Usability and User Experience Research: How Much Do Words Matter?

Usability and User Experience Research: How Much Do Words Matter?

Author Info:- [ES] Co-fundadora de UsabilityChefs.com. Profesional con más de 10 años de experiencia en Internet (usabilidad y experiencia del usuario, e-commerce, SEO, optimización, web analytics). - Bachelor of Business Administration, Université Laval, Canadá. - Magister en Diseño Avanzado (MADA), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. [EN] UsabilityChefs.com Co-founder. 10 years experience in Internet and digital channels management (usability and user experience, e-commerce, SEO, optimization, web analytics). Bachelor of Business Administration, Université Laval, Canada. Master of Advanced Design (MADA), The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, PhD Student in Human Computer Interaction (HCI).

When you plan for user research, usability evaluation or user experience (UX) testing, using the right words to ask questions and define tasks is definitively something you should work on carefully. Many opportunities for research arise when you are about to launch a new product or feature of an app or a website. Testing usability and user experience enables you to gather feedback from users about the interface and interaction but also to better understand how people express themselves and the words they use to refer to “things”, situations, experiences. Common situations in User Research when words do matter   Asking questions in interviews In an open interview: ask questions that allow people to elaborate an idea, not to give you an exact answer, this is not a survey. Let´s say we are interviewing an e-commerce team about usability and UX research adoption in the company. We want to know what´s the team maturity level, their background, their expectancies, their challenges, the tools they use and so on. Ask: general questions that allow you to get the big picture: Tell me about your company. Tell me about your role in the team. what: What do you usually do as a part of a new project? how: How do you do this? where: Where do you get that information? Where do you see yourself in two years? when: When would you start looking for this? Don´t ask Would you buy this book if you see this banner?  This is definitively too specific and you are more willing to influence and suggest an answer rather than getting rich insights. To learn...
How to Convince Your Boss to Invest in Usability and User Experience

How to Convince Your Boss to Invest in Usability and User Experience

Author Info:- [ES] Co-fundadora de UsabilityChefs.com. Profesional con más de 10 años de experiencia en Internet (usabilidad y experiencia del usuario, e-commerce, SEO, optimización, web analytics). - Bachelor of Business Administration, Université Laval, Canadá. - Magister en Diseño Avanzado (MADA), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. [EN] UsabilityChefs.com Co-founder. 10 years experience in Internet and digital channels management (usability and user experience, e-commerce, SEO, optimization, web analytics). Bachelor of Business Administration, Université Laval, Canada. Master of Advanced Design (MADA), The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, PhD Student in Human Computer Interaction (HCI).

If you are trying to convince your boss (and your boss’s boss) to start testing, investing in a new metric tool or to redesign an interface, you are not alone. Does it sound like a daily routine question for you or a nightmare? Whatever it might be, you need to adopt some strategies to influence people in your organization to embrace usability and user experience (UX) in order to invest. It´s not only about pitching the benefits of user centered design and research and it´s not just about support and money. It’s about finding the way to get partners in the organization on board about investing in usability and UX. So here are some tips which will set you off to a good start. Start conversation from well-known KPIs: satisfaction, revenue, transactions Make people understand “why”, before even talking about “how”. Think in terms of overall results, the scope. Maybe UX, IA, heuristics or card sorting doesn’t sound very glamorous or comprehensive, but if you mention clients’ happiness, satisfaction KPIs, revenue, transactions or even SEO, you are more likely to be understood and they will listen to you. Finally, even if it is vital for you to know how you will get to these wonderful results, your boss will be more interested about the general overview. He probably has his own… Start the conversation from an emotional point of view. He´s a person too who is more likely to succeed in the organization if his leadership and his team´s effort together deliver good results. Start testing at a small cost or no cost at all Before asking your boss...