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Once you start talking to users, I guarantee you’ll be surprised by what they tell you.

When you let customers tell you what they’re after, they will often reveal amazing details about what they find valuable as well what they’re willing to pay for.
Paul Graham, “What Startups are Really Like”
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The problem with low-hanging fruit is that it grows back. Fixing major issues first is good, but having a longterm strategy is key.
http://twitter.com/AdaptivePath/status/4995553939

The ultimate ways to test your site

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[M]any of the most compelling usability test insights come not from the elements that are evaluated, but rather those not evaluated. They come from the almost unnoticeable moments when a user frowns at a button label, or obviously rates a task flow as easier than it appeared during completion, or claims to understand a concept while simultaneously misdefining it. The unintended conclusions—the peripheral insights—are often what feed a designer’s instincts most. Over time, testing sessions can strengthen a designer’s intuition so that she can spot troublesome design details with just a glance. Simply put, usability tests can provide huge insight into the patterns and nuances of human behavior.
From The Myth of Usability Testing by Robert Hoekman Jr.
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Track not only where in the user interface people get stuck, but also how much help they need to get unstuck. … [M]ost of us are paying attention to the happy path as the optimum success in a task, but then have to take lots of notes about any deviation from that path. If you look at what the success and error conditions are as you design a study, you can create a list to check off to make data gathering quicker and less taxing as you’re doing both that and moderating.
Easier data gathering: Techniques of the pros by Dana Chisnell

Joshua Porter on designing for social traction

Jesse James Garrett on the state of UX

How to make a research plan

Summary of Chapter 5, “The Research Plan,” from Observing the User Experience by Mike Kuniavsky


The research plan should specify: why you’re doing the research, when you’re going to do it, and how much it will cost.

To clarify your goals, you much know why you’re doing the research and how your results will be implemented.

Why you’re doing the research:
- Know your corporate priorities
- Understand your development processes

Make a list of how the product’s experiences affect company goals. Your research should not only be about the customer experience.

1. Collect issues and prioritize them as goals
2. Prioritize the goals
3. Rewrite the goals as questions to be answered

To collect issues, talk to every product stakeholder and ask them what their goals are. Remember that users are also stakeholder so take their goals into consideration, as well.

Prioritize the goals by which impact revenue most significantly.

Research methodologies should progress from the more general questions to the more specific ones.

Cluster the questions by what research methodology is most appropriate for answering them.

Break each methdology out, along with its proposed schedule and relevant question.

Each project should address short-term questions as well as longer-term questions that are fundamental to the product as a whole.

Create a grid of the different questions that are being addressed and the project that addresses them.

Also create a scheduling grid to display which projects are being planned and implemented each week.

Three roles of usability test moderators

Short summary of Moderating with Multiple Personalities: 3 Roles for Facilitating Usability Tests by Jared M. Spool. Originally published on Oct 14, 2009

Successful usability test moderators must take on three different personalities during the session.

Priority #1: The Flight Attendant Personality
The flight attendant personality watches out for the participant’s comfort and safety.

Priority #2: The Sportscaster Personality
The sportscaster narrates the session so that other people in the room understand what is happening.

Priority #3: The Scientist Personality
The scientist collects the data and helps the team analyze it.

The importance of UX research at Google

Excerpt from The secrets of Google’s design team by Oliver Lindberg

Google has always had the mantra of ‘focus on the user and all else will follow’, so the company puts a significant amount of effort into researching its users. In fact, Au estimates that 30 to 40 per cent of her 200-strong worldwide user experience team is compromised of user researchers.
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“We also use a variety of methods, whether it’s quantitative analysis, data mining or surveys, and do quite a bit of ethnographic work, too. While it’s easy to design for people like yourself, it’s hard to design for people in a totally different environment, so we’ve done field studies and rapid prototyping to better understand what their needs are and how they’re using the internet.”