Using player cards as visual reminders of your personas and the people you met during field studies is a great way to help keep your users at the forefront of your design team’s thoughts. Here’s a rough guide on how to create them.

Ashley McKee points out a series of articles by Leisa Reichelt that discuss accepting the unscientific qualities of qualitative research, and using qualitative research as a flexible way to gather rich and insightful information about your intended audience.

Ashley McKee shares an interview builder.au conducted with Larry Constantine, Chief Scientist at Constantine & Lockwood, and speaker at this year’s UI12 Conference.

UIEtips 6/05/07: Field Research Fundamentals: An Interview with Kate Gomoll UIE’s Ashley McKee has conducted an excellent interview with Kate Gomoll, a recognized Field Research expert. In the interview, Kate shares how she and her team at Gomoll Research & Design conduct field studies.

iRise, who produces a product development tool that many of our clients find extremely helpful, is trying to make their tool even more helpful. Peter Indelicato, Senior Product Manager for iRise, is looking for folks to participate in some site visits.

One problem we often see is when the user researchers get overzealous in their improvement suggestions. They start to make recommendations in cases where there may not be any clear evidence the change will eliminate frustration or improve the design in a measurable way.

Exploring the similarities and differences between the team’s predictions and what happens during the testing can yield important insights for the team, leading to a much improved design.

Ashley McKee recommends an article by Lisa Reichelt that explores the not-so-obvious benefits of personas.

UIEtips 4/24/07: Five Techniques for Getting Buy-In for Usability Testing UIE’s Christine Perfetti discusses the 5 best techniques for convincing management and key stakeholders of the benefits of incorporating usability testing into the formal design process.

If your team is considering personas or would like to know how to make them better, you’ll want to gather everyone around for Steve’s seminar on the 24th. It’s a cost-effective way to get a good discussion going.