http://www.userfocus.co.uk Join the 1000s of other people who get their monthly fix of user experience insights from Userfocus. en-uk Mon, 2 Dec 2019 07:22:13 GMT Mon, 2 Dec 2019 07:22:13 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/writing-usability-task-scenarios.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/writing-usability-task-scenarios.html Usability tests are unique. We ask people to do real tasks with the system and watch. As the person completes the task, we watch their behaviour and listen to their stream-of-consciousness narrative. But what makes a good usability task scenario? david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Mon, 2 Dec 2019 07:22:13 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/common-traps-in-user-needs-research.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/common-traps-in-user-needs-research.html Whether you call it a field visit, a contextual inquiry or a customer discovery interview, the goal of early stage research is the same: to uncover users' needs. Here are 5 mistakes I've seen crop up time and again in this kind of research. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Mon, 4 Nov 2019 07:31:22 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/transitioning-from-academic-research.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/transitioning-from-academic-research.html Doing UX research in a university is very different to doing UX research in a business setting. If you're an academic making the leap, what are the main differences you need to keep in mind? david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Mon, 7 Oct 2019 08:08:19 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/minimalist-field-researcher.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/minimalist-field-researcher.html When carried out in a lab, user experience research is gear heavy. You need technology to record audio, video and the screen of the device under test. In contrast, when carried out in the field, user experience research is more lightweight. Even so, there are a few non-obvious items of kit that I find essential on a field visit. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Mon, 2 Sep 2019 08:11:19 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/the-future-of-UX-research-is-automated.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/the-future-of-UX-research-is-automated.html If you compare the UX research methods we use today with the methods we used 16 years ago, something interesting emerges. We see that UX research is becoming increasingly remote and increasingly unmoderated. In other words, we're moving to a world where UX research is becoming automated. We can learn a lot from automated research. But it comes at the price of understanding our users. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Mon, 5 Aug 2019 08:22:15 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/talking-to-computers-part-2.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/talking-to-computers-part-2.html I take a closer look at some unavoidable challenges to effective speech recognition, and I discuss why you may want to think twice before designing dialogue that is 'conversational' and 'natural'. I also offer five important questions that I think should form the basis of any VUI design kick-off meeting. philip.hodgson@blueprintusability.com (Philip Hodgson) Mon, 1 Jul 2019 08:21:51 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/talking-to-computers-part-1.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/talking-to-computers-part-1.html Although the performance of today's speech recognition systems is impressive, the experience for many is still one of errors, corrections, frustration and abandoning speech in favour of alternative interaction methods. We take a closer look at speech and find out why speech recognition is so difficult. philip.hodgson@blueprintusability.com (Philip Hodgson) Thu, 3 Jun 2019 08:31:15 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/the-principle-of-least-surprise.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/the-principle-of-least-surprise.html Consistency is at the heart of good product design. But consistency is often misinterpreted as making things look or behave the same way. This ignores context and can lead to a foolish consistency. Instead of consistency, designers should adhere to the Principle of Least Surprise. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Mon, 6 May 2019 08:44:21 GMT https://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/procrustes-award.html https://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/procrustes-award.html We're familiar with awarding prizes for excellence, from the Oscars to The International Design Awards. But what if we started giving prizes to shame bad examples of design? Enter the Procrustes Awards. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Mon, 1 Apr 2019 07:48:51 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/preference-testing-is-not-A-B-testing.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/preference-testing-is-not-A-B-testing.html Researchers sometimes ask participants which of two alternative designs they prefer. The data from these studies comprise opinions that have little predictive value. In contrast, multivariate A/B testing involves target users doing real tasks. The data from these studies comprise behavioural observations that predict real-world behaviour. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Tues, 5 Mar 2019 08:13:21 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/is-ux-certification-worth-it.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/is-ux-certification-worth-it.html BCS launched their Foundation Certificate in User Experience 3 years ago. We thought this was an opportune time to review its effectiveness. We contacted candidates who had taken (and passed) the certificate through Userfocus and asked, 'What impact has attaining the BCS Foundation Certificate in UX had on your job?' Ten key themes emerged. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Mon, 4 Feb 2019 07:21:49 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/12-symptoms.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/12-symptoms.html Everyday consumer products continue to frustrate people. The failure of companies to fully embrace UX is partly to blame, but there is also another reason -- one that is seldom discussed. Consumer product companies pay too much heed to their retail customers and, in so doing, they prevent the development team from getting first-hand knowledge of end users. philip.hodgson@blueprintusability.com (Philip Hodgson) Mon, 7 Jan 2019 07:41:11 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/think-straight-about-UX-Research.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/think-straight-about-UX-Research.html Some of the problems we work on as UX researchers are simple and are easily solved by getting users in front of our product. But other problems can be complex and it's hard to know how to start solving them. In situations like that, a simple 2x2 diagram can cut through the 'what ifs', the 'how abouts' and the edge cases and provide a simple way of looking at the problem. Here are 10 examples of 2x2 diagrams to simplify UX research discussions. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Mon, 3 Dec 2018 08:13:11 GMT