Democratization of user research
Summary
Overview
As a UX Research and Content Design graduate intern, I collaborated with the UserTesting.com Executive team on multiple projects, from developing new research templates for the template library to exploring new ventures. In this particular project, the Executive team was looking to create a research guide for non-UX researchers and start incorporating into the platform a package that included an easy way to share insights with others.
Objective
Identify non-UX researchers' needs when conducting benchmarking research to develop new templates for the template library.
Methods
Secondary research + Unmoderated concept testing
Insights
Several changes are needed in the UserTesting.com platform when it comes to comparing Platform A to Platform B, from changing the layout to compare results side to side to a key takeaway of which platform performed better overall.
Recommendations
Shortly, UT should integrate design changes into the insights screen in the platform. Please continue to share a template so that organizations can share the results of their unmoderated tests with their teams.
Impacts
Benchmarking templates became part of the Marketing strategy, the Center of Human Insight, and webinars.
Background
During 2022 UserTesting.com had two main goals Awareness and Adoption. The Executive team worked closely with the Marketing and Product teams to achieve these goals.
Regarding awareness, the Marketing team promotes the use cases of UserTesting templates. The team ensures they reach a broader audience and convert prospects into potential customers.
On the other hand, the Product team partners helped measure adoption. They track the tests launched from templates by their target cohorts and analyze the impact of those tests on account engagement. This approach allowed them to identify the features that resonate with users and adapt product roadmap accordingly.
My role: UX Researcher & Content Designer
Tasks: Conduct unmoderated tests, design research guides, concept testing, synthesize key takeaways, and create the insights template layout.
Collaborators: Sean Treiser, Insights Strategist; Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer (CIO)
Objectives
Create a new research guide to incorporate into the UserTesting.com template library.
Design an insights template for non-researchers to easily understand outcomes and communicate the overall findings of tests with others in their organization.
Research questions
What do non-UX researchers typically test regarding benchmarking?
What are the key takeaways non-UX researchers want to share with their team?
Approach
Secondary research and unmoderated testing
Testing template & results with UserTesting.com users
Testing and using new insights document layout
Insights and Recommendations
Non-researchers tend to seek help to understand the screening and analyzing results
Sometimes designers are doing UX research work and are not sure how to recruit users. When it comes to interpreting findings this most be easy to read, an Excel sheet would become complicated to slice and dice data.
Facilitate the use of balanced comparison.
UserTesting.com has the option of creating a balanced comparison test, but it doesn’t appear to affect results. Inputting information when being on the screen for balanced comparison people have to input information twice instead of duplicating the section.
Screen redesign to compare results side to side
The product team needs to redesign the results screen for users to be able to compare results. Users needed to scroll up and down to see results from Product A vs. Product B.
Improve voice collection and translation
When looking at word clouds or even when the ML is assigning emotions (positive vs. negative) it is also recording or taking note when the users are reading tasks or questions.
Include key takeaways in the insights screen.
This was already in the pipeline for product, but key takeaways at the top of the screen or an insights template would be useful, to in some way declare which platform is overall preferred.
Copy-pasting information from the site to Google doc is acceptable
When testing with users, an insights template that requires them to screenshot the UserTesting.com platform was something that they could use in the meantime but they would prefer to be able to download the information directly form the platform.
Integration of template in the template library with the insights template to share in a Google Docs editable version.
Benchmarking templates became part of the Marketing Strategy and the Center for Human Insight and webinars.
Connection and visibility between multiple internal teams.
Impact
