While methods courses tied to human-computer interaction or usability may provide some fundamentals to prepare students for success in industry, other skills are better learned on-the-job. The following industry professionals will provide insight to help psychologists succeed in an applied role. The insights start with fundamentals to get started: learning business goals and new methods; folding business goals into your research; becoming comfortable with less rigor compared to academia; and learning to communicate verbally and visually in a concise manner. Next, it moves into key strategies to develop into an impactful researcher: understanding your limits and navigating politics; and focusing on your brand to build strong relationships and create lasting impact.
The playtest method is known in the gaming community; however, it can be adapted for use across user experience (UX) researchers. By using the playtest method, one can use the laboratory environment and push beyond usability to understand discoverability, enjoyment, and additional user preferences that aren’t otherwise feasible in usability testing due to the low sample size. Additionally, a small-sample playtest method allows a product team to observe participants organically interacting with a product or feature which can be invaluable for building empathy.
Interactive voice response systems (IVRs) are ubiquitous user interfaces that allow customers to gather information and execute transactions. Because the entire user interaction is auditory-based, the voice used in the IVR is of high importance. Entities that field IVRs go to great lengths to select appropriate voices, usually on the basis of aesthetics of the voice, or on branding considerations. While much has been written on the usability of these IVR systems from the perspective of navigation, the impact of the voice on the usability of IVRs has not been well explored. Towards this end, we investigated the impact of voice personality and speaker gender on the usability of an interactive voice response system. Results suggest that voice characteristics can have an impact on the perceived usability of the system, with male voices resulting in higher usability metrics than female voices.
Five observations on human factors and ergonomics are compared to user experience (UX) research. This paper highlights similarities and differences to the original reflections made by Salas (2008) and goes deeper into where user experience research as a field has room to grow, particularly, by maintaining a closer connection to its roots in psychology and human factors. This is important as applied user experience researchers work to make an impact and grow their careers through credibility and rigor of work. User experience researchers of varying tenure and those considering entering the field may benefit from reflecting on where they find such patterns in their own roles and what solutions should be proposed (whether internalized, institutional, or systemic).
Planning academic research, learning about human computer interaction, understanding cognitive biases, and using statistics are fundamentals that help to prepare students for industry. However, to succeed as a UX researcher, there are other strategies, mindsets and knowledge needed to be successful. Our experienced industry professionals will provide insight to help early career professionals transition to and succeed in an applied industry role. We will touch on communication in the business world, adapting methodologies, going beyond the textbook to acquire skills, becoming a bold leader, learning how to demonstrate value, and adjusting research as we consider future technologies. A moderator will collect questions via Sli.do and significant time will be spent on audience discussion.
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