A User Research Methods, Process and Overview Guide

Posted on August 17, 2018August 14, 2024 by Zack Naylor

What is User Research?

User research is the practice of understanding the people using a design, product or service. While there’s many methods and approaches to conducting user research one thing is universally true, user research is critical to making more informed design, product and feature decisions.

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 27 with Brianna Sylver on the Differences Between Market Research and User Research

Posted on August 7, 2018September 19, 2019 by Zack Naylor

Tags Market Research, Podcast, User Research

Listen to Episode 27 for highlights with Brianna Sylver including:

The difference between user research and market research
Using both market research and user research to build a better design strategy
Why market research may not be what you think it is
How and when you should think about doing user research more like a market researcher
Project mindset vs. product mindset
Tactical vs. strategic UX design

How to Create UX Research Nuggets like Polaris from WeWork

Posted on July 31, 2018August 14, 2024 by Zack Naylor

Doing user research and collecting customer feedback lands you with a whole lot of data. In fact it can be pretty tough for even the most senior designers, researchers and product managers to sort through it all…so imagine how hard it would be for stakeholders and other team members to figure out what we learned. Enter the “UX research nugget”.

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 26 with Jeffrey Zeldman on Web Design and Design Ethics

Posted on July 24, 2018September 19, 2019 by Zack Naylor

Tags Design Ethics, Podcast, Web Design

Episode 26 highlights with Jeffrey Zeldman:

How Jeffrey and the team at An Event Apart design the experience of the conference
The dangers in the seduction of building “cool” stuff as opposed to the things people need
What’s the difference between junior designers and senior designers?
Design ethics, mindfulness and inclusiveness in UX design and product management
How the web and design has changed since 1995

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 25 with Michelle Fitzpatrick on Product Management and User Research at Intercom

Posted on July 10, 2018September 19, 2019 by Zack Naylor

Tags Podcast, Product Management, User Research, Ux

Episode 25 highlights:

Product management at Intercom
Choosing the right problems to solve for your customers
What user research looks like at Intercom
How Michelle and the product team at Intercom chooses which projects to work on
Where does UX design start and Product Management end?

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 24 with Denise Jacobs on Creativity and Banishing Your Inner Critic

Posted on June 22, 2018September 19, 2019 by Zack Naylor

Tags Creativity, Podcast

Episode 24 Highlights:

What is creativity?
The concept of “flow” and its role in identifying and harnessing your creativity
Denise’s story of her very own zone of genius and how you can find yours
Dangers of burnout, how you got there, how to dig yourself out and also how to avoid it
Different types of motivation and what they have to do with your work
How making custom earrings helps Denise be a better writer and speaker
Using HALT to take care of yourself and foster your inner creativity

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 23 with Lindsey Redinger on User Research and ResearchOps

Posted on June 5, 2018September 19, 2019 by Zack Naylor

Tags Podcast, Research Ops, User Research

Episode 23 Highlights:

What is ResearchOps and how do you operationalize user research?
Making research accessible to everyone in the organization
How InVision documents and stores user research insights
Lindsey’s trick for helping all of InVision build empathy with their customers
Getting new employees at InVision up to speed with who their customers are as part of their new hire onboarding
How to get started in your ResearchOps practice or operationalizing user research and your company
Keeping individual projects aligned to broader company goals
How Lindsey and InVision uses the Jobs To Be Done framework to keep user research focused

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 22 with Peter Morville on Planning, User Research and Mindfulness

Posted on May 15, 2018September 19, 2019 by Zack Naylor

Tags Podcast, Product Management, Product Planning, User Research

Episode 22 highlights with Peter Morville:

Peter’s new book “Planning for Everything” and what led him to decide to write a book about planning
What we can learn from the U.S. Marines about planning better design and research projects
Peter’s framework of S.T.A.R.F.I.N.D.E.R and how to use it for better planning of your ux, design and research projects
How Agile development process can help…and hinder your design and software project planning
Are you OVER-planning? How to determine if you are and if so work at getting better at improvising
Tips for convincing your stakeholders to do (or do more) user research
Systems thinking and how it applies to UX design and product management
Ways to be more self-aware in the design, features and decisions we make in our work as UX designers, researchers and product managers

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 21 with Lou Rosenfeld on DesignOps, ResearchOps and UX

Posted on May 8, 2018September 19, 2019 by Zack Naylor

Tags Designops, Information Architecture, Podcast, Research Ops, Researchops, Ux

Episode 21 Highlights:

Lou’s background, the beginning of the internet and how UX/IA all started
The stories behind Lou meeting Tim Berners Lee and Larry Page
How Lou started Rosenfeld Media, the UX book publishing company
The story of the blind men and the elephant and how it applies to building a great user experience
DesignOps, ResearchOps and how Lou began major conferences around those topics
Lou’s advice for those of us working in large organizations doing UX design

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 15 with Indi Young discussing Empathy, User Research, Synthesis and Thinking Styles

Posted on May 3, 2018September 19, 2019 by Zack Naylor

Tags Podcast, User Research, Ux, Ux Research

Episode 15 highlights:

Non dominant thinking styles, diversity in product design and user research
Difference between problem space research and solutions research and why it matters
The concept of “thinking styles” in research and how to apply them in UX design
How machine learning and AI can create emergent experiences in the future
Different types of empathy (cognitive and emotional), what they are and how to use each one
A brilliant, tactical example of how to make sense of what you learn from user research