The Right Tool for the Job Choosing the right UX Methodologies

& Methods to answer your UX Research Questions

@Abijreynolds

1. UX Research in general

2. Specific examples

Methodology Vs Method

Methodology

The approach or principles that guide our research. Methodology explains why we’re using certain methods or tools

Methods Research methods are the techniques or processes that we use in our research.

the WHY

the HOW

From video Google - Agile UX Research Practice in Android

Which Approach?

Discovery (explore)

Needs Analysis

(define)

Design (optimise)

Performance

(measure)

• Focus groups, • In-depth interviews, • Diary studies • Stakeholder

Interviews

• Customer Journey • Mental Model map • Personas • Contextual Enquiry

• Usability Testing

• Hall Testing • Co-design

• A/B test • Competitive

Benchmark • Surveys

Which Approach?

Product Development

For an explanation on methods see www.usabilityfirst.com/usability-methods/

# UX RESEARCH

It’s the approach that is important;

the method is secondary

What do YOU

Think?

Research question number 1.

We want to know what to do to make our product better than the competition

Q1. We want to know what to do to make our product better than the competition

Research question Number 2. We have lots of people visit our website (car hire)

every day but only 20% of visitors enter the booking process

Q2. We want to know why users are bouncing from our homepage

I’m a great App, if People would just get to know me

Stephen P Anderson Seductive Interaction Design

Research question number 3.

We want to introduce a new menu button design but are unsure how best to integrate

it into current app

Q3. We want to test a new button design

# UX RESEARCH

Often a combination of approaches &

methods work best

# UX RESEARCH

Use Quant. to test assumptions and Qual.

to find out what you dont know…

Really great products come from melding two points of view—the technology point of view and the customer point of view. You need both.

Steve Jobs

Ethnographical

Research Panel

Internal UX Labs

Ethnographical Mobile Research

• Research “in the Wild” • Take research out of the lab Observe

users in their natural real world setting

Ethnographical Research

•Why?

• To capture ‘in the moment’ thought processes and behaviours

• To identify areas for innovation

Ethnographical Research

• Upload Text, photo or Video

• Mobile

• Record YOUR Story

• Social Media

• Models Natural Behaviour

EthOS

1st Screen 2nd Screen

Sequential Simultaneous

# ETHNOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH

It’s about letting the

Conversations Emerge not

Leading them

ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

Consider what you want as output beforehand e.g. Journey Map? Day

in the Life?

Research panels

Research Panel

“A custom online panel or Internet access panel is a group of pre-screened respondents who have expressed a willingness to participate in surveys and/or customer feedback sessions” Wikipedia.

• Why?

• Quicker turnaround of research and instant feedback

• Solve recruitment problem (takes time) • Idea generation

•Partnership with customers

Research Panel

• Different levels

• We went with specialist software

• We ran pilot with a secondary brand (of PP)

• Consider – Recruitment of users

– Set up programme of research activities/project planning

– Maintenance of panel

What is involved

Lessons • Need a large pool of customers to

target

• Consider motivations and rewards

• “rewards and then voicing opinion” sited as most important reasons to join

# RESEARCH PANELS

Takes time to build up community. Target customers who are

engaged with the

brand.

Setting up in House UX Labs

•Why? • To have more flexibility

and control over testing

• Recover costs over time

UX Research Labs

To establish a Culture of Testing in Product development

Dublin

UX Research Labs

London (mirror)

• Space (s) – Test Room, Observation room and Participant waiting room

• Set-Up – Video feed or one way mirror

– Record and display activity on various devices

– Consider remote observation

– Consider Internet speed and processing speed of laptops

• Test Processes – Recruitment, Check-lists testing & Set-up

• Stakeholder Management – Attendance, contribution and promoting testing

To Consider

Lessons • Leave recruitment to the

recruiters

• Keep formal research practices

• Management of observation room & Stakeholders

# UX RESEARCH LAB

Make UX Research Lab unbranded & friendly

to avoid bias.

A Recap

# UX RESEARCH

UX Research: It’s the approach that is important; the method is secondary Often a combination of approaches & methods work best Use Quant. to test assumptions and Qual. to find out what you dont know

# ETHNOGRAPHICAL

Ethnographical Research It’s about letting the Conversations emerge not Leading them

Consider what you want as output beforehand e.g. journey map? Day in the life?

# UX RESEARCH LAB

Internal Research Lab Make UX Research Lab unbranded & friendly to avoid bias

About embedding a culture of UX and user insights into product development

Set of approaches and tools for Different Jobs

IMPROVING THE USER EXPERIENCE

55 North Castle Street Edinburgh EH2 3QA Tel: 0131 225 0853

www.uservision.co.uk

Abi Reynolds Principal Consultant

http://uxfactor.wordpress.com

@abijreynolds