A UX Researcher’s takeaways from BAD 2021

Last week a bunch of us from the UX & Design team at FanDuel attended the BAD (Behaviour & Design) Conference 2021. I found out about the conference last year and went on my own, so it was way more fun to have others to chat with this time!

I’ve put together all my highlights from the conference. Check them out and let me know what your highlights were!

Dr Jessica Cameron — UX Myth Busting: Behind the Science

Another amazing talk from Jessica. Jessica has been a big inspiration to me throughout my career. I first saw her speak at UX Scotland a few years ago, and have seen her speak again a few times since, always fusing her background in psychology with practical UX.

I learned through Jessica’s talk that, although people have a preference for how to consume content, be it in written, audio or video format, the style of the content does not actually affect how we process and learn information. These so-called learning styles don’t exist. Most people do learn more when perceiving something visually, but that’s all. Therefore, as UX practitioners we should follow the principles of content design, and make all content easy to understand.

At FanDuel, I work on the Content team and we’re currently investigating how providing short-form content will affect engagement, so this information was super relevant!

Dr David Evans — Is Frictionless Forgettable?

David’s talk about peaks and pits in experiences was by far the most talked-about session amongst me and my colleagues.

In UX, we tend to focus on removing friction from experiences. But when you look at some of the best experiences in the world, e.g. going to Disneyworld, you find that “pits” in the experience still exist — you have to stand in lines and wait all day, it’s hot and you get sweaty — but the experience is full of ‘peaks’ that turn it into an amazing memory.

FanDuel’s mission is to “create experiences that people can’t wait to share with their friends”. We spend most of our time identifying and attempting to solve our users’ pain points. What if we looked at our roadmaps and asked what we’re doing to create peak moments in our products instead?

David Dylan Thomas — That’s Great, But How Do I Convince My Boss?

Having heard David speak in a panel session that took place earlier in the conference, I was super excited for his talk — and it did not disappoint!

First, David pointed out that often people are rewarded for delivering projects within a certain timeframe. This means that we’re saying that a success metric for our project is time, when in reality, we should be rewarded based on the impact of that project on our users.

“What would happen if you got rewarded based on how much you learned?” This quote really stuck with me! As a researcher, my job is to learn and in turn, help my team learn. My aim should be to increase my company’s knowledge of our users, not to ensure things are built from my research. Sometimes the value is in making sure something isn’t built.

David also explained how to deal with risk-averse stakeholders. He played an interview with AOC where she advised not to force someone to change their mind within a conversation. Rather, we should let our words sit with them, and let them come back to us.

David then added that, instead of showing these types of stakeholders all the successes that could happen if we do something, we should instead show them what will happen if we don’t do anything. This resonated with me, as I recently made an Instagram post on UXR Snippets titled ‘UX Clairvoyance’ which followed the same idea!

Overall, BAD 2021 was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and I hope I’ll be able to attend again next year — maybe even in person this time. I’m looking out for the recordings to land in my inbox too, so I can catch up on some of the talks I missed!