Practicing Anthropology in User Experience, Design and Business

PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY

in User Experience Design

& Business

Amy Santee, Independent Consultant January 6, 2016

Agenda

1. A bit about me 2. Education & career history 3. UX, Design, Business & Anthropology 4. Project examples 5. Final thoughts

@amysantee@AmericanAnthro

A bit about me

1

2

3

4

-foodie

Practicing Anthropologist

Educational & career history

Consumer Researcher (corporate)2011-2012

UX Researcher / Consultant (agency)2013-2014

Lead UX Researcher (corporate/start-up)

2014-2015

MA Applied Anthropology2009-2011

2004-2008 BA Anthropology

UX Research Consultant (independent)

July 2015 to present

Amy Santee

MA Applied Anthropology2009-2011

Consumer Researcher (corporate)2011-2012UX Researcher / Consultant (agency)2013-2014

Lead UX Researcher (corporate/start-up)

2014-2015

2004-2008 BA Anthropology

UX & Design Research Consultant (freelance)

July 2015 to present

Consulting

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Doing Anthropology

user experience, design & business

Working in

My role: User Experience (ux)

Researcher

User Experience Research Research that is done to understand and inform the experiences people have when interacting with a product, service or system.

User-Centered Design (UCD)

The most well-designed products and services result from understanding the people who will use them.

UCD puts people at the core of design decisions.

It considers their needs, goals, values and feedback in the design process.

In buildings like this…

(used to work here)

On corporate campuses like this… (used to work here, too)

A lot of design and business decisions get made in rooms like this…

Many of the most successful organizations employ a UCD process

• Not a straightforward path

How I got into this field of work

• Undergraduate • Qualitative research

• Grad school • Culture and consumerism • Recession

• Consumer Research at State Farm • Exposure to User Experience and Usability • Explored this further

• Portland • Empirical • SpendWell • Freelance

Photo: Isaac Sachs

User Experience Research Research that is done to understand and inform the experiences people have when interacting with a product, service or system.

… Who are the people who (might) use our product? What are they like? What do they care about? What are their needs, preferences, values, goals, motivations?

… How might the product/service solve their problems?

… What would make it relevant and meaningful (i.e., valuable)?

… Is it usable and learnable?

… How do people currently interact with and experience the product/service?

UX & Design Research seek to address the following questions:

The outputs of UX research are information, insights and tools for design and business decision-making.

Why do User Experience Research? 10 Outcomes

Outcome #1 Get people a seat at the table with business, technology and design.

Outcome #2 Design or improve a product or service based on an understanding of the people who interact with it.

Outcome #3 Make sure the things we design meet people’s needs, solve their problems, and fit into their lives.

Outcome #4 Validate and disprove our assumptions about people and the value of a product or service. Design based on data, not guesses.

Outcome #5 Identify problems and opportunities that are not obvious.

Outcome #6 Have a better idea of how to design a product or service, and know what not to do.

Outcome #7 Provide direction for design and business decisions to minimize risk, maximize success, and differentiate from competitors.

Outcome #8 Save money. It’s more expensive to fix things after they’ve been designed or developed.

Outcome #9 Remind ourselves we are not designing for . . . ourselves.

Outcome #10 Build a culture of empathy within organizations.

anthropology & UX, design + biz

Anthropology is the study of the human experience. It’s about understanding people.

Anthropology DesignValue

UsefulnessRelevance

+ =

photo of book pile

P erspective

Approach

Skills & Tools

project examples

P erspective

Holistic Empathy Interpretive Cultural/social Cross-cultural People-centered Insider/outsider Healthy skepticism

Detail-oriented Process-oriented Results-oriented

Open-minded Value-added Contextual

Curious Ethical

ApproachCritical Iterative Creative Systematic Advocacy Collaborative Participatory Multi-method

Inductive Deductive Immersive

Resourceful Engagement

Problem-solving Systems thinking

Knowledge-building

Skills & ToolsTheory Concepts Research Storytelling Rapport-building Learning Observing Planning

Analysis Listening

Managing Digging deep

Pattern recognition Understanding and

framing problems Making sense of

complexity

Contextual interview

Contextual observation

Photo diaries

1:1 Interviews

Video diaries

Research Methods

Card sort

Usability test

Participatory design research Task analysis

Remote interview

Group interview Surveys

Analytics

project examples

Redesign of Medical Terminology Editing

Software

Wine Shop Customer Experience

Ethnographic Study of the Relationship Between Social Capital and Health

Prototype Testing and Vehicle Owner Interviews

in Shanghai, China

Various Usability and UX research studies for

mobile and desktop hardware

Digital Stylus Use for Productivity, Art and Design

Area Rug Shopping Experience

Insurance Agent Office Ethnography

Call Center Process Improvement

Online Insurance Shopping Experience

Product Naming

Exploratory Study of Android Developers in

Germany, China and Brazil

Various UX and Usability Studies for

SpendWell Health

What’s helped me

along the way

Learning skills that anthropology didn’t teach me Immersing myself in UX, design, business, technology

Collaborating with other roles Professional events, meetups, conferences

Understanding business culture Adapting methods and approaches

Explaining research to non-researchers Learning to convince people to pay for it

Actionable, tangible results Variation in experience, roles, industries Being flexible and OK with uncertainty

Reminding myself that I’m there to fill a business need Letting go of the ideal

From Anthropology to UX, Design + Biz

Academic anthropology is “pure” anthropology.

Applied anthropology isn’t theoretical enough.

Applied anthropology isn’t intellectually stimulating.

6 Myths

Business is evil and you’re a horrible person if you work there.

You can’t make any money doing anthropology.

Florida doesn’t need more anthropologists - Rick Scott.

WRONG

Doing Meaningful WorkUsing my anthropology training to solve challenging problems

Being creative and working with technology

Having an impact with my work

Helping design things that are valuable, useful and relevant, that meet real needs and solve real problems

Advocating for people, convincing others to listen

Helping businesses succeed in a competitive world

I encourage… students to explore a career in UX, Design and Business professors to learn more about this field businesses to hire more anthropologists

amylaurensantee@gmail.com

@amysantee

www.amysantee.com.com

Thank you!