This document provides guidance on user experience (UX) research and outlines an agenda for a UX workshop. It discusses turning business objectives into research objectives, identifying the right participants, and creating task lists for different types of UX tests. It also summarizes how appliance retailer AO.com conducted UX testing to identify points of friction, understand competitors, see how customers research purchases, and ultimately increase online sales and engagement while reducing customer support calls.

1. #users1st
Getting started
with UX research

2. • Introduction
• Getting started with UX research
• Extracting and sharing insights
• 3 things to remember
• UX clinic (optional)
Agenda

3. • Define goals
• Design a test
• Analysing it (with Laura)
During the
workshop you will:

4. • Turning Business Objectives into
Research Objectives
• Decrease the shopping cart abandonment rate ➔ Identify
the conversion killers during the end-to-end journeys,
focusing on the shopping cart as journey landmark.
From business to
users

5. The right number
of participants

6. • Panel segmentation
• Online Screener
• Private Panel
Do you have/use personas?
Who to test with

7. • They should set a scenario
• They should be completed by users within 20 minutes
Tasks

8. Tasks

9. “Start the screen recorder and click on the displayed link.
(Please make sure you follow every instruction and talk
through your experience while you provide us with your
opinions. Remember, we are testing the site, not you.)”
“This concludes our test, thank you for your participation.
You can now stop the screen recorder.”
Meta-tasks

10. Now I will show you task lists for 3 different test types:
• “How users search?” test
• Behavioural (open) end-to-end journey
• Directed test
Tasks

11. How users search?
1. Open a new browser window and search for at least two home
insurance quotes, as you normally would.
2. Compare them, and tell us, which one do you prefer, and why?
3. If they were exactly the same price, would that change your
preference?

12. Behavioural (Open) end-to-end journey
1. Without thinking too much, say what three words come to mind
about [airline name]?
2. What comes to your mind when you look at this page?
3. Would you give your credit card details if requested by this
page? (You will not have to during this test, but we are
interested if you would do so in real life.)
4. Where would you click first on this page?
5. Imagine that you have to fly to the United Kingdom in February
2015. Find a flight. (Spend no more then 5 minutes on this task.)
6. Book the flight. Proceed as far as you can, but stop before
entering payment details. (You can use fake data, if you are not
confortable with providing your personal details.)

13. 7. Book a hotel room for the duration of your stay in the UK.
(Choose a city you would genuinely want to visit.)
8. If you had a magic wand how would you improve our website?

14. Directed test
1. Without thinking too much, say what three words come to mind
about
2. Have you had any problems with *** in the past? If yes, how did
you solved it? Have you contacted the support by phone or used
the website to find a solution?
3. Imagine that you have ordered "Flowers in 3 Hours" from *** and
they were not delivered. You ordered them more then 3 hours
ago, before 3PM. How would you solve this problem. Try to
solve this problem, do as much as you can on our website, as
you normally would. (Spend no more then 5 minutes on this
task. Please tell us, if/when would you give up using the site and
call support.)

15. 5. Imagine that you have ordered two All Flower Bouquets and only
one of them arrived. Use http://***/contact-us to solve this
problem.
6. Open a new tab in your browser and enter http://***/contact-us
Imagine that now (totally unrelated to the previous orders) you
have ordered Pink Radiance Hand-tied Bouquet. They arrived,
but the pink Oriental lilies were in a terrible state, some petals
clearly missing or in a very rugged state. Try to solve this issue
using the contact form.
7. If you had a magic wand how would you improve our contact
form?

16. “Start the screen recorder and click on the displayed link.
(Please make sure you follow every instruction and talk
through your experience while you provide us with your
opinions. Remember, we are testing the site, not you.)”
“This concludes our test, thank you for your participation.
You can now stop the screen recorder.”
You are the new
conversion manager of
ao.com. Write a task list.

17. 1. What do you expect to buy in an online pharmacy. Do you prefer
online or offline pharmacies? Why? Which online pharmacy site
you visit most often, if any?
2. Enter this URL into your browser: http://goo.gl/*** What comes to
your mind when you look at this page?
3. Find a gift you would genuinely buy for your partner or a family
member. Add it to the shopping cart.
4. Use the search bar to find another gift. Add it to the shopping
cart.
5. Without using the search bar find a toothbrush for yourself. Add
it to the shopping cart.
6. Proceed to buy the remaining items, but please stop before
entering credit card details. Please comment on the delivery
options. Tell us what do you think what "Click & Collect" is, and
what do you think of it?

18. 7. Imagine that you went through the checkout, and the items have
arrived, but when you opened the toothbrush's packaging, you
have found out that it was broken. How would you return it? Do
as much as you can on our website. Please read our returns
policy and tell us how does that affect your confidence in
purchasing from the site.
8. Imagine that you went through the checkout, and the items have
arrived, but when you opened the toothbrush's packaging, you
have found out that it was broken. How would you return it? Do
as much as you can on our website. Please read our returns
policy and tell us how does that affect your confidence in
purchasing from the site.
9. If you had a magic wand how would you improve our website?

19. 10 rounds of testing with UK consumers, half of whom had bought white
goods online and half who had not.
Users were tasked with buying a white good online and started their
journey at one of three places:
• ao.com (to identify points of friction)
• a competitor site (to identify their strengths and weaknesses)
• a Google search (to see how people naturally research and buy white
goods).
What did
ao.com do?

20. • Increased online sales by 9.5%
• reduced calls to the customer support team by 33%
• increased online engagement with 11% growth in
customer reviews.
Did it work for
ao.com?

21. Exit question

22. We have:
• Defined goals
• Learned about panel segmentation
• Created a task-list for the tests
Summary