Returning to in-person research: launching our best in-class user research lab
Lisa Kennedy explains how our brand-new research labs fill a gap that remote user research can never replace, whilst working as a Research Operations Specialist.
At the start of the pandemic, our ways of working in user research and interacting with customers shifted.
Remote working quickly became ‘the norm,’ propelling remote research.
This came with some real wins when running remote research, such as reduced costs for travel and hiring an external lab, faster recruitment, and reaching more participants quickly.
However, it also meant we missed out working with customers with accessibility needs, people with disabilities and people who are not naturally tech-savvy and who may be uncomfortable with remote research platforms.
When doing remote research, these users are not always represented within the recruitment pool. (I’ll go into more detail about this later).
My own experience in user research began from running remote sessions in 2021.
Interestingly, at the time, BT were in the process of launching their first user research lab — which opened in July 2022 in London (our Birmingham lab are set to open later this year).
This is when I joined the internal Research Lab Team made up of other user researchers and headed by our former Research Operations Manager, Kim Porter.
I began to understand the value of in-person research from a user, user researcher and design team perspective.
Value for our users
There’s value in both in-person and remote research.
There are many barriers to for people to be included digitally. NHS Digital have outlined what digital inclusion means, covering digital skills, connectivity and accessibility.
Solely focusing on remote research means potentially overlooking users who cannot be reached via digital means for whatever reason.
With our new in-house lab, a blended approach of remote and in-person research can bridge how we interact with a range of users.
In-person research sessions facilitate deeper engagement with our customers in real-time.
Compared with some remote tools, running research in the lab can allow us to overcome some of the technical limitations (such as the users’ internet connection or easily accessing external links to prototypes) as we are ‘in the room’ with the participants.
Pam Kalsi recently ran accessibility research and explained “in-person research also takes away the technical constraints that remote research has especially for those people who aren’t very tech savvy, which makes the research session less daunting for them”.
Value for user researchers
As a Research Operations Specialist, I was keen to hear how working in the lab has been for the User Research team and work through any pain points they found.
I caught up with Tom Smee, another researcher, who explained observing participants interactions, behaviours and facial expressions was much easier to do in-person than remotely.
An example: Knowing how someone uses their mobile phone to browse the internet is much easier to understand when you can actually see how they are using their phone (do they turn it landscape? Do they naturally swipe or tap?).
But when comparing the running of remote research and in-person research, Tom accepted that facilitation was identical.
However, the in-person sessions involved “more context, better conversations and more personality”. By building this personal experience with users by meeting them in-person, Tom could spot more nuances and recall their key insights.
Value for our design team
At BT, User Research is a team sport, which involves Content Designers, Product Designers, Service Designers, Developers, Product Owners and so many more people.
While all these people can engage with user research remotely, in-person research can encourage our wider design team to spend dedicated time with our customers.
Organising live ‘watch parties’ with our design colleagues is a great way to bring to life who we are designing services and products for, particularly for stakeholders who can be a step away from the research.
Getting user feedback is an essential component of iterative design. Regular observation and deep diving into user needs and pain points means our customers help us become better designers.
Understanding our customers’ needs can encompass both remote and in-person research.
Having access to an in-house lab allows researchers to develop a more personalised experience with a range of customers we may have missed had we only undertaken remote research.
And as a physical set up, the lab has modular furniture which can be designed to suit multiple environments.
This could involve setting up a ‘home’ environment for research on unboxing and installing hardware or a ‘gaming den’ for research on understanding the behaviours of a gamers.
What’s more, there are more moments for engagement between researchers and participants than during an online call — it feels less rushed, less transactional.
As the teams use the labs, keep an eye out for our in-person research outputs.
