Slides from a talk presented by Jen Briselli and Kim Dowd at User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) Boston 2016 ---- Research and design go together like peanut butter and jelly… or peanut butter and chocolate… or peanut butter and marshmallow fluff… come to think of it, peanut butter and research go with almost anything! Design can look very different from project to project, but research is always a core ingredient when creating great user experiences. Sometimes it can be tricky to achieve the perfect blend of research and design. This is especially true when each is happening in completely separate, siloed teams, or even trickier, when they are being performed by the same person. In our organization, we have a lot of experience finding that key balance between the benefits of separate teams and the advantages of close collaboration. We work to find the sweet spot in the middle of the research-design venn diagram, and we’d like to share our insights with you. We’ll help you maximize the power of both design and research roles whether they’re sitting just across the office, in separate buildings, or inside the same brain. This talk will cover helpful tips and common pitfalls to avoid that we have found from experience to be keys achieving a goldilocks “just right” blend of research & design. We will provide concrete examples to help you facilitate better research if you’re a designer, facilitate better design if you’re a researcher, and facilitate better collaboration for both roles. Some of the techniques we’ll highlight for researchers include understanding your designers’ process, learning & sharing their vocabulary, and understanding how to create applicable output that will improve designers’ work. Transitioning to a designer’s role, we’ll discuss how to avoid the “handoff & disappear” problem in conventional waterfall process, by being involved in defining goals early on and collaborating on recommendations throughout. We’ll touch on the various ways a designer can find opportunities for research beyond the typical usability study. Ultimately these insights can help ensure both perspectives are represented in your client deliverables and the user experiences you create.

1. RESEARCH & DESIGN
@jbriselli @kimberlydowdJen Briselli | Kim Dowd

2. Kim
Senior Experience Researcher
Jen
Managing Director, Experience Design

3. Balance
is hard
to find.

4. Balance
is hard
to find.

5. Balance
is hard
to find.
Lack of collaboration = bad experience

6. RESEARCH & DESIGN
@JenBriselli @KimberlyDowd

7. is hard to find.
Balance

8. INSIGHTS & TIPS FOR…
researchers
designers
siloed teams
solo teams
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

9. handoff & disappear model.
Avoid the

10. MAD*POW OVERVIEW | NOV 2015
Adapted from “Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design from UK Design Council
DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE REFINE
Initial
Insight
Plan/
Strategy
Prototype
EVALUATE
IMPLEMENT
Deployment
Project Lifecycle

11. MAD*POW OVERVIEW | NOV 2015
Adapted from “Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design from UK Design Council
DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE REFINE
Initial
Insight
Plan/
Strategy
Prototype
EVALUATE
IMPLEMENT
Deployment
Project Lifecycle

12. Planning
Research@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

13. Researchers
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd Planning Research
Involve designers with goal setting
Learn what the research will be
used for & plan study accordingly
Identify issues up front, saves
designer’s time!
Share moderator’s guide to learn
designer’s needs & aid your probes
Designers
Help researchers define the
research goals & plan
Share expectations & questions;
be candid!
Understand the benefits & limitation
of different tools & methods

14. Conducting
Research@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

15. @jbriselli @kimberlydowd Conducting Research
Researchers
Invite the designers in to the
research sessions:
Make it low-commitment
Sell the value
Ask them to help
Bribe with candy
Enlist the research-friendly
designer advocate(s)
Understand the designer’s mental
model & relate findings
Designers
Be available, be interested, show
up!
Take good research notes:
Observations, not assumptions
Observations, not judgments
Observations, not solutions

16. Making Recommendations

17. @jbriselli @kimberlydowd Making Recommendations
Researchers
Meet informally to preview results
and discuss recommendations
Collaborate on recommendations
to move from vague to concrete &
actionable
Works every time!
Designers
Help articulate recommendations
so they’re actionable for design
Help decide the best mode &
format for delivering findings

18. @jbriselli @kimberlydowd
TL;DR:
The meeting with stakeholders should not
be the first time the designer is seeing
recommendations! You’re a team.

19. Creating Solutions
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

20. @jbriselli @kimberlydowd
Creating Solutions
Researchers
Swing by designer’s desk to
participate & reinforce research
Avoid the huge risk of “handoff &
disappear” model at this stage!

21. After I saw that design I thought
‘If you just showed this to me I could
have told you not to do that based on
the research!’
- UX Researcher
“”
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

22. @jbriselli @kimberlydowd
Creating Solutions
Researchers
Swing by designer’s desk to
participate & reinforce research
Avoid the huge risk of “handoff &
disappear” model at this stage!
Designers
Look for opportunities to infuse
research into ideation
Invite researchers into the design
process, especially brainstorming &
critiques

23. Evaluating Solutions

24. Rinse, repeat…
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd
Evaluating Solutions

25. MAD*POW OVERVIEW | NOV 2015
Adapted from “Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design from UK Design Council
DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE REFINE
Initial
Insight
Plan/
Strategy
Prototype
EVALUATE
IMPLEMENT
Deployment
Beyond a single project…
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

26. Know the Lingo
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

27. Know the Tools
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

28. no substitute for
There is
seeing research
first-hand.
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

29. Many designers don't make time to
watch [research] sessions.
But a few always do… and I can see
the difference in the quality of the
final designs.
- UX Researcher
“”
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

30. Advocate forMake sure you’re playing
for the same trophy.
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

31. Feel investment in each
others’ deliverables.
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

32. Advocate for
necessary resourcing.
Advocate for

33. If you’re siloed…
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

34. View the ‘other’ team as collaborators,
not as clients
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd
Siloed Teams
Add time to the calendar!
Formalized collaboration is still collaboration
Be open to hearing outsider perspectives
(M*P project recaps)
Learn from other teams (M*P buddy system)

35. If you’re a
one-person team…
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd

36. Create separate spaces for design and research:
@jbriselli @kimberlydowd
One-Person Team
Separate the activities and the deliverables
Use a proxy/stand-in
physical
mental
virtual

38. TL;DR

39. Talk to each other.
Don’t disappear.
(Early & often)
(For very long)
Butt in. & Welcome the butting in.

42. THANK YOU!
Jen Briselli
Kim Dowd @kimberlydowd
@jbriselli