User Research
It’s important to pay attention to what users do, not just what they say.
Affinity diagrams created at AgileMD and Trulia.
Affinity Diagrams
It all begins with a request, to understand something a user is doing, not doing, saying, requesting or just a curiosity that leads to interviews. Synthesizing all that interview data can be tedious and long, but affinity diagrams make it fun and insightful. Affinity diagrams are the foundation to other artifacts such as task models (to the right), user journeys, needs diagrams, lifecycle diagrams, and more. They are an essential tool for ethnographic researchers to master and I have used them several times.
Trulia task model (left) and AgileMD task model (right).
Task Models
Task models are a great way to understand what tasks your users may complete in order to reach their goals. They are often built from interviews, affinity diagrams, surveys, or other ethnographic research. They can really help folks understand the full landscape of their product and, as I have used them in the past, aid in finding focus through prioritization.
Personas I created, Trulia and AgileMD.
A lifecycle diagram from Trulia and user journey from Scoop.
Personas
Personas are a composition based on real data collected from multiple individuals, usually interviews (AgileMD) or by surveys (Trulia, Scoop). Personas add empathy to other research, data, and design. They provide meaningful archetypes which are used to help direct product design. For example, “How would Persona A or Persona B experience, react, or behave in this goal/feature context?”
User Lifecycle/Journey Diagrams
Above is an example of two types of user journey diagrams. User Journey diagrams help teams understand how the product is used or how a user completes tasks or goals. They help you make sure you’re creating product solutions and designs that solve user needs.
People predict other’s future behavior more accurately than their own.
Additional user research skills
Below is a list of user research skills I can bring to a company. If you’re not sure what some of these are, there’s a great article on UXBooth that covers user research, including a lot of these methodologies.
Usability research
Concept studies
Diary studies
User journeys
Task Modeling
Red Routes
A/B Testing
Surveys
User interviews
UX benchmarking
Card Sorting
UX Metrics Frameworks (SUS/SUPR-Q)