Don't solve the wrong problem - Design club 2017

Transcript

1. DON’T SOLVE THE
   WRONG PROBLEM:
   USER RESEARCH FTW!

   @bensauer
   DESIGN CLUB 10/17
   

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3. Why do you do what you do?
   

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4. WHY IS SOLVING
   THE RIGHT PROBLEM
   SO HARD?
   

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5. Curious Rituals
   produced by The Near Future Laboratory
   

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7. Curious Rituals
   produced by The Near Future Laboratory
   

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8. THE ORG USERS
   THE WEBSITE
   

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9. EINSTEIN
   If I had only one hour to save the world, 

   I would spend fifty-five minutes defining
   the problem, and only five minutes 

   finding the solution.
   

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10. The product death cycle
    

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11. Talking to users is not enough:
    observation rules.
    

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12. If you’re prepared to spend thousands
    on your products, why can’t you spend
    a much smaller amount making sure 

    it’s the right product?
    

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13. What mindset should you adopt?
    

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16. What we actually know
    What we think we know
    large scale
    small

    scale
    

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17. “In the best teams we studied, every single
    team member spends an average of two
    hours every six weeks watching people use
    the product (or a competitor’s product).” Jared Spool
    

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18. WHAT KIND OF
    RESEARCH SHOULD
    YOU DO?
    

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19. What?
    Behaviour, outcomes
    Analytics, KPIs, conversion rate
    Sentiment
    Voice of Customer
    Mini-surveys, feedback
    Why?
    Experience
    Interviews, usability testing
    large scale
    small

    scale
    

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20. COMBINED INTERVIEWS
    AND TESTS
    

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21. Conducting user interviews 

    is a core digital skill.
    If your team isn’t doing 

    them, start now.
    

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22. START WITH RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
    We want to know how students go about
    researching their choice of university.
    PRIMARY
    SECONDARY
    What problems do they encounter using our
    website and our competitors websites?
    

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23. THE TWO THINGS YOU WILL TEST
    Can people use this?
    EMPIRICAL SPECULATIVE
    Would they use this?
    Mostly  just  clues
    Evidence
    

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24. RECRUITMENT TIPS
    •Pay em!
    •Ex-users are the best.
    •Screen out the freeloaders and the quiet ones
    •A mix of people over a perfect demographic
    

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25. TYPICAL INTERVIEW STRUCTURE
    •Intro: why, brief, waiver, payment (5 mins)
    •Interview: about them (20-25 mins)
    •Usability testing (20-25 mins)
    •Summary (5 mins)
    

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26. DISCUSSION GUIDE TIPS
    •Condense the guide to an A4 sheet.
    •Start broad, e.g.: “So… tell me about your work.”
    •Group your questions into themes.
    •Order themes in a way that narrows over time.
    •Put your really important theme near the end.
    •Uncover details to test later.
    

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27. FIND YOUR INNER ZEN INTERVIEWER
    

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28. The hardest thing is to avoid
    asking leading questions. Practise.
    

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29. Testing
    

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30. SETTING TASKS
    You have 200+ books in your fiction collection,
    currently in boxes strewn around your living
    room. Find a way to organize them.
    GOOD TASK
    BAD TASK
    Search for a bookcase
    

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31. IMPROVISED VS. PRESCRIBED
    You’re traveling from home to visit your _____
    in ______. Find the cheapest route on public
    transport.
    IMPROVISED
    BAD TASK
    You have 200+ books in your fiction collection,
    currently in boxes strewn around your living
    room. Find a way to organize them.
    

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32. TIPS
    • “You applied to Birmingham Uni…?” (parrot talk)
    • “Tell me more about…”
    • “Describe the steps you’re going through here”
    • “Before you click, what do you think will happen next?”
    

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33. BAD QUESTIONS
    • “Do you like this?”
    • “Did you feel…x?”
    • “Were you thinking y?”
    • “Let me show you how this works…”
    

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34. INTERVIEW TIPS
    • Remind them that you’re testing the system, not them
    • Don’t keep people waiting around
    • Set them at ease: make it seem informal
    • Remunerate them in advance so they understand it’s not
    contingent on their performance
    

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35. EXTERNALISE THE ANALYSIS
    

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36. FIND THE SUBTEXT
    

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37. Uncertain Certain
    Ryan
    The Undecided
    Delali
    The Visionary
    

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38. If you buy *three* things,
    make it Silverback, 

    and these books ...
    

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39. COMMUNICATING
    RESEARCH
    

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41. Ryan
    The Undecided
    “I sort of know *roughly* what I want
    to do. Roughly.”
    Summary
    18 year old Ryan lives in Brighton. He’s a little unsure about what to study; he’s looked
    at a lot of sport-related courses but he hasn't got any closer to choosing. He hasn’t
    been to any open days; his family haven’t been involved much as they didn’t go to
    Uni. His initial choices of Uni are based on what his friends have told him, but he’s
    leaving the whole process to the last minute.
    Goals
    RATIONAL: Find a good course and university.
    EMOTIONAL: Get a bit of distance and independence from his family.
    Challenges
    • Lorem Ipsum
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42. Choose subject Shortlist Refine Prioritise
    The course selection funnel
    Evaluate
    Eliminate
    A
    P
    P
    L
    Y
    Behaviours
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    Opportunities
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    What should I study? Where could I go? Which ones do I like? What’s my best option?
    Low Med High
    Digital Opportunity
    Undecided
    Visionary
    • Lorem Ipsum
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    Elimination criteria
    • Lorem Ipsum
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    Evaluation criteria
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43. GUIDING PRINCIPLES
    

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44. PARTING THOUGHTS…
    • User research is a team sport.
    • Don’t ask permission; find the time.
    • Watch what they do, not what they say.
    • Uncover mental models.
    • Favour guerrilla over science, action over academia.
    • Resolve differences with testing.
    • Make raw findings visible and tangible.
    • Never conflate value testing with usability testing.
    

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45. Learn
    Build
    Measure
    Title Text
    YOU ARE NEVER DONE
    

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46. Days since we met users
    3
    

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47. STEVE JOBS
    “You’ve got to start with the
    customer experience and work
    back toward the technology -
    not the other way around.”
    

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48. Technology is not things, it is practise.
    therefore…
    Outcomes, not outputs.
    URSULA FRANKLIN’S ‘THE REAL WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY’
    @bensauer
    

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49. Thanks
    I am @bensauer
    

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