Stereotyped by Design: Pitfalls in Cross-Cultural User Research
Today, technologists design for a diverse, globalized world. To reach untapped markets at home and abroad, design researchers are increasingly examining how “culture” influences user behavior and mental models. However, common approaches to cross-cultural research can underestimate user diversity and promote stereotypes that have little explanatory power for design. Using examples from research projects with immigrant communities, this talk explores various cultural frameworks that can help product teams produce meaningful insights about users who don’t share the same background.
Inconvenient Insights: The Researcher’s Role is to Stay Curious
There is no shortage of data in our organizations, including that which comes from research studies, in today’s “data-driven” organizations. Due to sheer volume, attention is often focused on the myriad tools and methods that exist to gather and manage data, not on the importance of establishing context and coherence across data sets. This talk will explore how researchers are uniquely qualified to use a mixed-methods mindset to transform fragmented data collection into meaningful insights, examine the barriers that challenge this outcome, and learn from real world examples about how to get stakeholders to demand the same.
Design, Consequences & Everyday Life
This session examines design interactions beyond screens — supermarkets, train stations and kiosks alike — to examine the ways we’ve grafted the digital world into everyday life without bringing along the users of these tools and technologies. We’ll explore the ways that friction causes bottlenecks in the delivery of government services and how designers can use research and collaboration to uncover these pitfalls before they’re too hard to fix.
Planning and conducting remote usability studies for accessibility (Videoconference)
There’s a lot to consider if you’re going to do accessibility research effectively and respectfully.
Using examples from previous user research and accessibility studies she’s conducted throughout her career, Rebecca shares lessons learned and guidance to consider when planning and executing remote usability testing with participants with disabilities, including the four specific disability categories: visual, motor, hearing and cognitive.
Bubbles of Belief: Dave Gray Talks Liminal Thinking & Current Events
Technology is unintentionally conspiring against you: making sure you only see more of what you like and agree with. How do we as a people expand our point of view when arguments are no longer productive? Dave Gray’s returns to talk with Lou Rosenfeld about how his latest book, Liminal Thinking, applies to Brexit and the recent U.S. election.
“Let’s Talk About Data and Crisis”: Public Digital Service Delivery = Open Data + Human Centered Design (Videoconference)
The public relies on government services during critical and meaningful events throughout their lives—from birth, travel, education, and healthcare to retirement and death. The global COVID-19 pandemic inevitably impacted these critical functions of our lives, and underscored the need for increased government technology and communications.
Digital platforms have proved to be key and effective agents in delivering critical and urgent information or services in the event of a public crisis, as opposed to physical infrastructure (imagine Dr. Fauci posting a paper bulletin to convey the latest national statistics for COVID-related data!). On the other hand, both private and public entities rallied around open data initiatives to inform critical policy decisions, share information, and work together to develop critical digital infrastructure that provided testing sites, kits, and results (e.g., call centers vs websites; office visits vs telemedicine).
To fully scale solutions such as these, we must first consider how we:
- Use data to inform our technology in solving problems;
- Provide assistance in a timely and approachable manner for end users; and
- How we use data to invest in critical features and to quickly deliver information.
Recruiting for User Research: a Chat with Nate Bolt
Nate Bolt knows more about recruiting for user research than the average human. He created the first moderated remote testing software, founded Ethnio, and authored the book Remote Research. In this podcast, Nate sits down with Lou to share ideas for how to get started, and what to look for in an ideal research participant.
Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World
You may be familiar with desktop screen readers like JAWS, and desktop voice control like Dragon Naturally speaking. You might know about WCAG, and popular automated testing tools for your websites. But what about mobile apps? How do accessibility techniques apply on the touch screen? As the entire world moves mobile first, your accessibility strategy needs to adapt. In this talk, we’ll introduce you to some of the changes that managing mobile-first accessibility correctly requires. We’ll cover some of the most popular assistive technologies on mobile, give you tips for automated and manual testing of your mobile apps, warn you of some of the pitfalls to watch for, and help you bring your mobile accessibility strategy to the next level.
The Power of Care: From Human-Centered Research to Humanity-Centered Leadership
What is the role of care in user research? Why is care a user researcher’s greatest superpower—not only in how we do our work but how we lead? In her talk at Advancing Research 2021, Etienne Fang, Principal Researcher at Amazon Search, will discuss the importance of inclusive leadership and share lessons on leading through care, helping researchers leverage their research strengths for leadership as individual contributors, team leads, and people managers alike.
Mobile Accessibility and You
You may be familiar with desktop screen readers like JAWS, and desktop voice control like Dragon Naturally speaking. You might know about WCAG, and popular automated testing tools for your websites. But what about mobile apps? How do accessibility techniques apply on the touch screen? As the entire world moves mobile first, your accessibility strategy needs to adapt. In this talk, we’ll introduce you to some of the changes that doing mobile-first accessibility correctly requires. We’ll cover some of the most popular assistive technologies on mobile, give you tips for automated and manual testing of your mobile apps, warn you of some of the pitfalls to watch for, and help you bring your mobile accessibility strategy to the next level.
