The most valuable takeaways from the book “Think like a UX Researcher”
Whether you are new to the field of UX research or have some experience, you may have come across the book “Think like a UX Researcher: How to Observe Users, Influence Design, and Shape Business” written by Travis and Hodgeson. This book serves as a valuable guide for practicing UX research in real life. In this article, I would like to share 3 valuable techniques and insights that I learned from the book. Implementing these techniques has helped me increase my working efficiency as a UX researcher, and I hope they will be helpful for you in your field of work as well.
Valuable technique 1: The “decision tree” used to interpret the problem severity level
I remember my first usability testing project where I collected and analyzed all the research data and generated design iteration insights. However, one question arose as to how I should define and decide which problems needed to be prioritized and solved first. Should it only depend on how many participants encountered a specific usability issue? Does a higher number of participants mean higher priority? Ultimately, I decided to use a severity rating standard with the frequency of occurrence as the sole criteria to rank the usability issues I found. I based this decision on an academic article that outlined how the author tackled this issue.
Later on, as I was reading “Think Like a UX Researcher,” I came across a diagram (shown below) that presented an efficient approach to defining problem severity. It involved asking three key questions: the impact of the problem, the number of users affected, and the likelihood of the problem recurring. By using this diagram, I was able to provide a more concise and clear ranking of the usability issues, enabling UX designers to take quicker action.
If you have just finished creating an affinity diagram and identified usability issues, the diagram mentioned above would help you determine which problems need to be prioritized and resolved by UX designers.
Valuable technique 2: Usage of “Screenshot forensics” for your research results
I believe most of us have encountered a situation like this: you’re in a meeting and initially, you focus on the content. However, as time passes, you begin to lose interest and your mind starts to wander. You are no longer paying attention to what the presenter is saying. This is a relatively common scenario, as scientific evidence shows that people can only stay completely focused on content for about 10 minutes.
So, how can you make your audience more engaged in your presentation of research findings? The book suggests taking a screenshot of each step in your task and complementing these screenshots with quotes from your users, your findings, usability problems, and design recommendations. By providing these screenshots, your research findings become more persuasive and the content becomes more understandable for your audience.
For example, in the most recent usability testing project I did for a non-profit organization, I showed screenshots of the usability tasks I assigned to the participant, along with their quotes and findings, during my presentation of the UX research findings to the team. (As shown below) This helped the audience better understand and engage with the presentation.
Using screenshots and combining images and words can help make your research presentation more engaging and increase your audience’s trust in your research data.
Valuable technique 3: “SCAMPER” methods for proposing design ideas
As UX researchers, we should acknowledge that UX designers and developers have already invested a lot of time and effort into the product, and it may be challenging to persuade them to take action if your proposed solution is too complex. The ‘SCAMPER’ method for proposing design solutions, mentioned in the book, provided me with an approach to fix usability issues relatively quickly.
“SCAMPER” stands for “substitute something; combine it with something else; adapt something to it; modify, magnify, or minify it; put it to some other use; eliminate something; reverse or rearrange it.” When developing design suggestions based on your research findings, referring to this guide and simplifying your solution can increase the likelihood of UX designers and developers considering your recommendations.
For example, if you find that your participants are ignoring certain components or functions in the interface, you could adapt the ‘Modify, Magnify, or Minify it’ approach by enlarging the component or changing its color to make it stand out.
I hope this article would be helpful for you and attract you to read the book “Think like a UX Researcher”
References:
Travis, D., & Hodgson, P. (2019). Think Like a UX Researcher: How to Observe Users, Influence Design, and Shape Business Strategy (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429430787
