practicing anthropology in user experience, design and business
TRANSCRIPT
PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY
in User Experience Design
& Business
Amy Santee, Independent Consultant January 6, 2016
Agenda
1. A bit about me 2. Education & career history 3. UX, Design, Business & Anthropology 4. Project examples 5. Final thoughts
@amysantee@AmericanAnthro
A bit about me
1
2
3
4
-foodie
Practicing Anthropologist
Educational & career history
Consumer Researcher (corporate)2011-2012
UX Researcher / Consultant (agency)2013-2014
Lead UX Researcher (corporate/start-up)
2014-2015
MA Applied Anthropology2009-2011
2004-2008 BA Anthropology
UX Research Consultant (independent)
July 2015 to present
Amy Santee
MA Applied Anthropology2009-2011
Consumer Researcher (corporate)2011-2012UX Researcher / Consultant (agency)2013-2014
Lead UX Researcher (corporate/start-up)
2014-2015
2004-2008 BA Anthropology
UX & Design Research Consultant (freelance)
July 2015 to present
Consulting
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= Level of Understanding of
Doing Anthropology
user experience, design & business
Working in
My role: User Experience (ux)
Researcher
User Experience Research Research that is done to understand and inform the experiences people have when interacting with a product, service or system.
User-Centered Design (UCD)
The most well-designed products and services result from understanding the people who will use them.
UCD puts people at the core of design decisions.
It considers their needs, goals, values and feedback in the design process.
In buildings like this…
(used to work here)
On corporate campuses like this… (used to work here, too)
A lot of design and business decisions get made in rooms like this…
Many of the most successful organizations employ a UCD process
• Not a straightforward path
How I got into this field of work
• Undergraduate • Qualitative research
• Grad school • Culture and consumerism • Recession
• Consumer Research at State Farm • Exposure to User Experience and Usability • Explored this further
• Portland • Empirical • SpendWell • Freelance
Photo: Isaac Sachs
User Experience Research Research that is done to understand and inform the experiences people have when interacting with a product, service or system.
… Who are the people who (might) use our product? What are they like? What do they care about? What are their needs, preferences, values, goals, motivations?
… How might the product/service solve their problems?
… What would make it relevant and meaningful (i.e., valuable)?
… Is it usable and learnable?
… How do people currently interact with and experience the product/service?
UX & Design Research seek to address the following questions:
The outputs of UX research are information, insights and tools for design and business decision-making.
Why do User Experience Research? 10 Outcomes
Outcome #1 Get people a seat at the table with business, technology and design.
Outcome #2 Design or improve a product or service based on an understanding of the people who interact with it.
Outcome #3 Make sure the things we design meet people’s needs, solve their problems, and fit into their lives.
Outcome #4 Validate and disprove our assumptions about people and the value of a product or service. Design based on data, not guesses.
Outcome #5 Identify problems and opportunities that are not obvious.
Outcome #6 Have a better idea of how to design a product or service, and know what not to do.
Outcome #7 Provide direction for design and business decisions to minimize risk, maximize success, and differentiate from competitors.
Outcome #8 Save money. It’s more expensive to fix things after they’ve been designed or developed.
Outcome #9 Remind ourselves we are not designing for . . . ourselves.
Outcome #10 Build a culture of empathy within organizations.
anthropology & UX, design + biz
Anthropology is the study of the human experience. It’s about understanding people.
Anthropology DesignValue
UsefulnessRelevance
+ =
photo of book pile
P erspective
Approach
Skills & Tools
project examples
P erspective
Holistic Empathy Interpretive Cultural/social Cross-cultural People-centered Insider/outsider Healthy skepticism
Detail-oriented Process-oriented Results-oriented
Open-minded Value-added Contextual
Curious Ethical
ApproachCritical Iterative Creative Systematic Advocacy Collaborative Participatory Multi-method
Inductive Deductive Immersive
Resourceful Engagement
Problem-solving Systems thinking
Knowledge-building
Skills & ToolsTheory Concepts Research Storytelling Rapport-building Learning Observing Planning
Analysis Listening
Managing Digging deep
Pattern recognition Understanding and
framing problems Making sense of
complexity
Contextual interview
Contextual observation
Photo diaries
1:1 Interviews
Video diaries
Research Methods
Card sort
Usability test
Participatory design research Task analysis
Remote interview
Group interview Surveys
Analytics
project examples
Redesign of Medical Terminology Editing
Software
Wine Shop Customer Experience
Ethnographic Study of the Relationship Between Social Capital and Health
Prototype Testing and Vehicle Owner Interviews
in Shanghai, China
Various Usability and UX research studies for
mobile and desktop hardware
Digital Stylus Use for Productivity, Art and Design
Area Rug Shopping Experience
Insurance Agent Office Ethnography
Call Center Process Improvement
Online Insurance Shopping Experience
Product Naming
Exploratory Study of Android Developers in
Germany, China and Brazil
Various UX and Usability Studies for
SpendWell Health
What’s helped me
along the way
Learning skills that anthropology didn’t teach me Immersing myself in UX, design, business, technology
Collaborating with other roles Professional events, meetups, conferences
Understanding business culture Adapting methods and approaches
Explaining research to non-researchers Learning to convince people to pay for it
Actionable, tangible results Variation in experience, roles, industries Being flexible and OK with uncertainty
Reminding myself that I’m there to fill a business need Letting go of the ideal
From Anthropology to UX, Design + Biz
Academic anthropology is “pure” anthropology.
Applied anthropology isn’t theoretical enough.
Applied anthropology isn’t intellectually stimulating.
6 Myths
Business is evil and you’re a horrible person if you work there.
You can’t make any money doing anthropology.
Florida doesn’t need more anthropologists - Rick Scott.
WRONG
Doing Meaningful WorkUsing my anthropology training to solve challenging problems
Being creative and working with technology
Having an impact with my work
Helping design things that are valuable, useful and relevant, that meet real needs and solve real problems
Advocating for people, convincing others to listen
Helping businesses succeed in a competitive world
I encourage… students to explore a career in UX, Design and Business professors to learn more about this field businesses to hire more anthropologists
