{"id":1934,"date":"2017-02-02T12:16:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T12:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2017.london.wordcamp.org\/?post_type=wcb_session&#038;p=1934"},"modified":"2017-08-30T22:14:24","modified_gmt":"2017-08-30T21:14:24","slug":"know-your-users","status":"publish","type":"wcb_session","link":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/session\/know-your-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Users"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How can you truly create an experience without knowing who you are creating it for? Why does so much get made without user research? Why do so many creating experiences not run user tests or engage with their users at any point? It isn\u2019t a privilege of the wealthy agency or invested company. In this talk I&#8217;ll show why knowing your users matters and how you can start truly understanding them to make a better experience.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<section id=\"slides\" class=\"session--slides\">\n<h2>Slides<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"video\" class=\"session--video\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Know your users\" id=\"talk_frame_383051\" class=\"speakerdeck-iframe\" src=\"\/\/speakerdeck.com\/player\/1548ecd2b5994c63942dd819d2bf8840\" width=\"604\" height=\"339\" style=\"aspect-ratio:604\/339; border:0; padding:0; margin:0; background:transparent;\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/section>\n<section class=\"session--video\">\n<h2>Video<\/h2>\n<div id=\"v-x4IYthy7-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='604' height='338' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/x4IYthy7?hd=1&amp;cover=1&amp;loop=0&amp;autoPlay=0&amp;permalink=1&amp;muted=0&amp;controls=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;useAverageColor=0&amp;preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script src='https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/video\/assets\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js'><\/script><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"transcription\" class=\"session--transcription\">\n<h2>Transcription<\/h2>\n<p>WENDIE: Hello. \u00a0This is awesome. \u00a0Welcome everybody, did you have a good lunch?<\/p>\n<p>All did you like the food? \u00a0I loved it.<\/p>\n<p>The door is closed we are ready to start, are we ready to start? \u00a0What is? \u00a0&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I am in front of the screen? \u00a0Oh my god! Thank god, it is my first time as an MC so I am Wendie I think that is enough for now. \u00a0I will be MCing the whole afternoon, I will introduce the speakers and helping out with the Q&amp;A, I try not to be in front of the screen or inside the light. \u00a0I am going to keep it really short. \u00a0There has been some practical information I needed to share with you today. \u00a0We just swallowed our lunch but some information about dinner, it is going to be later than previously announced so it is going to be at 7:30.<\/p>\n<p>Forgot the location but, it is still time to find that out. \u00a0Today, we are going to start this session with Tammie Lister, it is on the screen. \u00a0Know your users. \u00a0I talked to Tammie find out some things, I talked to her yesterday. \u00a0I she was one of the first women speakers I saw at WordCamp 7 years ago. \u00a0We are the same age, we have both a very, um, exciting lives and she is going to tell you about why it is important to know your users big, big applause for Tammie.<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: So this is phrase, almost seems like a mantra for most designers. \u00a0I am sure that non-designers say it of: \u00a0You are not the user.<\/p>\n<p>Why is that said?<\/p>\n<p>Often when that phrase is said people think, well it is actually creating for users a bad thing? \u00a0How bad can that be? \u00a0You are creating a product, passionate about a product, why is it so bad to do that? \u00a0The thing is it gives a reminder, a note to truly create the right experience, you have to get out of your head space. \u00a0You have to get beyond yourself and see other people that are going to use your product.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps a better way of seeing this would be you are not the only user.<\/p>\n<p>But if you are not, how do you actually create for the users for all the users and how do you go about doing that? \u00a0So that is where the why of user research comes into it. \u00a0A story that is told in ancient cultures who aren&#8217;t visually looking, touching and describing a part of the elephant. \u00a0Some would touch the head and perhaps said that is the basket or maybe touch the body and that is a granary, or maybe touch a leg and it is a pillar, nobody would be able to get what they were touching would be a elephant, they are touching a small part and then trying to describe it.<\/p>\n<p>Without knowing the full picture, how can you create something? \u00a0Truth comes from seeing that full picture and the truths only come when you do user research. \u00a0Without that your frame, design, code at the start code, probably not in the same room as the dart spinning, it might be spinning or circular, you are not going the do it. \u00a0You are never going to succeed with what you are trying to do.<\/p>\n<p>By doing research, you open up this better way of designing more appropriate design. \u00a0To me, this Erika Hall, if there is one book that you have to read on user research, and at the end of my talk there is a list of resources I would like the share with you. \u00a0I would like to say in her book, Just Enough Research, she says this leads to more design solutions than merely asking how you feel or tweaking the current design based on analytics. \u00a0Beyond your hunches or the surface information.<\/p>\n<p>Whenever the subject of research comes up it is like a carnival of but&#8217;s happen. \u00a0It a breaks the flow, it just rains all the excuses and reasons why you shouldn&#8217;t do user research.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming it costs a lot is a fair assumption, there is a lot of media articles say that, user research costs a lot, you shouldn&#8217;t do it. \u00a0There is a notion beyond money that the time cost is huge, barrier, prevents this process and the flow of creating which is incredibly important that momentum of creation.<\/p>\n<p>The thing is, research probably is on a small scale happening right now within the product you are creating or with your clients. \u00a0It just isn&#8217;t being communicated. \u00a0It is one of the missing pieces of research, communication of the research, all very well on doing it. \u00a0But if you are not having the communication of it.<\/p>\n<p>Customer support is like daily user research. \u00a0People are giving responses, people are saying what you know, in the interactions. \u00a0It is really important to give space and communicate those opportunities of user research.<\/p>\n<p>Listening is the foundation skill of this and listening, it is kind of free. \u00a0It is something that you can get better at and it is a skill you can improve.<\/p>\n<p>The notion of just doing research is something really important and that is what I would like to get you in thinking about today, do it, test the water, see it as part of that real flexible fluid, easy flow, it doesn&#8217;t have to be this heavy burden that oh, now we have got to do user research in this phase or now we have to do this. \u00a0It should be fluid and free.<\/p>\n<p>There is also this fallacy that one type of research really is the way. \u00a0People would say, oh user research should be done this way and this process should be done. \u00a0That is not true.<\/p>\n<p>I would like to dispel that. \u00a0Adaption is really the key to speed and to prevent blocking the process. \u00a0It is going to be different for each person doing it for the situation doing it. \u00a0And we are getting into how that happens in a bit later.<\/p>\n<p>Because I think that is one thing that is said against user research, this immovable mountainous task and it is a bit like doing your homework, you have got to the it. \u00a0Ugh I have to do user research, it has that weight. \u00a0So by being lighter on that &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>If it is a business you can&#8217;t say, yes, these are my users how simply are you going the optimise to make the best solutions, maybe you have a weird divination process I don&#8217;t know about but I don&#8217;t think that is the case. \u00a0Doing the right amount; the right type of research; that is simply a smart business decision.<\/p>\n<p>This is something so very important that you get from knowing your users. \u00a0Your work responds rapidly to the user demand as a product grows as well.<\/p>\n<p>Actually doing the right research is economical and that is a table flip I would like you to make.<\/p>\n<p>We are faced with the but&#8217;s about doing research, to response here I think is really apt. \u00a0John says we remind everyone to say that really waste time and money, all you need to do is to build a service that nobody wants and can use. \u00a0That is pretty apt I think.<\/p>\n<p>Time, money, energy and reputation all these things can actually break a product and if you are not doing user research, you are opening up to making all the things happen. \u00a0You are making it inevitable that all the things happen. \u00a0So hopefully, I have convinced you that community research is a good idea. \u00a0How you go about doing it?<\/p>\n<p>I would like to move into doing that a little bit. \u00a0First of all, I have a question, who has ever used revisions in at all in WordPress? \u00a0Put your hand up? \u00a0Cool, excellent.<\/p>\n<p>Who here who put their hand up for revisions, who here has actually reverted a revision? \u00a0Cool, awesome.<\/p>\n<p>So, I just did some user research. \u00a0I asked a question. \u00a0Then I documented it. \u00a0It is really as simple or as complicated as the goal that you are going to do it. \u00a0It can really be frictionless, I now know in this room in this particular time the amount of people that had their hand up. \u00a0I have the documentation of that. \u00a0That is, that is useful information if you look at it in the right perspective as well. \u00a0That is the key, you have to use judgment with research as well. \u00a0You don&#8217;t need\u00a0 &#8212; Scrooge McDuff&#8217;s, user research, you can do it.<\/p>\n<p>It is not an exact science, it is something you have to learn as a skill.<\/p>\n<p>There isn&#8217;t a clear right or wrong way with research. \u00a0Going back to that adaption you really need to be flexible with your approach. \u00a0It is a craft. \u00a0You know, learn to adapt and I think that is something that anyone can learn as well. \u00a0It is a craft that anyone can participate in. \u00a0It isn&#8217;t a process, it isn&#8217;t something that should be done one off. \u00a0Whenever someone treats research like a dot at the end of the sentence, it kind of makes me feel that is really the wrong approach, it shouldn&#8217;t be a check mark that you do it should be iterative and part of your process.<\/p>\n<p>Research is effective when you have this plan and when it is part of the cycle and as you grow user research, as long as the\u00a0 &#8212; grows it is adapting and you do change and you do different type of research as well.<\/p>\n<p>I spoke a little bit about the kind of no right or wrong way. \u00a0However there is a different approach. \u00a0I would like to show a bad approach to maybe doing a survey. \u00a0I have heard people say this, surveys are required for this product because everybody does them. \u00a0Surveys are a great idea.<\/p>\n<p>This is bad, there is no goal, they are saying that because surveys are the new hotness we should really do them. \u00a0That is not going to get you anything. \u00a0What you need to do is to have a goal and make it testable. \u00a0So something like this, I created a sign up flow, I want to see if users are able to have an easier experience, it is testable, work out how you are going to test and get the results and see whether that is actually happened.<\/p>\n<p>That is really, really important to have that focus on your user research. \u00a0To be truly effective, user research has to be part of a culture and I have seen this time and time again, user research is allocated to a particular person, that is a limited approach and not something that you will be able to scale or not. \u00a0Or not something that is used the research the most. \u00a0It is important that it is something that not just a single role does but because when you do and when you live and experience research it is really important and empathic connection happens. \u00a0Important not just for designers but important for developers and anyone involved at any stage within the product to experience that have the feeling because there is this thing that happens in our brains we make a connection when we have that empathy and it is very important to do that when you are making that product and to have that connection and remember that experience.<\/p>\n<p>By working on a tool kit you can make research easier. \u00a0It helps others in the team and it makes things easier to do as well. \u00a0So, if you have a set of guidelines that people can follow when they do user research, they can pick it up and they can do it.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe there is an outline for user testing or there is this way. \u00a0It is something we are working with automatic and it is a great way of doing. \u00a0It ensures that you get valid consistent research and also as researchers then can feedback into the tool kit the experience of the people doing the research. \u00a0So everyone gets the quick start into research.<\/p>\n<p>One bad approach that I have seen people do is do one of type of research and call that research done. \u00a0That is, I am just going to pick the one type and that is all the research I will do for this product. \u00a0P doing multiple sources actually gets you the entire picture. \u00a0If you think about a painting it will be incredibly minimalistic and rare painting if there was one brush stroke. \u00a0Normally several, normally a build up of a picture, that is what you do by getting the different research, you get different signs and then mould this into a picture.<\/p>\n<p>Who is here heard of quantitative and qualitative data? \u00a0This is a part about combining those different types of research. \u00a0So quantitative data tells you something that people is doing. \u00a0Quantitative tells you why, quantitive is surveys, analytics anything that can be answered by numbers. \u00a0Qualitative, something like usability testing you get a lot more feelings.<\/p>\n<p>By doing the combinations you get a more powerful research so, there is lots of different types you can do, there is card sorting, interviews, post typing, personas usability test, so many different things. \u00a0I am not suggesting you do them all but I am saying is, you can look at the project, you can find the right tools for the task; the project and you and then find these really powerful combinations of research to get the results that you want for that goal that you are testing.<\/p>\n<p>The way that my mind works I often try link things to other things, the thing I think about with research, I think a little bit of a TV forensic program. \u00a0Bear with me on this. \u00a0You have the forensic scientist enter the room, looking for that one tiny piece of tiny little crumb of information, because that crumb of information will put the criminal away and or solve the murder or all those kinds of things. \u00a0That is what you are trying to do with user research, find the crumbs of information that will make the product work for the users.<\/p>\n<p>Going back to the cycle, you have to think about this research, you begin with the needs, then you look at the data resources and validate them and share them. \u00a0I said earlier, communication was a large part of getting, getting that message out you have got all the awesome user research, but if you don&#8217;t deliver it in a way that people understand, then it is just some data here that is not being empathised by anyone. \u00a0Depending on the situation, you then need to rinse and repeat. \u00a0So a very quick process flow might look something like this, write down an assumption, define a hypothesis, how to test this? \u00a0Going back to, you should always have a goal in mind when you are doing user research, not just oh well, this amazing AB testing I read in article media, now I need to do AB testing.<\/p>\n<p>Make the change to the product. \u00a0Then measure the outcome of the change.<\/p>\n<p>This is like, this is frictionous and you can add this to any part of the process, okay, tools down, do all the user research for the next 4 months. \u00a0That is not the best way, the way is to fit in with your project and do this.<\/p>\n<p>So when it comes up a lot of times speaking about user research, sample size. \u00a0So it turns out around about 5 is a good number. \u00a0But the problem with this is, 5 for good number for usability testing again it is like mm, maybe? \u00a0The thing is if you get 5 of exactly the same results, then no, doing the same thing again is not a good idea because you are going to get the same results. \u00a0You know for the groups you are testing, you get the same results, you don&#8217;t have to do more than that. \u00a0If you get varying results of course a larger sample size, if you are doing simple tests and usability test you will need to have different sample sizes as well. \u00a0So about having a bit of intelligence and noted taking things rigidly, it is about the right goal and testing positions as well.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t get me wrong in saying this. \u00a0I hope I will be clear, not all research is good research. \u00a0It is about quality not quantity just because you have done a lot of research, doesn&#8217;t mean you know your users. \u00a0It is how you do it and how you then communicate it. \u00a0Bad research turns out really easy to do, I have done bad research myself and I am sure a lot of people have as well. \u00a0Think of it as a skill, to study, refine and constantly learn, respond to users as well and as you do that you level up. \u00a0I learned so much from other peoples user research as well. \u00a0Because then I can learn the good and the bad ways of doing it.<\/p>\n<p>Now saying about communicating the actual research one of the big things you want to communicate is the stories because your users are experiencing the products, so these stories are what will become the foundation of how you do changes.<\/p>\n<p>Donna Lichaw I said on the communication side of changes I highly recommend her book &#8220;the user&#8217;s journey&#8221; because she looks at using story arcs to accurately convey the story of users and I would like to pause and show the way she does this because to me this is a really easy and really understandable way of doing it and it&#8217;s a way to communicate it so not just someone who has done the research understands but everyone involved in the project understands as well.<\/p>\n<p>And the reason stories work and they resonate and by filtering stories and surfacing them out is important to us; as humans, stories make us connected, back to Palaeolithic times, stories power the human brain. \u00a0And there are other ways of doing it and I&#8217;ll look at other stories after I look at the story arc.<\/p>\n<p>A story arc for her would start with the expedition, have a rising action, a climax and falling action and going to closure. \u00a0Think of a lot of films. \u00a0One of the examples in her book is back to the future which us great way of doing that as well. \u00a0You can see as it goes up you can see how filmic it is as well but think of it in terms of a digital experience, maybe you have record an action, then you have a sign up, then sign up successful and problem solved because sign up can be dicey, problems involved in that, then you go down at closure. \u00a0So generally at the end of the closure you would be in a different but better situation than the exposition.<\/p>\n<p>So if there was a home page here you&#8217;ve gone through a record of action to sign up at the end, you sign up so you&#8217;re now using the service. And it&#8217;s these visual representations that you can use to communicate those stories that you find in your research.<\/p>\n<p>A common way is also to do story boarding or comic booking; it&#8217;s a great way a format universally understood to us as humans. \u00a0Visually you don&#8217;t have to be a great drawer. \u00a0Do the doodles to communicate the stories of the experiences your users are having and they become real when you do this.<\/p>\n<p>At the time your users come out from the shadows they have these faces, they become people. \u00a0It&#8217;s a bit like developing a photograph out of film. \u00a0And each data point and each information crumb they add up. \u00a0And it&#8217;s really, really important though that you don&#8217;t just freeze personas in carbonite and never go back to them. \u00a0That&#8217;s not going to be good at all. \u00a0You need to see them as fluid and grow and as you discover more data see that you can iterate those as well. \u00a0And as your product grows see that you can iterate those also.<\/p>\n<p>Communication is a great skill you need to make sure there is a format for everyone involved and make sure it&#8217;s understood otherwise it&#8217;s pointless going back to that. \u00a0If someone delivers all user research in a great big wall of text, that not going to be accessible, it&#8217;s not going to get people buying into it, it&#8217;s not going to get the stories, it&#8217;s doing the stories and users you did the research on an injustice. \u00a0Adapt the report to situation and audience. \u00a0Be playful, be open to new ways of communicating that new research.<\/p>\n<p>I think this is really, really an important statement: user researcher&#8217;s fallacy. \u00a0My job is to learn about users. \u00a0Think we&#8217;ve all thought that at some point. \u00a0The truth is my job is to help my team learn about users, you&#8217;re a conduit for those stories, and that&#8217;s how you should be approaching this.<\/p>\n<p>When delivering research you shouldn&#8217;t judge in the same place that you showed the results because that&#8217;s your bias, that is your interpretation of it. \u00a0Let people make those own connections.<\/p>\n<p>Going back to other people doing user research, when someone does that there is this kind of brain chemistry that happens when they make that empathic connection with a user they&#8217;re going to remember that. \u00a0You&#8217;ll see someone developing code and say, well, George feels this particular way so, George, I&#8217;m going to do this experience because George is not going to hit this road block that he does. \u00a0Or Mary always has this road block when she goes to sign up, I am going to add this feature so Mary doesn&#8217;t have this. \u00a0And I have heard people talking about users in this way because they are engaged have that empathic connection. \u00a0It&#8217;s back to stories about relating, they&#8217;re real. \u00a0It&#8217;s not just face less avatars that some users researchers created that you didn&#8217;t have any buy into and you are just forced because personas are a thing you have to use. \u00a0That shouldn&#8217;t be the approach. \u00a0Everyone should live and breathe and feel the users. \u00a0And a huge part of that is enabling and enabling that to happen.<\/p>\n<p>Something I really think is important that not enough people do in fact is snapshots like digestible user research. \u00a0Maybe it&#8217;s a dashboard or may be the people who you only support weekly or monthly do the top 5 support issues and relay them to developers and designers. \u00a0It&#8217;s that frontline easy snackable research that is free. \u00a0It&#8217;s already existing. \u00a0It&#8217;s just about communicating it and getting it out there.<\/p>\n<p>And it keeps that constant temperature. \u00a0For the users it means people can go, okay, yeah, that&#8217;s what our users are experiencing currently as you change things as well and it avoids that burden, heavy weight and mental perception of weight of research.<\/p>\n<p>And data is always going to be the smaller opinion. You need to acknowledge the limits of your sources and that is important with research. \u00a0All research as long as its got context if you do it correctly and you have a goal can really be understood but it&#8217;s about conveying that context of that research as well.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t mean without perspective that even the smallest subset isn&#8217;t valuable. \u00a0Opinion is also key to mute yourself in your researches. \u00a0The users need to be heard not you that needs to be heard. \u00a0We want to be heard but in terms of user research, you should not be the voice that&#8217;s heard.<\/p>\n<p>Interpreting is really dangerous so spreading out the problem and solution is really important. \u00a0I try one of the methods I try and do at the moment if I&#8217;m writing or trying to deliver those stories in the research, I will not comment at all. \u00a0I will may be add if I do as a post I would may be add that later or I would try and get to have a group to have those thoughts. \u00a0I really would not try and add my voice to that and I think it&#8217;s really important you don&#8217;t add your voice right there. \u00a0You may be see it as more of a discussion or brainstorming or here is the data, here&#8217;s what&#8217;s come back the stories that have come back, now let&#8217;s have a discussion as to those.<\/p>\n<p>I hope what I have shown is that knowing your users is really, really important. \u00a0Because when you do, you can create for them and that is kind of what we should be doing. \u00a0You can make the best experience possible. And research is not just a one off process. \u00a0I want you to stop thinking about that think of it as part of the cycle, make it a habit, part of your culture. \u00a0Some of the testing happens for data will do for your code as well then do the same for users. \u00a0How you research and really know your users should adapt, it should be fluid. \u00a0That approach of a toolkit I think is one that everybody should have that mindset for. \u00a0And it isn&#8217;t, it really isn&#8217;t a privilege of the wealthy agency or the invested company. \u00a0It&#8217;s not just me standing here saying, oh everybody should use user research and if you don&#8217;t have the budget to do it you&#8217;re not going to be able to do it anyone can do user research and that&#8217;s important.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t cost and it doesn&#8217;t take months to do if you have this adaptive fluid approach to it.<\/p>\n<p>And knowing your users matter for everyone involved. \u00a0Shouldn&#8217;t be a single role or just something user researchers do or designers do. \u00a0It should be developers product managers &#8211; everyone should be engaged in doing this because it makes sense. \u00a0When it&#8217;s part of your P process your users become part of your process so of course you are going to be creating for them.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to leave some space, I wanted to either answer some questions but I also want to maybe hear your experiences of user research as well.<\/p>\n<p>So thank you. \u00a0{Applause}.<\/p>\n<p>WENDIE: So that was interesting at least for me. \u00a0I hope you found it as interesting as me. \u00a0Are there any questions at the moment?<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: So if you don&#8217;t want to talk about user research I&#8217;m happy to talk about anything at all to do with design. \u00a0Any questions?<\/p>\n<p>FROM THE FLOOR: Maybe you can share some user research practices.<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: I&#8217;m also going to skip forward to this &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>FROM THE FLOOR: Can you repeat the question?<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: In a second but I&#8217;ll also say these are some resources I&#8217;ll recommend as well. \u00a0The slidex is going to have this but &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>So I would like to convey some bad user testing experiences. \u00a0I&#8217;ll use my own because that&#8217;s probably a polite thing to do and I probably made all the mistakes I&#8217;ll ever make. \u00a0One of the mistakes I think I&#8217;ve made more recently is when I don&#8217;t &#8211; it&#8217;s very hard &#8211; you can know the context of your research and I think it&#8217;s really important to convey that context of that research to people to say this is maybe a small subset but this is an important small subset we&#8217;re doing, it&#8217;s just about the temperature and part of what I&#8217;m trying to do with this talk is show there are these different types of research, that I can believe in a leaner approach of research but if I&#8217;m not saying I&#8217;m doing that leaner approach of research, someone is going to go, well, it&#8217;s just like a few people.<\/p>\n<p>I definitely think the goal thing is big if you don&#8217;t have a goal with your research and I&#8217;ve done it it&#8217;s just like I&#8217;m &#8211; I was freelance I went to Automattic and I would be like okay, we&#8217;re starting a project, we now need to do user research and I had that mindset of right now this is the user research budget and we do it at this point, why I would pick the beginning and only &#8211; now I know it&#8217;s better but it happens at the beginning, you do all these changes and don&#8217;t iterate. \u00a0It&#8217;s having that making it part of your process and when you don&#8217;t then you get the bad things.<\/p>\n<p>So that is definitely some bad &#8211; I have made all the mistakes in everything so hopefully I can convey that so people don&#8217;t make as many mistakes as me.<\/p>\n<p>Any other questions at all? \u00a0Or any other research? \u00a0Are people doing user research at all?<\/p>\n<p>FROM THE FLOOR: Just off the top of your head if you can think of what were really surprising things you discovered in the research you&#8217;ve done lately that you could may be share which is interesting or any anecdotes?<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: So I kind of have a bad habit of making an assumption about something that then I find out a user really doesn&#8217;t have that. \u00a0It&#8217;s almost like I have the ability to think the opposite of what a user is going to do. \u00a0I do that an awful lot. \u00a0So I have kind of assumed &#8211; time and time again I have assumed recently something is worse than it is and I would say oh no we can&#8217;t do this we need to make this feature easier for people and I have this feature content I assumed users were having a lot of problems with and I spoke to in automatic we call our support engineers happiness engineers and I spoke to someone and they were like people aren&#8217;t having a problem with it and I was like it&#8217;s a bad interface they must be but they were having problems with other areas and sometimes it&#8217;s how the area is delivered and I&#8217;m maybe thinking with my designer&#8217;s head and say, oh it looks horrible users must be having a problem with this. \u00a0Particularly in WordPress some subsets of users have learned a particular way to do something and if you radically change something just because of the new hotness or mental model all designers are subscribing to, the users might not be subscribing to that model because they&#8217;ve learned a particular way and learned to do a particular thing. \u00a0So suddenly changing everything, whilst we want new users and old users it doesn&#8217;t do new users existing users justice if I read an article and see a new hot way to do something and think oh this all out to do.<\/p>\n<p>There was discussion yesterday about menu buttons and that was one way. \u00a0All designers used to think menu icon was the way to do it, it was the best thing in the world, turns out users didn&#8217;t find it great but the problem is we kept it there for a while a lot of times and then we realised we had to put the word menu and that helped but that confused the users that already learned the icon.<\/p>\n<p>You have to be careful about understanding the mental models of the users and mindsets of users you&#8217;ve trained with your interfaces as interface matures. \u00a0That&#8217;s one of the biggest things as a challenge I find that on WordPress.com there is a lot of mindset trained to people. \u00a0We want new people but already got people using it and WordPress as a project has that absolutely. \u00a0There is a certain way, might be a really weird way to do things, but someone has been doing it that way for years and to suddenly change that is earth shattering for someone it&#8217;s like wo, what did you do?! \u00a0And I have really bad gut reactions so I try and may be put those out but definitely justify them. \u00a0I&#8217;m very lucky in Automattic that happiness engineers have an amazing temperature that I can just get that gauge and know and I think doing that and testing assumptions. \u00a0I have constantly been surprised at things and I think that is great and that to me remind me how much I should be doing user research as well.<\/p>\n<p>FROM THE FLOOR: I was wondering in your research process at what point would you find it most appropriate to start running AB testing?<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: That&#8217;s assuming every research has to have AB testing because I would say it doesn&#8217;t. \u00a0If your testing is AB testing then your goal would say at what point. \u00a0Does that make sense? \u00a0I think &#8211; sorry to be flippant but I don&#8217;t think every test needs AB testing. \u00a0I think AB testing is something I&#8217;ve heard a lot of people say yes I need to do it and surveys of AB testing are like yes I need to do it for everything. \u00a0It&#8217;s great to put it out there but there can be other forms, similar results to AB testing that you can do which aren&#8217;t AB testing so it&#8217;s a case of what is your goal, what does AB testing achieve of that goal? \u00a0Then do it. \u00a0Just having AB testing at like 80 per cent of your project just because a project manager decided that has to happen in every Agile project development I would not say that&#8217;s a good reason to do user research. \u00a0In your company and product AB testing has proven time and again to work all the time absolutely have it and have it at that point. \u00a0And some companies and some products it&#8217;s going to be 80 per cent &#8211; I am plucking a figure &#8211; at 80 per cent of our products cycle AB testing has proven so many things and it&#8217;s proven so many things of the similar thing you are testing, absolutely have it part of your process, but it&#8217;s that flexible mindset. \u00a0And we&#8217;re discovering more about humans. \u00a0There is a lot of the brain we don&#8217;t know about and as we know more about humans we can get better user research and better testing mechanisms as well.<\/p>\n<p>FROM THE FLOOR: Hi, Tammie. \u00a0Do you ever disagree with your users and what would you do in that case?<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: Absolutely because I am not my users and I am ridiculously trained in my own perception. \u00a0The way I do it is I tend to not {inaudible} myself and it sounds weird but I really can&#8217;t assume that I am a user, I can&#8217;t A assume &#8211; I am a particular user with a particular experience but I am a designer trained in different ways of doing it so I&#8217;m going to see things very differently from someone who is a blogger who is doing a particular thing. \u00a0I tend to always put the user before my voice. \u00a0I definitely filter. \u00a0There are a lot of times in research you can get very varied and some crazy ideas that my designer sense says probably not a good idea we make everything pink just because Vera really likes pink and in her response she has said everything should be pink because pink makes me happy. \u00a0That&#8217;s probably not a time I would listen to the user unless it is proven like a thousand users have said pink is like the way we would respond to this. \u00a0So, it&#8217;s having that little bit of common sense but generally the users win over me. \u00a0Any other questions?<\/p>\n<p>WENDIE: Last question.<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: I&#8217;m not repeating them. \u00a0If they&#8217;ve got a microphone I don&#8217;t need to.<\/p>\n<p>FROM THE FLOOR: This is probably petty terminology some of the way you talk about research seems to me what I call testing so can you just explain is testing research, is research testing are they separate things with an overlap?<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: To me when you talk about usability testing that&#8217;s research and I think different people will have different opinion, it&#8217;s potentially very subjective. \u00a0My opinion and why I&#8217;m saying research is &#8211; I feel that that is part &#8211; you are getting a feedback from the user. \u00a0So to me that&#8217;s user research. \u00a0People may not agree with that but to me we need to be simple in our terms. \u00a0We get hooked up in the community designs in particular on certain terms need to mean certain things and it&#8217;s very binary but to someone who is learning this if you say user research and you open it and show the tools and show user research &#8211; I am not talking about code tests here. \u00a0Another person may argue that should be but that&#8217;s not what I&#8217;m talking about. \u00a0I see things like usability testing, AB testing all those things they absolutely are part of user research. \u00a0For me the line is am I getting feedback from my users that is something I can then use to my product? \u00a0That quantitative qualitative data if I&#8217;m using that it&#8217;s user research.<\/p>\n<p>WENDIE: All right, time is up. \u00a0Big applause for Tammie, please. \u00a0{Applause} One thing are you talking about this WordCamp Brighton?<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: No &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>WENDIE: But you are one of the organisers because you told me so I know it is in August so it is a long time until then but if you are interested it&#8217;s going to be great.<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: Yes it&#8217;s going to be 2 days, we&#8217;re going to have workshops, probably some JavaScript and UX work shops and a day of talks and a contribution day. \u00a0Going to be 200 people, quite small, talks will be open so we&#8217;re going to have a call for talks in Brighton is kind of amazing to be in August.<\/p>\n<p>WENDIE: Feel free to sign up as a volunteer, speaker and visitor. \u00a0If you want to stay here that fine but we&#8217;re changing rooms so if you want to go to another room that&#8217;s fine also.<\/p>\n<p>TAMMIE LISTER: Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How can you truly create an experience without knowing who you are creating it for? Why does so much get made without user research? Why do so many creating experiences not run user tests or engage with their users at any point? It isn\u2019t a privilege of the wealthy agency or invested company. In this &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/session\/know-your-users\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Know Your Users<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118378,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wcpt_session_time":1489845600,"_wcpt_session_duration":3000,"_wcpt_session_type":"session","_wcpt_session_slides":"","_wcpt_session_video":"","_wcpt_speaker_id":[1790],"footnotes":""},"session_track":[643127],"session_category":[],"class_list":["post-1934","wcb_session","type-wcb_session","status-publish","hentry","wcb_track-track-c"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p833Rb-vc","session_date_time":{"date":"18\/03\/2017","time":"14:00"},"session_speakers":[{"id":"1790","slug":"tammie-lister","name":"Tammie Lister","link":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/speaker\/tammie-lister\/"}],"session_cats_rendered":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/1934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wcb_session"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/1934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3606,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/1934\/revisions\/3606"}],"speakers":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/1790"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wporg\/v1\/users\/karmatosed"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wcb_track","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/session_track?post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"wcb_session_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/session_category?post=1934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}