Skip to main content
25 1st St., Suite 104, Cambridge, MA 02141 | www.BioRAFT.com
User Research When You Can’t
Reach Your Users
Heather Bauer
Design 4 Drupal
Saturday, August 2, 2014 – 11:30
About Me: Heather Bauer
• Junior Usability Specialist at
BioRAFT
• M.S. Candidate in Human
Factors in Information Design
at Bentley University
• Co-Organizer of Boston
Service Jam 2014
drupal.org/u/hezzieb
twitter.com/hezzieb524
linkedin.com/in/heathersbauer
Introduction
About BioRAFT
• The BioRAFT platform is a
scientific research
management system that
provides an integrated portal,
compliance oversight, and
productivity solutions.
• SAS, multi-site application.
• WE’RE HIRING! Junior Usability Specialist
BioRAFT.com
DrupalNights.org
Introduction
About You
• Usability Professionals
• Project Managers
• Developers
• Other
Agenda
• Introduction
• What is User Experience?
• An ideal scenario
• How real world differs
• What do we do about it
• Recap
• Resources
Introduction
What is UX?
(source: http://design.org/blog/difference-between-ux-and-ui-subtleties-explained-cereal)
DATACENTERServer
Product UX UI
What is UX?
(Source: helloerik.com/ux-is-not-ui)
What is UX?
Why Do User Research?
• Improve requirements definition
• Create clearer communication
• Diminish stakeholder politics
What is UX?
(Source: ROI of User Experience. http://www.humanfactors.com/project/index.asp)
Successful User Research
• Many different measures of success
• Dictated by research goals
What is UX?
(Source: ROI of User Experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O94kYyzqvTc)
25 1st St., Suite 104, Cambridge, MA 02141 | www.BioRAFT.com
The Ideal
The Ideal
Once upon a time…
• Stakeholder buy in
• Role of UX
understood
• Unlimited resources
• Experienced team
• No shortage of
representative
participants
The Ideal
But…
The Ideal
Finding that
combination is
more elusive
than a purple
unicorn with
pink spots
25 1st St., Suite 104, Cambridge, MA 02141 | www.BioRAFT.com
The Reality
The Reality
• Timelines
• Budgets
• Stakeholder Buy-in
• Participants
Unlimited Time
• High priority items
become a fire
• Low priority items
get canceled
The Reality
Unlimited Budget
• Not if you’re at a
company that wants
to stay in business
The Reality
Stakeholder Buy-in
• Unlisted item in the
job description
• What is considered
part of UX
• Why is UX important?
• Less of an issue as
time passes and
rapport grows
The Reality
Participants
• Take availability of participants for granted
• Use students when you can’t get real users
• What if you require participants with specific
knowledge?
The Reality
7,16-Dibenzyl-1,4,10,13-tetraoxa-7,16-diazacyclooctadecane
Synonym: 1,10-Dibenzyl-1,10-diaza-18crown-6, N,N’-Dibenzyl-4,13-diaza-18-crown6
CAS Number 69703-25-9 | Empirical Formula (Hill Notation) C26H38N2O4 | Molecular Weight 442.59
25 1st St., Suite 104, Cambridge, MA 02141 | www.BioRAFT.com
The Solution
The Solution
• Google Analytics
• User Proxies
• Customer Support
• Sales/Marketing
• Implementation
• Personas
• User Journeys
• Teamwork
Google Analytics
• Audience data &
reporting
• Using mobile or
desktop?
• Which browser/OS?
• Trace customer path
• Requires time to
collect enough data
The Solution
Google
Analytics
Audience Data
• Age
• Gender
• Interest Category
• Only displays for
users who have listed
their demographic
information
The Solution
Google
Analytics
Technology Usage
• Browser
• Operating System
The Solution
Google
Analytics
Customer Path
• Example stuff
The Solution
Google
Analytics
Customer Path
• sdf
The Solution
Google
Analytics
Google Analytics: Pros/Cons
• Pros
– Allows us to get data from users without
bothering them
– See change over time
– Inexpensive (in both time and resources)
• Cons
– Requires time to actually gather data
– Do not know the why of what people did
The Solution
Google
Analytics
Customer Support
• They get to talk to
the users!
• See things from a
different perspective
• Metrics can identify
patterns
• Can overemphasize
edge cases
The Solution
Customer
Support
Customer Support: Pros/Cons
• Pros
– They get to talk to the users
– Different perspective
– Useful metrics
• Cons
– Not trained to be neutral
– Overemphasize edge cases
– Miss out on the positives
The Solution
Customer
Support
Sales/Marketing Team
• Objections from
potential customers
• Have a relationship
with decision makers
• Used to working
conversation to
desired topics
The Solution
Sales/Marketin
g
Sales/Marketing: Pros/Cons
• Pros
– Hears what prevents people from signing
– Used to digging into objections
• Cons
– Not trained to be neutral
– People who are objecting tend to exaggerate the
severity of an issue
– Only talk to decision makers, not users
The Solution
Sales/Marketin
g
Configurations
• What do people have
permission to do on
site?
• What patterns do
permissions reveal?
• How do permissions
change?
The Solution
Configurations
Configurations: Pros/Cons
• Pros
– Repurpose information we need from the
customer anyway
– Gives the big picture
• Cons
– Patterns can be misleading
– Permissions may not be restricted enough to
reveal patterns
The Solution
Configurations
Familiarity with Personas
The Solution
Personas
Newbi
e
Expert
1 2 43
Personas
• Brings all the research together
• Also suffers some from not talking to users
• Can fill in with best guesses
• Utilize people who do talk to users to keep the
personas updated
The Solution
Personas
What are personas?
• Representation of a
cluster of users
• Wide range of
realistic fidelity
• Focuses on users’
wants/needs
• Facilitates the user
hat
The Solution
Personas
Personas and Sales/Marketing
• Defining audience
• Easier to create
“personalized”
marketing/sales calls
• Allows for Sales &
Marketing alignment
The Solution
Personas
Personas and Executives
• Quick snapshot of
how we see our
customers
• Company alignment
• Informs strategic
direction
The Solution
Personas
Personas and Product/Dev
• Separate ideas into
useful or just “cool”
• Prioritize new
features
• QA Testing
• Designing for the
user, not the
developer
The Solution
Personas
Sample Persona
The Solution
Personas
Sample Persona
The Solution
Personas
Tagline
“I want to be a resource to the
researchers, not the safety police.”
Position
Environmental Health & Safety
Director
Character Traits
Intelligent, Enthusiastic, Bold,
Persevering, Achiever
Sample Persona
The Solution
Personas
Role in BioRAFT
Rodger manages the Earth EH&S
Department and oversees all
compliance activity via BioRAFT.
He manages teams of auditors,
conducts audits himself and
attends to a variety of compliance
duties as necessary. Most of the
time he delegates work to people
on his team.
Sample Persona
The Solution
Personas
Tasks in BioRAFT
• Oversees all EHS activity on
BioRAFT
• View Dashboards
• View Inspection Logs
• Schedule Inspections
• Monitor Bio-registrations &
Chem-registrations
• Monitor Rad-registrations
• Oversee Lifesafety
Sample Persona
The Solution
Personas
• Monitor all EHS and
compliance activity
• Maintain Basic
Group Information
• Manage Biological
and Chemical
Information
• Manage and
Approve Biological
Registrations
• Perform Audits and
Inspections
• Edit and Manage
Equipment
• Maintain
Institutional Building
Documents
• Manage Radiological
Licenses, Inventory,
and Waste Collection
Sample Persona
Common Activities
The Solution
Personas
Sample Persona
The Solution
Personas
Sample Persona
The Solution
Personas
(Source: Atlassian “Do Agile Right webinar”)
Sample Persona
The Solution
Personas
(Source: Atlassian “Do Agile Right webinar”)
Sample Persona
• Persona rooms at
Chrysler
• Designers can go into
these rooms to get
the feel of the driver
• Most detailed version
of persona – very
rare
The Solution
Personas
Personas: Pros/Cons
• Pros
–Pulls together information from everywhere
–Can use your imagination to fill in blanks
–Living document that can/should be
updated as new information comes in
• Cons
–Not able to interview users
–Creates a false sense of security
The Solution
Personas
Familiarity with User Journeys
The Solution
User Journeys
Newbi
e
Expert
1 2 43
User Journeys
• Go from putting on
your user hat to
walking in the users’
shoes
• Step beyond personas
• How users would
tackle a specific task
The Solution
User Journeys
User Journeys
• Various levels of fidelity
• Highlights pain points
• Documents level of frustration from happy to
sad
The Solution
User Journeys
Sample User Journeys
The Solution
User Journeys
Buying a New Car
(Source: Usability Ed)
Sample User Journeys
The Solution
User Journeys
Sample User Journeys
The Solution
User Journeys
Sample User Journeys
The Solution
User Journeys
Sample User Journeys
The Solution
User Journeys
(Source: Atlassian “Do Agile Right webinar”)
Sample User Journeys
The Solution
User Journeys
User Journeys: Pros/Cons
• Pros
–Expert Review deliverable
–Can use your imagination to fill in blanks
–Validate Google Analytics information
–Living document
• Cons
–Not able to interview users
–Creates a false sense of security
The Solution
User Journeys
Teamwork
• Work with your team
• Start the conversations you need
The Solution
Teamwork
How it Comes Together
User
Proxies
UX Pro
Persona
User
Journey
The Solution
Teamwork
Recap
• Not a perfect world with ideal circumstances
• Access to participants is taken for granted
• Analytics can give a window to peep in
• Utilize your user proxies
• Personas & user journeys allow for validation
of your second hand research
Recap
25 1st St., Suite 104, Cambridge, MA 02141 | www.BioRAFT.com
User Research When You Can’t
Reach Your Users
drupal.org/u/hezzieb
twitter.com/hezzieb524
linkedin.com/in/heathersbauer
Heather Bauer
Design 4 Drupal
Saturday, August 2, 2014 – 11:30
Slides will be available on
drupalnights.org/upcoming-camps-cons