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Introduction to User Experience Research with Tomi Obikunle
27:58 with TreehouseIn this presentation, UX Researcher Tomi Obikunle demystifies the UX research process and shares about their own professional work.
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[MUSIC]
0:00
Next, I'd like to welcome up
our first speaker of the day.
0:04
Tomi is
a Nigerian-British-Canadian-American UX
0:08
professional with the social
science background.
0:12
Since attending a boot camp for
UX design and research in 2017,
0:16
Tomi has worked at a fast
paced agency in-house and
0:21
one of the big three
educational publishers.
0:25
And she now works as a digital
government consultant on a project for
0:28
the Veterans Health Administration.
0:32
Welcome, Tomi [SOUND].
0:34
>> Awesome, hi everyone..
0:37
So I'm Tomi, and
just a little bit about me.
0:38
I am based in Chicago, and
I'm a UX researcher and
0:42
designer at Skylight Digital.
0:47
Besides just trying to
keep it together and
0:51
watching a lot of Netflix this
year just like everybody else,
0:53
I've also picked up tap dancing and
it's super fun, highly recommend it.
0:57
And I'm sure my downstairs
neighbors love that.
1:01
I'm also forever trying to figure out
how not to kill all of my plants.
1:04
Today here's a little breakdown of
what I hope to talk to you all about.
1:11
First we'll get into a little bit about
my background, my schooling, we'll get
1:16
into what UX research is, what it means
to me and what it means in my own words.
1:22
And then like Ryan said,
I'll talk about my agency experience,
1:27
my in-house experience, and
then now my consultancy experience.
1:32
And then finally, I'll just get
into what my day to day looks like.
1:37
And hopefully have time at the end for
1:42
Q&A in case there's anything else
you all would like me to talk about.
1:44
So first, a little about my background.
1:50
I do not have a design degree and
1:55
actually my journey to UX
has been pretty windy.
1:58
In college I changed my
major like three times and
2:03
eventually landed on
comparative human development.
2:06
Where I focused a lot on child and
adolescent psychology.
2:10
And all throughout high school,
all throughout college I tutored kids.
2:13
I loved working with students,
loved working with teachers.
2:18
And after college still wasn't quite sure
what I wanted to do when I grew up, but
2:21
I knew I liked working in education.
2:25
So I stayed close to home for a few years.
2:27
And some other jobs I had in my senior
year of college I was a research assistant
2:31
for the teachers union.
2:35
After graduating, I was a teacher's
assistant at a Montessori School for
2:37
a little bit.
2:42
And I also taught hands-on engineering
projects to kids with a nonprofit.
2:43
I even worked at an education and
2:50
employment discrimination law firm for
bit.
2:53
And it was actually, while I was teaching,
I was subscribed to a bunch of
2:56
ad tech blogs, and I kept seeing
UX pop-up like all over the place.
3:00
I was like, okay, what is that?
3:05
Looked it up, and it seemed like
a really good marriage between my
3:07
background in psychology and
my interest in tech.
3:12
So I talked to a bunch of designers,
I went to meetups,
3:15
asked people to grab coffee with me and
just tell me about their jobs and
3:19
finally decided it looked
like a good next step for me.
3:23
So then I attended in 2017, a boot
camp and it was about 6 months long.
3:28
And that is where I learned
UX research and design.
3:35
But over the years, I've just realized
that UX research is where I feel the most
3:39
comfortable, I feel,
that's where I shine and
3:44
I sort of gravitated more to
towards research over the years.
3:47
And I think that's also because even
before switching to UX, I had experienced
3:51
interviewing people, getting them to talk
about themselves, tell me how they think.
3:55
And I also had experience
conducting research.
4:01
So UX research didn't feel
like a drastic shift for
4:03
me even though it's a different framework.
4:06
So when I say UX research,
what do I really mean by that?.
4:12
For me something that comes to mind,
you're not your user.
4:16
This has become basically
a mantra in our industry,
4:20
this idea that we can tend to
overestimate how many people
4:24
will think like us or
act like in a given context.
4:29
So when we're designing products, we can
falsely make assumptions about what's
4:33
gonna work for
the people using our products.
4:37
And I think we can mitigate this by
actually talking to them throughout
4:39
the lifecycle of the product.
4:43
Just to make sure we're not wasting time,
and money making things that the people
4:45
that are intended to help, like don't
later doesn't actually meet their needs.
4:49
So this is a humbling reality
that I like to keep in mind,
4:53
and I think that justifies
frequently doing UX research.
4:57
So how I would define it in my own words
is talking to people to learn about
5:01
their needs, their motivations,
and their behaviors so
5:06
that we can design better products and
experiences for them.
5:10
So really, that means to me learning
about people's mental models.
5:15
So how do they think things work?
5:19
What do they call things, like what's
the language that they're using?
5:21
What are some of the assumptions and
beliefs that they bring with
5:25
them that informs how they engage
with a product or a service?
5:29
To learn about their needs and motivations
and wondering why are they even here,
5:34
what are there trying to do, what are some
of their goals when using this product or
5:38
this service.
5:41
And then for their behavior I'm looking
at, so what do they actually do?
5:42
Where are they clicking?
5:48
What are they buying?
5:50
And this research is also that we can do
a better job of just meeting people where
5:52
they are.
5:56
So that let's say they're on a website.
5:57
Language that we're using for
6:00
a heading or a button makes sense to them,
makes sense matches how they think.
6:02
Or make it so
that if they're trying to find something,
6:06
they're not spending too much time and
that can be frustrating if we haven't
6:09
studied where they might look or what kind
of language they might be looking for.
6:13
So some of the questions that I asked
myself when doing research are, so
6:20
what do people say, what do people do?
6:25
Whether I'm bringing ideas to them that
the team has, or I'm just watching them,
6:27
I mean having them talk me through
their experience with the website.
6:32
I'm curious what they think, what they
care about, maybe what's working for them,
6:36
things that aren't working for
them, things that are frustrating.
6:40
If there's anything they wish was
different and most importantly, why.
6:44
And then, during something like usability
testing, I also get to see what they do,
6:49
how they interact with the page, which
areas of the page they're focusing on,
6:54
and which other areas maybe they gloss
over, or they don't even discover at all.
7:00
I'm also interested in let's say we're
considering a new feature before,
7:05
I even think about like, okay,
how can we best to make this feature?
7:10
I'm wondering,
do we even need this feature?
7:14
What value does it offer to the people
who are using our products?
7:17
And then honestly,
a lot of the work is damage control.
7:22
If someone is frustrated, let's say
they can't really find something,
7:24
they can't really accomplish
a task they set out to do.
7:28
What can we do to fix that so
that other people don't really
7:31
stumble into those same kind of issues,
and how can we make it better?
7:35
And then to answer some
of these questions,
7:39
here are some of the activities and
exercises that I do.
7:42
So the bulk of my job
is interviewing people.
7:45
Just to get a sense of where we should
focus our efforts to see if something that
7:49
we've created is really
meeting their needs.
7:53
For concept testing, I'll get a sense of
before we spend a lot of time building or
7:58
designing something that we're
headed in the right direction.
8:02
Let's see, just test this concept.
8:06
For card sorting, I might do a card
exercise with someone to see
8:09
what pieces of information
they feel belongs on a page,
8:13
how they would naturally
group that information.
8:17
And then a lot of my work
is reviewing designs.
8:22
I work closely with designers to make
sure we're following best practices.
8:25
To make sure that we're following and
paying attention to things we've already
8:29
learned in research and making
recommendations based off of all of that.
8:33
Let's say we are trying
to work on a new feature.
8:38
I might do something like a comparative
analysis to see what this looks
8:41
like normally, how other people
have tackled similar problems.
8:45
And then of course,
I also do usability testing,
8:49
especially before launching major changes.
8:52
We'll wanna make sure that people
can find their way around and
8:55
complete the tasks that
they set out to do.
8:59
And I also do copywriting.
9:02
I share this responsibility
with a few other people on my
9:03
team including designers and
other researchers.
9:07
So now I'd like to get into
my different experiences
9:12
working in an agency in-house,
and I have a consultancy.
9:17
So right after my boot camp,
my first job was at Vokal,
9:23
they're an agency,
there are about 40 employees there.
9:27
So their clients hired us to design and
build products.
9:32
And while I was there,
I worked on a few different projects,
9:37
and they totaled maybe like a few weeks
long to as long as a few months long.
9:42
Then after that I worked at McGraw Hill,
and they're much larger company
9:48
over 3,000 employees across
multiple different offices.
9:53
And they recreated our own
products in-house, and
9:57
they were educational products.
10:00
So our online learning platforms,
textbooks, And
10:02
now I work at Skylight, and
they're also about 40 employees,
10:07
similar to an agency in that clients hire
us to design things, to build things.
10:12
But I'm embedded on a team.
10:19
It's a longer term contract and
10:21
we're more involved in coming up with the
strategy and the direction of the website.
10:23
And the project I'm on I
started in February and
10:28
I will continue on through to next year.
10:30
So longer term contracts for sure.
10:33
A little bit more about
my agency experience.
10:38
So there was me, there were two other UX
designers, a couple more visual designers,
10:41
and lots of developers, and
a product manager on my team.
10:48
And their UX designers also did research.
10:52
So I did both of those things, and
10:55
most of my daily meetings or
stand ups were with everyone on my team.
10:57
So if I was doing research,
I frequently got feedback,
11:02
I think that sort of
immediacy is really helpful.
11:04
Also I worked on a few different projects
across a few different industries.
11:08
An example,
I worked on wealth management tools.
11:12
I helped a client think through
what it might look like for
11:16
them to have a companion app for
their medical devices.
11:20
It's really fast paced,
11:24
it sort of felt like we had to be
scrappy with research sometimes.
11:26
And I think for the first time I realized
that the cadence, the process that I had
11:30
learned in my bootcamp,
which was ideal in the real world,
11:35
sometimes it's hard to find
research participants.
11:38
Sometimes you realize you might not have
as much time as you had wanted in having
11:41
to deal with this sort of
real life constraints.
11:45
So afterwards at McGraw Hill,
there the UX team was larger,
11:50
we had multiple offices so
a lot of our meetings or virtual.
11:56
And that's where I started to do
a bit more research and less design.
12:01
I've mostly worked with researchers and
designers, but
12:07
we met frequently with product
managers in development as well.
12:10
Just to sort of combat
the tendency towards silos and
12:14
really make sure all the teams
were on the same page.
12:18
So there I did a lot of research
with teachers and students,
12:22
which felt very homey to
me cuz of my background.
12:26
And I got to get a good sense of our
learning ecosystem because I did research
12:29
on our science products, our social
studies products, our math products.
12:34
So I got to see how teachers
use our products, and
12:39
then beyond that I got a better sense of
their classroom environment, what other
12:43
products they were using, their teaching
styles, any resources they had available.
12:48
So are we talking about a classroom
where every kid has an iPad or
12:54
a school where teachers have
to share those computer carts?
12:58
Things were slower paced,
I definitely got more sleep at that job.
13:03
And there we had the time to
really think about, okay,
13:07
where do we wanna be as a company two
years from now or five years from now?
13:11
And how can we work really
towards the big picture?
13:16
And there was a lot more emphasis
on company values and our brand.
13:20
And now I work at a consultancy.
13:27
So at Skylight, again,
also about 40 people, my team is small.
13:32
It's me, another researcher, one designer,
four developers, and a product manager.
13:37
So similar to the agency sort of cadence,
but
13:44
again the contract I'm on is at least for
a couple years.
13:48
And the designer helps us with
research plans and researchers,
13:52
we sometimes come up with
low fidelity designs.
13:57
So there's a bit of a blending of the
roles where people kind of help out where
14:01
they can.
14:05
And a big difference between
my experience at Skylight and
14:06
other jobs I've had is that I
don't have a UX director or
14:10
UX manager who's looking
at my daily tasks.
14:14
But certainly I have check ins with
Skylight research and design leads.
14:17
If ever I need help with something,
I can go and I can seek feedback, but
14:22
it's not like someone is monitoring
my day to day on work from a UX and
14:26
research perspective.
14:31
And so that's, yeah,
that's a lot of responsibility.
14:33
A lot of freedom, which for
me was scary at first but
14:37
it has forced me to grow a lot this year.
14:40
And it means I'm more involved in thinking
through when the team does research,
14:43
what methods we utilize, and I'm more
involved in planning the roadmap for
14:48
research and thinking through
the big picture of our project.
14:53
So now I'll specifically got into
what my day to day looks like.
15:00
Honestly a lot like this.
15:09
Luckily I work for a team,
we encourage naps, we encourage walks.
15:10
I'm a very sorta sleepy person, so I have
to remember to get up from time to time.
15:14
But really, here's what I do.
15:19
We work in sprints, so
there are two week periods and
15:21
we always start the first
week with sprint planning.
15:24
And that's where we figure out,
okay, what task did everyone work on?
15:27
What does success look like?
15:30
Who's working on what?
15:32
And that's a really good time for
us to think through what we're doing,
15:33
what our goals are.
15:37
We can revisit the product roadmap,
15:38
we can recall what is it that we learned
in research or what bug did someone
15:40
stumble into that's justifying the work
that we're doing for this sprint.
15:44
And then I'll work closely
with the other researcher,
15:49
we'll sort of divvy up
the responsibilities.
15:51
What we found works really well
is if one person goes ahead and
15:54
starts writing the research plan.
15:57
The other person will start recruiting and
scheduling people for interviews.
15:59
And then we'll join forces,
we'll finish the research plan.
16:03
We'll share it with the designer,
with the product manager,
16:06
just to make sure we're all on the same
page about what it is we're trying to
16:10
learn with that research effort.
16:14
And then in then next week we'll go ahead,
we'll do the research,
16:16
we'll do the research activities.
16:19
We'll debrief, me and
the researcher will debrief together.
16:21
We'll figure out what is it that
we need to bring back to the team,
16:24
what's worth sharing.
16:27
And then also what recommendations
we have for things to work on next,
16:29
even if it's not immediately
next long term as well.
16:33
And then the cycle will repeat, we'll help
write stories, we'll help write new tasks.
16:38
And that's that's kind of the cadence,
the flow of my day to day.
16:42
And yeah, that's what I have for
you all today.
16:46
I now invite questions.
16:50
Thanks so much for listening.
16:52
If there's anything y'all want me to
talk about, I'm happy to get into that.
16:54
So let me pull up the platform.
16:59
I think I can see Q&A
questions written there.
17:03
So one of the questions I see is,
17:17
what's the difference between referring
to users as users versus people?
17:19
Feel like this is a hotly
debated question.
17:25
And because users or
even words like consumers can feel very
17:29
dehumanizing even though,
I mean it's in the title of the job.
17:34
It's very well recognized and understood.
17:40
And so when I use people, I understand
that you can't, I don't know, that I can
17:44
entirely divorce myself from that language
of user, it just feels more human.
17:49
And especially when I'm doing research,
I would never call someone a user,
17:54
it's more one on one,
more person to person.
17:58
That's what it means to me.
18:01
I have googled so many times what
words we should use instead.
18:03
Sometimes the word customer is
more appropriate but not always.
18:07
Sometimes people use consumers.
18:11
[LAUGH] That's what I think about that.
18:14
So let me come through
some of these others.
18:18
So one of the questions I see is, in your
role, do you design and survey people?
18:24
I've heard of UX and UI, but
I don't really know the difference.
18:32
So how I've had the difference
described to me in a way that really
18:37
resonated was this idea of let's say
we're talking about a building and
18:41
someone has to come up with the sort
of blueprint, the architecture,
18:47
like what is this even gonna look like?
18:52
That's what I see is in
the wheelhouse of UX.
18:54
What is it that we're
trying to build here?
18:58
Where should things go?
18:59
What does that skeleton really look like?
19:01
Whereas a UI person might be involved
in coming up with that picture.
19:04
But they really come in once we've
already figured out what's on the page,
19:08
where things go, and now that's the
opportunity to apply branding fonts and
19:13
really make it look the way you
would want something to look beyond
19:17
sort of a grayscale, here's what we're
doing, here's what it all looks like.
19:21
Okay, I'm gonna read some other questions,
let's see.
19:31
So one question I'm seeing is,
what does a research plan look like for
19:37
you specifically?
19:41
And what might be some of the steps
included in setting that plan?
19:43
So for me a research plan always starts
with, and that's sprint planning where
19:47
we're figuring out, okay,
we wanna talk to these people.
19:51
Here's what we're trying to learn, maybe
here's the feature we're working on where
19:54
we're not quite sure where to go and we
need to talk to people who would be using
19:58
it to get a sense of
how to build this out.
20:00
So my research plan will start
with a timeline of scheduling.
20:02
Okay, so what How many days
are we given to a research plan?
20:06
When are we doing research?
20:10
When are we sharing out
with our stakeholders?
20:12
So just like a many timeline for me and
the other researcher to keep us on task
20:15
and then we have immediately
identified goals.
20:19
So beyond what we've
shared in sprint planning,
20:22
where everyone kind of nods along.
20:24
And were like yeah, yeah,
this is what we wanna go research on.
20:26
Many other researcher will think through,
okay,
20:29
what are we actually trying to learn here?
20:31
And then that the bulk of
the research plan is the script.
20:34
So how do we ask questions in a way that
will get us the answers that we want,
20:37
that'll get us closer to understanding?
20:41
Okay, if we wanna build out a metrics
page, what should go on it?
20:45
What is important to people?
20:48
What do we think is important that
maybe people actually don't care about?
20:50
So the script and then also,
we'll detail participants as
20:53
the scheduling starts to be more,
more cemented.
20:58
Hope that helps with kind of how
I think about research plans.
21:05
And then let's see,
how much more time do I have?
21:10
I probably can take a couple more.
21:14
How often has UX research and
implementation of findings,
21:20
then off track with user
feedback when deploying changes?
21:25
So, to me that question means, how has
there been a mismatch, maybe at times.
21:32
Between what changes we're
trying to deploy and
21:39
then what I get back from research.
21:43
Certainly there have been times when
we'll sort of come up with an idea or
21:46
maybe something we inherited
even before I joined the team,
21:51
this is just how we do things.
21:54
And I learned and researched
maybe this thing that we created
21:56
a year ago doesn't quite make sense for
our ecosystem anymore.
22:01
Maybe it's something that we created
because we had a short timeline and
22:06
we just had to get something there but
it's not the best that it can be.
22:10
And the more I do research, we do it so
frequently that you start to see patterns,
22:14
and it allows me to really step back and
22:19
think through what we created against
how I'm hearing people use it.
22:21
Or the things that we thought made
a lot of sense and people were like,
22:26
you know what, I never go there and
never really understood what that meant.
22:29
I think that luckily that
doesn't happen too often,
22:33
the position I'm in now,
we do research a lot.
22:37
And luckily that it's not often that
we've spent time deploying changes that
22:41
haven't been vetted various
times along the way.
22:45
One question that I see is,
22:52
what's the most challenging
part about UX research?
22:55
That's a really good question.
23:04
I would say one thing that's challenging
that has come up for me kind of recently.
23:06
Is this idea that you have, look, the work
of a UX researcher was just to kind of be
23:12
this mediator between
people using the product.
23:16
What are they saying?
23:19
How can we bring that to
the people making the product so
23:19
that we're all on the same page and
there isn't a disconnect.
23:22
And sometimes I wonder how best to
relate to stakeholders, to the people,
23:25
keeping my lights on,
paying us all to be here.
23:30
How best to think about visions that
they have, ideas that they have.
23:33
When I'm hearing, potentially from
the people using the products,
23:38
they might not care about
exactly the same things.
23:42
I know that everyone,
certainly, our client,
23:46
the stakeholders are interested in meeting
the needs of the people using them.
23:48
But if they're not always talking to them,
then it suddenly becomes my job to
23:53
sort of relay like, hey,
stakeholder, hey, person paying me.
23:57
I know that you really
care about these things.
24:02
But some of your priorities might not
actually match what I'm hearing on
24:04
research and it's like,
how do you finance that language so
24:08
that you are not really being offensive.
24:11
And you are just doing what
they hired you to do and
24:13
sharing just people's feedback
without much angst behind that.
24:17
I would say that it's challenging but
it's challenging in a good way.
24:23
And certainly,
when I've spoken up about like, hey,
24:28
I think we're a little bit off about this.
24:31
Clients have appreciated that they might
not have been able to learn that on
24:33
their own.
24:37
Let's see, one question I see
is were you able to transition
24:44
quickly from the boot camp to employment?
24:48
Did you have a portfolio when
you first started at Vocal?
24:52
Did your portfolio include
boot camp projects or
24:55
just your own UI and UX projects?
24:59
So, was I able to transition quickly?
25:03
After my boot camp, they always said,
25:06
you really should get your
portfolio going up right away.
25:08
We had a couple client projects
during the boot camp and so
25:12
those were the two initial
projects I had on my portfolio.
25:15
But I was so burnt out after boot camp,
I didn't even open my laptop for
25:19
three weeks.
25:24
I went to Thailand, I needed that break.
25:25
Then I came back and
25:27
it probably took me another two months to
really get my portfolio up and running.
25:29
And it didn't take me long to find a job
and I don't think that was very common.
25:35
I just found my first job because
I happened to be on LinkedIn.
25:40
Someone posted about a job.
25:44
There were already 40 comments with
people saying, hey, I wanna apply.
25:46
And I was like, I'm not gonna be
the 41st person to comment and
25:51
I just directly messaged that person and
he didn't talk to me for two weeks.
25:54
And then we had coffee and then I got the
job and I don't know if that's typical.
25:58
But I guess it's a testament
to being on LinkedIn and
26:02
checking things beyond just job boards.
26:05
I think I've only ever gotten a UX job
because I either had to talk to someone
26:09
directly at the company or
26:13
I saw something like on LinkedIn or
heard about it from somewhere.
26:15
I often don't get jobs and
I just apply online.
26:19
And then my portfolio,
I think I answered that question.
26:23
There were a couple things on my portfolio
site and it was just the two things.
26:27
The two projects I had worked on in my
boot camp where we actually worked with
26:31
startup companies.
26:35
And so that allowed me to really detail my
process and show certain assets as well.
26:36
So Liz is saying last question.
26:44
Okay, so let me try to take one more.
26:46
How do you gather your insights
to become tasks for UX designers?
26:53
That's a good question.
26:59
So, for my findings, many researchers
will, beyond sharing with everyone
27:00
on the team, will also sit with
that down with the designer.
27:05
Because the designer helped us
come up with a lot of the research
27:09
questions and goals.
27:12
And so we'll sit with her and
think through, based on what we heard from
27:13
research specifically,
what should we change in the design?
27:17
And so it's just a very
organic conversation about,
27:21
here's what we think makes sense.
27:25
Sometimes, we'll have questions that
aren't answered and we'll have to go with
27:29
our best guess and then do another round
of research after she's designed more.
27:32
But yeah, we just think through with her,
sometimes we bring in the entire team,
27:36
because we're scratching
our heads over something.
27:40
That's kinda how we turn synthesis
into the next tasks for the designers.
27:44
So I guess that's my last one.
27:51
And thank you all so
much for your questions and
27:53
thanks again that you asked for
inviting me today.
27:55
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