UX Academy COMPFEST 13 Camp 1: UX Research 101
COMPFEST 13, Jakarta — For the second time, Online User Experience Academy has zealously returned with a bang and it has returned with a brand new set of speakers, mentors, and participants who are no less than our previous Academy’s participants. The first camp officially commenced on August 21, 2021, to August 22, 2021. This camp and the following camps will be held virtually via Zoom. An exclusive number of 20 participants out of 820 have been chosen and divided into five groups beforehand by COMPFEST. Interested in what went down? Grab a snack and read on!
Day 1 — Design Thinking, User Interviews, and Usability Testing
The first of Camp 1 kicked off with warm welcomes from Trisetio Putra, Vice Project Officer of COMPFEST 13, Rezaldy Ahmad, Manager of COMPFEST 13’s Academy, and finally the Person in Charge for UX Academy, Fadiya Latifah. All three welcomed all the speakers, mentors, and participants of UX Academy and additionally expressed their gratitude for everyone’s fervor and enthusiasm for UX Academy.
After the warm welcomes, we dove straight into our first speaker session with Rezaldy Ahmad, a UI/UX Designer for Mekari. In this session, Ahmad went on to discuss an engaging topic on Planning a Research Design Thinking Methodology. Before proceeding to the topic Ahmad emphasized that it was important to ask “What do the users need? We can’t accept answers like ‘because we want to’ or ‘because it’s pretty like that’ or ‘it’s cool like that’”. Which led to the importance of Design Thinking.
There are five stages in Design Thinking; empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. “Design thinking is not always linear, it can jump from one stage to another,” Ahmad stated. Ahmad moved on to the topic of a Research Plan. The first thing that entails a Research Plan is a research background. A research brief is the product of the research background, which most importantly consists of details like specific questions to be answered and hypotheses to be validated.
Ahmad went on to discuss research questions, Amad stated that there were commonly two types of questions; qualitative and quantitative. Ahmad then moved on to explain user persona, user’s task, use cases, and user journeys. Ahmad advised that we shouldn’t focus on just design because designing is easy. He stated that we should focus on who is using our products. The less accessible and usable the product, the less valuable the product becomes.
The 5 stages of design thinking were then elaborated into great detail by Ahmad. The first, empathize, is to discard bias to avoid overthinking and over assumptions, discover weaknesses in our research, and uncover user needs that users themselves may not be aware of. The second stage, define, mainly comprises summarizing raw findings and finding insights, opportunity areas, and pain points. The third stage, ideate, is when you evaluate your ideas and create one or a small number of ideas to test in the prototype. The fourth stage, prototype, is divided into two types: a low fidelity mockup and a high-fidelity prototype. The last stage is to test the prototype scope out problems and evaluate its usability.
Ahmad ended his presentation by explaining the double diamond design process and the research tools currently used for research post and pre-pandemic. The speaker session ended with an enthusiastic run of QnA between the participants and Ahmad.
The next speaker session featured Zahra Aulial Ummah, a UX Researcher from Mekari. In this session, Zahra discussed User Interviews, Surveys, Usability Testing. Zahra firstly mentioned that good UX Research and design entails design that is in accordance with user behaviour and not how we wish for them to behave.
Firstly, Zahra went into further detail about the Double Diamond Design Process. She then went on to mention the four sources of research: users, existing data, competitors, and stakeholders. Aside from that she also explained the differences of qualitative and quantitative data from an objective standpoint as well as its difference in sample size, data collection, data analysis, and outcome.
Zahra then moved on to elaborate on the participants of user research and she mentioned that we should interview until you don’t learn much from new interviews. She also explained the actors on the scene which consisted of three main actors, the lead, observer, and the notetaker.
The process of research is divided into two parts, Zahra stated the preparation and the on-session. Zahra explained that the preparation involved preparation for questions, the participants for said research, equipment, and administration. During the on-session, Zahra stated that when asking questions, there is a tentative procedure to it. Zahra also explained that during the on-session we should observe and collect data. This can be accomplished by listening attentively, refrain from being pushy, and to take notes. Zahra then went to explain to the audience the differences she discovered while doing research during the pandemic. She clarified that there wasn’t much of a difference as opposed to working before the pandemic and that it only required an increased level of patience and diligence.
Zahra proceeded to the second portion of her presentation, surveys, which she explained as a method of collecting self-report data on users. She also explained when researchers should not use a survey and shared some tips on making a well brief and structured survey that users can fill out without any difficulty.
The audience was then introduced to the third and final portion of Zahra’s presentation, usability testing, which she defined as a method where you observe user behaviour when performing tasks, and observe the product’s usability. She also mentioned that it was important to note that we are not evaluating the person, we are evaluating the interface, the concept, the product. Zahra went on to discuss what type of questions that we hope to be answered during the testing, the number of participants they would need, and the format of the test. Zahra also explained the minimum core elements of UT’s which were the facilitators, tasks, and of course the participants. In the preparation stage of usability testing, the things that were essential to prepare were the materials and logistics Zahra stated. During the on-session, there were three steps: introduction, performing, and closing.
Zahra ended her presentation with a few tips on how to conduct a UT and proceeded to a QnA session where the participants bombarded Zahra with their eager questions.
The first day of Camp 1 resumed after a short break, participants and mentors gathered into the meeting conference in excitement of what’s to come next. The session started off with a short welcome and introduction for today’s mentors. There were five mentors in total: Aswin Prasetyo, a Product Designer at Pinhome and mentor of team B, Nadia Nabila Anjani, an Associate Product Designer at Pinhome and mentor of team D, Laksmi Pratiwi, a Product Designer at Pinhome and mentor of team C, Ramdhaidfitri Martmis, an Associate Product Researcher at Pinhome and mentor of team E, and lastly Arya Dharma Putra, a Product Researcher Associate at Pinhome and mentor of team A.
Before proceeding to the hands-on session, the committee explained that participants, along with their teammates and mentor, will be devising a research plan as well as creating a script for user interviews and usability testing. It was the perfect time for participants to apply what they’ve learned today! The hands-on was held for 130 minutes and was followed by a quick break.
UX Academy resumed for it’s final activity, team presentations. Each team was given six minutes to present the result of their discussion and an additional four minutes was given for other teams to ask questions or give feedback. Each and every team presented their work with great enthusiasm and was met with the same amount of enthusiasm from other teams in the form of insightful feedback and curious inquiries.
The first day of Camp 1 closes with a photo session and sweet goodbyes from the master of ceremonies. The second day was no less exciting and so read on to find out!
Day 2 — Manage Research Data, Personas, and Empathy Maps
The second day for UX Academy kicked off bright and early, the MCs called out on some participants to recall their experience yesterday. It wasn’t long before we moved on to the speaker session. The first speaker to start us off is Verrel Radhiman, a UX Researcher from Mekari. The topic he presented to the audience was on Managing Research Data. He starts off by explaining what Market and UX Research are and how they differ from each other. Market Research leans towards a quantitative quality by having a larger scale, whereas UX Research leans towards a qualitative quality by having a smaller scale. They both have different scopes of study, different questions, and different segmentations. He also press that neither one is unimportant and that they both contribute to a successful product.
Afterwards he explained the key activities of UX Research, starting from Discovery all the way to Maintenance and Growth. He also briefly touched on the design thinking process that was explained in greater detail by Rezaldy Ahmad yesterday in the first speaker session. Verrel then went into further detail on quantitative and qualitative data, going as far as to assess the differences between the two types of data from the differences in its goals, research method, and scope or sample.Verrel then went on to discuss the workflow of a researcher. He exclaimed that it was crucial to understand the problem.
Verrel then discussed the data journey that starts with research where raw data is conceived which is then analyzed and synthesized into a report. He explained the data retrieved from user interviews, usability testing, and data from surveys. By the end of his presentation, Verrel reiterated the importance of understanding the problem in order to widen our perspective. Verrel was not quite done yet, after his presentation, he asked the participants to fill out a short survey. When the participants were done filling the survey he demonstrated how he manages data with the data he received from the survey filled out by the participants. The speaker session ended with a quick QnA.
Next was the hands-on session. A new set of mentors were introduced, this time they came from Binar Academy. The mentors were: Almira Yasmine, a UI/UX Facilitator and mentor to team A, Satria Erlangga Gandjar, a UI/UX Facilitator and mentor to team B, Samuel Christian Silalahi, a UI/UX Facilitator and mentor to team C, Irfan Kurnia, a UI/UX Facilitator and mentor to team D, Yongky Harimurti, a UI/UX Facilitator and mentor to team E.
The participants were distributed to breakout rooms where the hands-on sessions prolonged for 70 minutes.
After the hands-on sessions, the participants were sent off on their lunch break and prayers. The second day continued with the second speaker session which featured not one, but two speakers, Hasya Pasaribu and Syahr Banu, who are both Associate Product Researchers from Pinhome. The topics they brought for the participants are Empathy Maps and Persona.
The speaker to start the speaker session was Hasya as she delved into the topic of Personas. She quoted Nielsen Norman Group who stated that, “A persona is a fictional, yet realistic description of a typical or target user of the product.” Hasya then went on to explain the segments of the user such as the user’s demography behavior, pain points, and their goals or needs. She also explained the different perspectives of persona, which are categorized into four perspectives: goal-directed perspective, role-based perspective, engaging perspective, and lastly, fictional perspective.
Hasya also shared insightful advice when creating personas. She advised the audience to not play pretend, to focus on the content, and to know what is needed. The second portion of the session was continued by Syahr who went into further detail about empathy maps. An empathy map is essentially a collaborative tool researchers can use to map out what the user says, does, thinks, and feels. Syahr then went on to display an example of an empathy map. She also went on to share common mistakes made in creating an empathy map and tips to make the process more concise and easier. Syahr pressed that, though the empathy map is a useful tool, researchers shouldn’t overthink when trying to map out an empathy map and to not focus too much on the quadrants. The objective is to gain as many ideas as we can. The speaker session ended with a long QnA session. Participants rained Syahr and Hasya with questions and they both answered with equal eagerness.
Another hands-on session was held for the participants, this time, participants received the opportunity to practice creating an empathy map. And as the last mentoring session for Camp 1 came to a close, so did the second day of Camp 1. UX Academy Camp 1 ended on a sweet note, with a quick photo session between the committee, mentors, and participants.
One-on-One with one of COMPFEST UX Academy’s mentors!
Shortly after the closing of UX Academy Day 2, we received the wonderful opportunity to talk and interview Samuel Christian Silalahi, UX Academy Day 2’s mentor for Team C and also as a UI/UX Facilitator from Binar Academy. To start off, we briefly discussed his experience when working as a UI/UX designer during the beginning of the pandemic. Samuel didn’t find a significant difference other than the fact that everything had to be done virtually and remotely, and so the challenges he faced were mostly during the adaptation phase in the beginning transitions into WFH life. And just like the rest of us, he also felt there was something simply lacking when he started working from home, but he feels extremely lucky that they can still maximize the tools they used.
He explained that now they can move on to a more virtual workspace, where they used to conventionally utilize sticky notes for ideas, notes, etc., now they are forced to use other tools to do those things. Samuel started off his career partaking in a role in the software engineering field. Whilst doing so, he was slowly building his UI/UX Profile. He also shared his struggles to find credible resources on UI/UX during his time when UI/UX was barely a known concept in the country. Samuel was glad when he was offered to be a mentor on UX Academy COMPFEST (and we were happy to have him too!). Samuel also appreciated how COMPFEST evolved from an event that used to hold IT contests, to a place of learning and education. And so now participants can not only compete, but they will also have the chance to learn.
We’d like to thank all the speakers, mentors, and participants who have participated in UX Academy COMPFEST 13. We hope your time at COMPFEST was a fun and memorable experience. We’ll see you next week at Camp 2!
There’s still more fun in store for you in the next series of events at COMPFEST! So stay to COMPFEST through our social media on Twitter @COMPFEST, our Instagram account @COMPFEST, and our site compfest.id. (Editorial Marketing/Alifah)
