How and When to use User Research- for award winning UX Design

By Admin User

on December 22, 2016 - 6:51pm
User Research class- when and how to use field studies

Summary: User Research is best performed early on and instead of simply validating your requirements, can help shape them. 

Clarification: By user research we will discuss Field Studies, not user testing (also referred to as user research). While we're on terminology, Field Studies are also referred to as Ethnography or Ethnographic Field Studies. 

Knowing what to do with your user research opportunity is important. The field study is a critical component of UX Design. It is often left out of most people's mental model (conceptions) about UX Design. User experience has two faces: Usability (ease of use) and Desirability (needs and wants). User research can help surface patterns, triggers, motivations and new innovations. 

Let's explore how, when and why to make the most of User Research through common misconceptions.

Common misconceptions about User Research 

How to Observe Usability Testing Sessions Without Making These Mistakes

By Admin User

on December 14, 2016 - 4:30pm
usability testing methodology

Summary: UX Practitioners, and more importantly stakeholders must avoid making the mistake of over-generalizing or incorrectly observing user test sessions. Since the purpose of usability testing is to create informed design decisions, this is not a trivial issue. Poor (biased) observations are rampant. Let's fix this now!

Avoiding These User Testing Observation Traps...

Observing a usability test seems straight forward: watch and form an opinion. It is that simple, but if you are not careful of the way your mind works, you can end up with the wrong set of take-aways-- a potential disaster to what otherwise could be a rich learning experience.  Here are the main things you need to avoid and be aware of, to get the most from your observations:

How EMOTION won this election; What this means for your emotion design strategy

By Frank Spillers

on November 10, 2016 - 4:40pm
Twitter trends shows Trump with higher activity

Summary: Emotion is not to be underestimated in human decision-making, as recent US elections and Twitter's analysis of election tweets show. In the same way candidates with the strongest emotional appeals get voters attention, so do designs. Emotion is important to confront in a design, but also should be measured and used as a tool to gain deeper user engagement.

As this analysis from Twitter shows, Trump won emotion. Politically he utilized all emotion (good and bad) to attract attention to his "fix America" message. His use of emotion attracted many voters, unpredicted by US media polls. So what does this mean for your user experience?

VR and more- designing immersive user experiences with wow factor

By Admin User

on May 12, 2016 - 5:10pm

Summary: Good user experience design is imperative for smoother adoption of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR). The UX focus of wow-factor experiences for VR/AR/MR must include careful attention to design of presence, narrative, engagement and emotion.    

Definitions:

Virtual Reality (VR) offers an immersive experience requiring a HMD (Head Mounted Display). The software is powered on a mobile phone or from a new VR-optimized PC. Users feel like they are "there" and the experience is in first person. Note: You have to experience this to realize how profound of a shift it is. First person user experience can change perception in fundamentally profound ways.  

Hiring the wrong UX Agency!

By Frank Spillers

on March 30, 2016 - 10:10am
Hiring UX agency

Summary: Hiring the wrong UX designer or UX agency can cost you, not only in your delivery but also in your confidence to benefit from the latest in UX leadership and ROI. Making the right hire is critical, but first you have to be able to spot weakness which is difficult if you are new to the subject of UX hiring. 

Characteristics of the Wrong Hire

In our experience of working with clients who complain of being burned by low quality UX firms, we've noticed some patterns over the past 15 years. 

3 hidden reasons your org should never do User Testing just once

By Admin User

on February 20, 2016 - 10:07am
mobile usability testing

Summary: Doing regular, phased or iterative usability testing gives you the benefit to gain additional validation on design direction. It's primary function is to protect usability quality as designs progress or get distorted by internal constraints. Regular testing can help you establish maturity or UX culture and can teach you the important UX skill of user advocacy.