Getting back into user research
Last week saw me getting back to hands on user research again. While I have called myself a service designer for several years now I’ve dipped in and out of user research over the last 8–10 years.
When I first started working at Snook the company was small and our roles spanned both research and design for several years.
My first taste of research and design as specialisms came when I worked embedded within Tesco’s Service Design Team for 6 months. I worked on a project about returns and got paired with the wonderful Caroline Morton, someone who went on to become a friend. I saw through this work how powerful it can be to pair the two roles and have a depth of experience in both spaces working closely together.
After that my opportunities to carry out user research reduced as I grew into leadership roles in service design. It’s something I really missed and I would take every opportunity to get involved if I could. I also really believe in the mantra Matt Edgar has always championed around making sure people in senior roles observe user research regularly. For me though, I wanted to do more than observe. When I was at WithYou I paired up with the wonderful Christina Herold to undertake a discovery project around starting treatment. I regulary supported the user research team at NHS Digital, especially during the Covid vaccination booking service work. Towards the end of last year I ran sessions at Lloyds Bank around the experience of property rental.
I still have a fair amount of imposter syndrome around user research though. It’s a discipline in its own right and one that’s continuously evolving like most creative practices. I sometimes feel like I haven’t kept up.
While I feel comfortable and capable holding an open conversation with a participant, steering that conversation based on research aims and digging deeper around the why of people’s behaviour — it’s everything else that goes around the conversation that I’m less sure about.
I want to make sure I’m getting it right when it comes to consent, privacy and GDPR. I also want to improve my approach to capturing conversations. I’m still choosing what to invest in from a business perspective so last weeks interviews were on Google Meet and audio recorded via a phone app while I took notes. I know there are better ways to do this and some great tips were shared with me on Twitter. I just need to spend some time looking into what might be right for me and how I can adapt my freelancer tech stack to integrate some tools for research.
I also think, as a freelancer, it’s important to set money aside to invest in your practice. You have to make your own professional development budget. I thought it was interesting how this article pointed out that sometimes imposter syndrome can be an indication of where you might need to invest and that this is a way of helping you feel more in control.
In light of this I’m attending Sophie Rankin’s session on How to research sensitive topics this week. This is something I’ve had experience of and I know it can be difficult. I also haven’t done it for a while. My current research covers physical and mental health as well as addiction and I want to be prepared for this.
Challenges aside though, it was great to get back to researching last week. I’d forgotten how joyful these conversations can be especially when I’m largely working from home. I always feel privileged that people feel able to share their stories and experiences with a relative stranger in the name of improving services for others.
This week I’ll be speaking with some more trainees that have taken part in the Paws and Pause programme, a 6 month employability programme for people recovering from mental health and addiciton. I’ll also be shadowing my first interviews with gender diverse users of Drink Aware’s digital tools. And in the pipeline is a big research project with people in the health space.
I look forward to sharing my experiences as I go but if you have any great resources for brushing up on best practice in the user research space, please let me know.
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If you’re an experienced user researcher I’m also looking for collaborators for upcoming projects. Please send your CV to: hello@designforjoy.co.uk
