User Research on the Train

Published from the train

I’ve started riding the train to and from work in 2016, and so far have found two key wins.

1. A train ride creates the opportunity to clear my head. The ride often turns into a mental blank space in between the need to be present at either work or home. When I arrive at either spot, I’ve had a break mentally I may not have had sitting in traffic.

2. It turns out that the train is a pretty great way to get a quick and dirty ‘on the ground' lens into how people are using mobile. The train *is* mobile.

Walking from one end of a train car to the other, you see 50+ devices, all pointed at something. News, Sports, Facebook, Twitter, chat, LinkedIn, YouTube, a blog, email and more.

You see how people accomplish what they want to do when they are jammed into a crowded space and moving.

Other quick observations so far:

• Seeing more games than I expected to see. Young people, old people, doesn’t matter.
• Everyone simultaneously runs X audio through headphones while they tap the phone. Playing music, podcasts, and doing calls. (You can hear them all if you are near that person. )
• Seeing more very long running chats than I expected - iOS, FB Messenger and others.
• Less Facebook than I expected.
• Lots of news reading- scanning articles. And man you better get people in a nanosecond- as they are out ASAP if you don’t get them.
• Kindles are maybe 5% of the devices I see. Maybe less.

Will update this post or write another as I see more. //cc: Xiaowen Zhang