5 UX Researchers to Follow

Illustration by Laura Leavitt

At Mixed Methods, we’re always on the lookout for great content. How do you make a podcast without it?! This week we decided to highlight some of our Medium favorites that may be on the show (*fingers crossed*) this season.

1. Jan Chipchase — How to describe Jan Chipchase? Imagine Indiana Jones meets David Kelley…plus hand drawn illustrations, lots of ’em. As a researcher, Jan does not fail to teach, inspire, and push the boundaries of our conception of what it means to be a user researcher. Whether he’s crossing the Afghan border, designing speciality luggage for his expeditions, or raising over $330k on Kickstarter for a book about how he does it all, Jan is a guy you want to follow.
2. Jonathan Courtney — Along with being a self described “nerdy-looking Irish guy” and the co-founder of AJ&Smart, Jonathan is a bit of a contrarian and we like that about him. With titles like “User Research is Overrated,” he’s hard to ignore. So we’re embracing it and enjoying the insight he’s gained at AJ&Smart running hundreds of design sprints. It’s gone so well they’ve actually partnered with Jake Knapp to run a few design sprint bootcamps.
3. Matt Cooper-Wright — No list of who to follow would be complete without our token IDEO person. JK we just love the stuff Matt is putting out, particularly his collection on design research methods. For those interested in a deeper dive, we’d also recommend his case study on incorporating sensor data into an existing research practice. Sounds boring, but we’re researchers so, duh, it’s not.
4. Charles Liu — Sure, he hasn’t posted in awhile… Charles, if you’re listening, we want more! Anyway, the stuff that he has put up is gold. His practical how to’s on email recruiting, conducting usability tests, and presenting the results with research deliverables are some of our favorites.
5. John Saito — Do UX writers count as UX researchers? Well no, but John can still hang. His work at Dropbox has been a hybrid of writer and researcher and his tips on testing copy, internationalization, and justifying headcount feel very applicable.

Those are just a few of our favorites, but we want to hear from you. UX researchers — who are you reading on Medium and why? The comments section below is yours, we’re all ears!