UX Field Research Basics

With the speed at which technology is changing, field research offers understanding into how products can impact the lives of your customers. Regardless if it’s your first or hundredth time, conducting field research is a daunting task. Planning and conducting field research is a juggling act between preparation, interview skills, and synthesis. In this talk, I’ll share some of the soft skills and key principles involved in any researcher’s toolkit and explore lessons learned from the three main stages of conducting field studies:



Stage 1: Planning and prep — Gathering good research data starts with proper planning. This includes everything from writing interview questions and developing an interview guide to recruiting participants and determining logistics.



Stage 2: Out in the field — Research can drain you both physically and mentally. I will introduce some tricks to keep your mind sharp, allowing you to give each session your focus.



Stage 3: Finding the patterns — The data resulting from field research grows quickly. I outline a few techniques for making the most out of limited time and managing mountains of information.

Speaker(s):
dafark8
About the Speaker(s):
David is a UX Designer living in Philadelphia, PA and has a passion for uncovering process and story through iterative client engagement. His experience includes work across a number of financial organizations, e-commerce platforms and a variety of business systems.



As a co-author of UX Research, with O’Reilly, David explore research techniques and approaches to collaboratively exploring product and business needs. Currently with EPAM, David embraces process and research as a tool to engage clients across all levels of a project. David is passionate about research and collaboration throughout project phases.



David has practiced improv theater for over a decade and most recently practices through classes at Philadelphia Improv Theater (PHIT) and with the Indy Improv Team Monkey Birds and The Flood. He has led a number of improvisation workshops including formal sessions and more BarCamp style workshops and is authoring Collaborative Improv: Building Better Products Through Improvisation.

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