When performing user/design research, us UX researchers go into the field with ideas about the problems you’ve been asked to solve. But it’s nearly always the case that we come out of research sessions having identified a whole host of new and unexpected problems. This is so common, I’ve even added a section to my standard report template to account for the unexpected problems (and possible solutions).
I argue that it’s how you handle the “unexpected” problems that differentiates the good from the great UX researcher.
Discuss…
How do other practitioners handle the “unexpected” class of problems? How do you account for serendipity in your deliverables, communication with clients, etc?
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Of course, anytime you are speaking of the unexpected, you are referring to unforseen risk. My experience has been that risks should be identified and managed by starting with those that have the highest likelihood and highest impact. It's impossible (and not valuable) to mitigate every potential hazard that might hamper a positive user experience. But over time, project managers can collect a range of situations and conditions that jeopardize outcomes, and begin to assess the risk level. We have performed this analysis on sales processes have developed insight over what the critical steps are and what predicts that subsequent steps will be performed.
This is part of the beauty of what we do as UX professionals, we often times go in to research “x” but find the real issues are with “y” and “z”. We sometimes are uncovering audience experience issues that are more far reaching then the interface we were charged with performing our research on (business processes, technical limitations, organization structure, culture, unaccounted for usage scenarios/behaviors, etc).
My experience has been that it helps to make sure the client is prepared for the possibility that there may be additional outcomes to the research beyond “x.” Have those discussions on how to handle this with the client before going into the research. Paul, I think it's wise that you are proactively including a section in your report template to account for these unexpected outcomes, even if it's just a big blank page with a title at the top! At the very least, it will help serve as a discussion point with the client, prior to kicking off the research, to help them to keep an open mind to the possibilities. This will allow them to start thinking, ahead of time, what their plans would be to escalate in case something unexpected comes out of the research. I have found that managing the “surprise factor” helps the client feel more engaged and part of the process. It also helps us to gauge, from an internal politics perspective, when to “just not go there” and bring up topics that overtly make unwanted waves in the political pool!
Of course, anytime you are speaking of the unexpected, you are referring to unforseen risk. My experience has been that risks should be identified and managed by starting with those that have the highest likelihood and highest impact. It's impossible (and not valuable) to mitigate every potential hazard that might hamper a positive user experience. But over time, project managers can collect a range of situations and conditions that jeopardize outcomes, and begin to assess the risk level. We have performed this analysis on sales processes have developed insight over what the critical steps are and what predicts that subsequent steps will be performed.
Andrew Rudin, Outside Technologies, Inc.
http://www.outsidetechnologies.com
This is part of the beauty of what we do as UX professionals, we often times go in to research “x” but find the real issues are with “y” and “z”. We sometimes are uncovering audience experience issues that are more far reaching then the interface we were charged with performing our research on (business processes, technical limitations, organization structure, culture, unaccounted for usage scenarios/behaviors, etc).
My experience has been that it helps to make sure the client is prepared for the possibility that there may be additional outcomes to the research beyond “x.” Have those discussions on how to handle this with the client before going into the research. Paul, I think it's wise that you are proactively including a section in your report template to account for these unexpected outcomes, even if it's just a big blank page with a title at the top! At the very least, it will help serve as a discussion point with the client, prior to kicking off the research, to help them to keep an open mind to the possibilities. This will allow them to start thinking, ahead of time, what their plans would be to escalate in case something unexpected comes out of the research. I have found that managing the “surprise factor” helps the client feel more engaged and part of the process. It also helps us to gauge, from an internal politics perspective, when to “just not go there” and bring up topics that overtly make unwanted waves in the political pool!
Mark DiSciullo
User Experience Strategist
MISI Company
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