We conduct a lot of quantitative online research, both surveys and unmoderated UX studies. Much of the data we collect in these studies is from closed-ended questions or task-based questions with behavioral data (time, completion, and clicks). But just about any study we conduct also includes some open-ended response questions. Our research team then needs
The range of methods available to the researcher is one of the things that makes UX research such an interesting and effective field. The recently completed UXPA salary survey provides one of the more comprehensive pictures of the methods practitioners use. It contains data from over 1200 respondents from 37 countries collected in 2016. Similar
There’s a continued need to measure and improve the user experience. In principle, it’s easy to see the benefits of having qualified participants use an interface and measuring the experience to produce reliable metrics that can be benchmarked against. But in practice, a number of obstacles make it difficult: time, cost, finding qualified participants, and
There’s been a lot of buzz about design thinking. What it means, how to apply its principles, and even if it’s a new concept. While design thinking is usually applied to more scientific endeavors, scientific thinking can also benefit design. While it may be a less-trendy topic, a scientific approach to design is certainly effective.
It’s better to be approximately right than exactly wrong. A version of those words came from an 18th century author named Carveth Read in a book on logic and reasoning. The quote is often misappropriated to John Maynard Keynes, the more famous economist and early statistician. Despite the age of the quote and misappropriation, it’s
Your job title doesn’t have to be “researcher” or “statistician” to use data to drive design decisions. You can apply some best practices even when numbers aren’t your best friend. It’s actually easier when you’re a designer to enhance your skills with quantitative data than for statisticians to enhance their analytical skills with design principles.
How many jelly beans are in the jar? Your best guess is probably wrong. But if I were to ask a few hundred people their guesses and calculate the average, the average would turn out to be pretty accurate. Some guesses are in fact correct, but they are rare and you don’t know ahead of
It was another busy year on MeasuringU.com with 49 new articles, a new book and UX Bootcamp. In 2015, our articles were served up 2.3 million times to 900,000 visitors. Thank You! We covered topics including the essentials of usability testing, finding the right sample size, and better ways of measuring the customer experience. Here,
Despite improvements in search technology, most users still take a browse-first approach to finding products and information on websites. That makes navigation important, not only on websites but also in mobile apps, operating systems, and the various devices we interact with. Navigation remains an essential method to find products, information, and functions. If users can’t
Maybe you’ve seen the ketchup bottles. It’s been a popular meme on LinkedIn. The bottles are intended to be a clever way to explain the difference between UI (user interface) and UX (user experience). The classic bottle of ketchup is the user interface. The ketchup bottle introduced in 2002 with its characteristic inverted bottle and
