User research

Note taker: Claire

Unofficial Notes by Clayton

Introductions

• Tiffany, [OK Thanks](https://okthanks.com/)

 * Works to understand the communities being served
 * When we reach out to communities solutions are sustainable
 * Works globally- Latin America, Africa, etc.
 * Working alongside a development team

• Clayton, [Agaric](http://agaric.com)

 * Doing user research for [Drutopia](https://drutopia.org) and oftentimes on client projects for Agaric.

• Ben, [SudoMesh](https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh), [EFF](https://www.eff.org/)

 * Packaging up tools for organizations
 * Works to resolve challenges of making esoteric technology usable

• Mark, [Impact Justice](https://impactjustice.org/)

 * Uses participatory research methodologies - training youth on conducting their own research
 * Wants to know best ways to solicit feedback in the case management tool being built

• Maria José

 * Costa Rica
 * Stengthens local development and ownership of tech
 * Building a digital platform, wants it to be relevant to communities

• Georgia

 * Keep youth out of jail
 * Collecting data about cases, make it as easy to do as possible
 * Creating an online toolkit on how to start restorative diversion programs

• Suzi [350.org](https://350.org)

 * Builds and maintains in-house tools, conducting user research as it's being built
 * How to phrase things in less technical, more meaningful ways?
 * How to solicit end user input?

• Claire, [Pursuance](https://pursuanceproject.org/)

 * Pursuance - project management and social networking tools
   * Have begun creating personas
   * How much traditional UX practices in corporate tech can be applied, where do they need to be rethought?

• Peterson

 * Haiti, non-profit & side project
 * App to make homes more accessible
 * Doing interviews, but questions are still an issue

• Danny

 * Lead user research in tech coop
 * Background in economic sociology
 * Alternatives to personas
   * Convergence workshop - get a group of people together to review a flow chart
   

1. 1. Methodologies

• Questions

 * Get as specific as possible
 * Use multiple choice to solicit structured feedback and make it easier to answer
 * use emojis as answer

• Surveys

 * How many surveys to ask?

• Interviews
• Usability Studies/Testing
• Personas/Community Profiles/Scenarios
• Focus Groups
• Customer development
• Prototyping
• Project Brief

 * Opportunity (dreamy)
 * Use Case (which people, where, doing what)
 * Design Guidelines (characteristics)
 * Performance metrics (how do we know it's successful)
 * What makes this product unique, what is its essence? Come up with 3-4 principles and stick to them.

• Private sector interests in user research and user experience design

 * Interested in stable communities
 * Marginalized and edge cases are ignored

• People have to adapt to use the tool in the way it's designed
• Community profiles

 * Journalists
   * Syria
   * Working for human rights defenders
   * Short stories/quotes
   * Challenges and trends
 * How does focusing on the most subjugated groups affect the way we use these research methodologies?

1. 1. Resources

• internews.org
• witness.org
• okthanks.com
• consentful technology - designjustice.org