Participatory design is a great way to have an engaging conversation with users about a particular task or situation. The main thing to remember about participatory design is this obvious point: Users aren't designers. During the design session they are…
Tag Archive for user research
Can the physical appearance of a moderator influence the results of usability testing?
by Joseph Dickerson • August 12, 2012
Yes, the physical “attractiveness” can influence the responses of test participants. If you appear well dressed, it may make the participant feel they have to be more formal and some may look to you as an authority figure, and either…
Lessons in UX: How a high-level design makes everything better
by Joseph Dickerson • March 28, 2012
I’ve been in several meetings where the words “high level design” was bandied about by designers and stakeholders. The importance of a high level design… well, it was unquestioned. A high level design was absolutely vital, to ensure the success…
UX for Mobile: What are the best methods for doing contextual user research for mobile?
by Joseph Dickerson • November 18, 2011
Here’s what I did when I did a contextual research project around mobile usage and habits two years ago: First, I interviewed people. A lot of people. 30 people in three different states. I asked them about how they used…
Is NPS is a good measure of a users experience? Also, are there any other calculations that could measure how a product is perceived by its users?
by Joseph Dickerson • November 13, 2011
Yes, I think NPS is a fairly good indicator, but it’s a “one-dimensional” indicator. No matter how many customers you survey it is still just a survey, without much context. Some other ways you can get a sense of how…
What should an ideal User Experience Design lab have?
by Joseph Dickerson • March 13, 2011
I’ve set up a couple of usability labs in my time, so I’ll give you some of my advice/lessons learned in that space. First the practical – get lots of wall space. I mean LOTS of wall space. Almost all…
Need to do some mobile usability testing? Here’s some more hints and tips…
by Joseph Dickerson • September 10, 2009 • 1 Comment
In some previous posts I gave some advice on how to conduct a usability test of mobile applications. Well, after a recent series of tests had several setbacks caused by our old pal Murphy showing up (no, not Peter Weller’s…