user research

a common anthropometric fallacy

Anthropometric data can be tough to come by. This makes the numbers you do come by so tempting to implement. There they are; so precise and just waiting to be used to drive your design. Of course there are many concerns about those numbers. Are they representative of the population you are designing for? I [...]

Tagged as: anthropometry, human factors, statistics

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do-gooders are easy to research

I like nurses. They do Good (capital G) I spent a fair amount of time around nurses when my first son was born, and walked away with the impression that they are the glue of our medical system. Yet for some reason it seems that there isn’t a whole lot of innovation (i hate that [...]

Tagged as: data visualization, good, nursing, word clouds

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a quick thought on attention

I was going through my old bookmarks today and came across this short manifesto from Design Observer. I’ve written before on the true attention cost of things, but rereading the manifesto got me thinking a little further: Currently, we decide to bring things (be they artifacts or bits of information) by a simple ratio… utility/cost. [...]

Tagged as: attention

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what the news can teach you about user interviews

When doing user research, don’t ask leading questions.  By definition they encourage the questionee (not a word) to give you the answer you want. It can be nice getting what you want sometimes. But in this case you aren’t looking for the “answer” itself, you want know how the user feels. What are you relying on [...]

Tagged as: user research

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Thumbnail image for are attractive designs really more usable?

are attractive designs really more usable?

There has long been a precedent that users find attractive designs to be more usable. About a decade ago, a study  found that users perceive attractive ATM’s as more usable.  Recently, Rob Tannen noted a similar study on the effect aesthetics has on the perceived usability of cell phones. Now I’ve long since been sold on [...]

Tagged as: aesthetics, usability

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best practices in usability testing

Beth Loring wrote  a great post over at Farm on best practices in moderating usability tests. Her  webinar presentation below touches on bias in user research, how much to interact, and dealing with failure. It’s a solid, high-level resource on a topic that isn’t as well-represented on the interweb as I’d like, and definitely worth [...]

Tagged as: bias, moderating, usability

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Thumbnail image for is a secret bias blinding your research?

is a secret bias blinding your research?

If you are even remotely involved in user research, a hidden bias could be blinding you to the crucial insights that lead to breakthrough products and profits to match. Bias is nothing to be ashamed of, everyone (including researchers) has it.  In fact, the only group of  people that should be ashamed are the researchers [...]

Tagged as: bias, user research

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brainstorming in 109 words

Brainstorming can be seen as fluffy, even superfluous. Seeing engineers and designers make recommendations like “fill it up with helium to make it lighter” or “what about aerogel” can be a little frustrating (especially if you don’t believe in brainstorming AND are the one paying these engineers). But what’s happens after a (good) brainstorm is [...]

Tagged as: brainstorming

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