You do whatever you need to do in order to get users for a study, except that… don’t do that.
User research is important to any UX’ers process. Without understanding how humans would behave with your product/service, prototype, or even concept, you are no longer doing “UX.” As a UX person, you are supposed to eat, breathe, and dream with the user in mind.
But sometimes it’s not that simple. You could have little to no budget for incentivizing participants for research. If you are a student, getting participants for your study is especially arduous. You might be working on a portfolio for your initial projects, but need research to substantiate your designs. …
Psychological safety framework and a couple of exceptions
On November 15th, 2015, Google’s People Operations Organization published an internal study looking at the factors that influenced how their most successful teams operated. They interviewed over 200 employees and observed 250 attributes with more than 180 teams. They determined that psychological safety was the most important factor in achieving team cohesiveness and production.
The feeling of psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. It’s being allowed to show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status, or career. In teams that embody psychological safety, members feel accepted and…
Accidentally turning on the iPhone flashlight has become a common complaint.
You are walking down a city sidewalk, using Google Maps to find a friend’s new favorite spot. You’ve finally found the place, and you see your friend, looking at you weirdly. You realize as you twist your phone that the flashlight is on.
Something like this might have really happened to you if you have the iPhone, because it has to many other iPhone users.
So far, 488 iPhone users have reported the problem to Apple, asking the tech giant how to remove the fussy shortcut from the main screen entirely. If you don’t have this problem, you probably have…
How retrieving information from the internet would add undue burden to destitute individuals if it were not tied to advertising
You’re watching an engaging video on YouTube, when all of a sudden the screen blips black for a second and an advertisement appears. “Gah advertisements are the worst” you say, “So freaking annoying.” Being interrupted and having to view something unsolicited is always a pain. But what if it actually was for the common good that the digital advertisement industry existed?
When people are able to use Google search for free, it is often taken for granted. …
How a video game that seems to release new content every fortnight has grown to massive popularity
If you’ve played Fortnite for any serious amount of time, you know that Epic Games, Fortnite’s creators, releases new content for the game frequently. It’s usually in the form of a new item, a vaulted item that they added back, emotes, skins, music, or a new game mode. Fortnite is constantly being changed on many different fronts practically all the time.
53% of Fortnite’s user demographic is between the age of 10–25. Is the rapid iteration of new ideas what makes Fornite popular with younger audiences? Is it the funny dances? The catchy songs? The “thank the bus” feature? Is…
Why Old Vinsanity Could be a Good Pickup for the current 2019–2020 LAL
With the trade of Anthony Davis for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three first-round picks, the Lakers are running short on guards. The Lakers were never strong with their guards (if anything), especially on the 3-point shooting front in 2019. With Anthony Davis, they definitely have a talented big man who can score in a variety of different ways. But this still doesn’t remedy their lack of 3 point shooters, which is critical to Lebron’s play-style.
Vince carter exclusively shoots 3 which is indicative of Lebron’s drive-and-kick play style.
Vince carter averaged 4.2 3-point shot attempts per game while making about 39% of them in his 2018–2019 season as an Atlanta…
How Warren’s Plan to Breakup Amazon and Other Digital Marketplaces Might Be Economically Unfounded
One contention by Elizabeth Warren, a senator from Massachusetts and presidential candidate, is that a company shouldn’t be able to host a digital market platform, and also distribute or participate on that platform if they become too large.
These companies would be prohibited from owning both the platform utility and any participants on that platform. Platform utilities would be required to meet a standard of fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory dealing with users.-Elizabeth Warren
What would a consistent standard look like?
A company that has 25 billion or more revenue from a digital market place would be considered a “platform utility.” And a platform utility wouldn’t be able…
The Global Market is Hardly Dominated by Apple and Why That Matters for Monopoly Labeling
A monopoly is defined as a company that has total domination over the market and is the only seller of a product. In no shape or form does Apple have a total domination of a unique product. Despite this, Apple has come under fire for their App Store, which is currently being sued by a group of developers. There has also been a general call to break them up by politicians.
We live in a global economy. Worldwide, Apple only has 11.8% of the total smartphone market share. To suggest that their App Store is the only kind for developers…
Why a car based on software dramatically changes the automotive industry and margins
Businesses have to carefully price products, but it can be quite arduous. Furthermore, the strategy for making it so each unit of the product is as profitable as possible highly depends on the industry they belong to. How much revenue a business generates relative to the cost it takes to produce the goods that they sell is called a company’s profit margin. Certain industries, like airlines, don’t have high per unit margins. Meaning that per unit (customer), they don’t make a lot of money relative to what they put in. They need to sell a lot of flights in order…
A UX evaluation of the Tesla Model 3’s user interface, and how a quadrant based design could potentially improve usability
Elon Musk has integrated a digitally centered design approach to the automobile. Every ancillary action a car can perform will live inside the digital screen, located by the front-center of the interior. All of the physical controls of a normal traditional car: the radio, climate control, and other key features have been transformed from knobs to digital buttons (with the exception of the steering wheel interface). There’s a screen, akin to a tablet. The tablet’s interface is laid out pretty familiarly; with a navigational menu on the bottom, it has the appearance of a tablet application. …
Kristopher Saber
User Experience Researcher at Publicis Groupe. I like writing about business, technology, psychology and UX.
