User research is a lean-forward activity: you have to remain actively engaged. It’s very different from watching TV: a lean-back, passive activity.
Month: November 2011
UX books have to serve many purposes. Here are three lists aimed at making people enthusiastic, giving them practical how-to advice, and teaching them the research skills they will need.
Online testing can give you fast feedback for very little financial outlay. The results might be less trustworthy than face-to-face sessions, but the technique fits well as a complementary tool.
Cost-effective, quick research techniques don’t always inspire confidence in your data. Perform many small incremental studies to build reliability over time.
Don’t be shy – run studies of your competitors’ products to learn how well their software supports users’ tasks.
You kicked off the project with a Design Thinking session. Now that you’ve started development, run fast and cheap tests to stay user-focused.
Your team decides they need to “run a study.” They don’t know what that means, and they are relying on you to set it up. That’s a good problem to have. Use this cheat sheet to help you out.
Stepping through your UI and asking two deceptively simple questions at each stage can give you great insights into the problems your users will face.
Check your product is following simple rules of interface design. It’s fast and finds potential UI issues before your users do.
Spend just one week to get the information you need to build your product right first time. Use these techniques to plan your sprints or even to work out what product to bring to market.