Dana Chisnell

Tag: planning

  • Crowd-sourced research: trusting a network of co-researchers

    Crowd-sourced research: trusting a network of co-researchers

    In the fall of 2012, I seized the opportunity to do some research I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Millions of users would be available and motivated to take part. But I needed to figure out how to do a very large study in a short time. By large, I’m talking about reviewing…

  • The importance of rehearsing

    Sports teams drill endlessly. They walk through plays, they run plays, they practice plays in scrimmages. They tweak and prompt in between drills and practice. And when the game happens, the ball just knows where to go. This seems like such an obvious thing, but we researchers often poo-poo dry runs and rehearsals. In big…

  • Involving older adults in design of the user experience: Inclusive design

    Despite the reality of differences due to aging, research has also shown that in many cases, we do not need a separate design for people who are age 50+. We need better design for everyone. Everyone performs better on web sites where the interaction matches users’ goals; where navigation and information are grouped well; where…

  • Researcher as director: scripts and stage direction

    For most teams, the moderator of user research sessions is the main researcher. Depending on the comfort level of the team, the moderator might be a different person from session to session in the same study. (I often will moderate the first few sessions of a study and then hand the moderating over to the…

  • Getting ready for sessions: Don’t forget…

    There are a bunch of things to do to get ready for any test besides designing the test and recruiting participants. make sure you know the design well enough to know what should happen as the participant uses it copy any materials you need for taking notes copy of all the forms and questionnaires for…

  • Where usability testing fits into your research strategy

    What, you don’t have a research strategy? Let’s think about the future here. It’s not uncommon – and not bad – to be working in the present, reacting to the ever-growing demand for usability testing in your organization. “Ever-growing” is good. But when Jared Spool asked me to do a podcast with him recently to…

  • The importance of rehearsal

    You have designed a study. Everyone seems to be buying in. Scheduling participants is working out and the mix looks good. What’s left to be done except just doing the sessions? Three things: Practice. Practice. Practice. There are three rounds of practice that I do before I do a “real” session. Jeez, I can hear…

  • Should you test in a lab or in the field?

    I haven’t been in a usability test lab for about a year. Ironically, since I was writing a book about usability testing, much of my work was field research to learn about particular audiences and their tasks. And, though my usual position about labs is that exploratory usability testing is probably better done in the…

  • Why create a test design?

    I get a lot of clients who are in a hurry. They get to a point in their product cycle that they’re supposed to have done some usability activity to exit the development phase they are in and now find they have to scramble to pull it together. How long can it take to arrange…