Yet another of the amazing Tutorials at UXPA2013 comes from Susan Mercer and Dan Berlin. In Research Methods Roulette, you’ll gain key insights into which UX research methods should be applied under which circumstances.
Interested in this tutorial? Register now! (As of this writing, there are still a few early bird slots left!)
And now, Susan and Dan:
What are your go-to methods for user research? If you’re like many of us, you rely heavily on interviews and moderated usability tests. But are those methods going to give you the information that you need? Or are there other methods out there that are better for your particular project?
Are you trying to uncover new insights into how prospective users perform certain tasks today? Contextual Inquiry might be a better method than interviews. Are you trying to understand the context in which customers use your mobile application for payments in retail environments? Ethnographic observation is likely a better method than in-lab moderated usability testing.
The key is to understand your project goals, and from that, you can pick the right research tool for the job. In our tutorial, Research Method Roulette, Susan Mercer and Dan Berlin of Mad*Pow will review different research techniques, discuss when they are applicable, and convey the best practices for conducting the different types of research.
In our full-day tutorial, we’ll cover various types of research methods – their pros, cons, and for what situations they’re best suited:
- Ethnography
- In-depth interviews
- Surveys
- Diary studies
- Contextual inquiry
- Collaging
- Card-sorting
- Focus groups
We’ll then take a deep dive into different types of usability studies:
- In-person, moderated
- Remote, moderated
- Asynchronous, unmoderated
- Desirability studies
- Eye-tracking and biometrics
But don’t worry – this won’t be a full day of boring lecture! We have several activities planned for attendees to select and plan their own research studies for different situations. This gives you a chance to put in action what you’ve learned and get some experience that you can take back to the office.
The final part of the tutorial will cover research best practices – all the things that will help turn a challenging project into a smooth-running one:
- Ethics
- Documentation
- Recruiting
- Client management
- Note taking
- Study moderation
- Qualitative and quantitative analysis
- Reporting
Our goal is to provide an information-packed tutorial to give new practitioners a head start in facing research projects, and to provide some new perspectives to more experienced practitioners. Most importantly, we want attendees to learn how to choose a research method for their project – no matter what the situation.
We hope to see you there!
