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...