Presented in Brisbane, September 2017

1. UX DESIGN RESEARCH
LUCIANA ALBUQUERQUE
presents
BRISBANE

2. INTRODUCTION
HI, I’M LU.
‣ Deloitte Digital: Allianz Global Assistance, National
Disability Insurance Agency, Civil Aviation Safety
Authority, Telstra, QSuper, Suncorp Labs, RACQ and
others.
‣ Before: Brazilian, Australian and Global Brands.
- TV and media, government, hotel/tourism,
pharmacy, gambling, finance, fashion brands, start
ups, etc.
‣ Master's in Arts (Design)
‣ Graduate Diploma in Usability, Information
Architecture and Interface
‣ Bachelor’s Degree in Communications Sciences
(major in creative advertising).
LUCIANA
ALBUQUERQUE
hi@lualbuquerque.com
/in/lualbuquerque
@lualbuquerque
@lualbuquerque
UX Design | Research | Strategy
I DESIGN STUFF
From public sector and banking, to Big Brother and The Voice.

3. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
AGENDA
• The basics
• Some common techniques
• The process
• Deliverables
• Activity
• Tips
• Q&A

4. INTRODUCTION TO
UX DESIGN RESEARCH

5. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
INTRODUCTION TO UX DESIGN RESEARCH
WHY DESIGNERS SHOULD DO RESEARCH?
‣ To create models (personas, workflows, etc).
‣ To understand user needs.
‣ To test our proposed solutions.
‣ To understand development constraints and opportunities.

6. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
WHEN DESIGNERS SHOULD DO RESEARCH?
INTRODUCTION TO UX DESIGN RESEARCH

7. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
BEFORE DESIGN
Adapted from the UX methodology guide book by UserTesting
Interviews
Contextual inquiry
Focus groups
Co-design workshops
1:1 user interviews
Competitive analysis
Benchmark studies
Card sorting
Tree testing
First click testing
Usability testing
Preference testing
Prototype testing
Usability testing
A/B testing
Benchmark studies
Diary studies
Heuristic Evaluations
Multichannel and
omnichannel studies
EXPLORE VALIDATE MEASURE
DURING DESIGN LIVE DESIGN
INTRODUCTION TO UX DESIGN RESEARCH
WHEN DESIGNERS SHOULD DO RESEARCH?

8. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
OUR FOCUS TODAY
INTRODUCTION TO UX DESIGN RESEARCH
Viability
DesirabilityFeasibility
Design
the business
the dev team the user

9. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
INTRODUCTION TO UX DESIGN RESEARCH
INSPIRATIONAL INFORMATIONAL
QUANTITATIVEQUALITATIVE
Deep insights,
less people.
QUALITATIVE METHODS VS QUANTITATIVE METHODS
Shallow insights,
more people.

10. QUALITATIVE UX
RESEARCH METHODS

11. DESIGN RESEARCH METHODS
1:1 INTERVIEW
▸ USEFUL TO
Understand needs, current
experience, ideation, pain points,
etc.
▸ TIP
Combine it with other techniques
like usability testing, card sorting,
etc.
Semi-structured / structured
individual interviews.

12. DESIGN RESEARCH METHODS
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
▸ USEFUL TO
Understand how users perform a
task (online or offline, digital or
not).
▸ TIP
Super insightful when you're trying
to mimic a offline task, in a online
environment.
Semi-structured interviews done in
context of use.

13. DESIGN RESEARCH METHODS
CARD SORTING
▸ USEFUL TO
Information architecture - test
labels, design navigations, etc.
▸ TIP
Have some blank cards so users
can add anything that may be
missing.
Technique used to understand how
people organise information.

14. DESIGN RESEARCH METHODS
CO-DESIGN / CO-CREATION
WORKSHOPS
▸ USEFUL TO
Understand expectations and
priorities; get different ideas.
▸ TIP
Get the most of it. Do brainstorm,
rapid prototyping, list the most
desired features, etc.
Get the design team, the stakeholders
and / or users to sketch the product.

15. DESIGN RESEARCH METHODS
USABILITY TESTING
Provide hypothetical scenarios and
tasks to test a product (or a
prototype).
▸ USEFUL TO
Understand workarounds and
unarticulated needs.
▸ TIP
Test soon and often.

16. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
TESTING WITH 5 PEOPLE LETS YOU
FIND ALMOST AS MANY USABILITY
PROBLEMS AS YOU'D FIND USING
MANY MORE TEST PARTICIPANTS.
Jacob Nielsen N/N Group (2000)

17. THE PROCESS
THE PROCESS

18. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
THE PROCESS
1. DEFINE AND SCOPE
2. PREPARATION
3. CONDUCTING AND OBSERVING
4. ANALYSING
5. COMMUNICATING INSIGHTS / RESULTS

19. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
THE PROCESS
1. DEFINE AND SCOPE
▸ What are you trying to understand?
▸ What's your hypothesis?
(especially for non-exploratory research)

20. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
THE PROCESS
2. PREPARATION
▸ Tasks
▸ Recruit users
▸ Mod guide / script
▸ Consent forms / NDA
▸ Pilot test

21. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
THE PROCESS
3. CONDUCTING AND OBSERVING
▸ Make the user comfortable
▸ Avoid leading questions
▸ Plan the data capturing (notes, quotes, voice
recording, screen recording, video, Eye tracking…)
▸ Watch body language
▸ Emotional and visual ‘listening’ (Doing vs Saying)

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THE PROCESS
4. ANALYSING
▸ Look for patterns
▸ Identify workarounds
▸ Answer your research question!

23. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
THE PROCESS
5. COMMUNICATING INSIGHTS / RESULTS
▸ Reports
▸ Diagrams
▸ Personas
▸ Journey mapping
▸ Lean Experiment Canvas
▸ User Flow
▸ etc

24. COMMUNICATING INSIGHTS

25. DELOITTE
DIGITAL

26. DELOITTE
DIGITAL

27. Credit: UXPin

28. DELOITTE
DIGITAL

29. DELOITTE
DIGITAL

30. DELOITTE
DIGITAL

31. DELOITTE
DIGITAL

33. YOUR TURN

34. BRIEFING

35. PLAYBACK

36. TIPS

37. USE QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE METHODS
Quantitative
the sweet spot
Qualitative
Example:
Cardsort + TreeJack
Interviews + Online questionnaire
Usability Testing + Remote Usability testing

38. SOME TOOLS

39. Testing room
Observers room
User’s face (webcam)
User’s screen
SET UP (USABILITY TESTING / USING SKYPE AND TWO MEETING ROOMS)
User
Interviewer
Observers

40. Q&A
Q&A

42. LTUX - Luciana Albuquerque
KEEP READING
BLOGS
NN Group
DesignKit.org (by IDEO)
UX Booth
UXdesign.cc
EBOOKS
A Complete Guide to User Testing Your Next Project from UserTesting
A Field Guide to User Research from Smashing Magazine
A Practical Guide to Statistics for Online Experiments from Optimizely
BOOKS
Card Sorting by Donna Spencer
Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights by Steve Portigal
Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug
The User Experience Team of One by Leah Buley
UX for Lean Startups By Laura Klein