UX Research Hall of Fame
In my two years at UserTesting, I have completed 100+ research projects for 30+ clients. Below are some of the projects that I have particularly enjoyed working on. Most of them were done for clients with established NDAs, so please forgive any vagueness! I've also done some work for the UserTesting marketing and business development teams, which I detail here.
Project list is in chronological-ish order. If you have any questions about the methods I used, or specific results, please feel free to contact me!
Examination of Developer Behavior and Perceptions (2014)
This study was conducted for a client who was facing an image and awareness issue - their suite of developer tools was recognized as objectively very good, but nobody seemed interested in exploring the tools. In addition, they had done very little research into their intended audience and wanted to see if the success of their tools could help overcome their historically poor brand image.
The first step was to find out how developers think about their jobs and the tools accessible to them. I began by conducting a series of interviews with front-end developers, spanning various roles, countries, and levels of expertise. We discussed their job responsibilities, typical projects, and work flow, as well as how they went about solving development problems. We also discussed their impressions of various developer tools, browsers, and philosophies such as open source. The results gave us valuable insight into the browsers that developers tend to prefer, as well as what makes them interested in and loyal to specific brands and tools.
Next, I conducted a series of tests which involved developers demonstrating how they approached development problems. They were first asked to show how they had solved a recent problem, using whatever methods and resources they would naturally use. Then they were asked to solve the same problem using specific resources, including the client's. We compared their responses to the client's tool, competitor tools, and the "natural" solution; this helped me identify opportunities for improvement in the client's tool, with the intention of integrating successful elements of competitor resources.
How Consumers Search and Shop for Computing Devices (2014)
Healthcare.gov: Before and After (2013)
This project was conducted for the UserTesting marketing team.
Determining the Source of Player Frustration in an iPad Game (2013)
Design Comparison of an eCommerce Product Selection Flow (2013)
This project was conducted for an entertainment company and compared two potential designs for a venue map. Typically, I structure comparison/competitive tests such that half of the participants see Design A first, and half see Design B first, in order to reduce the effect of order bias.
While the usability findings were helpful if unremarkable, comparing the results of the two groups was quite interesting and revealed the importance of considering research structure in one's study. Participants from Group 1 (current/redesign) found the redesigned site map to be very easy to use, and preferred it greatly to the current design. However, participants from Group 2 (design/current) found the redesign difficult to use and confusing. While they still preferred the redesign to the current site map, their preference was less marked. It was clear that the redesign was only well-received when the participants had been primed and frustrated by the difficult-to-use current design.
Using the Remote Usability Platform to Validate Survey Structures (2013)
This project was conducted for the UserTesting business development team.