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   The theme of this years’ World Usability Day: “Design for the Future We Want”. The theme is inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.  Design can help solve some of the world’s most challenging problems. Design has the opportunity to create a better world for all by creating products that cause no harm, make the world a better place to live and support our humanity: For example, design could persuade people to consume more sustainably or it could potentially help prevent the spread of fake news.

      While the field of UXR has existed for a while now, there still seems to be some confusion surrounding what exactly sets it apart from other forms of research. It can be difficult to differentiate it from other types of research that, like UX research, measure and evaluate user needs, behaviors, and preferences. One form of research that often gets confused for being UX research is market research. While they are similar, they are very different in their approach, goals, analysis, and implementation. It is also about the kinds of questions you are asking, and the kinds of answers you are hoping to get by conducting your research.

   
     User experience seeks to be able to capture the accurate experience of the user, but it is critical to consider if we are truly being inclusive when it comes to including all users in that collective experience. Inclusivity in UX means helping to develop and/or improve products that can serve as many people as possible. It means that all users, including those with diverse characteristics, are all able to use the product and feel included in the collective user experience that is being captured surrounding a product. The reality is we are currently designing, studying and testing products that will be used by millions of people- and it is important to make sure that all potential users can feel included, and validated, in the shared user experience.

In collaboration with Annabell Ho.

     Surveys are often regarded as being easy ways of collecting large amounts of data. You put together your questions, design your survey and boom- it can be distributed and accessed online by hundreds upon thousands of participants. While it seems easy enough, there is actually a great deal of design thinking that goes into the creation of a well-designed and efficient survey. In order to make sure that once your survey goes live you generate the best possible results, there requires a hefty amount of thought, design and care that goes into the construction of a survey. A bad survey design can lead to bad data through causing participants to be unsure of how to answer questions, or not providing enough options to accurately capture the participants true experience.

In collaboration with Jasmin Joseph.

         Recruitment, whether it be internal or external, is a necessary part of the research process. Part of being able to carry out an effective UX research study is being able to recruit participants who are right for the study, as well as making sure to recruit enough of them. There are several articles (including our own) that provide various different tips and tricks in order to try to help the recruitment process run more smoothly and efficiently. But what about what not to do when trying to recruit participants?

      With the prevalence of Agile, Scrum, and Lean, software development cycles have been shortened dramatically, compared to the Waterfall development cycle. As a result, user research has to fit into the same cadence, from study design, data collection, to presentation. While traditional research, especially in an academic setting, would typically take months from start to finish, user researchers in the industry have found ways to make research more efficient and tactical, while remaining effective and informative.