Workshop: Using Research to Better Understand Users
Background: FedEx Ground’s UX team has long worked on the premise of using user research to better understand who they’re designing for. However, there was a disconnect between doing the research and then synthesizing and translating the research into the design setting. Notes were clunky and disjointed. Audiences and stakeholders were unclear. Process flows neglected the user journey and only focused on the task at hand. As a result, I worked with the design team to research what we would like to achieve from our user research, and part of this included the use of journey mapping.
Course Description: Many designers talk about the value of conducting user research in an effort to better understand who they’re designing for, but putting that research into action is sometimes a completely different matter. This workshop discussed the various types of user research techniques used in UX research, and then illustrated the use of stakeholder and journey mapping to decipher the end-to-end user experience. This synthesis was then translated into a user summary document.
Course Format: The workshop was conducted in-person as a design team exercise. As a team we discussed the various types of techniques team members had used to conduct research. Afterwards, I walked them through the journey mapping process using a real FedEx project.
Course Objectives: After completing this course, learners will be able to...
- Understand and identify the role and purpose of ethnographic research in UX design.
- Identify and compare the different methods used to conduct user research, including when to use a specific technique.
- Identify the process of outlining all project stakeholders via a stakeholder map.
- Diagram the overall experience and end-to-end user journey for a task, process or scenario.
- Synthesize the results of their user research into a user summary document.
