While we’re at it, what is advanced research?
by Todd WilkensTotally independent of Dan, I was working on the a similar blog post for the Research day of the UX Intensive workshops. I haven’t had anyone tell me that what we discussed wasn’t really about research. But what I have had is a lot of inquiries about what methods are covered during the day. I am usually greeted with a with a look of surprise (and sometimes dismay) when I say “hardly any.” Let’s face it, there are thousands of methodological approaches one can take to research: quantitative, qualitative, contextual, lab, remote, etc. All of them have their uses depending on the nature of the research questions you need answered. Experienced researchers pick up or create new methods as the need arises. 99% of the writing and discussion about research is about methods, while data gathering actually accounts for at most 50% of the job, especially for senior research practitioners. So, I decided to cover a lot of the things that no one else is talking about but which are essential to making research effective.
The bulk of the workshop day is focused on strategies and approaches to research. We cover research planning, approaches to analysis (particularly interview transcripts), and making research effective in a design process (teams and deliverables stuff). The closest we get to methods are a section on “Creating, choosing, and mixing Methods” (not really about any specific methods) and a section on “The Art of Effective Interviewing,” which is applicable for pretty much any method that has you talking to people. I also have a bit of a theory section at the outset called “Understanding People as People.”
In the same spirit as Dan’s post, I’ll ask what other topics would you like to see covered in an advanced research day?
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July 3rd, 2007 at 2:36 am
Hey Todd, really enjoyed the day - thanks. Knowing what you want from a training course is pretty difficult, because we don’t know what we don’t know. Training courses that I like challenge my assumptions and knowledge and leave me feeling that I understand things that I didn’t understand when I walked in.
How that applies to user research - well a great advanced research day would give me new perspectives on people, behaviour, situations, relationships. Our ability to research the world around us is bounded by our understanding of it, so I’d love a day that expands my understanding of the world and even better - gives me the tools to argue why my clients and colleagues should care about this understanding. This seems like it’s an expansion of your understanding people as people section.
As for methods - I think you’re right, a one day advanced course isn’t the place to cover methods because to cover advanced topics in any method probably requires a good few hours that would exclude and bore the non-practitioners in the audience.
One other thing you mentioned in the course is secondary research - ie reading other research related to the project. I’d love some pointers on how to do this effectively, from researching, analysing, synthesising, and then applying to the problem at hand.