#UXRConf Preview: Meet Shruti Ramiah
A Q&A with Shruti Ramiah of N26 where she shares insights into her talk in the Research Through Design track
The UXR Conference is quickly approaching and we couldn’t be more excited! 🤩 I had the chance to talk to Shruti Ramiah, Senior Lead Design Researcher at N26 about her upcoming talk at the UXR Conference, future UXR trends, and her favourite part of the research process. Check out her insights below! 👇
Could you tell us about yourself and how you got started with design research?
I am a designer-researcher. I studied communication and interaction design, and practiced design for a while. It was at IDEO where my skills as a researcher were recognized, and I switched my focus from interaction design to design research. On my first project, I was thrown in the deep end, doing research with neurologists and neurosurgeons, and as it turns out, I was good at it.
Looking back though, I can see the thread of research in all of my work. My bachelor thesis was somewhere between research and speculative design, exploring how people navigated visual self representation on social networks. At Nokia, I got my first taste of working on usability and user testing. At CIID, the frame was blown open and I was introduced to the whole gamut of research methods for human-centred design.
You never stop being a designer. But I’m really passionate about bringing people’s voices into the design process, and exploring how to do that well in different contexts.
I’m really passionate about bringing people’s voices into the design process, and exploring how to do that well in different contexts.
Can you share with us what your role is at N26?
I lead a growing team of researchers at N26 in Berlin. We are the first all-digital bank in Europe, and are now growing in the UK, launching in the US and Brazil soon. My role is to shape the discipline of User Research at N26, developing our people, processes and purpose. Our team is only a year old and in the exciting phase of exploring ways of working with teams across the organization.
What are some of the challenges of conducting research for a banking product used by people in so many different countries?
The biggest challenge is the tension between the universality of money and the specificity of different financial ecosystems. Different countries have different financial regulations, political situations that shape trust in institutions, and cultural conversations about money and wealth. Some cultures are great at saving, while others are more comfortable with credit. A global bank has to understand the fundamental relationships people have with money that are consistent, as well as the aspects that should be adapted and made more culturally specific.
Another challenge is that money is a really sensitive topic and our users’ trust in us is paramount. Since we’re completely digital, our product is the main touch point. We can’t be too experimental in our research approach; we can’t move fast and break things. You can imagine how unhappy people would be if they couldn’t make a transaction or see their bank balance all of a sudden.
This means that we’re very cautious with what we test live, it’s not a world where we A/B test everything. We do a lot more research upfront with prototypes and staging apps to collect a lot of feedback and gain a high level of confidence before we make changes that impact the experience.
What is your favourite part of the design research process?
This is so hard to answer: EVERYTHING! 🙌 The first part: conceptualizing research, is definitely something I love. I think of it as designing research. It’s all about figuring out smart ways to answer the right questions which will provide effective answers. We should apply creativity and an experimental mindset to how we do research. This is what my talk will be about.
I really enjoy speaking with people and seeing their homes and lives. It’s such a generous act, when people open up their lives to you. And it’s unendingly fascinating how we are all similar, and yet so different at the same time.
On the analytical side, I really enjoy synthesis. The researcher’s job isn’t to collect facts but to inspire people towards what happens next, towards what the possibilities are. Synthesis is so ambiguous and a lot of it is trial and error. When I teach design research, this is one of the hardest things to teach.
The researcher’s job isn’t to collect facts but to inspire people towards what happens next, towards what the possibilities are.
At the UXR Conference, you will be speaking at the Research Through Design track. Do you have any advice for designers who are interested in increasing the role of research in their design process?
Seeing research and design not as phases — which are done in separate chunks — but as a fluid, interwoven process. It’s about seeing how far you’re willing to stretch your hypotheses and when you’re reaching a breaking point, you know it’s a good time to do research.
Another piece of advice would be not seeing research as formulaic. There are of course certain best practices you should follow. But if you’re always testing to check if you’re right, you’re probably missing out on a lot of possibilities. Designers should explore diverging options and use research as a way to converge. When you take this approach, research becomes less about “am I right?” and more a way of informing and inspiring yourself.
Designers should explore diverging options and use research as a way to converge. When you take this approach, research becomes less about “am I right?” and instead a way of informing and inspiring yourself.
How do you see the role of design researchers changing in the next 5 years?
I think and I hope we’ll see more researchers in leadership positions. Until recently, research was in the supporting cast alongside design. In the last 8–10 years, we’ve seen design have a decision-making voice in organizations, and in the near future I believe research will too.
Companies like Airbnb are committing to and investing in research, and that translates to how loud the researchers’ voice can be in their organization. There are also rising design research leaders. Someone like Jan Chipchase is a great example of this. He’s a global celebrity, and his workshops are sold out all over the world. This just goes to show that there’s respect and an audience for design research.
What is the most exciting thing about the design research field right now?
For me, it is the growing sense of community, of peers and people to learn from and connect with. Design research used to be on the sidelines of the design conference. Now UXR Toronto is one of a growing number of great conferences focused on design research. And I love the amazing Slack communities — I learn so much from them. It’s great to be able to connect with people all over the globe.
Learn more about designing for research at Shruti’s talk “Design it wrong: How designing for research is different”.
Join Shruti at Strive: The 2019 UX Research Conference
📅 June 6–7
📍 Roy Thomson Hall, 60 Simcoe St, Toronto, ON, M5J 2H5
