How to Use Self-Directed Learning to Ensure Your Research Insights are Heard and Acted Upon
In our remote world, we as researchers need new ways to help our stakeholders cut through the noise to engage and digest our insights more meaningfully through thoughtful and intentional self-directed learning techniques. In this short session, we will discuss 4 key self-directed learning techniques to help you increase engagement around your insights during our debriefing sessions with your stakeholders.
HCI 2.0: Humanity Deserves the Attention that UX Research has to Offer
Data cannot interpret the world. Only humans can. Because of that, the next evolution of AI requires a more collaborative approach to building systems. And UX researchers are uniquely positioned to build the dream team responsible for managing the data collection required for more responsible AI.
Anthropology and sociology methodologies provide us the framework to interpret human behavior in a way that telemetry can’t. Qualitative research leads to more socially conscious computing decisions that will impact technology companies going forward.
Join this fireside conversation to discover…
- The power of changing one tiny acronym from “Human-Computer Interaction” to “Human-Centered Innovation”
- Expert recommendations for building more responsible technology
- What it will take to build a fundamental practice around collecting and analyzing high-quality data
- Practical steps you can take today to build ethical products in the future
Meet Martha Dorris, Civic Design Co-curator
Martha Dorris, Founder and CEO, Dorris Consulting International, has almost 34 years of government experience in acquisition, technical and program management to customer experience. Martha has run many government organizations that build and deliver agency and citizen facing programs to deliver government services anytime, anywhere on any device.
Most recently, Martha led and managed GSA’s Office of Strategic Programs where she brought a customer-centric lens to the services and acquisitions they award. In this Rosenfeld Review episode, she takes a dive into her projects at the GSA improving Customer Experience (as opposed to the previous focus on Customer Service), as well as work across the government and her advice for anyone just starting out.
We are pleased that Martha is supporting the curation team for our new Civic Design conference and community, which will be launching soon with our first monthly videoconference.
Do you want to work on climate? (Climate UX Discussion Series)
The first in a series of discussions centered around Climate UX. On November 15, Rosenfeld hosted a conversation between four UX professionals who have focused their careers around climate tech work. Whether you’re looking to pivot your career towards climate tech or adapt your current role to be climate focused, this panel offered valuable perspectives on what it means to work on climate.
Panelists: Matt Jones, Olga Khroustaleva, Michael Leggett, Karol Munoz; Moderator, Lou Rosenfeld
From Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research
Discover the transformative power of shifting from passive users to active shapers of AI in Tricia’s compelling closing keynote. Unveiling the insidious “User Trap,” Tricia exposes the pervasive sense of powerlessness entrenched in our tech-driven world. She champions a radical shift in the researcher’s mindset, advocating liberation from the confines of being “user researchers” to versatile professionals adept at navigating the complexities of human-tech interactions, especially ones that force people into becoming users. As AI tooling improves, Tricia envisions a future where human ingenuity stands as the cornerstone, complementing and enhancing the capabilities of advanced AI tools. In this world, researchers who can truly understand human beings, gather thick data, and communicate complexity and context-loss with clarity, will become even more indispensable.
Disrupting generative AI products with just-in-time consumer insights
Join Katie Johnson, Head of Consumer Insights at PanasonicWELL, to explore the future of developing products and services atop Generative AI technology. This talk will cover how to think about experimenting with users today for use cases that don’t yet exist at scale, and how to bring insightful findings to leadership to make strategic decisions quickly. Katie will shed light on methods and strategies she’s employed in building products with cutting-edge technology throughout her career in agency life, blockchain, Google’s 0 to 1 environment in Assistant, and now at PanasonicWELL.
Panel: Collaboration Tools
We have all heard the old saying “communication is key” but as the landscape of technology widens so do the options we have for communication tools using that technology. To talk about the challenges and opportunities that our organizations face when solving the communication conundrum, we have invited three people working in three different areas where communication is key for organizations with designers: research insights, workflow management and design systems management. Facilitated by Abby Covert.
Avoid Harming Your Team and Users: Promoting Care and Brand Reputation with Trauma-Informed UX Practices
Trauma is a pervasive, universal experience – no less than 75% of the world’s population and 90% of Americans report experiencing at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, with four or more being the norm. There are 11 types of trauma, including individual, interpersonal, collective, and historical experiences like cancer, abuse, racial discrimination, and war. It is also experienced second-hand when someone witnesses or hears about another’s traumatic experience.
Without considering the context of trauma, UX professionals may be missing opportunities to gain more customers and allies. Instead, they may be accidentally harming others or pushing them away. This is especially true for researchers, designers, content moderators, customer support workers, and others directly interacting with users and their experiences.
Is your work recreating the dynamics of abuse? And could you be harming not just your users but yourself and your team in the design process?
Trauma-informed technology experts Carol Scott and Melissa Eggleston provide a high-level overview of trauma-informed research and design as well as harmful practices common in the design, product, and tech environments. They give a real-world example of how UX professionals may undermine their own goals by ignoring the context of trauma. Carol and Melissa also discuss how AI and emerging tech could be trauma-informed from conception. Gain a trauma-informed perspective to improve your work and receive resources for further learning.
Takeaways
- Develop an initial understanding of trauma and trauma-informed approaches, including the theoretical, practical, and research-based underpinnings.
- Deep exploration of secondary trauma, why it’s relevant for UX professionals, and how to mitigate it for sustainable careers.
- Apply a trauma-informed approach to AI and emerging technologies research and design.
This Game is Never Done: A Chat with Erin Hoffman-John
At first glance, the emerging field of DesignOps doesn’t have much in common with creating video games. Erin Hoffman-John, CEO of Sense of Wonder and Assistant Professor of Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center in Silicon Valley, talks with Lou Rosenfeld about how game designers have a more direct connection to their users, and what that means for UX practitioners.
Erin is one of our speakers at this year’s DesignOps Summit! Stay tuned for details about next year’s conference.
The Evolution of User Research with Steve Portigal
Author, researcher, speaker, and frequent Rosenfeld Review guest Steve Portigal joins Lou for a chat on the state of the user research industry – where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed. If the field of research was once a lonely desert, today it’s a jungle. It was once a field where researchers could get lost and forgotten. Today, the field is teaming with life—so much so that you could get eaten alive.
Gleaning lessons from the past, Steve doesn’t want us to forget the desert. But he has no desire to return there.
In his chat with Lou, they look back, and they look ahead. They discuss shifts in community and networking, and how research agencies are being replaced by in-house research teams. Finally, the two discuss Steve’s role in the upcoming, in-person Advancing Research conference in Queens, New York.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
How the world of user research has evolved over the last 25 years from a widely-respected industry expert
How the research industry has shifted from agency-based work to in-sourcing
About Steve’s work, career, and books
About the upcoming, in-person Advancing Research Conference
About Steve’s role in past Advancing Research Conferences
Quick Reference Guide:
[0:00:29] Introduction of Steve
[0:02:50] “Dog fooding”, preparation, and collaboration that happens before conferences
[0:09:30] Comparing the user research field and community now to how it was 25 years ago.
[0:16:22] The evolution of networking, connections, and community
[0:23:09] Shifts and pivots Steve has seen over the last 25 years in the user research field
[0:30:32] Writing it down and moving on
[0:35:13] Plug for Advancing Research Conference, including Steve’s role
[0:36:27] Steve’s gift for listeners
