The UX Life Chose Me Newsletter #45
July 2024
Hello
Another month and another newsletter.
I always welcome feedback so if you have any thoughts on how I can improve the newsletter hit reply.
If you find the newsletter interesting or helpful, please do pass it on to your friends and colleagues. The more the merrier!
I hope you enjoy it.
Penny
From the Editors Keyboard
In the last couple of months I’ve been working on a lot more surveys than I normally would. It’s been a bit of a learning curve, but super interesting.
As I bounced ideas for one survey off our Insights Team it struck me that we approach them slightly differently.
The Insights Team sends surveys out to massive groups of customers on a very regular basis and are experts on writing clear concise questions.
I, on the other hand, tend to mostly write questions for interviews and usability tests, which might need to be changed to fit the conversation at any moment, and are often influenced by what past participants have told me.
The question which really stood out for me was around what values a customer would expect a business to be guided by and follow, to make their experience great. The Insight Team suggested I change this to ask them about a positive experience they have had with a business and what had made it so great.
On the surface that doesn’t look like much of a difference, and we know that getting people to base their answers on past experiences gives us much richer results. However, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve spoken with who just can’t think of a positive experience they’ve had with a business recently.
It seems that customer service is at an all time low — thanks AI, and people are fed up of being treated like cash cows without any sort of respect from the business they are dealing with.
Of course it’s pretty hard for someone to tell you this in a survey, but much easier when you speak to them.
In the end I framed the question that their answers could be based on a positive experience or on what they wished would happen.
The results are just in, so that’s what I’ll be working on this week…
Do you find your experiences talking to people affect your survey questions?
How do you deal with disagreement around questions, either in surveys or for test scripts?
Interesting Stuff
Want To Convey How Bad A User Experience Is? Talk About The User’s Emotion
Christopher K Wong, May 2024, 10 min read
I really love this article. Christopher says we need to talk about the emotions of our participants with stakeholders, but it’s more than that, it’s about really focusing on one participant and their issues which is much more likely to to get a result.
A Framework For Thinking About Team Memory, Joining Up And Serendipity In Hybrid Organisations
Emily Webber, May 2024, 5 min read
We all used to have our work on post-it notes on the office wall for everyone to see, but what happens when no one’s in the office anymore? How do we share now? Emily has a framework for us.
Influencing Product Strategy As A UX Researcher — A 3-Step Guide
Jack Holmes, June 2024, 9 min read
It’s pretty easy to convince the team if you build the thing wrong and need to fix some stuff after a usability test. But what if you find out you built the wrong thing? Jack has a 3 step process to help get the message accepted by the team.
Presenting UX Research And Design To Stakeholders: The Power Of Persuasion
Victor Yocco, June 2024, 25 min read
This is a very long read, but if you are finding it hard to effectively communicate your findings to your stakeholders and move the design forward then this would be the article for you.
Workshop Resources
Robbie Farrell, May 2024, 3 min read
This LinkedIn Post includes a mega list of all the resources, from planning to running, you might need if you are running workshops.
15 Digital Ethnography Tools For Remote UX Research
Lizzy Burnam, April 2022, 12 min read
So while this might have been written a while ago, I can’t really see digital ethnography going anywhere and this might get you started on a new method.
Building A Research Repository? Here’s What You Need To Know
Joseph Friedman, Feb 2023, 8 min read
Haven’t built your research repository yet? (maybe see our And Finally to work out why) Then this will help you ask the right questions to get started.
Book of the Month
This months book is Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres. Very much aimed at designers and product people I was a bit disappointed with it really. It was as if researchers didn’t exist with no mention of the fact we could help with writing better questions etc. I guess if you’re not sure where to start with continuous discovery it would be a good starting place but the basic message is ‘speak to your customers more often’. 🤔
Events
How To Responsibly Incorporate AI Into Our UX Practices
UX Research & Strategy, 11 July 2024
There isn’t that much information about this event and it might be based in Japan (so check your local timings) but the title seems very relevant right now.
Breaking Silos Between UXR, Data, Market Research And Other Insights Functions
uxinsight, 22 August 2024
This online session will explore how we can work closer with other insight roles — the possibilities and the challenges.
And Finally
This really resonated with me. How often have I found myself putting off starting something and thought myself lazy? But when you really get into it, its always one of the below stopping me.
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.
