Three Years Out: Perspectives on the Near-Term Future of User Research (Videoconference)
We know how things are at the start of 2024, and the long term future? That’s anyone’s guess. But what might the not-so-distant future look like for User Research? That’s a horizon that’s just around the corner—and one that you start planning for now. Join us for a free discussion with some UX research thought leaders who have some opinions you’ll want to hear about the near future of our profession—and bring your own! We’ll be hearing from Sam Proulx of Fable, Lija Hogan of UserTesting and Milan Mijatovic; moderated by Lou Rosenfeld.
This Talk is Sponsored by Fable, an #AR2024 Virtual Sponsor.
People, not Petri Dishes: Stories from a Research Recruiter (Videoconference)
Less than a year ago, we opened an in-house participant recruitment service at Atlassian, a 3,000+ employees tech company, for anyone who wanted to do research. During that year, the Research Recruitment team grew to two people and serviced over 150 people who do research. In this talk, I share what our main learnings were, the pitfalls of opening a free-for-all recruitment service, and some of my top participant recruitment tips.
Cultivating Business Partnerships to Grow Research Ops (Videoconference)
The landscape of Research Operations is vast, and there is no “easy button” for organizations implementing a successful practice. So how do you multiply your effectiveness and increase your impact in a scalable way? Whether you’re a team of one or twenty-one, cultivating relationships across the business is critical in these days of interconnectedness. In this session, Noel Lamb shares examples of how you can get your company to invest in helping you build your Research Ops program.
New Methods for Remote Research Synthesis
With the increasing number of teams working remotely, conducting research with customers face to face, has become an impossibility. We’re all now involved in a unique experience of navigating and adapting UX research in the current times. This includes COVID-safe research, remote testing tools and techniques, and virtual participant management. In this short session we’ll talk about how we at Optimal Workshop have seen the research world change and give participants a contextual demo of how Optimal Workshop Reframer tool is fit for the task.
Time to Make the Donuts: How User Research Helped Bridge Disparate Teams
This is the tale of a Mozilla product team that did user research to understand the goals and processes of organizations starkly different than its own, and how the research findings shed light on discomfiting truths about Mozilla’s own ways of working. The story will detail how the team approached learning about large companies in highly-regulated industries and how the takeaways prompted reflection and re-ordering of business-as-usual at Mozilla.
The Future of UX Research (Videoconference)
Monty Hammontree will share his take on the future of User Experience Research and how that extends out beyond traditional UX researchers to everyone trying to bring the customer to the forefront of decision making—to everyone striving to be customer connected and data-driven. It extends out beyond traditional research roles to everyone involved in the product making process, such as, Designer, Product Managers, and Software Engineers. He believes the heart and soul of the future of user research as a discipline lies not in trying to create a dynamic where, “the few endeavor to learn on behalf of the many but rather lies in expanding the role to focus on empowering the many to learn.”
Transforming Strategic Research Capacity through Democratization
What do you do when you have 8x more designers than user researchers in an organization? Learn how we empowered designers to conduct local-level evaluative research, gave researchers more time to work on global, strategic research, and transformed our user research delivery practice. We will share what key ingredients made our transformation possible and what pitfalls to avoid when bringing research democratization to your own organization.
UX Research Trends (Videoconference)
The world of UX Research has evolved and changed rapidly. As businesses wake up to the power of understanding customers as human beings and using those learnings to make smarter decisions, the demand for these valuable insights has grown exponentially. So, how does the practice of UX Research adapt to this demand? How can we accommodate our stakeholders and teams while maintaining the integrity of research?
Getting started with accessibility research
In partnership with Fable, watch this panel discussion aimed at UX researchers on how to get started with accessibility research. Featuring industry experts from Discover, LEGO, and Ally Financial, this session demystifies what accessibility research entails, and demonstrates how inclusive design isn’t possible without the participation of people with disabilities. Together, we identify the common barriers, strategies for modifying research methodologies for accessibility, and ways to gain internal buy-in for accessibility research within your organization.
Moderator: Elana Chapman
Panelists: Divyen Sanganee, Li Wen Huang, Annabel Weiner
How to Empower Your Designers to Do Good Research – And Why You Want To
Designers are the driving force in today’s user research landscape. In this workshop, Prayag Narula, CEO & Co-Founder of Marvin, will discuss how good design is a competitive advantage that enhances the customer experience when you embed research into your process. Learn how design teams can use the tools and methodologies of trained researchers so the whole company benefits from a collaborative and repeatable approach to research.
