This document discusses skills that linguistics graduates can transfer to careers in user research. It identifies 5 such skills: 1) field study methods, 2) understanding conversation with digital devices, 3) experience with voice user interfaces and voice analytics, 4) expertise in how language appears in digital products, and 5) focus on problem definition and intended audience. The document encourages applying linguistic knowledge beyond just language to fields like qualitative research, product design, and user testing.

1. 5 Things every user
researcher must know
Nancy Frishberg, Ph.D.
Research + Strategy
for BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists
August 31, 2017

2. Wisdom for Second Language
Learners
You already know a language? It will help learn
a 2nd language.
• You know how to questions, make requests,
comment and issue a command.
• You know how to take turns (conversation).
• You understand how to ask for clarification.
• You recognize emotion and perhaps intent
in spoken language (excitement, boredom,
exasperation, joy, sadness, anger, curiosity).
• And, many more useful things.
Joan Rubin taught me a lesson.
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 2

3. Wisdom for non-Academic Career
Seekers
How to take linguistics with you when you’re
heading off to
• Industry.
• Government.
• Non-profits.
Let’s identify 5 skills, techniques or knowledge
you already have that you can bring along to a
career in User Research.
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 3

4. Only 5 things?
Only 5 in this presentation.
Why?
To get to the discussion sooner.
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 4

5. Behavioral scientists bring value to the
enterprise by paying attention to humans
• Not limited to linguistics
• Also anthropology, sociology, psychology, behavioral economics
• Not limited to “scientists” either!
• Theater, journalism, languages, philosophy…
• Qualitative research is the topic
• Behavior is the primary domain for User Research
• Attitudes and demographics are also important, especially for market
research and forecasting
• With as much quantitative as you like
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 5

6. 1
Methods and skills that transfer, e.g. Field studies
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 6

7. Field work produces a lot of data
Preparing
• Know your biases and expectations
• Have a script
• Expect to diverge from your prepared
script
Collecting data
• Interviewing strangers
• Listening to new stories
• Context is important
Analysis
• Finding themes and patterns
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 7
The challenge of a field study is extracting
insights and trends across participants

8. Tricia Wang,
technology ethnographer
Wang was able to see trends in
Chinese youth’s fascination with
advertising for luxury items,
especially smart phones.
However her employer Nokia
wouldn’t accept her findings,
because they conflicted with their
Big Data.)
Where’s Noka now?
https://www.ted.com/talks/tricia_wang_the_human_insights
_missing_from_big_data#t-35220
(especially segment from 4:28-5:05)
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 8

9. 2
Interaction with digital devices as conversation
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 9

10. Conversations between machine & human
Grice’s Maxims for conversation
These maxims apply in the digital context also
1. Quantity: Be as informative as possible, but no more
2. Quality: Be truthful, giving no false or unsupported information
3. Relation: Be relevant and pertinent to the discussion
4. Manner: Be as clear, as brief and as orderly as possible; avoid
obscurity and ambiguity
Principle of reciprocity
Take turns; offer something in exchange for asking for something
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 10

11. ”Get started” frustrates
“She became increasingly frustrated as
the quiz continued asking questions
without providing any information in
return. If you want to attract users,
remember the reciprocity principle: Give
people the information they need before
asking them to answer multiple screens
of questions and share personal
information
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/get-started/ Get Started is a pattern that assumes all users are
here for the same reason.
Illustration from Splitwise.com
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 11

12. Steph Hay, head of
conversational design
A former journalist who
knows about conversation,
too.
She’s offering a workshop
about conversation with the
goal of training people to
design chat-bots.
Designing for conversational Uis
https://ui.uie.com/workshops/steph-hay
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 12

13. 3
Voice user interfaces (VUI) and voice analytics
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 13

14. Audio cues to human emotion and
Audio signifiers for voice interaction
Ex1: How to measure the
emotional content of a
conversation?
Paraphrased request to the design-user-
research@googlegroups.com
Ex2: Audio signifiers for voice
interaction are valid strategies for
expediting voice commands
• Guessing
• Implicit signifiers
• Sequential cues
• Progressive disclosure
especially for secondary or easily
reversible commands.
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/audio-signifiers-voice-
interaction/
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 14
What emotion recognition
software can we use to measure
(audio-only) emotion in a
sensitive healthcare situation
between patient and provider
discussing oncology results?

15. Amazon Echo
For example, when Amazon’s
Echo detects its wake word
while it is speaking, it pauses
its own speech to let the user
know that it is ‘listening’ for a
new command.
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 15

16. 4
Language shows up in digital product interfaces in many ways
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 16

17. Language is central to
the user experience
We know a lot about
• How to structure forms
• How to make instructions
that users can follow
• How to create content that
can be skimmed and still
be meaningful
• How to tell stories, in a
distinctive “tone and
voice” for each brand.
Ginny Redish advises
• use fewer words
• reduce ambiguity
• make it easy to skim and scan
• suited for web visitors.
Caroline Jarrett makes forms that
• are easier to fill in,
• gather the information needed
She supports testing to assure
you’ve met your goals.
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 17

18. 5
Problem definition and solution success includes intended audience
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 18

19. What problem are we trying to solve?
Has engineering or marketing run ahead
of its audience?
Can linguistics (or other liberal arts /
behavioral sciences) bring the human
back into the picture?
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 19

20. New Scientist June 2017
NewAtlas.com August 2017
3D-printable robot arm is a
sign language interpreter
Smithsonian.com Oct 2015
Case study: Devices for sign language
translation
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 20

21. Consider only the robotic arm example
Assumptions
• A direct path from fingerspelling to signing
- Ignores movement (spatial grammar) and
non-manual expression (facial grammar)
• 2-way communication can come later
- Deaf cannot use preferred language
• This function requires no decision-making
- Interpreters are automatons
• Non-engineers will be able to fix the device
- e.g., court personnel will troubleshoot
Robotics professor offers rationale
• Cheaper (than an interpreter)
o3D printing
oMotors for movement
oAnd thus, ubiquitous
• Fingerspelling is achievable first
• Proposed first application
oA court interpreter substitute
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 21

22. Recommended
reading
Angus Grieve-Smith’s
10 Reasons why sign-to-
speech is not going to be
practical any time soon
(April 2016)
https://grieve-smith.com/blog/2016/04/ten-
reasons-why-sign-to-speech-is-not-going-to-
be-practical-any-time-soon/
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 22

23. Acknowledgements
Thanks to
• Miriam Petruck, Suzanne
Wertheim, Anna Marie Trester
for the dry run in June, and
saying “yes” to face-to-face
meetings.
• ICSI for sharing space for the
meeting.
• Greg Bennett, Dick Oehrle, Sue
Steele for help in refining 5
things on the way here.
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 23

24. 5 more things
A bonus!

25. But wait! There’s more…
We’ve discussed how at least 5 skills
and kinds of knowledge you’ve
acquired in academia can be
repurposed for jobs – in industry,
government, non-profits.
Let’s consider what’s different and
what you might adjust in order to
succeed in business or other non-
academic endeavors.
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 25

26. u Different reward system
In academia
• At an R1 university, original research
and publications count. So do grants
and contracts.
• For adjuncts or those at a
community college, you’re too
busy teaching for research or
publishing.
• You publish in refereed journals.
• You’re used to recognition for
individual accomplishments.
In industry
• You’re likely to be rewarded for
releasing a product, especially a major
release.
• Patents are another form of IP, with
the potential for income. Learn about
them.
• Team efforts – collaboration - valued
as much as solo efforts.
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 26

27. v Oranges are not the only fruit
• Language is only one part the
communication system for products
and services. It shows up in
• Instructions/help text, Labels
• Content, Names
• L10n and i18n*
• Language is only one kind of data in
user research activities
• What people say is important
• What users call things is key to
understanding their mental
models
• Visual / graphical systems are powerful
influencers of behavior and recall
• Layout, white space
• Icons & buttons, imagery, color, font
• Sizes, shapes, textures
• Observing behavior is the key to user
research
• What people do and have done is
more important, than what they like
• The scent of information guides
action
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 27

28. w User research isn’t always about findings
• Goal? Generate buy-in from
stakeholders in advance of research
Socialize the findings in order to
implement the direction or changes
as indicated from the research.
• Your ability to make strong arguments
using data and evidence is useful in
persuading DM1 (aka HiPPO) to make
the right decision.
• Communicate using the system that
fits your team
Abandon the long-form report?
Use bug tracking system?
Interpretive dance?
Make sure your items get the right
prioritization to be on the schedule.
• Your measures of success?
Research results influence the
product roadmap
Business goals align with what
you’ve learned.
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 28

29. x Framing is key
• Academics and industry folks
have different jargons.
Use the appropriate terminology for
your business’s culture – speak to
your audience in their language.
• Use all the tools available to
signal and understand the
framing
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 29

30. y What’s the objective of research?
• You’ll be good at the literature search,
but it’s a miniscule part of the effort.
• Goal of research may be something
other than “determine accurate
results.”
• You can create cohesion.
Turn your fragmented or distracted
audience to a unified group.
• You can extract unmentioned
assumptions.
• You can understand the audience
better.
Have deeper impact and greater
perceived value.
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 30

31. Summary
• User Research is one avenue to
apply linguistics (and other
behavioral sciences) in industry.
• Linguists are already prepared to
contribute our skills, techniques
and knowledge to business,
government and non-profits
…as are many others with education
in humanities and social sciences.
Contact information:
Nancy Frishberg, PhD.
nancyf@fishbird.com
@nancyf
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 31

32. Addendum
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 32

33. Next steps
Participants responded to 3 prompts at the close of the meeting:
• Most important idea today
• One question remaining
• Next BAIL meeting topic
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 33

34. Most important idea from this meeting
• Test everything
• New to the workspace
• I have many skills that I can use as
a UXr
• Pausing with screen readers
• Fieldwork is widely applicable
• Interaction with digital devices is
like a conversation
• Tolerance for ambiguity
• Importance of humans as the
focus of industrial work/research
• Interest
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 34

35. One specific question that remains
• How to find clients?
• How do I get (an) in?
• Resources for linguists-turned-UX researchers
• How do I pitch my specific skills in a way that excites employers?
• Where should I be networking to meet UX folks?
• Do I need graphics skills (as seen in some job descriptions) to get a
job in the UX field? (If so, what?)
• How to avoid or manage academic tendencies?
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 35

36. Suggestions of topics for next BAIL meeting
• Chatbots
• Evolution of UX
• How linguistic tools can change
UX research
• Naming/branding
• Voice & Tone
• Storytelling
• Ethnographic research in product
lifecycle
• Phonetics & phonology in
industry
• Conversational interfaces
• Applying OT or other theories
• Career trajectories (of linguists in
industry)
To be determined from results of survey to the BAIL
mailing list, following up on the 8/31 meeting.
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 36

37. Track BAIL to learn what we’ll talk about next
… and where and when
• Google group:
https://groups.google.com/group/ba-industrial-linguists
• Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/BayAreaIndustrialLinguists/
Frishberg • User Research • BAIL – Bay Area Industrial Linguists 37