Real World Discovery Research
Emma Boulton at UX Brighton 2018
About this talk
Have you ever had to do discovery research with no budget and no user researchers? Or is your discovery process limited to stakeholder interviews and competitor research? The market research industry are constantly berated for relying on focus groups but the same criticism could be levelled at the UX industry’s go-to methodology - lab based usability testing. One to one interviews in a lab are a great research methodology to choose when you have a clearly defined solution and are iterating on it. What about when you’re shaping the problem space and defining which user needs to focus on?
In this talk, Emma Boulton shared examples of real world discovery research to inspire you to get out from behind your computer and open up your senses to the real world.
About Emma
Emma is a passionate advocate for the role of research within design. Her 18 years of experience have made her a trusted and entertaining voice on all aspects of UX research. Emma’s solid background of work at the BBC, at Monotype, and in other agency and client-side roles, gives her valuable, insightful perspectives that she loves to share.
Emma firmly believes in the need for high quality research, integrated within every aspect of the processes we create as teams of designers and other professionals.
Related reading
Books, research, ideas and people referenced in this talk.
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Projects and resources
- Explorer Belt03:39The talk uses the Scouts' Explorer Belt, a ten-day expedition through a country involving local people, as its metaphor for discovery research.
- Digital Transformation Agency11:08The talk quotes a DTA blog to distinguish discovery from validation and to argue for discovering new ways of working.
- Pilot Works14:04The talk cites Pilot Works' diary exercise for the University of Bristol as an example of a pre-task used in research.
- Dscout19:02The talk names Dscout as a platform that can support a recruited panel and diary-based research.
- Monotype24:15The talk describes Monotype as the company where the speaker developed a funnel framework for research.
Concepts
- Double Diamond23:39The talk shows the Double Diamond as a model that places discovery at the start of the design process.
- Discovery Kanban at Optimizely28:37The talk points to Optimizely's Discovery Kanban as a weekly process with stages for preparation, research, synthesis and socialization.
People
- Teresa Torres26:51The talk cites Teresa Torres's advocacy for continuous discovery through weekly customer conversations.
