This document calls for rethinking traditional user research methods to better understand user behavior on the social web. It argues that (1) existing usability testing and other methods are outdated and don't capture how people use technology socially and contextually, (2) researchers don't know what they don't know so can't ask the right questions, and (3) new techniques are needed that combine field research and testing to understand relationships, networks and emergent behaviors online. The author advocates cultivating interdisciplinary "polymaths" and research designs focused on questions rather than templated studies.
17. Methods are not robust for understanding
context and relationships.
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18. Cultivate polymaths
Decision sciences Communication
Anthropology sciences
Psychologies Sociolinguistics
Behavioral economics Organizational behavior
Psychobiology Sociology
Social neuroscience Social networks
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19. The most successful user
research methods for SxD
combine field and testing
techniques
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20. Methods
Reviewing online profiles, connections in groups in
interviews
Stories of how you met
Multi-user sessions with people who have strong and
weak ties
Video diaries with retrospective review
Experience sampling with SMS
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29. Rethinking user
research
We’re not getting the answers we need.
Experimenting is limited because we’re
pressured to go to market.
We’re looking for things we know about, using
old fashioned tools.
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