Academia
Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) Key Takeaways
Ethnographic UX Research: Diary Studies and Contextual Inquiry
Discovery phase • Prototyping/beta phase • Product testing phase
Ethnography goal is for researchers to immerse themselves in the user’s experience, gain a contextual understanding of the user's perspective, and see the product from the user’s point of view. This will assist product development by bringing insights from the user's real-world use of the product and their experience with it. This research reveals pain points in the journey, identifies future directions, and centers discussions on expectations vs reality through the implementation of field studies.
Context matters
Observing where, when, and how users use the product can only be conducted in the spaces they actually use the product.
Observing where, when, and how users use the product can only be conducted in the spaces they actually use the product.
Context methods
Come to the user • Multiple data sources • Inductive and iterative analysis • Framing human behavior through a historical and cultural lens
Come to the user • Multiple data sources • Inductive and iterative analysis • Framing human behavior through a historical and cultural lens
Best Practices
Ethics (do no harm, integrity, honesty, and intent to improve systems) • Consent • Recognizing cognitive bias • Probing questions • Recognition of nonverbal cues
Ethics (do no harm, integrity, honesty, and intent to improve systems) • Consent • Recognizing cognitive bias • Probing questions • Recognition of nonverbal cues
Avoid
Leading • Judgement • Compounding questions
Leading • Judgement • Compounding questions
Journey Mapping to Understand Customer Needs
Post-discovery phases
Post-discovery phases
Insights gathered from qualitative research are packaged to reveal the detailed experiences of a user throughout their interaction with the product and beyond.
Usability Testing
Continuous use throughout products development phases
Observation of product in use by the real user in real-time or recorded—it is behavioral research. The goals for both quantitative (for statistics) and qualitative usability testing are to gather data on pain points and increase product usability. These different types call for different research methodologies.
Remote User Research
Anytime
Anytime
All UX research can be done remotely with the right tools, resolve, and skills. Being able to successfully conduct remote research can improve research outcomes since you are able to cost-effectively increase your geographic range of users, as well as amount of users, and work with them in the comfort of their own spaces.
Measuring UX and ROI
Bookend phases or periodically throughout products existence
Benchmarking the product is done by using quantitative data to determine UX value, and the goal is to show a tangible measure of the success of the product. UX benchmarking can be utilized to reveal ROI. ROI is numerical data of UX to reveal the summative overview of the product, and the goal is to determine the worth of the creation process of the product in relation to its overall value. ROI should be used as a directional tool that can help prioritize projects.
Anthropology Research Papers
Urban Political Ecology:
Ecology for the Anthropocene
Research Paper
Ecology for the Anthropocene
Research Paper
Urban political ecology can give us insights into how urban life can coexist with the effects of climate change by showing us who is most vulnerable, what we can do to mitigate the effects, and possibly how to live symbiotically with a forever-changing environment. I reviewed three articles that provide a detailed overview of this and how they relate to the current realities of the urban Anthropocene experience.
Intersectional Feminist Anthropologists:
Decolonizing Anthropology
Bibliographic Essay
Decolonizing Anthropology
Bibliographic Essay
To decolonize anthropology, works that come from an intersectional feminist perspective can lead the way because they address the patriarchy ingrained in societies as well as the cultural hegemony of neocolonial power structures.
