Comments on: UIEtips Article: Field Studies: The Best Tool to Discover User Needs http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/03/13/uietips-article-field-studies-the-best-tool-to-discover-user-needs/ UIE\'s latest insights on the world of design Wed, 7 Jan 2009 18:15:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Jared Spool http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/03/13/uietips-article-field-studies-the-best-tool-to-discover-user-needs/#comment-63146 Jared Spool Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:37:45 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/03/13/uietips-article-field-studies-the-best-tool-to-discover-user-needs/#comment-63146 Don wrote: <blockquote><em>A valuable service which I might pay for is using someone’s previous field study experience to evaluate my solution.</em></blockquote> It's an interesting idea. I wonder how you might pull it off. We've occasionally piggy-backed a secondary research project on an initial one. In those projects, the field study participants overlapped between the two projects, so it was easy to add some additional research into the sessions. However, I'm not sure you can retroactively match previous research to a new project, as it's likely the original session won't cover the necessary information. It would be interesting to know if anyone has made this work. Don wrote:

A valuable service which I might pay for is using someone’s previous field study experience to evaluate my solution.

It’s an interesting idea. I wonder how you might pull it off.

We’ve occasionally piggy-backed a secondary research project on an initial one. In those projects, the field study participants overlapped between the two projects, so it was easy to add some additional research into the sessions.

However, I’m not sure you can retroactively match previous research to a new project, as it’s likely the original session won’t cover the necessary information. It would be interesting to know if anyone has made this work.

]]> By: Todd Follansbee http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/03/13/uietips-article-field-studies-the-best-tool-to-discover-user-needs/#comment-63125 Todd Follansbee Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:37:01 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/03/13/uietips-article-field-studies-the-best-tool-to-discover-user-needs/#comment-63125 In all our field studies over these past many years I include as part of my post testing research, a review of learning styles and personality profiling because I believe it offers major insights into the test results. It directly affects how they perceive and understand content. The implications regarding persona analysis are also powerful. So far I don't know others how are doing this but I would love to be in touch with some. I know we spoke about this in New York Jared, so I am hoping this posting might help find some more folks, or at least some interested in pursuing it. I am not sure about your policies on posting URL's so I would encourage anyone interested to google me. In all our field studies over these past many years I include as part of my post testing research, a review of learning styles and personality profiling because I believe it offers major insights into the test results. It directly affects how they perceive and understand content. The implications regarding persona analysis are also powerful. So far I don’t know others how are doing this but I would love to be in touch with some. I know we spoke about this in New York Jared, so I am hoping this posting might help find some more folks, or at least some interested in pursuing it. I am not sure about your policies on posting URL’s so I would encourage anyone interested to google me.

]]> By: Don Mitchell http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/03/13/uietips-article-field-studies-the-best-tool-to-discover-user-needs/#comment-63113 Don Mitchell Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:58:56 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/03/13/uietips-article-field-studies-the-best-tool-to-discover-user-needs/#comment-63113 A valuable service which I might pay for is using someone's previous field study experience to evaluate my solution. That is, I may not be able to pay for the time or money of a custom field study, but I may be able to pay for domain expertise garnered through field studies for a short-term critique. To do so requires some ability to find someone with the pertinent domain field study experience. A valuable service which I might pay for is using someone’s previous field study experience to evaluate my solution. That is, I may not be able to pay for the time or money of a custom field study, but I may be able to pay for domain expertise garnered through field studies for a short-term critique. To do so requires some ability to find someone with the pertinent domain field study experience.

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