user research methods - Product Design · user research 1) Design an online survey to collect user input on your product topic. Your survey should ﬁrst determine how much the respondents

user research methods

assignment 2

second assignmentproduct illustrations

anna marie mitchell

ellie kestnerreis hendriksen

tiina otala

catherine nguyen

second assignmentmarket research emily chak

ellie kestner

jenna stellmack

xander thomas

anna aquino

second assignment2x2 ellie kestner audrey border

reis hendriksen catherine nguyen

second assignmentonline reviews

drew bartodziej

reis hendriksen

catherine nguyen

second assignmenttrend research

anna marie mitchell

drew bartodziej

second assignment10 ideas

jenna stellmack

abbas vajihi

asia posey

xander thomas

tabitha wong

focus groups interviews surveys observation persona building user testing

a snapshot of the market understand the demand/competition/trends

more quantitative + sales focus

literature review internet search

trade shows visiting points of sale

experts benchmarking

both are important and happen throughout design process for getting ideas, evaluating ideas, and refining ideas

ANTH 4035 Ethnographic Research Methods ANTH 4121 Business Anthropology

MKTG 3010 - Marketing Research

insights from actual/potential customer understand user behavior, needs, motivation more qualitative + needs focus

user researchmarket research

technology push

market pull

product

prompts

context problemneed, or opportunity

productor process

technology

problemneedopportunity

productprocessproduct

process technologytechnology

ethnographyobservation

ethnography (folk+write)documenting customs of individuals and cultures

design detective - finding hidden problems, needs, and opportunities

orscience of contextualization

experience, observe, ask

empathy ethnography

mirror neuronsmirror touch synesthesia

female brain is predominantly hard wired for empathy. the male brain is predominately hard wired for understanding and building systems - simon baron-cohen. the ability to imagine yourself in

someone else’s position and to intuit and feel what that person is feeling.

level 1 - ask

interviews

ethnographic tools

surveys

focus groups

level 1 - ask ethnographic tools

central tendency biasforced choicehigher point / higher meankeep it simple and objectiveopen ended questions: _____________________

Likert “lick-urt” scale

surveys

The more questions you ask, the less time your respondents spend, on average, answering each

question. - Survey Monkey, Brent Chudoba


surveys

• test the survey yourself and calculate the time it takes• limit the number of total questions and time (~10 Questions or <10 min)

• limit the number of open text questions• don’t combine questions • use consistent scales• incentives?

reducing survey fatigue If the survey is too long you will have a lower completion rate, but if it is too short, you will not have enough data.


surveyshow many people to survey?sample size calculation

from survey monkey sample size calculator

85M dog owners in US

people surveyed gives you a 95% confidence that the data represents the general population of dog owners

more is better

interviewsethnographic toolslevel 1 - ask encourage storiesno binary, yes/no questions

use open questions like:tell me about an experience you had with... tell me about the last time you...can you show me how you...can you walk me through how you...

be neutral

ethnographic tools

“so what don’t you like about opening pickle jars?”

objection! leading!

and loadedBiased

interviewslevel 1 - ask

interviewsethnographic toolslevel 1 - ask encourage storiesno binary, yes/no questions


be neutral

keep them talkingask why, why why

i don’t shave very often

the drain can’t handle hair

‘The ability to ask the right question is more than half the battle of finding the answer.’ - Thomas J. Watson

getting to the root of the problem may uncover opportunities

i don’t like shaving

why?

why?why?why?why?

it takes too much time

i have to clean up the hair in the sink

don’t want the hair down the drain

interviewsethnographic toolslevel 1 - ask

interviewsethnographic toolslevel 1 - ask

don’t be afraid of silencedon’t interrupt have backup questions

record with photosvoice recorder or video or ideally someone else taking notes

encourage storiesno binary, yes/no questions


be neutral


practice (with the IDEO Bootcamp)ethnographic toolsfind problems, opportunities, ideas

0 - partner, each person asking about packing their stuff for school today1 - interview 5 min (then switch) 2 - dig deeper 4 min (then switch) 3 - capture finds (needs and insights) - 5 min4 - define problem statement - 3 min

5 - generate a few alternative ideas - 5 min6 - share your ideas and get feedback - 5 min each7 - reflect and generate a new solution - 3 min

___ needs to ___ because ____

encourage storiesno binary, yes/no questions

use open questions like:what is your most memorable experience with..

tell me about an experience you had with... tell me about the last time you...

can you show me how you...can you walk me through how you...

be neutral


don’t be afraid of silencedon’t interrupt

have backup question

practice (with the IDEO Bootcamp)ethnographic toolsfind problems, opportunities, ideas

“I get frustrated cleaning the cutting board after i prep stuff” (why?) “because it doesn’t fit in my sink and so usually leave it messy and it gets sticky”

needs: clean, cut, prep, fit, relax, unstick

needs a way to: prep/cut food with less mess

clean cutting boards fit large items in her sink

unstick sticky stuff from cutting boardsrelax while cleaning

insights: it is difficult to clean cutting boards, people do not clean things outside of the sink, some people do not clean their cutting surfaces well, cleaning can be frustrating

Sally (a busy 35 year old mom who loves cooking for friends) because:some cutting boards can be difficult to clean not all cutting boards are easily cleaned in sinkspeople do not want to clean things outside of the sinksome people do not clean their cutting surfaces wellcleaning tasks can be frustrating

…needs a washing machine that uses less water……needs a washing machines that wastes less water……needs a washing machines that can clean without water…

‘The ability to ask the right question is more than half the battle of finding the answer.’ - Thomas J. Watson

…needs a sustainable way to maintain clean clothes…

ethnographic tools

solutions are no longer tied to the embodiment of a washing machine

people don’t need drills, they need holes in things

(un) focus groups

"They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products."- Jonathan Ive

ethnographic toolslevel 1 - ask

level 1 arguments

people don’t know what they want. they know what they know

ethnographic tools

radical technological innovation seldom emerges by chasing users. “if Ernesto Gismondi and his Artemide team had gone into people’s homes to take pictures of how they use lamps, change bulbs, and turn lights on and off, they would have found better ways of changing bulbs and switching lights on and off. That is useful but not when companies are investing in radical innovation of meaning. -verganti

most customers are good at comparing your current offerings with their current needs, but they are not so good at helping you plan for new-to-the world stuff - tom kelly

“for something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them” - Steve Jobs on the iMac

how the customer

explained it

what the customer

really needed

level 2: observeethnographic tools“stalking the user (legally)”

cultural probe

“go about, and constantly, as you go, observe, note and consider the circumstances and behavior of men... the actions of the bystanders who separate them or look on. and take note of them with slight strokes in a little book which you should always carry with you... for the forms, and positions of objects are so infinite that the memory is incapable of retaining them, wherefore keep these [sketches] as your guides and masters. - leonardo da vinci

ethnographic toolslevel 2: observeHeisenberg uncertainty principle

sensors interfere with what they are trying to sense

ethnographic toolslevel 2: observe

ethnographic toolslevel 2: observe

ethnographic toolslevel 2: observe success storiesOne day, the designers were watching an elderly woman sweep some coffee grounds off the kitchen floor. She got out her hand broom and carefully brushed the grounds into a dustpan. But then something interesting happened. After the woman was done sweeping, she wet a paper towel and wiped it over the linoleum, picking up the last bits of spilled coffee. Although everyone on the Continuum team had done the same thing countless times before, this particular piece of dirty paper led to a revelation. What the designers saw in that paper towel was the possibility of a disposable cleaning surface.

Lehrer, “Imagine: How Creativity Works.”

ethnographic toolslevel 2: observe success stories


IDEO kids toothbrush design


black and decker snake light


ethnographic toolslevel 3: experience

emersion day in the life

shadowingempathy toolsbe the customer

“bodystorming”

thinking in experiences level 3: (thinking about overall) experience

storyboarding

A storyboard is a series of panels that depict key scenes, actions, visuals, and annotations that define the highlights of a user experience.

ethnographic toolslevel 3: experience

solving the wrong problem

the oatmeal

ethnographic toolslevel 3: experience fail

think through the use experience with bodystorming, storyboarding, or actual use!

ethnographic toolslevel 3: experience fail

what problems to do you foresee?

quotes people said that were of interest?what did people like, dislike, want, not want?what behaviors and actions did you observe?

synthesize each cluster into an overall finding/insight

ethnographic toolsunpacking

assignment 3read ethnography primer and download Talking to Humans

user research

assignment 3user research1) Design an online survey to collect user input on your product topic. Your survey should first determine how

much the respondents know about your product. You should collect relevant (but not identifiable) demographic information. You should select a range of questions that provide fixed response, short answer, and open ended to have a variety of data to analyze. You can choose what questions to include, however, the ultimate goal is to uncover new insights, problems, and opportunities. Present your survey questions and the number of respondents. Present the quantitative data in graphs/diagrams and summarize the textual data in words. Highlight any interesting quotes from the responses.

2) Conduct three separate interviews with actual users of the product (don’t interview your housemates, your classmates, or your family). First design a set of interview questions. Document any activities or objects with photos. Take notes or recordings with notes later. Interviews should be longer than 30 minutes (need time to develop a connection and get quality stories), but also be mindful of time (no longer than 1 hour). Observe these people using the product in the actual setting and take notes and video or images. Present your interview questions, short summary of your interviewees, images from your usage observations/demonstrations, and 3-5 interesting quotes from each of the interviews.

3) Unpack the data from the survey questions, interviews, and observations together. Organize and present this user research visually and in an interesting manner.

4) List major insights and craft three problems/opportunity statements. Problem statements should be formatted in proposed style: “ ___ needs a way to ___ because ____” and are based on research from this assignment. Statements should not be solutions or ideas. The first blank can be a group and not an individual (e.g. “children need…”, “home cooks need…”, “people who have lots of shoes need…”).

5) Sketch new ideas. What are 5 obvious needs/product ideas/solutions based on your survey, interviews, observations? What 5 latent/non-obvious product ideas/solutions that you can extract for your research? Your problem statements should allow you to think outside of the current product embodiment. Maybe it’s not a physical thing at all! Present these ideas with sketches.

With photos: Ask permission. Remove identity if needed

assignment 3 outline/timeline due tomorrow at 10pm blog due 10/9peer review due 10/11

post title: user research

questions!

Documents

user research methods - Product Design · user research 1) Design an online survey to collect user input on your product topic. Your survey should ﬁrst determine how much the respondents