An Introduction to Agile User Research & Testing

Workshop
Karen Plemons, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA , Liz Filardi, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA

What do your visitors really want in a digital product? How do you know whether your product is intuitive to use? What do you do when stakeholder expectations differ from visitor needs? Led by a Producer and a Researcher, this half-day workshop is intended to help you answer these questions with confidence using tools that you can rapidly employ and learn from.

We will share methods for developing research tools, gathering data, and making the most of findings to inform your approach at key milestones in the production of apps, digital games, and websites. We will provide anecdotes from our own experiences to illustrate how these methods can pan out in the wild.

Participants will learn about research strategies including:
- Card Sorting- hone in on priorities and preferences
- User Testing- evaluate the response to your designs
- Surveys and Interviews- ask the right questions of the right people
- Observations- know what to watch for, and how to record what you see

Participants will work in small teams to identify a challenge of their own, strategically choose a research method, and adapt and test their instruments. Each participant will leave with tools and strategies that they can use to gather feedback for an informed and iterative design process.

This workshop is for producers, project managers, educators, designers, and developers involved in developing digital experiences.