From inspiration to action: What I learned at UXPA 2024
Things I learned about UXR and the UXPA community while attending my second UX conference in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Earlier this summer, I had the pleasure of attending the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) International conference in sunny Fort Lauderdale, FL. Continuing my tradition of writing reflections after attending conferences, I am excited to share with you all a few things I learned at UXPA 2024. The sessions I attended this year centered around up-skilling, UXR maturity and leadership and (of course) artificial intelligence.
You can read about my previous experience at UXPA 2022 here: https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/reflections-from-uxpa-2022-379f885b88f8.
#1 Exploring Innovative Methods and Visual Storytelling for Impact
As a UX Researcher, I am always looking for new methods to try. Most of my focus has been on methods that evaluate user attitudes and behavior and, admittedly, I have not done a lot of work looking toward the future. However, in Lauren Oliver’s UXPA keynote, I was inspired by the concept of Futures Thinking, defined below.
Lauren is a Growth and Strategy Lead at Accenture, and she guided conference attendees through methods that identify “preferred futures.” One Futures Thinking method that resonated with me was the “100 Ways Anything Can be Different” method by Jane McGonigal from the Institute for the Future. Try it for yourself!
Step 1: State 100 things that are true (e.g., list 100 facts about the role of a UX Researcher”)
Step 2: Flip it! Pick 3 and state the opposite
Step 3: Say what? Pick one and imagine a world where that could be true
Step 4: Reflect. How do you feel about that future? Write down one action to steer towards or away from that world
I thought this activity was a great way to get comfortable with the idea that the future can hold limitless possibilities. I recall one of the facts that was identified during the keynote was that “The UX researcher role is under-appreciated” and then having that idea flipped on its head in step two (e.g., “The UX researcher role is adequately appreciated”). This, of course, led to some chuckles and knowing looks around the room, however, I thought this method did a great job with necessitating teams to become comfortable with uncomfortable ideas. Although it may not seem so at times, we can imagine a world in the future where the UX Researcher role is adequately appreciated by organizations. What steps can we, as an organization, take to ensure that this is true in the future?
In addition to new methodology, I also attended JP Morgan Chase UX Researcher Sophia Timko’s talk on “Visual Storytelling for Research Impact”. UX Research presentations are often very text-heavy, making it challenging to convey key insights effectively; incorporating visuals makes it easier for stakeholders to retain and understand findings. For example, according to the Visual Teaching Alliance, 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text.
Sophia points out many models and frameworks that can be used to visualize data, depending on the kind of UX Research being conducted. Below are a few data visualizations that I am excited to try in my future work:
For foundational research, try a non-linear journey map. This visualization is best used when a journey is not cyclical and when connections are the most important aspect of the experience. Non-linear journey maps can help provide a more realistic view of the user experience, such as when users take unpredictable paths such as skipping steps or revisiting previous pages.
For strategy frameworks, try a service blueprint. This visualization is reminiscent of journey mapping but can be a better fit if you’re dealing with a complex system. The service blueprint visualizes the different service components — people, props (i.e., physical or digital evidence) and processes — that are directly tied to the touch-points in a specific customer journey.
For evaluative research, try a Sankey diagram. This visualization represents data flows, processes or sequences in a way that highlights connections. This method could be advantageous for your next project for its ability to visualize complex flows, highlight key pathways and drop-offs, and quantify user journeys.
#2 Advancing UX Research Strategy and Organizational Maturity
As I am progressing in my career, I have tried to not only learn more about tangible research methods, but to continue learning more about UXR strategy and organizational maturity as well. I had the opportunity to attend The W Team COO Guthrie Winschenk’s “UX Strategy Workshop” where we discussed strategy at different stages of an UXR organization.
In this workshop, attendees learned about the various deliverables, questions to ask, and takeaways at each stage of the UXR organization that helps in driving project strategy.
In another talk by Anne Joutsenvirta, a Principal UX Researcher from T-Mobile, she employs the “Magic Wand” method with leadership on a quarterly basis. With this method, the researcher asks a question like: If you had a magic wand, and you could do anything to improve the UXR Organization, what would you wish for?” I thought this was a brilliant way to get leadership from different functions (i.e, product, development, design, etc.) to articulate their needs for the UXR organization.
Lastly, on the topic of increasing UXR maturity, I attended Financial Protection Bureau Johnathan Rubin and Lorelei Kelly’s talk on successfully managing UX projects throughout project phases.
The team laid out the goals, strategies, tactics and pitfalls to avoid during each phase of project planning:
Johnathan and Lorelei introduced three tactics that were especially novel to me that I am excited to try on future projects: Prioritization Matrices, Team Charters and Closeout Checklists.
Prioritization matrices can help a team prioritize incoming work based on factors that are important to the organization (e.g., audience reach, impact, team alignment, and leadership priority).
Team charters can help team members align on working styles, logistics (e.g., upcoming PTO, working hours) and meeting cadences.
Closeout checklists can help researchers stay accountable for wrapping up the project after the final readout and ensure that documentation is logged for future preference.
#3 From Individual Contributor to Empowered Leader
Following UXR strategy, teams also need capable leadership to champion UXR. In Jenna Weiss’ talk “Learning to Lead: Transitioning from IC to a Leader,” she talks through the 5 skills that leaders could benefit from further developing, drawing from her experience transitioning from an Individual Contributor to Associate Director at Optum.
Building these skills helps promote trust in teams, an incredibly important concept as I learned in Kendall Wallace’s talk, “Creating Healthier Team Functionality and Product Alignment through Play.”
Kendall, Founder and Lead Facilitator at Executive Offsites, points out that many organizational issues are trust issues in disguise and that trust impacts speed and cost.
Companies with low-trust pay what is known as the “low-trust tax,” meaning that speed of work goes down, while costs go up. On the other hand, companies with high-trust experience “high-trust dividends,” meaning that speed of work goes up while costs go down. To put this in perspective, a 2002 study by Watson Wyatt Worldwide Inc. found that high-trust companies outperformed low-trust companies by 286%. Wallace’s company, Executive Offsites, help organizations to improve employee satisfaction, increase team cohesion and build trust though carefully planned team offsites and facilitation.
#4 Leveraging Generative AI in UX Research: Opportunities and Challenges
Lastly, since ChatGPT was launch in November 2022, artificial intelligence has remained a topic of discussion due to its potential to accelerate work through increased efficiency, enhanced decision-making and cost savings. In a study by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, Executives reported that they expect nearly half of the staff in their organizations to use GenAI to augment their daily tasks in the next year.
Jason Telner and Natalia Russi-Vigoya from IBM emphasized in their talk areas where GenAI may be able to accelerate UXR such as assisting with research preparation, analysis and reporting. In their interactive session, attendees provided prompts to various GenAI engines to see how each would fare with UXR analysis and reporting. A crucial point that I came away with was how vastly different the quality of outputs from GenAI engines can be. It was clear from our post-activity discussion that ChatGPT far exceeded the other GenAI models in the creation of user journeys and personas, offering a more comprehensive representation of target audiences.
Lastly, Claire Lauer, Danielle Story and Romit Soley from Arizona State University presented an interesting use of AI in UXR that I had not considered — using synthetic users (i.e., users completely generated by AI) to create vector personas.
There has already been literature in the past two years about using AI to augment persona development. In particular, AI can help:
- Provide us with exponentially more data
- Enhance efficiency and scale through automation
- Assist with collaboration, creativity, coherency
- Give researchers something to start with
However, the ASU researchers point out many issues of using GenAI for “interviewing” synthetic users and developing personas. Some areas to be cautious of when using AI for these use cases is that they tend to provide an idealistic or “perfect picture” individual. For example, in their research, the researchers found that when informing the persona of a realtor, the GenAI model can overstate the realtor’s knowledge. Additionally, as we have seen in the news, GenAI can also be inaccurate, as in the case of a lawyer who used ChatGPT in court and cited fake cases.
UX Researchers need to be cognizant of the pros and cons when using this technology. The ASU researchers provide a framework for developing vector personas using AI from first brainstorming interview questions to finally reviewing the personas with SMEs.
#5 UXPA (again) was a blast, and I can’t wait to come back!
My first time attending UXPA was in San Diego in 2022, and I am so excited to be able to make it back to this conference this year. The experience has been truly invigorating, reminding me of the incredible energy and innovation within the UX community. Connecting with passionate professionals and learning from their insights has been inspiring, and I am grateful to be part of such a supportive and dynamic community.
Theresa Nguyen is a Principal UX Researcher at Discover based in Austin, Texas. The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent Discover’s positions, strategies or opinions.
