UX newsletter — September 2018Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Message from the EditorHi {!email} A couple of years ago we had a referendum in the United Kingdom. The question asked on the ballot paper was, "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?" It seemed such a simple question back then: in or out? As the negotiations for Brexit have shown, it's not quite as simple as that. Whether you're a Leaver or a Remainer, we've discovered a whole raft of things we never even knew were part of the question. I don't seriously think that better survey design would have solved this issue, but I've recently been pondering the general point of people not understanding, or misinterpreting, the questions we ask in user research. This is a serious concern with survey research because (unlike a face-to-face interview) we're not present to clear up any misunderstandings. So that's what I've written about this month. I hope you find it useful. — David Travis Using the cognitive interview to improve your survey questionsIn an ideal survey, each respondent interprets the question in the way we intended. But in reality, survey questions are misunderstood. Participants may find the answers hard to recall, difficult to estimate, and struggle to map their answer to the choices we provide. The cognitive interview provides a useful method to evaluate survey questions and remove these problems. Read the article in full: Using the cognitive interview to improve your survey questions. From our archives: Is Consumer Research Losing Its Focus?Focus groups continually fail to tell us what customers want. The fundamental problem is that, in spite of what conventional wisdom tells us, it is not the voice of the consumer that matters. What matters is the mind of the consumer. The big mistake is in believing that what the mind thinks, the voice speaks. It is time to start embracing methods that can deliver stronger predictive value. Read the article in full: Is consumer research losing its focus?. What we’re readingSome interesting UX-related articles that got our attention over the last month:
Like these? Want more? View our posts on Twitter or Facebook. Upcoming UX training coursesFoundation Certificate in User Experience, Sep 25-27 2018, London.6 places sold, 4 places left. In this fun and hands-on training course, you'll practice 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 BCS Foundation Certificate exam. View the full syllabus: Foundation Certificate in User Experience. User Research Fundamentals, Oct 1-5 2018, London.7 places sold, 3 places left.A 5-day immersion seminar that shows you how Government Digital Services (GDS) plan and carry out user research within Government. You'll practice interviewing and contextual research, carry out usability testing, explore the bigger picture of assisted digital and discover how to plan user research on agile projects. View the full syllabus: User Research Fundamentals. UX quotation of the month"Ultimately, users visit your website for its content. Everything else is just the backdrop." — Jakob Nielsen. Did I mention I'm writing a book?It's titled Think Like a UX Researcher and you can help shape the book, get sample content, and find out when it's published at uxresearchbook.com. Hungry for more?Want to receive your own copy of this newsletter?Join our community of people interested in user experience. Sent monthly. No spam. |