Mixed Methods

Donna Driscoll is a senior principal user experience researcher at LinkedIn, while Kassie Chaney is a senior manager of user experience research at LinkedIn. They are powerful duo when it comes to innovating in the space. They have invented a number of techniques for doing UXR, the latest is called Research Bento. This designer led, researcher supported program allows research teams to scale by more deeply involving design in certain types of research projects. This conversation dives into the method. 

Ever wondered how you could get more insights out of your interviews? This week we have a few researchers who did. Marianne Berkovich, Elizabeth Baylor, and Beverly Freeman come from a variety of backgrounds, including a stint as an professor of anthropology. Together they have over 30 years of experience doing user research at companies like Microsoft, Adobe, eBay, PayPal, intuit, and Google. Our conversation was about a workshop originated by Marianne and Elizabeth, and now facilitated by Beverly as well. The workshop helps researchers continuously improve their interviewing skills. I found the takeaways helpful both personally and for a group. 

If you want a bit of extra reading, here is an article Marianne wrote about the workshop as well. 

In any field there are some topics that are more widely agreed upon and some that are more widely debated. For UX research ethnography falls in the later. It’s defined as, “the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures.” Historically, the term has been widely used in anthropology to describe studies that can last for years and explore other cultures in an immersive way almost unheard of today. This type of ethnography, even in the academic world, is undergoing a transition as it becomes more and more difficult for men and women to dedicate themselves for such long periods of time to this type of study.

This year CHI hosted a workshop on ethnography. For UX researchers, this type of observation based study can be invaluable when trying to understand the way different groups think, feel, and behave. Sarah Garcia, who hosted this year’s workshop, sat down to tell us a bit more about it. She’s spent over 10 years at UE Group doing UX research for some of the world’s largest companies.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the CHI conference in Denver. One of the people at the social and intellectual heart of the conference is Ben Shneiderman. Ben is one of the founding fathers of the field of human-computer interaction, or HCI. His publications, such as Designing the User Interface, are canonical at this point, and he founded one of the first HCI labs in the world at the University of Maryland. 

In this episode, Ben shares his perspective on the future of HCI and what we as researchers need to remember to get there. 

Tomer Sharon has been doing UX research for more than 15 years. He's written two books and a couple years ago left Google to lead the UX team at WeWork, a co-working startup turned unicorn that's valued at close to $20 billion. We got together after I heard that Tomer was talking about the death of the research report. The inability of classic reports to effectively convey meaning and meet the needs of product teams seems to be a reoccurring theme. I wanted to hear how Tomer and his team at WeWork had rethought the paradigm.

Want to try Tomer’s approach yourself? Here’s the Airtable template. 

Anna Turner graduated with a BS in economics from the London School of Economics, but later decided to make a career shift to UX research. She used a 12 month masters program in Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University to facilitate this change and ended up landing her dream job at Google!

In the field of UX research, Dana Chisnell is a pioneer. As you will hear, she has lived and shaped it’s history and continues to do so. She is currently working as an adjunct professor at Harvard University, co-director of the Center for Civic Design, and as a principal researcher at UsabilityWorks. I went into this conversation with Dana, expecting to focus on usability testing, how to do it, what makes someone great at it, etc. etc. Dana is a world class expert on this. As you’ll see we did discuss that, but Dana’s experience in the U.S. Digital Service was a powerful reminder of the sometimes blurred lines between designer, product manager, and researcher that I couldn't help, but dig into. Enjoy!

Elizabeth Churchill is a director of UX at Google and has worked on a number of projects, including material design. She received a PhD from the University of Cambridge in cognitive science and has since worked at a number of the world’s leading tech companies. Join us while we talk about how she has balanced the industry and academic sides of her career. 

If you'd like to check out some of the groups/publications mentioned during the episode, this should make it easier:

• ACM
• UXPA
• IXDA
• Interactions
• Peeps

Sarah Doody is the creator of The UX Notebook and freelance consultant. She has been working in the UX world for over a decade and we got together to discuss what she has learned about Concept Validation, aka what happens when you or someone you work for has an idea and you’re trying to figure out if it’s worth building. 

If you want to try out what you heard in the episode, here are some helpful resources:

From Sarah - UX Research Interview Guide | UX Research Checklist | Research Course | Weekly Newsletter

From Sprint - Customer Screening Worksheet | Example Customer Screener | Example Craigslist Ad

Jake Knapp is a design partner at GV, formerly known as Google Ventures, and the inventor of the Design Sprint. This 5-day design process revitalizes a number of older methods to allow UX professionals to get over the day-to-day distractions and do better design work. He along with John Zeratsky and Braden Kowitz authored a book on the subject called Sprint. This conversation dives into the method. Enjoy!