Last week I went to a talk called "Get to Insight Delight: 3 ways to save user research from slide deck obscurity". The 3 ways are visualize, metaphorize, and narrativize. What really resonated with me was that the role of research is to design a data experience for clients/stakeholders, not only to help design an experience. The talk again reinforced that the role in UX is to be more of storytellers. (Speaker: Abs King, Ph.D., is a researcher and experience design consultant focusing on smart and connected products at Industry X.0, part of Accenture Digital.)
Notes:
Effort/insight continuum as illustrated through a plant metaphor:
Seeds are the raw data of all the research data points
Seedlings help co-crate visual data of some examples of powerful cases
Plants synthesize user journey to tell stories
Bouquet is the “polished” deck of user research findings
Sometimes, a “perfectly” formed powerpoint deck (metaphorized as a bouquet) can go over stakeholder’s heads or it doesn’t give room for discussion (is more of a one-way street of communication)
Seedlings and plants are where we want to focus when presenting research
Co-create insights with audience
Democratize/decentralize UX
Bring more people into the insights to break down barriers
Sharing a finding and providing insight = we’re making an argument/POV
If stakeholders disagree or see something differently, it fosters discussion on how to address or prioritize, and brings alignment on where Isi the highest value
“Pull” the communication vs pushing it on to audience
Plant “seedlings” of insights to engage stakeholders with data
Create a visual summary or metaphor that focuses on the cases that are powerful
Invite others to engage by putting visuals where people congregate (break room, lunch room) so others who aren’t in the meetings can be aware
Seedlings of visual summaries can be in form of a metaphor, user profiles, or user flow
Example: show a highway metaphor as a journey, where the road is the same but how users experience it is different (straightforward, wavy, lots of “stop/warning” signs)
Example: let users draw what they think the flow/screens mean to them
“Plant” - synthesis of seedlings
Example: How different personas interact in flows
Example: Through a 54-foot long storyboard, the team illustrated the complexity of a current process of procuring food stamps. Stakeholders saw this, got pulled into the story, and had buy-in on how they can change policy
The kinesthetic and physical space of the experience (54-foot long storyboard) is a part of the “
Example of impact of visuals: Visuals instead of traditional powerpoint deck helped clients dive into the findings right away, and helped move team faster
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