15 killer lessons learned from 15 years of ux research

15

Why us

1. Know thyself - use Johari’s window

open self Blind spot

hidden self

unknown self

Think about it...

↓ your blind spot: solicit feedback

↓ your unknown self: self-reflection

↓ your hidden self: self-disclosure

2. It’s OK to not know. Yet.

Think about it...

Focus on facilitation, not knowing.

Brush up on your facilitation skills with The Art of

Facilitation by Dale Hunter and try a new

technique from Gamestorming

3. Be like Studs

He would purposefully make a mistake

right away to reduce the power distance.

“It can help to be inept.”

Resources

Listen to his interviews on www.studsterkel.org

Play lower status: read Chapter 3, “Status” from

Impro, by Keith Johnstone

4. Empathy is not (just) a buzzword

“Empathy need not be limited to users. It can apply to our clients. It can apply to our

co-workers. It can apply to the materials we use to design and make with. In fact, it can even apply to

our so-called selves.”

--Seung Chan Lim

Think about it...Co-creation● With your team● With your participants

Read● “What Is Empathy” by Seung Chang Lim

● Gang Leader For a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh

5. Use frameworks

P A T T E R N S

AEIOU

(e-lab made this one)

A E I O U

GOATEE

(Beth made this one...you can make one, too)

AEIOU

Data Filter with a See Create

framework patterns story

Your challenge

Read more about analytic frameworks.

Try one.

6. Make models, make friends

Ptolemy’s story (and model)

Copernicus’ story (and model)

Thank you, Hugh Dubberly

Try this...

1. Read Hugh Dubberly (dubberly.com)

Especially his article, “Models of Models” (it is life

changing)

2. Practice visual modeling

7. Channel Safire

If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be

avoided by rereading and editing.

Who needs rhetorical questions?

Be sure your writing is:

UsefulUsableDesirable

Keep it simple and clear like Safire.

Think about it...● The Grammar Girl podcast● How Not to Write: William Safire● 25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing: a blog post

by Chuck Wendig● How to Write with Substance: a blog post by

Gregory Ciotti

8. Know who should care and what to do about it

Core/Project teamEnduring understanding

Stakeholders/Related teamsImportant to know

Interested people

Worth being familiar with

Everyone else

Think about it...

Map your org/teams to this model

9. Practicesherpa synthesis

Think about

After each session:1 - What new things did we notice2 - Any patterns or familiarity3 - Improvements in the process

Scope it, do it!

10. Mine your mind

cake Swiss cottage

cheese

right cat carbon

copy

See problems at night.Solve in the morning after sleeping.

See problems in the morning.Solve in the same morning.

See problems in the morning.Solve later that evening.

See problems in the evening.Solve in the same evening.

Best for easy problems:

See problems at night.Solve in the morning after sleeping.

See problems in the morning.Solve in the same morning.

See problems in the morning.Solve later that evening.

See problems in the evening.Solve in the same evening.

Best for hard problems:

Think about it...

Design your work process to maximize subconscious contributions

11. Plan backwards

Ruthless Pruner!

Think about it...

Borrow from the curriculum development theory

called Backward Design and plan your projects

from end to startEnd goal/result > Timeline > Approach/Methods > Begin!

12. While you’re at it...

You don’t have to be on the big strategic project.

Do strategic work on every project.

Think about it...

Make your research activities more “nutritionally dense”:● Add 3 discovery questions in all your research

studies to create a longitudinal set of data.

Think about it...

Make your research activities more “nutritionally dense”:● Add 3 discovery questions in all your research

studies to create a longitudinal set of data. ● Use your screener to do longitudinal research

- so even the people you don’t get to talk to, contribute to your knowledge base.

13. Experiment

Methods are not precious.

One Mashup Experiment:

Remote interview -- the participant sees this screen

Camera pointed at the table

Me, live sketching!

Participants love to see their thoughts being live sketched.

Think about it...Break the rules on a methodology to see what happens.

Test drive a new idea/technique/tool with one person in one study.

14. Cross pollinate

Think about it...

Make a “cross-pollination” plan around domains

you’re not familiar with.

Read Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery

and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

15. Teach to learn

Cannot do ZPD Can do

Get through the Zone of Proximal Developmentvia social interaction.

Vygotsky:

Think about it...

Coordinate a teaching swap: - 30 minute how-to session- something you’re not good at yet but want

to be better at.

now what?

More couch time.

Thank you.

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