anthro 9 lecture on ux research in silicon valley

UCLA ANTHRO 9

LECTUREFebruary 12, 2013

Professor Mariko Tamanoi

Today we’ll talk about…

• Ecosystems of non-academic research – business and

other organizations.

• Resources, niches - survival

• Cultures and sub-cultures: produced, criticized and

morphed by various “tribes” in many places and over time

• How cultural practices and values are transmitted and

challenged

• As it happens – we’re going to talk about what may be

someday part of your career.

Copyright Susan Wilhite 2013

WHO’S HEARD OF USER

EXPERIENCE RESEARCH?• Market Research

• Usability

• User Experience (UX)


Market Research

o Market Research is mostly about opinion, attitudes.

o Question – answer.

o Prep for selling whatever has been developed, o The end of the process, little/no user influence

o Offers a comparatively superficial viewo methodologies, intent

o Example: Directed inquiries - what the questioner wants to know, on

her terms.

o Often forces “respondents” to think about something the way the

researcher thinks about a topic

• What induced evolutionary complexity of research methodologies?


What induced evolutionary complexity of research methodologies?

• The craving for richer knowledge

• Combined with the availability of maturing academic disciplines to inform the work

But why?

• Resulting from market pressures


Usability/Human Computer Interaction

Summative, mid-later Product Development

• Prototype testing

o Specifically for humans and computer development

o Conducted in a lab to control variables

o More about behaviors and perceptions than Mkt. Res.

o Participants are consultants, experts at being human


User eXperience (UX)

Formative and Summative – all the way thru Product Dev

o Can include usability and market research methodologies

o Research on the “Other’s” terms. o Our job: extract implications from their meanings.

o Conducted anywhereo in context, online, and in a lab

o Artifacts

o A much wider array of academic disciplines (aka “majors”)

Draw the Methodologies Formula

Draw the Design Process


Research Methodologies

Market Research

Q -> A

Usability

(Summative for

Prototypes or

existing

products)

+ Formative

(Discovery)

= User

Experience

Research


Design Process

Product Manager

UX Researcher

Formative

Summative

UX Developer

(Front End)

Custo

mer

Researc

h

NOT TO SCALE!!

Beginning to end of Product Development -->


Notes on the Design Process

• Formative Research is done at the outset; Summative is done when there is a product and business model direction.

• Formative is where anthropology adds most value

• The Product Manager is a peer to the Researcher, Designer, and Developer

• Customer Research pertains to the experience of those who buy the product/service (not necessarily the actual user/beneficiary) – sales, support, legal. Not part of the product development process, but appropriates some UX methodologies (usually badly, but it’s nice that they try)

• Designers are usually expected to know research methodologies and sometimes conduct research.

• Designers are sometimes expected to code prototypes for the developers, or pair with them in the beta process


An Echo from the MBA People

“Ask fewer questions about what people will do

instead set up small field tests and controlled studies that

observe what they actually do.

In most instances, they will be lot cheaper than traditional

market research approaches, and yet the insights they

reveal could provide a real competitive advantage…”

Steve Martin, Harvard Business Review blog 1/30/13


A STANDARD GOOGLE

UX JOB DESCRIPTIONA good description of the role and its ecosystem


Overview

• The job of our User Experience professionals is to make

sure that our products are useful, usable and desirable to

millions of users worldwide.

• Our Interaction Designers, Visual

Designers, Prototypers and Researchers work with

Product Managers and Engineers to improve our

products and develop new ones.

• …team members are encouraged to identify new

opportunities for user experience improvements.


The UX Team

• Researchers

• Designers

• Information Architects

• Content Writers

• Business Analysts

• Developers

Each of these roles has a number of sub-specialties.

We are committed to informing and aligning our work with

stated corporate strategies.


Qualifications

• An advanced degree preferred in computer

science, human computer interaction, cognitive

science, experimental

psychology, anthropology, information science or related

field.

• At least 3 years of work experience in an applied

research setting.

• Experience integrating user research into product

designs and design practices


More Qualifications

• Excellent interpersonal, communication, negotiation, and

collaborate skills (culture!)

• Strong understanding of strengths and shortcomings of

different research methods, including when and how to

apply them during each product phase.

• Excellent working knowledge of statistics and the

principles of experiment design.


WHY ANTHROPOLOGY?Anthropology is authentic discovery, a strong an ownership of

exploration.

People-intensive. Not manipulative.

Theoretical grounding. Critical thinking and arguing evidence.

The search for unexpected meaning, not just the answers.


Criticism

• Henry Ford & Steve Jobs ‘people don’t know what they

want’ is mostly true. Researchers and designers figure it

out from the data. That’s our task.

• The burning question is: Is it too much to ask a researcher

to also be a producer, and vice versa?

• Is research a specialty that can be adequately adopted by

designers, coders, business folks?


THE UX RESEARCHER

ROLEHow I do my work


• Draw up research questions, draw hypotheses, data

processing, data analysis.

• Involve other roles

• Be current on methodologies and how they work best

• Know technical resources and keep skills sharp

• “present” findings in a format that suits the needs of the

stakeholders (called the deliverable)

• Evangelize the findings


Current work Example - Vegas

• Some research was done by previous researchers

• Upon arrival, changed a series of “focus groups” to 1:1

formative interviews.

• Focus groups are a market research methodology intended to build

consensus in that group

• We didn’t know how these people do their work and what kinds of

organizational requirements and constraints they’re under.

• So –> 1:1.


Internal to External Cultures

• Fielding research requests and deciding on

methodologies. • Time is short and material resources are limited.

• Participants (customers) must be handled carefully.

• I can’t wreck a relationship built by the Sales and the Support

tribes. Even though I do not want those tribes participating in the

research process

• Customers must feel free to talk to me about what I want them to

talk about – it’s a different relationship


Balanced Exploitation

• In an ecological system, the populations find and exploit

niches where they can thrive.

• In a balanced ecology, the exploitation is balanced.

Relationships are symbiotic: negotiated and mutually

beneficial. Political. Among humans - Cultural.

• Every entity we sell to has a version of a culture.

• I work on categorizing those cultures in a way that makes

sense to my team, group, and company


External to Internal

• I am expected to interpret and recommend actions

intended to produce an effect on the people I study.

Research -> Design -> user experience

• My findings must be reliable: ask the right questions, collect data in

a usable way, make sure everyone on my team and group is on

board, process and analyze the data correctly and quickly, present

the findings in a nutritious way.

• Listen to other interpretations, new questions (“now that we know

this, what about that point right there?”)


The C-level

• I must be persuasive all the way up to the VP and C-level

executives.

• This means packaging my findings to be easily

consumable and actionable.

• They have to believe that what I am telling them they can

defend later.

• I work hard to justify my existence


MY ROAD TO BECOMING A

UX RESEARCHERObstacles and distractions


UX did not exist in 1992

• Sell the components of what you want to do. For me, that was qualitative research skills

• Toyed with Market Research• Hired Gallup to do the heavy lifting

• Got on the phones to do surveys

• Proposed and ran a focus group arm

• Paper editing at Harvard

• Microsoft: deep interest in research and deep pockets to pay for it

• Did a lot of work on my own time

• Pushed to leave and get a master’s in Cognitive Psych (prep for usability engineering)

• Conferences, informational interviews, hanging out at usability lab studies, networking, having an opinion and stating it.

• Did pro bono work for Habitat for Humanity• Proposed an application for the skills I was offering

• Trained others to do ethnographic fieldwork


QUESTIONS?

Susan_Wilhite at msn dot com

@Maggid


anthro 9 lecture on ux research in silicon valley

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