I was having a chat with my lead designer at work today.
We recently conducted some user testing with sample users testing three alternative look and feels for a new web service we are building for a client.
These tests were done online via a questionnaire.
Whilst we constructed a report of this data for the client, I gave both the report as well as the raw data to the designer for her review.
In reviewing some amendments of the design today it was extremely interesting to here the designer refer to statements made by users (I hate that word!) with-in the testing data.
She verbatim quoted data from the tests when explaining her design rationale.
We talked a bit about this and she said that she was really excited to be given the raw data as it really informed her understanding of the research significantly more effectively than did the report/research analysis.
Just a note about this…..more fuel for my thinking about design and design research…..and feeding designers design knowledge.
I have been doing a lot of reading lately for my university literature review and have been thinking a lot about the relationship between user experience, design and research.
These are some rough notes which are influencing my current, and continually evolving thinking on this topic.
As my paper gets written, I will share more of my thoughts about these topics….
Some factors informing my current thinking about this topic include:
- Experience by definition is subjective
- A users experience is holistic
- Experience is always influenced by context
- You can not design for user experience without some kind of research
- In considering the user experience of ubiquitous devices context is incredible important but so is the recognition and consideration of the social dimension of a users experience – which is also a very dynamic thing
HENCE user experience is increasingly becoming a very complex thing to research!
ALSO
Research and design involve different ways of thinking.
How can we meld these two perspectives during idea-tion, and the design phase.
As an aside, when I refer to design I am referring to much more than the look and feel of the product.
I refer to the design and selection of features for inclusion, layout, information architecture, the workflow required by various features of the product, content relationships etc.
ANOTHER QUESTION: Research needs to inform design….
but can design also inform research?
Additionally, designers being associative thinkers and usually quite visual, what are the best ways to communicate design research to designers?
These are a few of uni related questions on my mind…..
Jax Wechsler is a professional with 12 years digital experience. She is a proponent of user centered design methods and believes that the needs and motivations of your customers need to inform both design and strategic decisions.
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