UX Research Basics Trailhead

Research Question Guidelines

-Aim and scope of the study -Structure and flow of the questions -Way the questions are worded

Tips for Conducting UX Research

-Be approachable and positive—Remember to smile! Your participant may be nervous and concerned that they're being evaluated so provide encouragement along the way while remaining neutral (for example, "This is really helpful to hear!"). -Ask questions—Don't assume anything. Ask questions about anything that isn't clear. -Stay focused—It's easy to find things in common when you're building rapport with your participant, but you have limited time, so you want to make the most of it. If your participant begins to stray off topic, gently bring them back on track. Keep an eye on the time and what you have left to cover. -Remember, you're not a participant—This activity is about your users, not you. It's their experience you're studying, so it's not a good idea to share your own opinions or experiences. It's natural for your participant to ask your opinion; just let them know you want to hear from them first, and save their questions until the end of the session. -Resist the urge to train—Even if you disagree with an idea or request a participant makes, keep it to yourself. If you observe that the participant is doing something "wrong," now is not the time to correct them. You can share your recommendations with them at the end of the study, but only if it's absolutely necessary. You don't want them thinking you were actually evaluating them the whole time. -Watch your participant's body language—Pay close attention to your participant's body, demeanor, and tone of voice. If a particular line of question is uncomfortable, if the task you're observing is particularly stressful, or if your participant seems tired of the study, change your line of questioning or end the session. Even if the topic/task you're studying is super important, if you force the situation, you won't get useful feedback. -Be flexible—Things don't always go as planned. (#word!) Your participant may be late, your video camera battery may die, or the situation you're there to observe (for example, how Dana handles an incoming sales call) may just not happen during the session. Have backup plans for the most likely scenarios. For example, take extra batteries and have a list of backup questions or activities if the events you want to observe aren't happening while you're there.

Your Champion, Your Problem, Your Mission

-Champion: No mystery here—the center of your story is your user. The type of people you interviewed to collect your data, who'll benefit most directly from the change you want to make. Your champion can also be an archetype of your users—a persona. The more you focus on the users who are most impacted if nothing changes, the more impact your story will have. -Problem and Mission: A problem without a mission is like a champion without a journey... pretty boring. Your problem is the same one you defined in the first unit of this module. Now you just need to associate it with your audience's motivations and show that you need to solve for it—that's your mission! The problem and the mission set the scene for your story and also clearly depict the ultimate goal of your study. A mission differs somewhat from the problem statement—it defines the actual work you've done to get to the root of the problem. Pair your mission with a great call to action.

Analyze Research Findings

-Collate results with a spreadsheet. -Categorize findings -Look for trends, commonalities, or interesting differences -Map trends, commonalities, or differences to solutions.

Contextual Inquiry

-Context: Go to the users' environments to understand the context of their actions. In this case, you probably want to visit your users at their desks, rather than in your office or a conference room. -Partnership: Develop a master-apprentice relationship with your participant to better understand them, their tasks, and the environment they work in. Immerse yourself in your users' work by performing the tasks they do, the way they do it. For example, taking customer calls or resolving support tickets. -Interpretation: Interpret your observations with the participant. Verify that your assumptions and conclusions are correct. -Focus: Develop an observation guide (that is, a list of behaviors, tasks, and/or areas to observe and questions to ask) to keep you focused on the subject of interest or inquiry.

Bias Question Busting Tips

-Stay away from leading questions -Ask open questions -Ask what your users are thinking rather than what they're feeling

Storytelling 101

-Transformations: Your main user, or the focus of your story, transforms from what they were to something different(from good to bad, bad to good, or good to bad to good). -Feelings: Persuasive stories follow one additional rule—they evoke emotion and facilitate engagement. Use all the emotions you have at your disposal to strategically drive points home.

Three Stages of Storytelling

1.) The Opening: Introduce yourself, your personas or users, and your method of collecting data. It's OK to bring up recent history—talk briefly about what got you to where you are today. If you have access to data from your users (for example, field usage/usage trends) that can add depth to your story, then weave it into the backstory 2.) The Cycles of Challenges and Solutions: In the core of your story, you'll depict a series of pitfalls and incremental solutions. Balance each of your findings with your proposed solutions—building on them incrementally. Try to present achievable solutions—ideally vetted in advance. Recommendations resonate particularly well when they come from the users themselves or when they come from your audience. 3.) The Positive Conclusion: Restate your problem clearly. If you can, create a lightweight vision of a possible future—presentation software is a great way to do this if you don't have access to fancy graphic design programs. Be sure to touch upon all the work you've done and pull out the big finale—your depiction of a future state! This is your last chance to review the journey you've undertaken and to show how your findings, if acted on, will result in a new and better user experience. (And help your small piece of the world.)

User Flow Question Structure

1.) The opening: You can use the beginning part of your session to ask questions about your users' work, how they currently use the product, and general thoughts on how things are currently working for them or not. Ask questions like: Can you describe for me what a typical workday looks like? What are the biggest challenges you face with respect to your daily work? 2.) The middle: Next narrow your focus with questions that help drill down on detailed feedback on the feature that you're trying to improve. For example, ask about specific features of your app, elements of a concept, or even fields on a page. Dig into answers provided by asking "Why?" which gets at the reasoning behind your user's thoughts. Ask questions like: What do you think about the new/revised [topic of study] features in the app? Why do you feel this way? Before we go to the next screen, what do you expect to see? Why? 3.) The wrap up: This gives you an opportunity to ask big questions about users' overall impressions and to capture last-minute and often super-interesting thoughts. Ask questions like: If you could change one thing, what would you change? How would you rate your experience (from 1 = very poor to 7 = excellent) with this design/prototype? How would you rate the usefulness (from 1 = not useful to 7 = very useful) of this new features/design? Do you have any further feedback for us?

Hawthorne Effect

A type of reactivity in which individuals modify or improve an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed.

User Flow Question Guidelines

Ask: -Whether users can easily identify and tell you what steps they're supposed to take with the product—namely the ones you want them to take. -What their initial impressions are of the various parts of your concept. -Whether they understand the changes that you're proposing. -What their impressions are on how the screens flow together.

Research Methods

It's a strategy or procedure that you can use to gain insights about your research problem. Common methods include: -Surveys are good for casting a wide net to collect many responses. -Card sorting activities are good for grouping things into categories, for example, items in a navigation menu. -Contextual inquiry is good for observing a participant in their own environment to better understand how they work. -Individual interviews are good for getting detailed information from a user and spending one-on-one time getting to know them or how they use your product or service. -Focus groups are good for observing how participants respond to your questions in a group setting, noting similarities and differences to how they work or use your product or service. -Usability testing is good for learning how your users experience your service or product by measuring tasks and performance.

UX Research Plan

Most projects need some kind of planning document to guide the project, and user research is no exception. This is where a research plan comes in. In this doc you'll define the problem you're researching, figure out which users to study, set a timeline, and determine the approximate length for your research activity. Your research plan will include: -Project scope (includes the problem you're studying and any results of prior related research) -Project timeline -Participant recruitment list -Project research methods

Common Audience Motivations

Saving money Making money Reducing work Increasing time on task Proving value Looking great

Research Categories

This can be tricky, but there are four basic categories to choose from when picking a good research method: -Behavioral methods focus on what people do. -Attitudinal methods focus on what people say. -Qualitative methods try to answer "Why?" or "How?" -Quantitative methods try to answer "How much?" or "How many?"

UX Research

UX research is a set of tools and methods that help you understand your users and their needs when using your products or services. It combines the structure of project planning with the rigor of research, all the while building a case to improve your product, service, or feature. It helps you uncover who your users are, what's important to them, and how they work. Answering these questions will help you build a better product or service.

Leading Questions

When thinking about the way your questions are worded, it's important that they're open and not leading. As you might guess, leading questions lead the person you're interviewing into giving you a specific answer.

Possible Audiences

Who'll decide what will get built or changed? Who owns the budget? Who owns design? Who owns development, testing, and deployment? Who'll document and train people on the change?