User Experience newsletter — June 2020

No, I don't have coronavirus. I spent lockdown jetwashing the patio.

In my younger days, I used to write a diary entry every day. I stopped when I was about 17 and that's one of my life's regrets as I still find it interesting to look back at what I was thinking and feeling at the time. The closest I get to it these days is with this newsletter: it's interesting to look back at the editorials over the years and see what I was noodling with. Last June, it was speech recognition. In June 2018, it was about answering questions. A year before that, psychology factoids. They are like message in a bottle arriving from a different country. That said, I don't think I would have ever predicted that in June 2020, I would be mentioning emerging from lockdown after a global pandemic. I hope you and your family are keeping safe.

Here are some articles that I think are worth your attention:

• 6 Podcasts & Youtube channels valuable to UX researchers.
• Free, online course on Content Design led by GDS content designers.
• Fixing what’s broken: How to improve your in-product error messages.
• Free illustrations of black people for storyboards, personas and other digital projects.
• “The question was reasonably clear, it is just unfortunate that 1,000 employers misunderstood it”… and was set to cost the Australian Government $60 billion.

5-minute videos on UX

• Understanding users is not your job. I answer the question, “How can I make the development team get more involved in user research?”
• Segmenting users. I answer the question, “Before the lockdown, I was carrying out field visits to users. Now I have lots of time on my hands for the analysis — but I’m struggling to identify the different groups. I feel like I’m making it up and I’d like a more structured method. Any tips?”
• The paradox of usability benchmarking. I answer the question, “How do I go about using a summative usability test to benchmark UX?”
• Should a design agency test its own design? I answer the question, “What are your thoughts on getting usability testing done by the same company who designed the product/app? What happens when the usability expert and the UX architect are the same?”

Want me to answer a UX-related question in a future video? Just reply to this email.

Upcoming virtual courses in UX

We have two courses coming up:

• BCS Foundation Certificate in User Experience, June 9th - June 25th (6 x 2hr sessions)
• User Research Fundamentals June 30th - July 28th (9 x 2hr sessions)

These are online, streamed events so you can attend from anywhere in the world.

Thanks for reading. If you find this newsletter useful and want to support it, forward it to someone who’d like it or, even better, buy them a copy of Think Like a UX Researcher.

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David Travis.