The UX Life Chose Me Newsletter #43
May 2024
Is it just me or is 2024 really getting a move on?
This month I ponder pop up boxes before sharing a selection of helpful articles — two sides of AI anyone?
This months books is a controversial classic.
We’ve got a couple of UX based events, and as always finishing with something to hopefully make you smile (although not the dog leaping into piles of leaves that my husband suggested! Sorry)
I hope you enjoy it.
Penny
From the Editors Keyboard
Last month I got to do some face to face research!! Something I haven’t done for ages. Admittedly it was just some guerrilla testing in our office to do a quick sense check of some changes being made to one of our funnels.
Still, it was great to speak to people and watch what they were doing as they sat next to me. The thing that surprised me most was what happened when my calendar reminders for other meetings popped up.
We were using my laptop for these tests and as the tests were short and ad hoc, I’d just made the prototype big enough to fill the screen and left all my other programmes running behind it.
On a couple of the sessions an outlook reminder popped up to remind me of meetings happening in 15 mins, and without fail the participants instantly dismissed them.
Now that might just be how they deal with them on their computer (personally I like to snooze mine) but I think it might have more to do with the fact there are just so many pop ups in our world now, you can’t visit a site without a pop up asking you to subscribe to their newsletter!
In a different test last week I watched people dismiss without reading, the pop up checking they were eligible for the account they were trying to create and letting them know of the things they would need to complete the application.
It seems to me we’ve trained everyone using the internet to just close pop ups without reading them as most of them are rubbish.
Which also explains why we find it so hard to get important messages to our customers. Pop ups are closed instantly and banners are ignored as advertising.
Leaving us the question, how do we get important information to people who just scan pages now?
(In another recent test, I asked people to read letters confirming if they had received a refund or not for an issue, and even these people struggled to read the letter, only one A4 page, fully!)
I don’t think it’s a case that people don’t have the attention, I think it is more there is just so much they need to give their attention to, they can’t possibly give full attention to anything.
All big issues, and not really in our gift to fix. But I’m interested, are you seeing these sort of patterns too? And what do you make of them?
Interesting Stuff
How To Run UX Research Without Access To Users
Vitaly Friedman, November 2023, 5 min read
Do you find it hard to get access to your users? Then these tips are for you — great ideas on how to either gain access or find information from other means.
How To Measure UX Research Impact: A Multi-Level Framework
Karin den Bouwmeester, May 2023, 10 min read
What I like about this framework is that it gives you different levels to work with depending on what you are measuring. And it has a handy diagram.
No, AI User Research Is Not “Better Than Nothing” — It’s Much Worse
Pavel Samsonov, February 2024, 8 min read
I think Pavel makes some very good points here, linked to bigger issues overall. All the time business metrics value eyes on page, but don’t measure who those eyes belong to (Human or bot?) we’re just kidding ourselves.
Planning Research With Generative AI
Maria Rosala, April 2024, 10 min read
While testing with an AI seems all sorts of wrong, I don’t see the harm in using AI as a tool to help us build our tests. NNGroup give all the tips on how to do this.
Set The Research Aflame
Matthew Ovington, June 2015, 10 min read
I know this was written a while ago, and doesn’t touch on remote working, but I agree that getting your team and stakeholders excited about the research is the best way to keep it alive.
Navigating The World Of UX Research: What I Wish I Knew In Grad School
Thomas Stokes, March 2023, 12 min read
Anyone thinking about moving across to industry from grad school or academia should probably read this. Thomas has 5 good pieces of advice to follow.
What The Heck Is Going On With The UX Job Market?
Amy Santee, March 2024, 12 min read
This is a long read, filled with a lot of data. It really lays out what’s been happening. It does make you wonder if companies really understand how we can help them — maybe this is something we need to work on too?
Book of the Month
This months book is Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Bass R. Sunstein. If you haven’t already heard of this book I’d be surprised. Although there is some controversy around it, it is a great book to help understand human behaviour. You just need to use this knowledge for good rather than evil.
Events
Better Playtesting: Unlocking Confident Game Development With User Research
Ukie, 21 May 2024
If I had a day and a bit of spare cash I’d be tempted to sign up for this one. A workshop run by Steve Bromley, whose book I recommended in the newsletter a while back, this practical session looks super interesting.
UX Scotland
Software Acumen, 29–31 May 2024
While this 3 day conference covers all things UX, they have such a good mixture of talks and workshops you’re likely to find something to interest you.
And Finally
I love when this happens for the team or stakeholders I’m working with.
Seen something out in the wild you think other UX Researchers would be interested in or a new research related book perhaps? Send me the link and maybe I’ll include it in my next newsletter.
