The benefits to collecting metrics while user testing, even with a few users
Our team almost had to consider throwing out a portion of our quantitative user test because some of our users canceled on us.
We needed to look at Time-on-Task to answer one of our research questions. This meant we needed to have enough users to provide statistically significant comparisons.
How tagging your data results in an organized and insightful dataset
Learning to use metadata has made my research analysis process much more organized, insightful, and easier to do. It’s a small extra step you can do during user testing that can impact organizing and categorizing your research spreadsheets. …
How to validate your value proposition with your users
One of the most important lessons I learned about user research was rejection by an experienced IBM job interviewer.
He asked me a simple question: “How would you go about doing user research in a hospital setting if they rejected your plan for user testing?” …
Or: How to best use your time if your project isn’t being funded
Right now is when many UX practitioners, especially those in academia or government, are feeling lost.
The next fiscal year is around the corner, and sometimes that comes with the news that your project won’t be funded for the following year.
Sometimes it’s sudden; sometimes, you have weeks to process…
The problems that arise from most people not understanding statistics
You might be mistakenly talking about your user research findings like it’s a quantitative study, and you may not even realize it.
It’s not a mistake that you’re making out of malice, and it’s not even entirely your fault. …
How to signal that there’s more to the data than you can show
There’s an elegant solution to a visualization question I’ve had for a while, and it looks like a little red dot. Sometimes, due to space constraints, you might not show the entire story behind the data. This is when you consider using progressive disclosure through filtering actions.
Last week, I…
When is it worth spending time and effort on a complex visualization?
I probably formed a bias against interactive visualizations because I worked on a tough one when I started. One of my first projects as a Healthcare UX Designer was to re-design a dashboard. …
The alternative to bar charts that works well with complex data
Bar charts are used for nearly every situation, which means sometimes you’re struck by monstrosities like this:
How to visualize your observations during testing for easy summary, tracking, and prioritization
Few things are more depressing as a designer than creating something that people will not read or use. This is why, after a long day of user testing and debriefing, it can be a little disheartening to jump into compiling your usability findings.
Understanding the difference between 3 types of notetakers
I had a rude awakening the first time I moderated a UX debrief.
I had been a notetaker several times for user interviews, and each debrief afterward had run smoothly. But my first moderated debrief resulted in one person dominating the conversation and running out of time to talk about…
Kai Wong
6xTop writer in UX Design. UX, Data Viz and Data Science. Author of Persuading with Data: https://tinyurl.com/rndb9bw. Substack: dataanddesign.substack.com
