Userfocus Usability Newsletter, September 2017

Welcome to the September edition of the Userfocus usability and user experience newsletter!

• Message from the Editor
• How to find more usability problems with fewer users
• From our archives: The 5 habits of highly effective field researchers
• What we're reading
• Upcoming user experience training courses
• User experience quotation of the month

Message from the Editor

If you want to find more problems in a usability test, involving more participants is the obvious way to go. But there are some less obvious ways too. I thought I would describe some of those in this month's article. I hope you find it useful.

— David Travis

How to find more usability problems with fewer users

A common myth in usability testing goes like this: '5 participants are all you need to get 85% of the usability problems.' Understanding why this is a myth helps us generate ideas to help us increase the number of problems we find in a usability test. Read the article in full: How to find more usability problems with fewer users.

From our archives: The 5 habits of highly effective field researchers

You may not get many chances to visit and observe your customers at their place of work, so you want to make the most of the opportunity. But what's the best way to run a site visit? Highly effective field researchers show 5 specific behaviours. They create a focus question, audio record the sessions, take photographs of the environment, take notes and write up a short summary of the observation immediately. Read the article in full: The 5 habits of highly effective field researchers.

What we’re reading

Some interesting usability-related articles that got our attention over the last month:

• 46 Interview Questions for User Experience Researchers at Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook.
• Flashcards to Learn 168 Cognitive Biases.
• Advice on how to build a portfolio, stand out to recruiters and interview at tech companies.
• My candidate for the best example of cost-effective prototyping ever. [VIDEO]
• A proven method for showing the value of good UX.
• How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Design Thinking.

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Upcoming user experience training courses

Foundation Certificate in User Experience, Oct 10-12 2017, London.

Gain the BCS Foundation Certificate in User Experience in this fun and hands-on training course. You'll practice in all the key areas of UX from interviewing your users through to prototyping and usability testing your designs while you prepare for and take the exam.

2 places left.

More information about this training course: Foundation Certificate in User Experience.

User Experience quotation of the month

"Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck." Dalai Lama.

Hungry for more?

Read previous newsletters.