UX Intensive: Creating, Choosing, and Mixing Research Approaches and Methods
[Notes from the second day of the UX Intensive]
Research is not about methods. It is about questions and answers, methods are just the means to the ends. Every project is different because every design project has different objective and questions. Don't decide what the methods are before you even look at the questions.
Good research is all about being flexible. Be method-neutral. Don't wield your surveys like a war-hammer, be flexible.
| Type | Methods | Used For |
|---|---|---|
| Demographic | Surveys, Analyze registration DB | Lay of the land, Audience segmentation, Inform/Validate other research |
| Behavioral | Field research, Contextual interviews, Card sorting | Product Strategy, Features and functions, Interaction design, Information architecture |
| Motivational | Surveys | Product Strategy, Framing the experience, Visual Interpretations, Branding |
| Evaluation | Log Analysis, Customer Feedback | Interaction design, interaction flow, Page Layout |
Always remember that people are bad at predicting their own behaviors, good at recalling their behaviors, and bad at focusing on things they don't care about.
Don't ask people to assume that they are doing something that they aren't actually doing.
[Exercise in survey evaluation.]
Try not to structure your questions in a leading manner. Pay attention to how questions might repeat themselves or limit the options. If you don't offer an other option you risk being given false choices from your participants.
The "Other" box can also be very useful in pre-testing. If your users are filling it out in a certain way you can use those responses to inform your final research protocol.
Always know what you are trying to get at with each question. Always refer back to the core questions you are trying to answer with your research.
Always put your interesting questions early on. If it is boring a the beginning your participant is unlikely to finish. This is also why you want to keep your survey as short as possible.
Field Research
Field research is qualitative and contextual. It is about learning what people do while they are doing things in their environment.
ethnography |e\x8C?'n?\xA7gr\x85\xF4f\x83\xEC| noun the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures. Oxford American Dictionary
You don't need an anthropologist or an ethnographer. You can often just get by with ethnographic approaches.
The important thing is to be creative when it comes to field research. Instead of just going out and watching people, put them work. Give them tools to capture their own experience. Give them a diary or a camera. Use flexible tools and systems that let people communicate their experience to you. Often, handwritten notes are adequate. If you give someone a camera ask them to annotate the images. You want to know why they took the picture, what their thoughts were about the experience while they were having it.
Remote methods are also an opportunity to collect data without requiring your participant to interrupt their experience to give you information. There are a number of different kinds of remote tools
See: Ethnio
Using Ethnio you can interact with the user like they are in a lab without taking them out of their context.
See: MindCanvas
MindCanvas is a collaborative clustering and card sorting tool that structure the exercise like a game.
See: Revelation
Revelation can substitute paper diaries. It is a little bloggie and is set up well for collecting pictures and notes along with special activities and questions you can have your participants do. The advantage to this is that you can track experience over time. This longitudinal approach can be very valuable.
Bring field research into your design process. As you are iterating designs, show your comic storyboards to users and get their feedback. Find out from real people if your prototype will make their lives better.
[Time for a group activity.]
Be creative about how you can use different methods to compliment each-other and feed back into later stages.
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