The crossroads of social work and design

This week from People Nerds: Rachael Dietkus talks positive deviance, Hina Shahid shares unique ways to use prototyping, & onboarding tips

Carving her own design path Rachael Dietkus, Founder and Principal of Social Workers Who Design, found herself in the field via a road less traveled. Her career—spanning art and design, sociology, and activism—led her to this new nexus of empathy and systems thinking.   EVERYTHING CLICKED This week's community poll Answer with a click this week, see the results in next week's newsletter.   Once it's safe, what percentage of your research will be done in-field/in-person? 1. 0-25% 2. 25-50% 3. 50-75% 4. 75-100% Test more than hypotheses with your prototypes Hina Shahid of Project Pluralism walks us through how her team uses prototype tests for social change. Plus, learn how understanding the "why" behind prototyping can help you refine communication, investigate the value for users, and assess the feasibility of a design.   ENHANCE YOUR PROTOTYPING Faster isn't always better (sorry F9) While a thorough onboarding process can seem lengthy, taking the time to ensure a new employee properly adjusts is critical to both their success and the company's. As someone who has a lot of experience on both sides of onboarding, Nikki Anderson shares her tips for building a positive foundation for newcomers.   WELCOME ABOARD See your name in this newsletter. People Nerds is always on the lookout for new contributors. Learn more about writing with us. More we're discussing:  "Why am I asking this?" Five experts share their advice for conducting mindful and impactful international research.  OJO Labs partnered with dscout to better understand the home buying journey from the user's perspective. See how this impacted their strategy and platform.  What we're hearing: Victory Brown says, "Focused ethnographic studies in UXR is essential to developing an in-depth understanding of users, cultures, and activities." Find out why. Replacing personas? Discover how Pokemapping may be another solution for translating findings from research. 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

Your guide to worldwide research

This week from People Nerds: We gather advice for conducting international research & OJO Labs takes us through their home buying research

We're taking research international Research studies take a lot of planning. And as you shift your focus globally, you're likely to spend twice as much time on logistics. We asked five experts to share their advice for conducting international research that is as mindful as it is impactful.   ALL AROUND THE WORLD People Nerds resources to stream + save   Watch: In a new ten(ish) minute tutorial, we discuss the delicate art of translating your orgs' business question into a research questions. Learn how to have better conversations with your stakeholders—and to design studies that are valuable both to them and to your users.   Download: In case you missed it, we wrote a handy, comprehensive guide to smarter user research project management. Read it for a "to-do" list style walkthrough of the three core phases of the research lifecycle.  Re-defining the home buying journey Larcombe Teichgraeber and her team at OJO Labs wanted to better understand the home buying journey from the user's perspective. Through their research with dscout, they identified some of the fears and goals that came with home buying during COVID-19 and found ways to make their platform more accessible.   SALE PENDING Results from last week's community poll (n = 141) What area of your research practice do you rarely have enough time for?   37% - Analysis 23% - Study design 16% - Delivery + Share out 12% - Fielding 12% - Recruitment More we're discussing:  Taylor Klassman gets meta and tells us about her work as a Lead User Experience researcher at a research company (shoutout dscout).  Prior proper planning prevents poor performance. Be prepared for every usability test with our checklist template. What we're hearing: Extra extra read all about it! Learners recently released their July Research Newsletter with updates and career opportunities.  Avoid duplicating work, Anna Lee Anda and PH put together a list of data your organization is likely already collecting and where you can find it. 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