Collaborative Research
Post on 11-Aug-2014
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Collaborative Research
with Erika Hall
Hello!
I have a question...
Do you enjoy being right?
You are correct!
Yessss!
?
Flickr/Chris Voll
Ego!
Assuming!=
Determining
Research!
Agenda
Agenda
9–10:30
10:30–11
11–12:30
12:30–1:30
1:30–3
3–3:30
3:30–5
Introduction. Collaboration and
Research. Forming Your Questions.
Morning Tea
Activities. Interviewing.
Lunch
Analysis & Models
Afternoon Tea
Analysis & Models Contd. Reporting
& Sharing.Wrap-up
Flickr/Jerome Collins
Design-Led
Research-Led
ExpertMindset
ParticipatoryMindset
Users seen as subjects
Users seen as partners
Design-ledwith
expert mindset
Design-ledwith
participatory mindset
Research-ledwith expert
mindset
Research-ledwith participatory
mindset
Dubberly Design Office
Goal Driven
Skeptical Mindset
Increase chance of success
Reduce risk
Willing to question the value of any approach
Collaboration
Dogma!
How?
Chris Noessel
Why?
Goals
LeanUX Principles:
Design thinking
Agile methods
Lean startup method
Extreme Uncertainty
Design Thinking
“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”
– Tim Brown, president and CEO IDEO
Dogma
Context
Real World
Context
YourUsers
YourOrganization
UX
Business
UX
Business
UX
Business
UX UX
UX
Business
UX
Locate your risk
Flickr/Kris Krug
Where are you coming from?
Commit to working
collaboratively
Establish a process.
Overcome objections
We don’t have the time.
We don’t have the money.
We don’t have the expertise.
We’re already A/B testing
Everyone wants better products.
No one wants to read a report.
Design is active.
Reading is passive.
Research is active.
Embrace conflict
One Simple
Process
Form Questions
AnalyzeData
GatherData
Form Questions
AnalyzeData
Think Critically
Form Questions
AnalyzeDataObserve
Form Questions
AnalyzeDataInterview
Form Questions
AnalyzeDataRead
Form Questions
AnalyzeData
Think Critically
Observe
Interview
Experiment
Read
Interpretation
Interpretation
Interpretation
Interpretation
SharedReality
Collaborating with
Strangers
A design project is a series of
decisions.
Researchis a craft.
Bias
Confirmation Bias:
You selectively weight the information that confirms what you already believe.
Sampling Bias:
Your sample of research subjects isn’t sufficiently representative.
Interviewer Bias:
You insert your opinion into interviews.
Social Desirability Bias
People don’t say the true things that they worry will make them look bad.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
Unskilled people feel overly confident. Competent people are less so.
Forming Questions
Good Questions
SpecificActionablePractical
A Bad Question
“What do people think about pets?”
A Better Question
“How do single urban adults choose and acquire a pet?”
A Bad Question
“What do people do around here all day?”
A Better Question
“How do we coordinate communication priorities across departments?”
Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking
DisciplinedSelf-correctingClearLogical
Uncritical Thinking
“I hate yellow, so all yellow websites are total failures.”
Critical Thinking
“I hate yellow, but based on the evidence, it might work for our audience.”
Research and Collaboration
Working together across disciplines and making decisions based on evidence shouldn’t be hard, but they can be.
Done right, research and working collaboratively reinforce each other through a shared understanding of reality.
Start with your goal in mind, not with any process or buzzword.
Asking questions and cutting across traditional roles can both be threatening to the established order.
Commit to clear communication and critical thinking.
Research questions follow from goals, assumptions, and risk.
Always have a framework and a plan.
Break!
Activities!
Form Questions
AnalyzeData
GatherData
Gather Data
Questions About
Users
ProductOrg
Competition
InterviewsInterviews
UsabilityTesting
A/BTesting
ContextualInquiry
LiteratureReview
SWOTAnalysis
BrandAudit
UsabilityTesting
CompetitiveAnalysis
HeuristicAnalysis
Descriptive
Evaluative
Evaluative
Evaluative
Analytic
Analytic
Generative
Descriptive
ResearchActivitiesTopic
Purpose
Time
Money
Purpose (Decision Type):
What needs doing?
What are people doing?
How is this thing working?
Purpose (Decision Type):
Find new product idea.
Better meet an identified need.
Iterate on existing product.
Purpose (Decision Type):
Generative.
Descriptive
Evaluative
Why Not Just Prototype?
If we only test bottle openers, we may never realize customers prefer screw-top bottles.
– Victor Lombardi, Why We Fail
Organizational Research
Organizational research is good for:
Requirements
Politics
Workflow
Capabilities
Goodwill
Requirements
What are the top business priorities for this project/product?
Politics
What does success mean to the individual stakeholders?
Workflow
Do we have to change how people are working together to be successful?
Workflow
How do we have to change how people are working together to be successful?
Workflow
How can we possibly change how people are working together?
Capabilities
What are the strengths and weaknesses of our team?
Capabilities
Where is the internal expertise?
Goodwill
How can this project make your job easier (or harder)?
Basic Stakeholder Questions
What is your title? How long have you been in this role?
What are your essential duties and responsibilities?
What does a typical day look like?
Who are the people you work most closely with? How is that going?
What does success mean from your perspective, what will have changed for the better once this project is complete?
Do you have any concerns about this project?
What do you think the greatest challenges to success are? Internal and external?
For each stakeholder, note the following:
What’s their general attitude toward this project?
What’s the goal as they describe it?
To what extent are this person’s incentives aligned with the project’s success?
How much and what type of influence do they have?
Who else do they communicate with on a regular basis?
To what extent does this stakeholder need to participate throughout the project, and in which role?
Is what you heard in harmony or in conflict with what you’ve heard from others throughout the organization?
Stakeholder power moves
“Why are you asking me this?”
“I don’t understand that question. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t feel comfortable talking to you about that.”
“No one pays attention to anything I have to say, so I don’t know why I should bother talking to you.”
“How much more time is this going to take?”
10 minutes practice.
What is your title? How long have you been in this role?
What are your essential duties and responsibilities?
What does a typical day look like?
Who are the people you work most closely with? How is that going?
What do you think the greatest challenges to success are? Internal and external?
UserResearch
Photo: Flickr/theloushe
Ethnography
The Four Ds of Design Ethnography
Deep DiveDaily Life
Data AnalysisDrama
“...true ethnography reveals not just what people say they do, but what they actually do.”
–PARC
Photo: Flickr/lintmachine
The Art of The Interview
How to do bad user research:
Ask what people want
Everybody Lies
Interviewing is not talking.
Interviewing is listening.
You SubjectThe
Comfort Zone
You SubjectThe
Comfort Zone
You SubjectThe
Comfort Zone
You SubjectThe
Comfort Zone
You SubjectThe
Comfort Zone
Good Interviewers:
Know Your Question
Warm Up
Shut Up
IntroductionBody
Conclusion
Introduction:
Smile
Express gratitude
Describe the process
Ask to record
Warm up questions
Body:
Ask open-ended questions
Probe for more
Allow silence
Use questions as checklist
Conclusion:
Transition to wrap-up
Ask if there is anything else
Thank for time
You are the hostYou are the student
Interview Checklist
Create a welcoming atmosphere to make participants feel at ease.
Always listen more than you speak.
Take responsibility to accurately convey the thoughts and behaviors of the people you are studying.
Start each interview with a general description of the goal, but be careful of focusing responses too narrowly.
Avoid leading questions and closed yes/no questions. Ask follow-up questions.
Prepare an outline of your interview questions in advance, but don’t be afraid to stray from it.
Also note the exact phrases and vocabulary that participants use.
Look for
Goals
Priorities
Tasks
Motivators
Barriers
Habits
Relationships
Tools
Environment
Lunch!
Interview Scenario
You work for an e-Commerce site that wants to develop a new service to help people give gifts. The goal of the research is to identify unmet needs people might have with regard to giving gifts.
Interview Practice
Break into groups of 3-4 people
1 interviewee, interviewer , 1 notetaker, 1 observer (optional),
Switch in 15 minutes
3 rounds
Listen for:
Goals
Priorities
Tasks
Motivators
Barriers
Habits
Relationships
Tools
Environment
How did that go?
How about a focus group?
“Even when the subjects are well selected, focus groups are supposed to be merely the source of ideas that need to be researched.”
–Robert K. Merton, Sociologist, the guy who invented focus groups
Competitive Research
How else might your target
customer solve the same problem?
Competitive Review
How do they explicitly position themselves? What do they say they offer?
Who do they appear to be targeting? How does this overlap or differ from your target audience or users?
What are the key differentiators? The factors that make them uniquely valuable to their target market, if any?
How do the user needs or wants they’re serving overlap or differ from those that you’re serving or desire to serve?
What do you notice that they’re doing particularly well or badly?
Based on this assessment, where do you see emerging or established conventions in how they do things, opportunities to offer something clearly superior, or good practices you’ll need to adopt or take into consideration to compete with them?
Your target customershave to love youmore than theyhate change.
(Usability) Testing
A good research activity:
• Answers a key question
• Addresses identified assumptions
• Informs specific decisions
• Involves your team
• Fits your level of expertise
• Fits your schedule and budget
Collaborative Recruiting!
How to find people:
• From your existing, high-traffic site
• Social networks
• Friends and family
• Mailing lists
• Flyers
A good research activity:
• Answers a key question
• Addresses identified assumptions
• Informs specific decisions
• Involves your team
• Fits your level of expertise
• Fits your schedule and budget
• Fundamentally research is a simple process
• There are many activities and definitions
• No pressure!
• Select the methods that inform decisions
• Begin by understanding your organization
• Never ask what people like
• People are lazy, forgetful creatures of habit
• Keep each other honest
• Practice and learn
Analysisand Models
Creating Meaning From Data
1. Compile data2. Analyze
3. Identify Insights4. Create Model
Analysis
Basic Analysis
Closely review the notes.
Look for interesting behaviors, emotions, actions, and verbatim quotes.
Write what you observed on a sticky note (coded to the source, the actual user, so you can trace it back).
Group the notes.
Watch the patterns emerge.
Rearrange the notes as you continue to assess the patterns.
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Collaborates on purchases
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Collaborates on purchases
Uses several devices
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Collaborates on purchases
Uses several devices
Needs affirmation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Observation
Ground rules
Acknowledge that the goal of this exercise is to better understand the context and needs of the user. Focus solely on that goal.
Respect the structure of the session. Refrain from identifying larger patterns before you’ve gone through the data.
Clearly differentiate observations from interpretations (what happened versus what it means).
No specific solutions until after you’ve gone through insights and principles. Solutions come next.
Look for
Goals
Priorities
Tasks
Motivators
Barriers
Habits
Relationships
Tools
Environment
25 minutes analysis.
Break into groups of 6-8 people
Each group work together to fill out one diagram with the strongest patterns.
Negotiate and advocate for your perspective.
Models & Pictures
Extract information
Extract information
Get thoughts out of your
head
Personas
I’ve never seen a persona called “Married woman, no kids, with pristine hardwood.”
God, how I aspire to see that persona.
-Steve Portigal
Make a persona based on your interviews
Back into the analysis groups
One person will describe the personas to everyone and we’ll decide whether they can be collapsed.
Other Models
ThoughtWorks
A concept map is a picture of our understanding of something.
–Dubberly Design Office
Generate lists of words related to the main concept.
The list can come from research, reading, experts, brainstorming, or any other source.
The second step is to edit the list. Some terms may be related to the subject, but not in a way that meets the project goals.
The third step is to define the terms on the edited list. This is particularly important with unfamiliar or technical terms. But it also helps with familiar terms, too.
Create a matrix listing all the terms down one side and repeating the list across the top. Note the relationship in the boxes where a row and column intersect. The resulting matrix of relationships provides a checklist for building the concept map.
• List terms
• Edit the list
• Define the remaining terms
• Create a matrix showing the relations of terms
• Rank the terms
• Decide on main branches or write framing sentences
• Fill in the rest of the structure
• Revise
• Apply typography to reinforce structure
• Revise
Analysis and Models
Everyone on the team should be involved in turning data into insights. A productive session requires rules.
Once you and your team have extracted insights from data, document those insights in models.
A model distills and documents thinking so everyone on the team can see it and make decsions based upon it.
Remember than models are still an interim document. They are tools. Think “useful” not precious. Update as needed.
The affinity diagram comes straight out of analysis sessions.
Personas are one of the most intelligible research outputs for people throughout the organization.
Break!
Reporting and Sharing
How to make research meaningful to your organization
Flickr/Kris Krug
Flickr/Jerome Collins
You are collaborating with your future selves.
Design synthesis is the most critical part of the design process. Yet in our popular discussions of design and innovation, we've largely ignored this fundamental role.
–John Kolko
Building a Culture of Research
How to make research meaningful to your organization
It is your job to make it easy for everyone
else.
Research ReportStudy Title
Date Completed
Research Goal
Activities
Related Decisions
Key Insights
Supporting Observations
Recommended Actions
Questions for Further Study
Clear goals
Shared values
Access to information
Clear decision-making
The goal determines the form
How to apply research
Reasons to Share
Flickr/loozrboy
The report is not the research.
Why report at all?
Informing?
Inspiring?
Focusing?
Remembering?
Recording?
Deciding?
Wrap Up
In summary
Research creates a shared understanding of reality.
Asking questions is uncomfortable. Embrace that feeling.
A truly collaborative approach and environment is necessary for research to be effective, and it also makes it more fun.
Clear goals and good questions are required.
Choose only the research activities that answer real questions and inform your top priority design and development decisions.
Practice! Observe and listen every day.
Document! Report! Share! It’s easy to lose what you learn.
Any questions?
Brief books for people who make websites No.
9
JUST ENOUGHRESEARCH
Erika Hall
www.abookapart.com
You might enjoy the book.
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