What is qualitative data? Name an example?
Descriptive data in the form of language.
Example: Interview, usability testing, questionnaire, observation
What is quantitative data? Name a quantitative research method.
Descriptive data in the form of numbers / hard data.
- Survey, A/B testing, Analytics, Eye-tracking
What is usability testing?
“Getting real people to interact with a website, app, or other product you’ve built and observing their behaviour and reactions to it.”
What are some characteristics of qualitative data?
- Deeper insights
- Smaller group of people
- Unstructured
- Unmeasurable
- Subjective / Soft science
What are some characteristics of quantitative data?
- Structured
- Measurable
- Statistics
- Large groups of people
- ‘Hard’ science
Benefits of surveys?
- Easy
- Qualitative and quantitative
- Powerful
- Unambitious
- Structured and unstructured
What are Heuristics?
A problem solving approach. A heuristic is a mental shortcut that allows people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently.
3 components of a product
- Viability (Business)
- Feasibility (Technology)
- Desirability (Customer)
Describe heuristic rule #1: ‘Software should be interested in me’
Name an example in relation to FlyUX.
- It should know my name
- Recognise colleagues
- Learn more about it’s users
Example: Know users name, favourite travel destinations.
Describe heuristic rule #4: ‘Software should have common sense’
Name an example in relation.
Act like a human.
Example: Picking up train tickets in a different station to departure.
Describe heuristic rule #8: ‘Recognition rather than recall’
- Faces easier to recall than names
- Visuals easier to recall than text
Describe heuristic rule #6: ‘Match between system and real world’.
No jargon or acronyms that people don’t understand.
Describe heuristic rule #2: ‘Software should be forthcoming’
Name an example in relation to FlyUX.
- Help users make an informed decision.
- Good error messages
- Don’t give options that aren’t available.
Example:
- Only show available airports
- Tell users why you need personal data from them
Describe heuristic rule #3: ‘Software should be confident’
Name an example.
You don’t need to be 100% sure if the action isn’t catastrophic.
Example: Use an undo button instead of “Are you sure you wish to delete”?
Benefits of usability testing?
- Challenges assumptions
- Presents product from users perspective
- Avoids feature debates
- Produces variety of data
Describe heuristic rule #10: ‘Don’t waste my time’
- Save steps when possible
Example: FlyUX set destination to nearby
Name 7 research methods
- Card sorting
- A/B testing
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Focus Groups
- Competitive benchmarking
- User testing
Describe heuristic rule #5: ‘Visibility of system status’
Name some examples.
- Keep people informed about what’s happening on the system.
- Reduces anxiety, tells people that something is happening and stops them redoing actions.
Examples: Using a progress bar, loading page, “downloading” label, confirmation page, toast notifications.
Describe heuristic rule #7: ‘Freedom and control’
Name an example.
No punishment for mistakes.
Example: Kicked out of banking software for pressing ‘Back’ button.
Describe heuristic rule #9: ‘Don’t force me your way’
- Format phone numbers
- Spaces or dashes can be easily removed by code
