the embedded researcher

The Embedded ResearcherIntegrating Research into the

Design Process

Amy Silvers@A_Silvers

O’Reilly Design Conference 2017

#EmbeddedResearcher

• @A_Silvers | #EmbeddedResearcher

• Senior Product Designer at Nasdaq

• IA at heart, designer by trade, researcher by default

• One of two researchers on a 20-person product design team

• Worked on 186 interviews/usability tests in 2016

• Helped create open-source research asset repository

Amy Silvers | @A_Silvers | #EmbeddedResearcherPhoto: Dan Slee

https://www.flickr.com/photos/danieldslee/

Amy Silvers | @A_Silvers | #EmbeddedResearcher

What the Process Really Looks Like (Sometimes)

✓ Record user interviews

✓ Transcribe user interviews

✓ Design what we like

✓ Done!

✓ Conduct user interviews

Photo: Brian Omura

https://www.flickr.com/photos/oleswerdlow/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/oleswerdlow/


Why This Happens


Why This Happens1. Lack of time, budget, or resources



2. Working in silos; lack of communication between teams




3. Designer decides not to implement the feedback





4. “We lost track.”






5. Business goals take precedence over user needs


Why This Happens


Why This Happens

1. Lack of time, budget, or resources





6. We don’t have a process for making sure it doesn’t happen.


What Happens Next

1. Your design doesn’t reflect what the user needs.

2. Your product fails.

3. Management doesn’t want to do research again.

4. Research fails.







6. We don’t have a process for making sure it doesn’t happen.


Research Debt

research isn’t implemented

product doesn’t meet key needs

rework has to be done

someone says, “Let’s do

research first.”


Research Debt

• Research is ignored, dismissed, or minimized to save time, money, or effort in the short term.

• The result doesn’t meet (or doesn’t fully meet) the user’s needs, and research and design rework is done to address the shortcomings.

• One solution: create a research “parking lot” and agree to revisit research that hasn’t been implemented.

Amy Silvers | @A_Silvers | #EmbeddedResearcherPhoto: Simon Huggins

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shufgy/


Make Everyone a Researcher


Everyone = Everyone

Every member of the team: ‣ agrees on research goals‣ contributes to the script or moderator’s guide‣ participates as facilitator, notetaker/summarizer,

or observer for at least one session‣ attends a debrief‣ contributes to and reviews the findings report


Who’s Everyone?‣ Researcher‣ Designer‣ Product manager‣ Business sponsor/owner‣ Content strategist‣ Developer


Capture Findings Fast


Identify Themes Together


Make Findings Easy to Find


Individual Campaign


The Back End


Workshop the Findings

• Create user scenarios or define goals based on the findings.

• Pose “how might we” questions for each goal or point in the scenario.

• Or use findings to inform a User Centered Design Canvas.

• Once you’ve come up with answers, have everyone join a sketch session to begin designing the solution.

Photo: Burt Lum

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bytemarks


Additional Approaches“Researcher & designer collaborate to come up with ideas on how to merge research into design. Then we progress to iterative testing to refine design as best we can in time frame of project.”

“We take the research findings and flow them out into themes which become our design principles and then match designs to our principles when sketching.”

“We are a distributed, remote team and usually we will do a couple of online 'working sessions.’ …From this exercise we are usually able to begin to group items and generate things such as key findings, suggested design principles and overall design and content recommendations.”


Embedding

Photo: Luis

https://www.flickr.com/photos/liamngls/


Embedding

• Based on pair development concept, but less intense

• Researcher and designer meet daily to review ideas and check against findings.

• If the designer is also the researcher, s/he sets aside time every day to align with research.

• Researcher (or designer with researcher hat on) attends all reviews as design progresses.


Resources• Mosaiq: http://nasdaqproductdesign.com/mosaiq

• “Everything you need to plan and share user research with Trello.” Jessica Crabb, Pivotal Labs.

• “Using Trello for User Research Synthesis.” David Ghent, Pivotal Labs.

• “Make your findings interactive.” Tess Rothstein, Medium.

• “How Might We.” Design Kit by IDEO.

• User Centered Design Canvas

http://nasdaqproductdesign.com/mosaiq

https://is.gd/22AlzZ

https://is.gd/fFhwLh

https://is.gd/nHIicr

http://www.designkit.org/methods/3

https://ucdc.therectangles.com