How to understand and communicate people's needs and behaviours?
Assignments
New
Design Scenarios and Storyboard Mockups Mon Mar 15th 11:59pm PT
One-Minute Summaries and Questions
A guide to top UX Research methods Thu Feb 25th 11:59pm PT
Job Stories Offer a Viable Alternative to User Stories Thu Feb 25th 11:59pm PT
Weekly Quiz
Week 7 Review Quiz Sun Feb 28th 11:59pm PT
Required Readings
A guide to top UX Research methods (8 minute read)
Job Stories Offer a Viable Alternative to User Stories (10 minute read)
BlackBoard Collaborate Session Slides
User Research — Mini-lectures and Activities | PDF | Recording (Look in Hamburger menu)
Week 7 Review and Discussion | PDF | Recording (Look in Hamburger menu)
Supplemental Readings
Discovery Research
Alternative research techniques when direct contact with users is not possible, or as a preparation to user research.
- 7 Alternative User Research Methods
- A practical, 10-step guide on conducting user research with no access to users, no product and (almost) no budget
- How to use desk research to kick-start your design process
Empathy Maps
A simple tool to better understand people using a product or service.
- Agile Coaching Tip: What Is an Empathy Map?
- Empathy Mapping: A Guide to Getting Inside a User’s Head
- Empathy maps: The business of putting users first
- Empathy Maps for UX
- Updated Empathy Map Canvas
Five Whys
A technique that utilizes a question-asking method to explore the causes/effects underlying a particular issue.
Interviews
A conversation where an interviewer asks a series of questions to one or more interviewees.
- Asking the right questions during user research, interviews and testing
- How to Make User Research a Conversation
- Interviewing Humans
- Never Ask What They Want — 3 Better Questions to Ask in User Interviews
- User Interviews: How, When, and Why to Conduct Them
- When Interviews Go Wrong
- Why User Interviews Fail
Job Stories
An approach to task analysis that is inspired by Jobs To Be Done.
- 5 Tips For Writing A Job Story
- Designing Features Using Job Stories
- Job stories are great, but personas aren't dead
Personas
Fictional persons, based on research, where each one represents a specific type of user.
- 3 Persona Types: Lightweight, Qualitative, and Statistical
- An introduction to personas and how to create them
- Describing Personas
- Five Factors for Successful Persona Projects
- Putting Personas to Work in UX Design: What They Are and Why They’re Important
- A Closer Look At Personas: What They Are And How They Work (Part 1)
- Three Important Benefits of Personas
Problem Framing
Problem Framing is a method used to understand, define and prioritize problems.
- 10 ways to frame (and reframe) problems effectively
- Design Problem Statements – What They Are and How to Frame Them
- How To Properly Frame Your Design Challenge
- Define and Frame Your Design Challenge by Creating Your Point Of View and Ask “How Might We”
Task Analysis
Task analysis is the decomposition of how tasks are currently performed.
- Hierarchical Task Analysis
- Task Analysis: Support Users in Achieving Their Goals
- Task Analysis: The Key UX Design Step Everyone Skips
- Task Analysis: Understanding User Goals and Behavior
- Task Analysis - Hierarchical, If/Then, and Model-Based
- Uncovering True Motivation: The Whys and Wherefore
- Why most UX projects could use Task Analysis
User Research
The process of learning about the audience for your system or product.
- 10 diagrams to help you think straight about UX Research
- Communicating User Research Findings
- Doing Research with People Who Are Not Users: Consultation
- From Research Goals to Usability-Testing Scenarios: A 7-Step Method
- How to understand customer needs?
- Needs statement
- One page user research plan
- Step By Step Guide To More Structured User Research
- The forgotten step where even brilliant research fails (or makes you invaluable)
- The two questions we answer with user research
- User Research: What It Is and Why You Should Do It
- User Need Statements: The ‘Define’ Stage in Design Thinking
- When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods
