Raitis Linde

Bringing user studies in form of a game

Wohoooo! First exam successfully finished, a lot of preparation, hours of user study evangelism and a lot of insights into importance of user studies into design and innovation. I understand more and more that role of designer is becoming more than just creating a beautiful wrap. It is also something about discovering a user need, smartly involving them in creation process and giving a soul to the concept that could be fulfilled.

I would like to share my ideas of how I imagine user studies brought into the team that is not familiar with such. Most of the insights came from our Participatory innovation project with Dimaps, but is not limited to it.

I have used this synopsis in exam presentation, and of course – this is not a complete scientific paper, just a guide for myself. The basic idea is to make studying users as a game (3rd poster) and building knowledge about them from the methods applied that would be made in attractive form.

In quick glance – it is important to challenge teams’ assumptions about users that at least I have met quite often. In my opinion these assumptions lower the motivation of conducting user studies. Of course, there always can be good guesses, but studying users I think is actually a safer way of making innovation that would be accepted on the market.

More about challenging these assumptions in a synopsis. That’s at least from my own experience

Youtube changes voting system

You probably have experienced brand new changes in user interface of Youtube. If not, you can opt-in there. In case, if you dislike it just opt-out.

First thing that i noticed – they have removed 5 star rating system and replaced it with a 2 rating system – like / dislike. Is the 2 rate system better? Well, generally it depends, but Youtube data shows that the 5 star rating system is not as effective as it could be, as most of people use marginal ratings – either 1 (dislike) or 5 (like).

For those, who are facing a decision of what kind of feedback solution use into web interfaces, Yahoo has a good library of those. But I am sure there is always a room for innovative user interface solutions solving a particular dilemma

Youtube angagement with users

It is possible to gather an interesting information by researching what happened in the past (looking back). However, many interesting things (innovation, improvements) happen by going forward into the unknown. It is interesting how Youtube engages with users online (and I am sure – offline as well). That includes posting on blog and listening at feedback (that includes republished articles at other places), providing platform for users to express their product ideas, roundtable discussions, one-on-one conversations with the community. Data from a support forum could be used as well.

I am thrilled to discover more and more channels in receiving user feedback both online and offline. However, such corporations as Google (and Youtube), Microsoft etc. has advantages in data available leading towards better data-driven decisions and innovations. For companies with limited resources offline qualitative research techniques (including provoking discussions with provotypes, engaging users in workshops, testing prototypes) could help better.

Testing Business Models and our findings

In this course we wanted to discover how can one integrate business thinking in a user-driven innovation process?

We were introduced with local company, who has made innovative daylight solution.  We ITPD students were merged with students from Innovation & Business studies. Our main task was to determine the market (Schools, Hotels, Hospitals etc.) where company should expect the largest ROI.

Project was organized in matrix type, so each of us were in both functional and project teams. I was in User Research and in the same time OEM teams. In UR team I was able to discuss and share methods for researching users. In OEM team I was able to discuss which companies to visit, what kind of information to get, which was expected to result in tangible business model which should provoke discussions between all stakeholders.

User Research Methods

In the beginning of the project the excitement was so high that I was willing to test all (known to me) UR methods.

Research tools [Elements of UX, p.51]:

• surveys
• interviews
• focus groups
• user tests
• field studies

Video tools

• usability testing
• scenario design
• ethnographic field studies

However, due to a lack of time and short meeting sessions between team members (we and I&B students had different time schedules) we spent most of the energy getting to consensus and deciding how a work should be done. This resulted in some overlays of our work. That should be kept in mind for the next projects, that clear, agreed roles and a strategy in the beginning is important

Tangible Business Model

And one more thing that I would do next time after we have consensus – making more research on company’s solution, so there would not be a need to ask simple questions for company about them in the middle of project.

So in the end we ended up with some interviews, daylight solution research and business model testing in the end. Some teams used Personas and Scenarious to present their ideas and users.

Our business model had a matrix structure as well and it showed how effective going into a specific market (Architects, Offices, Wellness centers etc.) would be if parameters of Customization, Visual Perception, Cost etc. would be changed.

You can get insight of our project in my Flickr “Business of Design” set. Or our course’s Flickr set.