User Research Friday
I was glad I was able to attend User Research Friday put on by Bolt|Peters at Mighty in the Poterero District. I wish there were more opportunities to have half day sessions with colleagues about research and other pertinent topics regarding user experience.
We grabbed burritos at the Best Buy, El Tonayese Taco Truck and headed down to see six 20 minute short lectures. The topic was User Research but it extended to Ethnography, Mobile Research, Mental Models and Design Research. I liked the format that gave each person enough time formulate a nice premise, but not so long that presentations with less to say were forced to drag into the 45+ minute range.
I also liked including the twitter channel _#urf08 as a forum for questions, though not many were actually used. Sometimes, it’s just a back channel, but I notice more and more that it’s being used to cull questions from the audience.
By far my favorites were Aviva Rosenstein for her educational and pointed preso on Fake vs. Real Ethnography. Also a big hit was Dan Saffer of Kickerstudio’s, “How to Lie with Design Research”.
Reading up…
I’ve had some time to catch up on my reading. I found this graphic novel, Tricked, at a very cool store that my wife and I happened on one Sunday afternoon running errands, Neon Monster. Couldn’t put it down. Hadn’t enjoyed a narrative comic like that since my obsession with Love and Rockets back in the day.
On a more serious note, I’ve been diving into Everyware by Adam Greenfield and Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling. Two different lenses on the coming of ubiquity.