Use These Frameworks To Make Your UX Research Results Stick

A diagram is worth a thousand bullet points.

When we present UX research, we want people to talk about it. We want our insights to stay relevant in our organizations for a long time. And we want our peers to share and build on those insights.

One powerful way to get there is to use a visual framework.

Consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This 1940s motivational theory, famously presented as a five-tier pyramid, has achieved pop-culture status. Few of us have actually read Maslow’s paper (I haven’t). But his five-tier chart of human needs is one of the most recognizable depictions of a psychological theory ever published.

Some researchers will tell you that the visual representation of the pyramid itself is one of the main reasons that Maslow’s work is still widely discussed over 75 years later. Presenting research in a visual structure helps it stick in people’s minds.

When I started as a UX Researcher at Microsoft, I delivered each study’s results as a list of bullets on PowerPoint slides. And after each presentation, my manager urged me to…