When I did my masters in Sociology in Copenhagen, I wasn’t aware of anything called UX (User Experience).
When I did my masters in Sociology in Copenhagen, I wasn’t aware of anything called UX (User Experience).
I count myself lucky, having worked in UX for 20 years, I still love what I do. How many people can say that about their job? I love that I am empowering others to make the world a better place through human centred design and I feel like I am making a difference in the world.
One thing the result of the recent Australian election result has shown us is that not all research methods are equal. None of the major opinion polls – Newspoll, Ipsos, Galaxy or Essential polls predicted a coalition win on a two-party preferred basis. People are now questioning what went wrong with the opinion polls as LNP returns to power in what looks like a majority government? Unless a significant number of voters changed their mind on the day (which is unlikely) questions are now being asked why the pre-election polls were so wrong. I have several theories all related to the research methods used and I think there are several lessons that apply to anyone conducting customer research.
One thing the result of the recent Australian election result has shown us is that not all research methods are equal. None of the major opinion polls – Newspoll, Ipsos, Galaxy or Essential polls predicted a coalition win on a two-party preferred basis. People are now questioning what went wrong with the opinion polls as LNP returns to power in what looks like a majority government? Unless a significant number of voters changed their mind on the day (which is unlikely) questions are now being asked why the pre-election polls were so wrong. I have several theories all related to the research methods used and I think there are several lessons that apply to anyone conducting customer research.
Chat platforms and apps like WhatsApp, Twitch, Discord, Slack, Messenger and SnapChat have already flooded the market, with continuous exponential growth across the globe. To date, WhatsApp (a mobile messaging app) alone has a whopping 1.5 billion monthly active users!
I am excited to announce Peak Usability has now been renamed PeakXD (short for Peak eXperience Design). Why?
When I started Peak Usability 15 years ago I actually named it UX consulting but no one knew what UX meant (User eXperience for those of you who don't work in the industry). Back then most people’s understanding of user centred design went as far as ‘usability’. And let’s face it, in 2003 there were a lot of really bad websites offering poor user experiences due largely to usability issues. User experience is so much more than usability and people understand that now.
Helping participants' complete tasks; tipping them off that they have made a mistake; giving them too much freedom or leading participants; these are all things inexperienced test moderators might find themselves doing when moderating a test session. This article explores some of the common mistakes and why they're damaging to the test outcomes presented through 5 Star Wars archetypes. Learn how to be a good test moderator and how to avoid being one of these 5 archetypes.
Content is one of the main touchpoints between the user and the business. It is a core and critical part of the user experience. Content strategy and UX share similar goals and challenges. Content strategy forms a foundation layer for UX activities, and UX activities (especially research and testing) serve to strengthen and improve content, thereby in turn improving the user experience. This article explores some of the key overlapping themes between UX and Content Strategy.
You’re probably all familiar with customer journey maps as a user research output and/or design tool. But their usefulness can also extend to the research process, especially when you are trying to understand user decision-making. That is, the journey map can be a useful visual tool for both participant and moderator in a one-on-one interview.
Journey maps can be used to map out users’ behaviour and delve into the beliefs, attitudes and emotions that underpin this behaviour. When coupled with some research techniques grounded in cognitive psychology, you have a very sound and rigorous approach to understanding your user’s decision-making.
As UX researchers, whether we are working on some early exploratory user research, or working on a quick and ‘lean’ usability testing project, due diligence in analysis is a necessary part of our trade. But have you ever experienced ‘paralysis by analysis’ or felt overwhelmed by the amount of data collected? You may have just spent a month conducting contextual enquiries with your user base, and now face the seemingly impossible task of pulling it all together. Or you may be working in an Agile / Lean UX environment and have just finished 4-6 test sessions and now need to quickly work out what the key insights are – due tomorrow. How do you get a handle on all this information and distil it into some meaningful insights?
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