Session Details
ERIKA HALL
10-10:45am EDT
JUST ENOUGH RESEARCH
Every product, service, or interface we design in the safety and comfort of our workplaces has to survive and thrive in the real world. This means countless strangers will be using our creations in a chaotic environment over which we have no control. Research is the key to grounding ideas in reality and improving the odds of success, but research can be a very scary word. It may sound like money you don’t have, time you can’t spare, and expertise you have to seek.
- You can't solve a design problem in the absence of real-world information
- No matter what type of organization or process you're working with, you can make evidence-based decisions
- Guerrilla research is not a thing, find out why
Listen to Lou Rosenfeld's interview with Erika to learn more about her presentation.
Erika's biography
LEAH BULEY
11-11:45am EDT
THE RIGHT RESEARCH METHOD FOR ANY PROBLEM (AND BUDGET)
The mighty user research toolkit is packed with techniques. It can do everything from blue sky innovation research, to need-finding and requirements gathering, to product validation and testing. But many teams don't exploit the full toolkit, sticking instead to one side or the other of the quant versus qual divide, or returning again and again to that tired old workhorse—usability testing. In this session, Leah Buley will share a primer on the range of research methods available, and guide you in determining which is the best technique for what you’re trying to learn now (and for your budget).
Leah's biography
NATE BOLT
Noon-12:45pm EDT
HOW TO FIND AND RECRUIT AMAZING PARTICIPANTS FOR USER RESEARCH
Getting the right participants for your research is perhaps the most fundamental building block to gathering great insights. We'll cover the best methods for recruiting participants, including pros and cons and common use cases. You'll come away with the following:
- Recruiting checklist to apply to each new project
- Dynamic vs. static screening definitions
- Targeting vs. screening understanding
- Impact of scheduling on recruiting design
- Incentives—how they change recruiting
Listen to Lou Rosenfeld's interview with Nate to learn more about his presentation.
Nate's biography
STEVE KRUG & LAURA KLEIN
1-1:45pm EDT
DO-IT-YOURSELF USABILITY TESTING DISCUSSION/Q&A SESSION
Sit back and enjoy your lunch while participating in a discussion with Steve Krug, moderated by Laura Klein. Steve will field your questions about the ins and outs of running usability tests when you're low on experience, budget, or both.
Steve's biography / Laura's biography
JULIE STANFORD
2-2:45pm EDT
CREATING A VIRTUOUS CYCLE: THE RESEARCH AND DESIGN FEEDBACK LOOP
The terms virtuous and vicious circle refer to complex chains of events which reinforce themselves through a feedback loop. The loop between research and design aims for virtue, but can derail into viciousness when research is ignored or poorly conducted. In this talk, Julie Stanford shares how to insure research impacts design and how to design better research. Attendees of this talk will walk away with concrete steps for creating a virtuous research-design cycle, including how to:
- Turn research results into design actions
- Make your organization listen to research
- Design your research to answer the right questions
Julie's biography
ABBY COVERT
3-3:45pm EDT
MAKING SENSE OF RESEARCH FINDINGS
Congratulations! You’ve finished facilitating your research activities!
Now you will face one of the most challenging parts of research: synthesizing your results into actionable insights that your colleagues or clients will find value in. This is the part that many people get overwhelmed by, especially in terms of how to get started when you have a large set of notes or data points to sort through.
In this session, Abby Covert will share a variety of tools and tips for taking the outputs that your research yields and finding useful patterns and insights. You’ll:
- Learn what you can do before, during, and after research activities to make gathering insights more efficient later on
- Gain confidence in breaking down large sets of research data into manageable areas to focus on
- Improve the way you communicate research insights to clients and colleagues
Listen to Lou Rosenfeld's interview with Abby to learn more about her presentation
Abby's biography
CINDY ALVAREZ
4-4:45pm EDT
INFECTIOUS RESEARCH
As a researcher, you spend your days understanding the customer—who are they? What problems are they solving? How do they behave today? How are they making decisions? How do you get that knowledge from your head into everyone else's heads?
You can't be in every meeting, you can't rely on everyone to read research reports, and—to make things even more challenging—you're often the bearer of bad news. Nope, the customer doesn't need this; sorry, the customer acts in totally unexpected ways.
In this talk, I'll share my tactics for spreading customer insights through an organization (even when they're not popular). You'll walk away with templates and some ideas to put into practice ASAP!
Listen to Lou Rosenfeld's interview with Cindy to learn more about her presentation
Cindy's biography
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