An overlooked resource… but useful for user research

User search (User-research) is an integral part of a UX design process. Listening, observing, analyzing… so much information necessary to understand the user and his context.

The so-called primary research consists in collecting all the necessary information that you lack upstream of a project. You will collect the necessary material directly from users by observation, interview, focus group, survey...
In addition, secondary research focuses on equally necessary but available information. It is therefore a question of analyzing what exists among all the articles or publications relating to your project. This work, carried out upstream of primary research, makes it possible to quickly become familiar with the subject by having access to quality information and with less effort. To do this, there are many sources: books, blogs, feedback, studies, internal resources, etc.

Three years later a first observation, the scientific literature still seems to benefit UX professionals too little.

However, our profession is at the crossroads of many disciplines such as engineering sciences and human sciences. Certain scientific contributions in these fields are well known and benefit everyone today. Still need to know.
The objective of this article is therefore to make you aware of this subject and to promote its use.

Neglected but yet inexhaustible and of quality

Science allows understand and explain the world around us based on observable facts. It is therefore a body of knowledge (theories, models, laws, etc.), organised, synthesized and shared, resulting from research. From a problem, a complete process (documentary research, development of the experimental plan, experimentation) makes it possible to lead to interpretable results.

Based on the principle that the purpose of scientific research is its contribution to the advancement of the discipline, the dissemination of its results is essential.

A publication in a prestigious scientific journal is thus considered as recognition of his work by many researchers. This is then subject to a process of review and scientific validation by peers.

Considerable UX contributions

Research contributes significantly to the contribution of new knowledge, whether statistical, theoretical or methodological.
Thus, in 1993, Jakob Nielsen and Thomas K. Landauer published a mathematical model allowing to estimate the number of problems identified during usability tests with n users.

Nielsen then states that 5 users identify 85% of website usability issues.

This figure, although disputed since given theevolution of uses and interface complexity, makes it possible to agree on the fact that a limited number of users is sufficient to conduct usability tests in an iterative manner.
It is the same with the ergonomic criteria by JM Christian Bastien and Dominique L. Scapin. Dating back to 1993, these timeless rules are used today by many designers in the generation or evaluation phase.
Last example, researchers like Gitte Lindgaard et Sirjana Dahal were interested in the time needed for a user to get a first impression of a web page. These results are valuable for conducting user tests and more particularly for printing.

Scientific literature provides knowledge on various subjects that can be used in all phases of your project : framing, user research, ideation, generation, user tests…

Feedback from experience

Conversational design is a fascinating subject where the user experience is a major issue

During my previous mission, I joined the teams of a chatbot editor. What are user behaviors? What are the best practices ? Which methodologies to apply? How to evaluate its usability?… I found elements of answers on various blogs but insufficiently.
Having explored the subject of virtual assistants during my studies, I know that academic research is very interested in it and that many results are available. Perhaps they could be transposed to my project context? I therefore decided, ahead of my mission, to carry out a review of the scientific literature on virtual assistants, chatbots, conversational design...

That's how I found out a model, by Karolina Kuligowska, offering several criteria for evaluating the performance, usability and quality of chatbots.

This publication notably allowed me to establish an evaluation grid adapted to my project; to be found at the end of this article, and to have visibility on many other research works on the subject.

Some practical tips to get started

To help you in your research and therefore save you time, here are some tips.

First, be aware that scientific articles are logically structured and standardized documents. This facilitates their reading and therefore their understanding by all. Among the different sections that make up a publication, here are the ones that should interest you:

• Literature review: summary of previous research on the subject. This is extremely rich in terms of information and gives you visibility on additional subjects or results that might interest you.

• The problem: problems, gap between what we know and what we would like to know, to which the researcher tries to answer. This allows you to check that the rest of the article is in line with your subject.

• Methodology : set of methods and tools used to conduct research. This section can serve as inspiration.

• Discussion and conclusion: summary and interpretation of results. This part is essential because it provides elements of answers, total or partial, as to the problem and addresses the limits of the study. You will then be able to consider whether or not these results are applicable to your project.

Skimming through a post focusing only on those sections will save you time.

This saves you from reading the entire article and skipping over complex parts such as the analysis of the results.
At first glance, these resources may seem difficult to access because some are chargeable and their distribution remains limited. However, it is still possible to access many publications for free provided you know where to find them.
To do this, I recommend that you do your first research on Google Scholar. This service, offered free of charge by Google, is a bibliographic database dedicated to scientific articles. It aggregates all the sources for a single publication and automatically offers the PDF version if this format is available.
Otherwise, specialized professional social networks are a good alternative (ResearchGate, Academy). You can create an account there for free to download certain publications. It is sometimes necessary to request access to the author. Rest assured, these sites have provided a button for this purpose.
Finally, remember to follow the researchers whose work you have appreciated and/or whose research topics interest you. In parallel with their scientific publications, some write books, others give conferences, some popularize their work on a personal blog, others are active on social networks... Here are some French-speaking suggestions:

• Guillaume Gronier's website, researcher in ergonomic psychology. You will find many of his scientific publications and very interesting course materials there.
• the works of Thierry Baccino, researcher in cognitive psychology, on visual exploration by oculometric measurements (eye-tracking) . His conference Digital reading: augmented or diminished reality? is very rewarding.
• Carine Lallemand's Twitter account, researcher in psychology, HMI and UX design. If this is not already the case and these disciplines interest you, I recommend his book " UX design methods », a must, and his various speeches in conferences.
• Pierre-Majorique Léger's talk at TEDxMontreal, neuroscientist.

 

TAKE AWAY

The contributions of academic research are numerous and should serve us better as UX Design professionals. Thus, it is important to consider the scientific literature as a source of quality information.
This practice is and should not be binding on you. Try it using simple tools, quickly scanning publications, monitoring popularization resources...
Do not hesitate to share your advice and your opinion on the subject, in the comments or on our Social Media. We will be happy to discuss.
 
Alexander, (@ajollive) UX Designer @UX-Republic