Your Personas are Garbage Without Good User Research

By Frank Spillers

on January 17, 2017 - 12:02pm
person peeking out of garbage can

Summary: Most persona development efforts are self-sabotaging because of one reason: a lack of good user research. The good news is this can be quickly turned around with an incredible impact on your software project and your overall organization's return on investment. This article explores why and how you can salvage your personas once and for all. 

Personas as Garbage, but why?

Many organizations use personas. Personas are the fun customer sketches that software development teams use to prioritize user needs. However most persona efforts are junk, owing to the origins of data used to inspire personas. We know several product managers who don't "believe" in personas.

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 

Electoral Ethnography

By Frank Spillers

on October 27, 2004 - 10:59pm

Ethnography_1

The British newspaper, The Guardian, is offering an interesting way for British readers to gain an insight into the electoral experience currently sweeping the United States. 

In a unique photography diary project Guardian Unlimited and Documentography have teamed up to capture the lives of American families in the run-up to the US election. Five photographers from the Documentography collective are living for a week with five very different families in California, Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Texas. Each day we will publish 10 photographs of each family and brief audio clips documenting their daily lives. The project runs from Tuesday October 26 until election day