Lean UX NYC talk: High-quality, Impactful, Fast UX Research for Engineers

Many software engineers, engineering leaders, and product developers want to learn from their customers about their needs and abilities. They understand that products should solve real problems for people and that they need to have an excellent user experience. Yet when it comes to conducting user experience research to actively gather insights from users about their abilities and perspectives, they have doubts. Countless software engineering practitioners perceive UX research as wasteful and slow and either do it as an afterthought or skip it completely while trusting their own intuitions.

Through three short case studies, this talk will demonstrate how UX research can be done with high quality standards, have an enormous effect, be completed quickly, and most importantly, achieved by software engineers without hiring an expert or paying thousands of dollars.

Transcript

1. HIGH-QUALITY, IMPACTFUL, FAST UX RESEARCH FOR ENGINEERS TOMER SHARON, UX RESEARCHER, GOOGLE
2. HIGH-QUALITY IMPACTFUL FAST IGNORED SLOW CRAPPY
3. KEY
4. DON’T LISTEN TO USERS
5. OBSERVE BEHAVIOR
6. I DON’T LISTEN TO USERS BECAUSE OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ATTITUDE & BEHAVIOR
7. HIGH, NEGATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR
8. STUDENTS WERE ASKED ABOUT THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARD CHEATING. A FEW WEEKS LATER, THEY WERE ASKED TO GRADE THEIR OWN TESTS. THERE WAS CLOSE TO ZERO CORRELATION BETWEEN ATTITUDE TOWARD CHEATING AND ACTUAL CHEATING. [COREY, 1937]
11. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?
12. NEVER ASK WHAT THEY NEED
13. INSTEAD OBSERVE WHAT THEY DO
14. NEVER ASK WHAT IS THEIR FEEDBACK
15. INSTEAD WATCH THEM USE IT
16. HIGH-QUALITY
17. ONLY AN EYE TRACKER CAN TELL IF USERS NOTICE STUFF
18. EYE TRACKERS ARE NOT MIND READERS
19. EYE TRACKERS ONLY TELL YOU WHERE PEOPLE LOOK, NOT WHAT THEY NOTICE
20. NOTICEABILITY TEST
21. NOTICEABILITY TEST A RESEARCH TECHNIQUE FOR LEARNING WHETHER PEOPLE NOTICE KEY ELEMENTS IN YOUR DESIGN
22. HOW TO AFTER USERS COMPLETE A TASK ASK THEM TO RE- ASSEMBLE THE KEY SCREEN, SHUT UP, & WATCH WHAT HAPPENS
25. ANALYSIS DID THEY PUT KEY ELEMENTS IN PLACE? DID THEY LEAVE OUT WHAT DOESN’T BELONG? DID THEY DRAW ELEMENTS THAT WEREN’T THERE?
26. RESULT YOU GET A CRYSTAL-CLEAR ANSWER
27. QUESTION IT ANSWERS DO THEY NOTICE IT?
28. WHY IS IT HIGH- QUALITY?
29. IMPACTFUL
30. A/B USABILITY TEST*
31. LOOP11 (www.loop11.com/startups)
32. *A STANDALONE A/B TEST ONLY TELLS YOU WHAT HAPPENED, NOT WHY
33. A/B USABILITY TEST AN ONLINE RESEARCH TECHNIQUE DURING WHICH USERS ARE ASKED TO COMPLETE TASKS WHILE UX METRICS ARE COLLECTED BEHIND THE SCENES
34. RESULTS THINGS TO KEEP OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT COMPERATIVE DATA ABOUT SPEED, SUCCESS, & SATISFACTION
35. QUESTIONS IT ANSWERS WHO’S BETTER? WHERE DO WE FAIL?
36. WHY IS IT IMPACTFUL?
37. FAST
38. THE RAINBOW SPREADSHEET
39. A SPREADSHEET WITH WHICH ALL THE DATA COLLECTED DURING A UX STUDY IS CENTRALLY & SIMULTANEOUSLY DOCUMENTED BY A GROUP OF PEOPLE
40. THE SPREADSHEET SERVES AS THE CENTERPIECE FOR LESSONS LEARNED FROM A STUDY AND LATER TRANSFORMS INTO THE FINAL REPORT
44. ADVANTAGES INVOLVES THE ENTIRE TEAM FAST TURNAROUND OF RESULTS TEAM IS COMMITTED TO ACT ON RESULTS VISUAL INFO CLARIFIES WHAT’S IMPORTANT NO FORMAL REPORT
45. WHY IS IT FAST?
46. RECAP
47. WANT HIGH- QUALITY?
48. FOCUS ON BEHAVIOR TRY THE NOTICEABILITY TEST
49. LOOKING FOR IMPACT?
50. COMPARE TRY THE A/B USABILITY TEST
51. NEED FAST RESULTS?
52. NO REPORTS! TRY THE RAINBOW SPREADSHEET
53. HIGH-QUALITY IMPACTFUL FAST
54. AND PLEASE…
55. DON’T LISTEN TO USERS
56. DO LISTEN TO SNOWMOBILING TOUR GUIDES