the world but instead, nothing happened and a full two years afterward, none of the original findings had translated into product action.

This newly-minted researcher asked himself ‘why didn’t that work??’ and it set him on a six year journey that is still going forward. This question has been transformed into something more complex. It has gone from why didn’t it work to what does it take for research to positively influence product and design and how do I do that? Of course, a complex question has a complex answer.

It is a broad interplay of dynamics of people, structure and processes. Success lies in the mastery of the research process, technique and ability to influence the team.

This can be done by thinking which means process mastery and ownership of the research process, execution which means technical competences in technique, method and output, and impact which means organizational influence, empowerment, alignment and direction. The research process is somewhat linear: first comes figuring out what to learn, then deciding how to learn it, followed by uncovering and observing evidence, then making sense of what was learned (synthesis or insights) and deciding how to act on what was learning and finally ensuring consistent action.

There are three levels of researchers. At a junior level, the process mastery focuses on who, what and when, the technical competence focuses on recruiting, interviewing and interview notetaking and debriefing, observation, data collection, surveying, user testing, and simple reporting. Influence should be making a credible report, a fair and honest judgment of product and design and interaction level and usability authority. A mid-level researcher should add what and why to the process, project planning and management, structured design and research methods and complex synthesis to technique and embed and partner with functional teams, empower other project teams, reframe and focus research questions and develop a respected point of view on product level decisions.

A senior level researcher should add why and the ability to shape, reframe or reject the entire process accordingly to process mastery, centralizing customer feedback, roadmap planning, framing and storytelling, and workshop facilitation to technique and strategic partner to product design and functions, reshaping higher order processes, centralizing and unlocking existing knowledge and direct organizational research focus to influence.

Presenting useful information to your users is important. Presenting too much information, however, can be a bad thing. Its known as Information Overload. Information Overload describes the excess of information available to a person working to complete a task, or make a decision. When a person is presented with too much information, it's easy to get overwhelmed. This actually impedes the decision-making process, resulting in a poor, or even no decision being made at all. When designing products (e.g., websites or apps), designers should be especially careful to ensure they prevent information overload from affecting user experience. It's interesting to note that this problem isnt anything new. Information Overload has plagued humans from Biblical times, to the Renaissance, through the Industrial Revolution, though never has it been experienced to this degree, These days you might say we have an overload of Information Overload with technology being the obvious contributor to the problem. Think about it. HUGE amounts of information is being created around the clock, around the Globe. Information that comes in from many sources including radio, tv and, of course the Internet.  So what can we do? Perhaps the first suggestion is for web & app developers, blog hosts and other content creators try to remember that LESS is MORE! Try to present only the most relevant content, keep it simple and provide additional supporting material only when needed. Also try to insure the information you DO post is well-balanced and credible. Another thing you can do is tighten up your email settings so that only top relatable content makes it to your in-box. Delegate the task of skimming through all that information to team members, instructing them to highlight only that which is most relevant to your goal and then move on.

Spotify launched in 2008 and has become a force within the entertainment industry. It has 170 million monthly active users, 75 million of which are paying subscribers. In February, the company filed to go public and traded began in April. The company was valued at just under $30 billion which makes it the third largest tech I.P.O. in the US market. They released an ad supported free mobile app in May. For new users the onboarding flow is colorful and straightforward. The welcome page provides various sign in or up options and a subtle value proposition touts Spotify’s top features and capabilities. By choosing an artist or searching for one Spotify creates personalized playlists and non-paying users can now freely skip through songs. On custom playlists, artist pages or albums, users can still only skip six an hour. The main menu at the bottom of the app has hour tabs (home, search, library, premium). They also have an incredibly impressive music catalogue that has both mainsteam and far from it and not just recorded albums but live sessions and new singles too. There is also a heart and no symbol next to each song that lets users track their favorites as well as make sure they never hear other again. The personalized playlists also have Discover Weekly, Daily Mixes and Release Radar that are all based on personal listening habits. Plus with assisted playlists and contextual suggestions that are constantly updating the user’s personal taste is constantly more accurately represented. Artist pages are basically one stop shopping for everything related to an artist from bio and released music to the artist’s picks.

One of the most common questions about UX is how to get people within an organization to take it seriously. You might try and do everything you can to try and prove it, but no one seems to listen. However, little do you know, that there is probably someone that is interested in UX in your organization, but just does not know it yet. The easiest way to find them and convince them is by following the following steps. First, starting with the frustrations that are caused due to poor experiences. This can include salespeople attempting to sell products that are difficult to explain or demonstrate, call centers dealing with poor product design, lost of work productivity, rewriting interface code, or users not using built out features. Second, you need to identify the cost due to frustration. This can include cost due to lost revenue in sales, increased support, lost productivity, extra development rewrites, and unused features. Third, it is important to find the person who is in charge of reducing costs. These people are usually pretty easy to find. However, the main thing to note is that they are not usually in the same group as the design team. For example, they might be the people in sales. They just never realized that support UX design could also reduce product cost. Fourth, it is important to ask this new person to become a champion of UX and sponsor UX projects. Through the use of lean UX and your new partner, you can focus on reducing the cost of frustration. This includes assembling a multidisciplinary team from all parts of the organization to accurately collect data about the points of frustration and how to whittle away at the total costs of these. By doing all of these things you can much more clearly and easily show to your organization the importance of UX.