Best Practices From 10 Years of
Remote UX Research
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thx
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UX Research
vs.
Remote UX Research
vs.
User Research
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Watching people use
interfaces in order to
design better interfaces
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60 YEARS AGO
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LET’S
RECORD
HUMANS
USING
INTERFACES
30 YEARS AGO
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Vs.
10 YEARS AGO
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1%
Humans
observing
humans
99%
Data
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• UX Research (Facebook, Google)
• Experience Research (AirBnB)
• Insights (Netflix)
• Design Research (Uber)
• User Research (So Many People)
INTERCHANGEABLE TERMS
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Analytics
Data Science
Quantitative
Research
User Research
UX Research
Usability
User Research
1:1 Observation
Lean Research
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TEXT
Geography of remote UX Research
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Btw I’m Nate Bolt
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PLEASE BUY
THIS BOOK
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ethn.io
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How To
Plan, Recruit, and Conduct
Remote UX Research
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1. Ask the right questions
AKA Conversations with Stakeholders
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Figuring out the right
question(s) is tricky
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Quantitative research lets us
test our assumptions, and
qualitative research lets us find
out what we don't know.
“
”
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What do our customers/
users/humans want?
“
”
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• Remoteresear.ch site
• Mental Models by Indi Young
• Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
• Cognition in The Wild by Ed Hutchins
• Complete Beginner's Guide to Design Research
• Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's
Guide to User Research
A Deeper Read
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2. Try to Incorporate Data
•Surveys
•Experiments (A/B, etc)
•System data
•Purchase Behavior
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3. Identify
Testing
Goals
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What do our customers/
users/humans want?
“
”
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(and write
them down in
a G&O and
then in a
Moderator
Script)
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remoteresear.ch/category/samples
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3. Recruit real humans
ethn.io
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The Recruiting
Spectrum
Grab Someone
in Your Office
Live Customer
Intercept
Recruiting
Agency
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4. Combine Tools & Methods
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Observe Behavior
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5. Collaborate don’t
report
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And how does this fit into the
design process?
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Understand
Prototype
Build
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Understand
• review existing research
• focus groups
• interviews
• ethnography
• surveys
• card sorts
• data analysis
• diary studies
Build
• usability testing
• heuristic evaluation
• diary study
• A/B test
• field testing
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1. Identify Testing Goals
2. Incorporate Data
3. Recruit Real Humans
4. Combine tools & methods
5. Collaborate Don’t Report
How To
Plan, Recruit, and Conduct
Remote UX Research
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Pitfalls
And Now Some Common
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Decision Theory & Adaptive Systems Group
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• Hypothetical Questions
• A False Premise
• Opinions are worthless
Some Common
Pitfalls
of Remote UX Research
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• Behavior
• Context
• Behavior
Best Practices From 10 Years of
Remote UX Research
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• Bandwidth (games)
• Security (prototypes)
• Translation (time)
• Rapport (lacking)
Even More
Pitfalls
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How & When to Run Rapid
Remote UX Research
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46 Million Americans
That’s 22 Million Households
15% of the country
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Now what percentage of
those 46 million were
employed within a year of
receiving food assistance?
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> 80%
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So these are working
people. People with
families. Teachers, etc.
How do they apply?
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90 Minutes / 53 Days
up to
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Alan Williams
Design Lead, SNAP
Caroline Hays
Health Focus Area Intern
Jacob Soloman
Policy analyst and project manager
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SNAP
(Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)
Let’s Try the Interface for a
Application
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Just Stop
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30 phone interviews
10 minutes each
58 unique experiences in California
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And 15 Follow-Up Phone
Interviews
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Quant & Qual
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11 Minutes / 53 Days (?)
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• 30 Remote Interviews
• Real context
• 15 Follow-Ups
• Little to No Report
• Input straight to designer & engineer
Best Practices From 10 Years of
Remote UX Research
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• Easy, cheap, & fast phone interviews
• Quick “Guerilla” Human Observation
• No statistical significance
• Behavior repeats over small samples
• Combine with other inputs
Best Practices From 10 Years of
Remote UX Research
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Top Tools for
Remote UX Research
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“At least a little
behavioral”
- Marv
Surveys.
Web Analytics.
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Five Categories
•Mobile (spans other categories)
•Moderated (screen-sharing + audio)
•Self-moderated (usertesting.com)
•Automated (loop11, usabilla)
•Fancy Analytics on Steroids (crazyegg)
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remoteresear.ch/tools
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Conceptual
For A Long Time
Self-Moderated
Moderated
Web Analytics
Automated Static
Automated Live
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Tasks On Concepts
For A Long Time
People Talk To A Machine
Talk To People
Fancy-Ass Analytics
Task Bar On Images
Task Bar On A Live Site
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I.A. & Navigation
For Ad Agencies
Ammunition
Insight
Just Better Analytics
Still More Ammunition
More Ammunition
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Conceptual
For A Long Time
Self-Moderated
Moderated
Web Analytics
Automated Static
Automated Live
Deep Behavioral
Ux Insight
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Opinions
Conceptual
For A Long Time
Self-Moderated
Moderated
Web Analytics
Automated Static
Automated Live
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Ad Agencies
Love It
Conceptual
For A Long Time
Self-Moderated
Moderated
Web Analytics
Automated Static
Automated Live
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USABILLA
Clicks & Questions
Heatmaps
You do your own recruiting
$49 - $199
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ethn.io
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If NASA can do
THIS from 153
million miles
away, we can
meet our users
where they are,
even if we’re a
couple thousand
miles away.
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Thanks for attending
Go run some awesome remote UX research
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fin.
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• Remoteresear.ch site
• Mental Models by Indi Young
• Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
• Cognition in The Wild by Ed Hutchins
• Complete Beginner's Guide to Design Research
• Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's
Guide to User Research
A Deeper Read