Think Like a UX Researcher: How to Observe Users, Influence Design, and Shape Business Strategy

307 Pages·2019·14.4 MB·English

by  David Travis

Think Like a UX Researcher
How to Observe Users, Influence
Design, and Shape Business Strategy

Think Like a UX Researcher
How to Observe Users, Influence
Design, and Shape Business Strategy
David Travis
Philip Hodgson
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2019 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
No claim to original U.S. Government works
Printed on acid-free paper
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-36529-2 (Paperback)
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-36535-3 (Hardback)
This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot
assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and
publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication
and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any
copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any
future reprint.
Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced,
transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.
For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.
copyright.com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC),
222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that
provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a
photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the CRC Press Web site at
http://www.crcpress.com
Contents
•
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
1 Setting the Stage 1
◻ The Seven Deadly Sins of UX Research 2
◻ Think Like a Detective 10
◻ The Two Questions We Answer with UX Research 18
◻ Anatomy of a Research Question 21
◻ Applying Psychology to UX Research 28
◻ Why Iterative Design Isn’t Enough to Create Innovative Products 33
◻ Does your Company Deliver a Superior Customer Experience? 38
2 Planning User Experience Research 43
◻ Defining Your UX Research Problem 44
◻ How to Approach Desk Research 51
◻ Conducting an Effective Stakeholder Interview 56
◻ Identifying the User Groups for Your UX Research 64
◻ Writing the Perfect Participant Screener 69
◻ Arguments Against a Representative Sample 75
◻ How to Find More Usability Problems with Fewer Participants 81
◻ Deciding on Your First Research Activity with Users 85
3 Conducting User Experience Research 89
◻ Gaining Informed Consent from Your Research Participants 90
◻ What Is Design Ethnography? 96
◻ Structuring the Ethnographic Interview 100
◻ Writing Effective Usability Test Tasks 106
◻ The Five Mistakes You’ll Make as a Usability Test Moderator 110
v
vi ConTEnTS
◻ Avoiding Personal opinions in Usability Expert Reviews 116
◻ Toward a Lean UX 121
◻ Controlling Researcher Effects 128
4 Analyzing User Experience Research 135
◻ Sharpening Your Thinking Tools 136
◻ UX Research and Strength of Evidence 145
◻ Agile Personas 150
◻ How to Prioritize Usability Problems 156
◻ Creating Insights, Hypotheses and Testable Design Ideas 160
◻ How to Manage Design Projects with User Experience Metrics 166
◻ Two Measures that Will Justify Any Design Change 173
◻ Your Web Survey Is a Lot Less Reliable than You Think 177
5 Persuading People to Take Action on the Results of User
Experience Research 183
◻ Evangelizing UX Research 184
◻ How to Create a User Journey Map 195
◻ Generating Solutions to Usability Problems 203
◻ Building UX Research Into the Design Studio Methodology 208
◻ Dealing with Common objections to UX Research 215
◻ The User Experience Debrief Meeting 221
◻ Creating a User Experience Dashboard 228
◻ Achieving Boardroom Influence 234
6 Building a Career in User Experience 241
◻ Hiring a User Experience Leader 242
◻ A Tool for Assessing and Developing the Technical Skills of
User Experience Practitioners 248
◻ Going Beyond Technical Skills: What Makes a Great UX
Researcher? 260
◻ How to Wow People with Your UX Research Portfolio 267
◻ A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Month in a UX Research
Role 273
◻ The Reflective UX Researcher 278
Endnotes 283
Index 289
Acknowledgments
•
Many of our colleagues have provided insight, ideas, and comments on the
essays in this volume. In alphabetical order, we would like to thank nigel
Bevan, David Hamill, Miles Hunter, Caroline Jarrett, John Knight, Beth
Maddix, Rolf Mohlich, Ali Vassigh, and Todd Zazelenchuk. We are indebted
to Gret Higgins and Lynne Tan for help in proof-reading and curating the
essays. Any remaining errors are, of course, ours.
We are also indebted to the hundreds of UX researchers who signed up at
our website, uxresearchbook.com, and helped shape decisions on everything
from the book’s content to the cover design. Your comments and opinions
helped us improve the book, and we hope that you’re as proud of the final
result as we are.
Finally, we would also like to thank our many students and clients who
have asked us difficult questions over the years. Those questions made us
think like a UX Researcher and led directly to many of the essays in this book.
vii

Introduction
•
Currently, user experience (UX) researchers are in an enviable situation. There
are many more jobs than people suitably trained to fill them. Practitioners
are swamped with work. This has obvious advantages—but it comes with its
own share of problems.
not least of these problems is the difficulty of maintaining one’s own area
of expertise by staying up to date with best practice and new ideas.
We know from the training courses we deliver to UX researchers that
many are too busy (and may feel too knowledgeable) to read a compre-
hensive, introductory text on user experience. In fact, if you’re like us, you
probably have more than one UX book on your shelves that you started but
couldn’t finish.
That’s why UX researchers turn to shorter articles and blog posts to keep
their knowledge fresh. But blog posts aren’t curated. It’s not clear how they
fit together because they lack the kind of structure imposed by a book. And
they vary in quality—both in the quality of the content and the quality of
the writing.
With printed books feeling overwhelming and the quality of blog posts
being too variable, it’s not clear what UX researchers are meant to do to stay
current.
This book aims to bridge the gap by providing user experience content
that is authoritative but at the same time easily digestible. It contains a series
of essays on UX research. Although you could read the book from cover
to cover, we have planned the book on the assumption that you will dip in
and out of it, somewhat like a bedside or coffee-break reader. Think of it as
a launch pad for UX research ideas. But if you prefer to read linearly, we’ve
organized the chapters (and the sequence of essays within each chapter) to
build upon each other.
ix