What makes websites a strong channel for the company? Is it the visuals or what it does for its customers? As success is increasingly fought at the experience level, can design help you build websites that people truly value? And if so, how? This presentation is about good design discovery by way of effective User Experience research. It's a set of methods you can mix and match to truly understand who you're designing for, according to what the medium is and what your business needs. If you've ever wondered how to conduct good UX research or what's going on in that designer's mind (again), look no further. Presented at DrupalNorth Regional Summit (August 2018)

1. The Design Discovery
Jetpack
AN INTRODUCTION TO USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH
Jesse Emmanuel Rosario
USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCHER + DESIGNER
@jemrosario

2. FACT:
The first few days
of pretty much
any new project
is (typically) exciting

3. Dear Diary,
We had a great kickoff
meeting today!
The client is here.
The executives are excited.
The team is assembled and
ready to go.
I’m so excited I just can’t hide
it!
Mwahuggles,
Me

4. “We should do
UX research!
Discover the right
problem to solve!”
- Every UX designer alive…

5. only to
be met
with…
confusion

6. or
(worse)…
resistance!

7. Today, we’re going to talk about
Good Design Discovery
by way of
Effective User Experience Research

8. TODAY’S AGENDA:
• What is Design Discovery?
• The Design Discovery Jetpack
• Special Questions in Design Discovery
• Conclusion

9. Design Discovery is the first mile
in the design process.
This is where we understand the design problem
in order to table a strong, solid solution.

10. INITIAL
INSIGHT
SHIPPLAN
Understand
the market
Product
Strategy
Prototype
Ideation
Experience
Strategy
Customer
Empathy
Sketch
options
Test
prototypes
User
test
Build
Prototype
solutions
Flesh out
solution Refine
Definition
Strategy and plan,
a.k.a. “Build the right thing”
Execution
Working through tradeoffs to deliver
optimal solutions, a.k.a. “Build the thing right”
SOURCE: Org Design for Design Orgs (Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner, 2017)
Ideation
/ Generation
Definition
/ Requirem
ents
Iterative
design
Im
plem
entation
DESIGN MAKES STRATEGY CONCRETE DESIGN SUPPORTS DELIGHTFUL, ENGAGING EXPERIENCES
Analyze

11. So how do you conduct an
effective Discovery Phase?

12. “jetpack"
• The right set of
UX research methods
to get Discovery done
• Starts with the
design problem,
followed by methods
(and results)

13. DISCLAIMER
This process worked for me.
True, effective design
research is contingent on
the problem you’re trying
to solve. Mix and match
accordingly.
Also not an exhaustive list.

14. CLIENT-SIDE RESEARCH USER RESEARCH SYNTHESIS ACTIVITIES
communication brief
functional specification
design documentation
(e.g. wireframes, user flows,
prototypes, etc.)
research presentations
stakeholder interviews
competitive analysis
heuristic evaluation
primary and secondary research
analytics review
content audit (quant & qual)
scenario-driven personas
usability testing
card sorting
job stories
(and many, many, MANY more)

15. Typical Activities Include:
• stakeholder interviews
• competitive analysis
• heuristic evaluation
• primary and secondary research
• analytics review
• content audit (quantitative &
qualitative)
• metrics, metrics, metrics
1
Client-Side
Research
WHY DO IT?
Probe your project’s business
context so we know what to
optimize or design for with this
new product/service offering.

16. Typical Activities Include:
• scenario-driven personas
• usability testing
• card sorting
• tree testing
• job stories
• and many, many, MANY more
(add as needed).
2
User
Research
WHY DO IT?
Understand “the person behind
the screen”, i.e. the one who will be
interacting with your product
(in terms of needs, goals,
and job they really want done).

17. Typical Activities Include:
• communication brief
• functional specifications
• design documentation
(e.g. user flows, wireframes,
prototypes, etc.)
• research presentations
3
Synthesis
Activities
WHY DO IT?
Articulate your findings and
jumpstart the strategy process
(i.e. actually SOLVING the problem)

18. Information Architecture:
Card sorting, tree testing, etc.
UX Research:
Journey maps, Kano Model, storyboards,
diary studies, A/B testing, surveys,
System Usability Scale, etc.
Content Strategy:
Message architecture, content plan,
page tables, content style guides, etc.
Visual Design:
Moodboards, style tiles, branding basics,
colour schemes, typography, visual design
style guides, etc.
#
Add-on
Activities
WHY DO IT?
Some projects will need a specific
approach to truly understand it.
Mix and match methods that will
get your answer accordingly.

19. Special Questions
on Design Discovery
Or how to make the process your own.

20. • Ideal scenario:
Fit UX research and design
to the sprint schedule
(hypothesis, metrics, tests,
and all)
How does
Design Discovery
work for
Agile projects?

21. • PROBLEM:
UX research and design
becomes shoehorned into the
process, sacrificing the deep,
contextual thought needed in
the design process.
How does
Design Discovery
work for
Agile projects?

22. START!
FINISH!

23. Notice how UX Research only occupies Sprint 1? #lonely

24. “Agile is Not Easy for UX: (How to) Deal with It”
by Page Laubheimer (Nielsen Norman Group)
As a result, designers [in an agile process]
are under enormous pressure to create, test,
refine, and deliver their output unrealistically fast,
and with little of the context and big-picture
thinking that suits consistent, user-centered
designs.
“

25. • COMPROMISE:
“sprint zero”
upfront UX research and design
work to get the hard stuff out of
the way and devote the sprint
cycles on specific user stories.
How does
Design Discovery
work for
Agile projects?

26. • All client-side information used
to establish (business) context
• e.g. analytics, customer logs,
CRM info, service calls, etc.
“Data”

27. BEHAVIOURAL
ATTITUDINAL
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
Usability lab studiesWeb/mobile analytics Usability benchmarking
Remote user testing
Interviews/focus groups
Card sorting Surveys
True intent studies
Tree testing
Offline channels
From Vadim Tslaf (Director, Design & UX, Canada Post)Data Sources/UXR Methods at Canada Post

28. QUICK ASIDE:
Generative vs. Evaluative Research
Generative
Explore problem space and
learn about potential users
Evaluative
Validate/invalidate design
decisions and measure impact
TYPICALLY:
fresh builds, redesigns
TYPICALLY:
post-launch, continuous improvement
SOURCE: IBM Design

29. BEHAVIOURAL
ATTITUDINAL
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
Usability testingAnalytics Heuristic evaluation
Interviews
Card sorting
Personas
Competitive analysis
Service logs
Jem’s Own UX Practice (both in-house/consultant)
Field studies Scenario planning
Task analysis

30. • Pick research methods based
on where the project is and
what you really want to know
and why.
• Quant + Qual = Full Picture
“Data”

31. • Early and deliberately.
• Content and design teams have
a crucial responsibility to display
information that is not a barrier.
• Incorporate folks with a11y
needs very early on and
incorporate them in the design
process.
How do you
incorporate
accessibility into
the process?

32. • Quick design wins:
• WCAG 2.0 AA compliance
• Font size adjustments
• Effective colours + contrast ratios +
typography
• Keyboard navigation
• Closed captioning (and described
video) for ALL moving media
• Screen reader readable
• Explicit controls for all media
players
• Alt text for ALL visual assets
• Rethink that image slider, static PDF
• Familiar design patterns vs.
reinventing the wheel
How do you
incorporate
accessibility into
the process?

33. Here is a footer that has a
“beautiful” but unreadable menu…
wow
much clean
such beautiful!
very Dribbble-worthy!

34. I ran it by a Color Contrast Checker.
It failed.

35. • Two sides of the problem:
A timeline problem
A relevance problemThis “research”
thing is slowing
the $&#! down!

36. REALITY:
There is a huge chasm
between good UX research
and organizational strategy.

37. • PRO TIP:
Create the ‘Oh’ Moment
(when sharing UX research
findings)
Make that constant connection
between what you are doing
and how the company is
actually going to benefit.

38. • REALITY:
“Design is only as
‘human-centred’ as the
business model allows”
(Erika Hall, “Thinking in Triplicate”)
• We got to move from
human-centred design to
value-centred design if our goal
is to entrench strategic thinking
in the design of products and services.

39. IN BRIEF
• Design Discovery is the
first mile of the UX/product
design process.
• Used to understand
both customer and
business needs in order
to build the right thing.

40. if you only
have to
remember
one thing…

41. THANK YOU!
Jesse Emmanuel Rosario
@jemrosario
jem@jemrosario.com
http://jemrosario.com