This weekend I went to BarCamp and it was great. Always good to catch up with fellow campers and hear what’s on their minds.
What was on my mind this weekend was DIY User Research – you can see my slides above. This took me a little out of my comfort zone as I resolved not to say ‘it depends’ but to make some overall recommendations as to how almost anyone can afford the time and budget to do a little research, and the best ways to spend that time or budget.
This has been based on the experiences I’ve had recently doing User Research for start up companies who have very small amounts of time and money, but who desperately need the kind of research that I’ve recommended. The techniques I’ve suggested here have worked very well so far, although I hasten to add that I’ve undertaken the research work myself.
This is not to say that you can’t *really* do it yourself… if you use the right techniques you will get a LOT of value from DIY research… but an experienced researcher is, of course, worth their weight in gold :)
Good stuff! You don’t have an audio clip of your presentation do you? It’d be cool if you did a series of case studies now and then for what sites your think hit the nail on the head ala 37 signals:
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/699-screens-around-town-typographycom-catalog-choice-etc
keep it up ;-)
[…]La Reichelt sottolinea che le ricerche, anche limitate, portano sempre benefici al progetto e descrive le tecniche che permettono di ottenere ottimi risultati, in particolare se utilizzate da esperti.[…]
Looks like your presentation has been made private according to SlideShare? Was that on purpose?
hrm… that’s odd. I set it as public and it’s telling me that it’s public… can you not see it Chris? (If not, let me know and I’ll chase it up with Rashmi, I know this public/private thing is fairly new)
This is what I’m seeing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/2082555935/
Must be a bug… I’m having other problems as well… not just on your slideshow… so at least it’s not just you!
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It is amazing how many people don’t understand the fundamental importance of beginning with PROPOSITION. I totally believe in what gets invested in the front end of any process provides scope and results at the backend. I loved this presentation, not because it affirms the way I already think but this kind of thinking isn’t the prevalent one.
“Getting It” is the first issue, but “Doing It” and “Learning from Doing It” is the one where proof is in the pudding that one understands that this is the only way to “Getting It” and how this leads to massive improvement.
M.