Moving forward...

This week from People Nerds: Talking about race in research, a recap from our webinar with Google, and conducting research in tough times.

Challenging presumptions—and doing the work Orgs and teams across the world are having a long overdue conversation about race—in and out of the office. There are helpful ways to meet this moment, and there are harmful ways. Autumn Foster Sanders, founder of the design consulting firm Quire, has suggestions for the former.    READ MORE Community and culture in the distributed work moment Margaret Lee and Mike Buzzard, leaders of UX Community and Culture at Google, talked with us about creating co-present teams in an ever-shifting workplace. We've distilled their insights into these nine rules for effective culture cultivation.   LEARN MORE When the going gets tough... Research can be difficult under the best of circumstances. Throw a pandemic in the mix, and things get tougher—both for you, and your participants. To do research compassionately might be to do research differently. Here's how to adjust.    GET GOING More we're discussing: A couple tips for when you want to move the ball forward, but are short on time: try conducting a heuristic evaluation, or any of these 9 time-saving UXR hacks. Most of us are still physically distanced from our co-workers, so keeping research top-of-mind with your stakeholders might be difficult. Here's how to navigate this new challenge. Looking to get folks even more involved? Read former Slack Head of Research Behzod Sirjani's advice on democratizing user research. What we're hearing:  Interesting and well-timed piece from UX Matters on design that reduces uncertainty and lessens anxiety. Smashing Magazine published a timely breakdown of video conferencing tools based on their adherence to accessible design principles. Grateful for this piece on "society-centered" data that introduced to the Data Ethics Canvas. dscout is a company composed of People Nerds working to make context-rich human insight an everyday habit across organizations. The dscout platform—Diary, Live, Recruit, and Express—enables remote qualitative research that brings researchers into the moments experienced and shared by real people. Curious about the platform or working with dscout? Talk to an account executive.  dscout, 222 North LaSalle St. Suite 650, Chicago, Illinois 60601, (312) 880-9715 Unsubscribe Manage preferences

UXR that serves others (free webinar tomorrow)

Hi Wanto,

Doing UX that serves others should be top of mind for all of us. For the experts in our next webinar, service is core to what they do.

We're hosting a free panel webinar on how research can help others tomorrow at 11am Central, and we thought you might want to join.

Hear from researchers working for orgs including Code for America, the city of San Francisco, and US government agencies about how UX research can serve target communities and those in need—and learn how you can ensure service-minded UX and design practices at your org.

Hope you can make it (bring questions, and feel free to share with your team)!

Ben Wiedmaier
Research Evangelist, dscout

PS: If the time doesn't work for you, no problem: anyone who registers will get the recording in their inbox.

dscout,
222 North LaSalle St. Suite 650,
Chicago,
Illinois

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Cheat codes for leveling up your research + career

This week from People Nerds: Conducting heuristic evals, growing your UX career, and serving communities with research.

Leveling up in research  The field is changing. So are the skills we need to grow. Here's a concrete checklist of experience you should acquire, strategies you should learn, and methods you should master to "level up"—whether you're a UXR veteran, or new to the space.    LEVEL UP A "fill-in-the-gaps" research tactic When you have a (rare) free moment between a project or sprint, but not quite enough time to run participant-backed research—try a heuristic evaluation. It'll help you find the issues in your UX and get you started at patching them up.    LEARN HOW Researching for community impact Now, more than ever, we need to radically restructure the way we provide for those in need. That's why we're speaking with civic and nonprofit UX leaders on how they best serve their communities. Save your spot in our free webinar on June 24.    JOIN US More we're discussing: In February our team did some exploratory research on what, who, and how we celebrate Black History Month. We're revisiting what we learned as we celebrate Juneteenth.  ICYMI: We did original research on how user behavior and brand perception has changed, months into the COVID-19 crisis. Read here.  We boiled down the "business basics" every UXR should know into these essential frameworks. What we're hearing:  Great piece from developer Olu Niyiawosusi on "Building the Woke Web" (AKA, the intersection of accessibility, inclusion, and social justice online) UX Collective published an anti-racist reading list for designers (it also features a few upcoming events worth looking into). Listen to Invision's Design Better Podcast on designing for diversity with the founders of Project Inkblot. dscout is a company composed of People Nerds working to make context-rich human insight an everyday habit across organizations. The dscout platform—Diary, Live, Recruit, and Express—enables remote qualitative research that brings researchers into the moments experienced and shared by real people. Curious about the platform or working with dscout? Talk to an account executive.  dscout, 222 North LaSalle St. Suite 650, Chicago, Illinois 60601, (312) 880-9715 Unsubscribe Manage preferences

The "prove it matters" edition

This week from People Nerds: Business lessons for designers, how to negotiate with stakeholders, a webinar on community-centered research.

Tactic #1: Be a mirror Most UX jobs don't require experience pitching or negotiating. Yet, most of us are tasked with proving value to our stakeholders. Try these three surefire negotiation tactics to win more resources or support.   LEARN MORE "Speak the language" of business Essential (but uncommon) advice: if you're looking to "level up" as a UX practitioner, try talking to your company's accountant. Increasingly, the lines between business strategy and UX strategy are blurring, and it's up to UXRs to understand both.    GET TO WORK UXR that serves In a critical moment, we're speaking with civic and nonprofit UX leaders on how they do research that truly serves their communities. Use their thoughtful strategies to ensure your research serves your audience, too.   JOIN US More we're discussing: Top of mind right now: Alba Villamil's thought's on how we should rethink our roles, and our methodologies, when researching on behalf of marginalized communities. Additionally, Cyd Harrell's thoughts on civic UX and the how we handle privacy and personal data. Finally, this starter syllabus packed with resources for more inclusive and accessible UX.  What we're hearing:  A useful refresher: Smashing Magazine's 12 Ways to improve User Interview Questions. An interesting primer from UX booth on "learning experience design"—aka, the intersection of corporate learning and UX design practices. Some foundational practices for great teamwork from UX Matters, specific to UXRs in this remote-work moment. dscout is a company composed of People Nerds working to make context-rich human insight an everyday habit across organizations. The dscout platform—Diary, Live, Recruit, and Express—enables remote qualitative research that brings researchers into the moments experienced and shared by real people. Curious about the platform or working with dscout? Talk to an account executive.  dscout, 222 North LaSalle St. Suite 650, Chicago, Illinois 60601, (312) 880-9715 Unsubscribe Manage preferences