Research Heresies
Will Myddelton at UX Brighton 2018
About this talk
As user research has matured we’ve accumulated slogans and dogma about what it means to be a good researcher. At times these get in the way of helping our teams improve their services. Will shared some awkward truths - learned from bitter experience - that will help you escape the dogma and become a better user researcher.
About Will
Will Myddelton is a lead user researcher at the Home Office, where he helps a team of researchers improve the UK’s immigration services. Before that he worked at the UK’s Government Digital Service (GDS) on GOV.UK Notify and GOV.UK Pay.
Will has a background as a user-centred designer and is about to join a small charity called Local Welcome as a product manager. He previously worked at the design agencies cxpartners and Blue Latitude.
Related reading
Books, research, ideas and people referenced in this talk.
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People
- David Deutsch03:32The talk cites David Deutsch's view that knowledge advances through better explanations of data, facts and evidence.
Concepts
- Government design principles04:26The talk quotes the first government design principle, start with user needs, before discussing how it shapes research.
- User stories08:06The talk describes the As a, I need, so that format as a way teams try to make user needs uniform.
- Wardley Mapping16:11The talk uses Wardley maps to place capabilities from genesis through custom-built and product to commodity.
Projects and resources
- Government Digital Service05:01The talk describes joining GDS and trying to connect user needs to the research role.
- GOV.UK Service Manual user needs05:18The talk says the service manual and objectives in the GDS role framed the work around user needs.
