Synthesizing user research can be a painstaking process. Your post-it notes are everywhere, you end up spending lots of time organizing them onto a board, and you rarely come back to revisit them.

Dave Ghent

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Built to Adapt

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3 min read

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Jul 13, 2015

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Here is a different approach to synthesis, with a digital tool most already know — Trello.

How to do it.

1. Set up a Trello board before your first interview. This can be considered your synth board for the entire set of interviews.
2. Label the first column “Users”, fill out each name, and attach a color label to them. Add any behaviors about this user you may already know.
3. Summarize your areas of focus at the top of each new column. If its an interaction test, each new column title can be “Page X”. If you’re at more of a generative stage, then each column could be titled “Stage X Behaviors”, and so on. These titles will likely change but its a good starting point.
4. Make everyone bring their laptop to the session. If the user in on site, have a driver, and one scribe in the room — and the others listening in from a screening room. More than one visible laptop could…