Short Talks

In the final session of UXBristol 2017, five brave speakers took to the stage to deliver a short talk on the topic of their choice. Here are the highlights:

 

Can We Talk About Content and UX?

Sonja Jefferson
 

 
It is brilliant that we have seen many more mixed teams including content people and UX people working together. However, we are often not talking to each other and content is still last. There is more that we can do to work together better, including:

  • Understanding that we are in exactly the same game. UX is a philosophy, which is exactly where we come from as content strategies
  • We have so much in common – we have a naming problem, we’re research led and customer driven
  • We have to feel it to get it – UX agencies need to get their own content right and content strategists need to invite UXers to help them

Sonja invited anyone who would like to explore how content strategists and UXers can work together more effectively to get in touch!
 

Recruiting for VR and AR Research

Jess Lewes
 

 
One of the challenges we are facing is recruiting for VR and AR research. Jess shared three tips for recruiting for these projects:

1. It is difficult to recruit users where we have seen slower than previously expected market growth. Recruit potential users, including those using similar technologies, such as Pokemon Go

2. Screen based on tangible criteria, using open questions and multiple choice

3. Speak the same language

 

User Research: Holistic Profiling

Peter Yeomans
 

 
We use the Digital Inclusion scale, which is good, but has problems. This makes people anxious. If you want to get the best information out of people, you need to avoid making them anxious.

Peter feels that we should consider a more holistic approach to profiling which takes into account their anxieties, including their level of technophobia. Peter defined technophobia broadly, including people who are concerned about how their data is used, and suggested that this kind of profiling could be more valuable than just establishing if they can use a computer mouse!

 

Small Tests – How Much Can You Afford

Hannah Tempest
 

 
Is there a way we can embed usability tests without blowing the budget?

85% of usability issues are discovered in the first five sessions, which is a really useful statistic to use when convincing the people in control of the budget. However, if you don’t have much budget you can still embed usability testing without spending much money.

Hannah suggested tools including invision, proto.io, lookback.io, which can be accessed free (on personal or trial accounts) or for a very modest fee. She also suggested trading coffee for opinions. Just don’t be scared to go out and talk to people, and find someone to hate your work!

 

Ain’t Love the Sweetest Thing?

Matt Curry
 

 
Matt admits he is frequently wrong. In eCommerce there is a lot of finger wagging – people will email him daily to say he should be doing all sorts of things (usually buying their service). This is nonsense, but it gets you down.

Matt argued that UXers are essentially scientists – we are testing things and formulating hypotheses based on data. This means we cannot fail… unless we look for a silver bullet, hit a dead end, or do the same thing over and over again.

Matt shared four sure-fire ways to maybe do interesting stuff that could work possibly…

1. Focus on your core – look at your core user journey and optimise that.
2. Defy gravity – try weird stuff
3. Use the tools of the trade
4. Go back to nature