Discovery, Research, and Testing Archives - Page 4 of 16

October 18, 2016 Discovery, Research, and Testing

Benchmark Your UX at All Costs

In the user experience (UX) industry, benchmarking is a practice that measures the usability of a website. Benchmarking helps the UX researcher understand the current state of the site so the team can attack problem areas and improve them. It is very difficult to fix or improve something when you don’t know what is wrong. Imagine taking your poorly-performing car to the mechanic and they ‘fix it’ without running any diagnostics or tests. They may change the spark plugs, rotate

10 Practical Tips for Increasing the Impact of Your Research Insights

Posted by Mike Katz

User experience (UX) researchers tasked with improving customer-facing products face many challenges on a daily basis—perhaps none more daunting than translating their research insights into positive change. This article presents 10 tips I have learned over the course of my career to help UX researchers increase the impact of their research insights in applied settings. These tips are intended primarily for in-house research teams, but they may apply to consultancies as well.

March 15, 2016 Design Principles / Discovery, Research, and Testing

When Words Are Not Enough

Posted by Daria Plutecka

The frequently-raised objection when it comes to quality research, UX research included, is that the conclusions are drawn based on the participants’ declarations. However, there exist some methods which allow one to grasp the real behaviors of participants, and they can be easily implemented into the research scenario. During exploratory research, the respondents are often unable to articulate their needs or opinions. In turn, when it comes to usability tests or satisfaction surveys, it very often happens that the respondents’

November 24, 2015 Discovery, Research, and Testing / Learning From Others / Process and Methods

User Research With Small Business Owners: Best Practices and Considerations

Posted by Chelsey Glasson

The majority of our work at Google has involved conducting user research with small business owners: the small guys that are typically defined by governmental organizations as having 100 or fewer employees, and that make up the majority of businesses worldwide. Given the many hurdles small businesses face, designing tools and services to help them succeed has been an immensely rewarding experience. That said, the experience has brought a long list of challenges, including those that come with small business

October 13, 2015 Discovery, Research, and Testing / Process and Methods

How to Determine When Customer Feedback Is Actionable

Posted by Naira Musallam

One of the riskiest assumptions for any new product or feature is that customers actually want it. Although product leaders can propose numerous ‘lean’ methodologies to experiment inexpensively with new concepts before fully engineering them, anything short of launching a product or feature and monitoring its performance over time in the market is, by definition, not 100% accurate. That leaves us with a dangerously wide spectrum of user research strategies, and an even wider range of opinions for determining when