Does this sound familiar? You plan and execute the perfect research study. You gain insights that have huge impact for the product. The research findings touch not only workflow and design but suggest major business implications addressing questions your product manager has been asking for months—and some that she hasn’t even thought to ask. You craft a detailed, voluminous report that will most likely end up in the Smithsonian as an exceptional example of 21st century user experience research. However, there’s one critical problem…nobody reads it. Or, if someone does read part of it, they forget the main findings and their application to the product as soon as another email plops into their inbox. Why does this happen? What might you have done differently?
The Study
Our team recently concluded a field study examining a new platform component for managing online display advertising. Our goals were to define the strategy around the product, to learn more about the users, and to test preliminary design concepts.
Data collection took place in four countries and involved contextual observation, interviews, and an artifact walk-through. Participants were also asked to keep an incident diary to share their experiences with the new component. The study team included two UX researchers, an interaction designer, a product manager, and the lead engineer.
Our Idea
The field study produced a large number of insightful findings that we needed to communicate to our stakeholders. However, because we had not previously conducted fieldwork for these particular stakeholders, there was uncertainty surrounding the value and substance of the research. Additionally, we were unsure how the stakeholders processed information or utilized research findings. We also wished to promote and demonstrate the value of field studies to other organizations such as support, sales, product management, and engineering.
Fearful that we might end up writing a report that would get passed over, we decided to try the new idea of holding an expo where stakeholders could “experience” the research instead of reading about it. We imagined a large meeting room with a self-guided exhibition of posters, artifacts, and videos inviting stakeholders to learn about our results. We planned to conduct this expo for a full day, during which time the study team was available to discuss research findings and recommendations with the extended team.
Preparing the Expo
During the preparation phase, we brainstormed the contents of the expo and developed a “mind map” of findings. We recruited a designer who created visual representations
of our findings and helped us design several posters for the expo. Posters included:
- Study background
- What is a field study?
- Methodology
- Participant map
- Task workflow
- Participant quotes
- Themes with product implications (see Figure 1)
Representative artifacts gathered from participants were selected to showcase. Insightful entries from the incident diaries were also included. In addition, edited video clips from the study sessions were set up in viewing stations around the expo room.
A slide show was produced including the following topics:
- Research questions
- Process workflow
- Tools and systems users use
- Task matrix
- Top ten issues that mess up a process
- Players
- Who is the product for?
- Pictures of participants
- Artifacts
Promoting the Expo
Marketing and promotion were crucial to gaining visibility and attendance. Several days prior to the expo, we sent email invites to the direct and indirect stakeholders. We asked key engineering and product management directors to invite their teams. We hung invitation posters in elevators, mini-kitchens, and outside the expo room (see Figure 2). The day of the event, we sent two email reminders to all of our stakeholders: one in the morning and another in the afternoon.
We used a room with a glass wall and looped the videos and presentation to attract the attention of people who casually walked by. As word of the expo spread throughout the office, more people showed up to see what was happening.
Holding the Expo
We created a multimedia experience, and set up the room like a gallery exhibit, including video viewing stations (to watch select user clips), posters illustrating key findings and product implications, printed blog posts (incident journal entries), collected artifacts that people could pick up and discuss, and a slide show that ran in a continuous loop in the room (see Figure 3). During the expo, the researchers, product manager, and lead engineer answered questions about findings, encouraged discussions about the meaning of the findings, and shared our field study experience.
After the expo, we provided copies of the posters to the product manager, engineering director, and product management director. The following week, we gave presentations to those stakeholders who were unable to attend the expo.
The Website
Using all the content we had prepared for the expo, we created an internal website to be launched on the morning of the expo. The site served as a repository of artifacts, diary entries, videos, and notes from the study. This interactive “report” pretty much wrote itself thanks to all the expo preparation. The website was easily discoverable through the intranet search, provided an engaging presentation format, and directly linked the report to the project site.
Outcomes
The results from the expo exceeded our expectations. Approximately fifty people attended the expo, and over 100 visited the expo website. It’s highly doubtful that this many people would have taken the time to read a standard research report. Product managers, engineers, sales representatives, support staff, and UX researchers and designers visited the room throughout the day, watching video clips, discussing the artifacts, and intensely debating the study findings and their implications (see Figure 4). The research really came to life!
The chief benefits of holding an expo included creating a high level of engagement, rendering study results more memorable, raising the profile and impact of UX research, and increasing acceptance for field studies.
Reflecting on this effort, expo attendees still utilize findings and recommendations from this study, even a year after it was conducted, and our team members ask for more studies with similar deliverables.
Lessons Learned
The expo helped us to better appreciate the power of face-to-face interaction with our stakeholders. Facing so many tangible findings in an expo
setting made our stakeholders engage with the study results and recommendations.
We found that presenting findings via an expo “democratized” the experience because attendees were more willing to ask questions and engage with the material. This is less likely to happen during traditional report presentations, which are often dominated by lead product managers and one or two vocal participants. As a result, many more ideas were generated from a wider group of people.
- Additional lessons we learned include:
- Consider giving visitors something to take away (for example, handout of key findings).
- Promotion and marketing are key to a good turnout.
- Producing the materials for the expo (posters and slides) made writing the “report” (in other words, the expo site) relatively easy.
- It pays to include stakeholders as part of the study team.
- Having a great designer is necessary to create strong posters, presentations, and an inviting overall expo experience.
- Including a multimedia component was very conducive to engagement.
The recipe for an expo provided in this article may, like any recipe, be tweaked and adapted by the chef to match the nature of the research being reported and the stakeholders involved. The important point is that rich reporting is an improvement beyond the traditional written report leading to a more meaningful engagement among a wider variety of stakeholders.
Expo Ingredients
- 2 full time researchers, no interruptions!
- 1 motivated designer
- 1 engaged product manager
- 1 engaged engineer
- 5 days of preparation (including analysis)
- 1 excellent promotion plan
- 1 business services store to print 7 high-quality posters for $500
- 100 yards of painters’ tape to hang posters
- 2 extra laptops with headsets for video stations
- 1 conference room booked for a full day
- Wall space, glass wall
- 1 projector
- 1 video camera & tripod (we recorded the expo itself)
- 1 digital camera
- 1 sign-up sheet
- 2 audio speakers (for music to enhance the atmosphere
in the room) - 1 good music library
What if You are on a Tight Budget?
- Design a presentation (or two) and use a projector (or two) instead of printing posters.
- If you use posters, print them on plain paper instead of glossy paper.
- Create handmade collages.
- Use stock photos instead of a designer.
- Collect many artifacts and present them in the room.
- Shorten the duration of the expo; three hours may be sufficient.
用户体验研究人员可能会获得中肯的见解，从而对产品产生巨大影响。研究结果不仅触及特定工作流和设计的可用性，而且还承载了主要业务和设计建议，这些建议不仅回答了您产品经理数个月一直在问的问题，甚至还回答了她没想到的问题。研究人员决定像平常一样编写报告。但问题是没有人阅读报告。或者，如果确实有人在阅读研究报告，但他们收件箱中一旦有新邮件，就忘记了这些主要成果，以及如何将这些成果应用于产品中。
这篇文章建议使用一种不同的沟通工具，以帮助将您作为研究人员所获得的知识传递给利益相关者 – 可用性成果展览。展览是一个全日活动，利益相关者在这期间会“体验”研究成果，而不仅仅是阅读。展览室中提供有自导的海报、物品和视频展示。研究小组和直接利益相关者举办展览，并可与扩展团队一起阐述和讨论研究成果与建议。
这篇文章讨论举办展览的原因，确定组织展览所需准备的材料和举办的活动，建议宣传推广展览的方法，以及对作者举办展览所获得的成果和教训进行总结。
文章全文为英文版確かにユーザエクスペリエンスの研究者は、製品に多大なインパクトを与えるための洞察を得るだろうし、調査結果は、特定のワークフローやデザインのユーザビリティに関わるだけでなく、ビジネス、製品のデザインで、プロダクトマネジャーが何か月にもわたって明らかにしたかった問いに答えるばかりか、考えもしなかった問いにも答えるほど、大きな影響を与えるだろう。研究者は、いつものように、結果レポートを作成するわけだが、問題は誰もそれを読まないということだ。または、レポートの一部を読むだけで、何か次のメールが届いたとたんに気が逸れてしまい主要な調査結果や、どのように製品にその結果を応用すればいいのかを忘れてしまう。
この記事では、研究者が得た知識を関係者に伝達するのに有益なコミュニケーションツールとして、ユーザビリティ調査結を報告するためのエキスポを提唱している。このエキスポは終日のイベントで、関係者は結果を読むのではなく、結果を「体験」するというかたちを取る。エキスポの展示ルームにはセルフガイドのポスター展示、さまざまな展示品、ビデオなどが置かれる。調査チームと直接関係者がエキスポを主催し、調査結果を発表し、そこから推奨される事柄などをさらにメンバーを加えて討議するなど、さまざまな内容を組み込むことができる。
この記事では、エキスポを開催する意義について述べ、実際に開催するためにどのような下準備が必要かを指摘し、エキスポを宣伝する方法や、著者が実際に開催したエキスポの結果とそこから得た教訓をまとめている。
