In the past, I’ve written about the importance of models for explaining the UX process. I explained that I used the Service Design Model to gudie me and illustrate how research happens at different points of a product’s lifecycle. This is all fine and good, but I’ve realized that explaining what “discovery”, “exploration”, and “listening” mean in the context of UXR can be challenging when you’re talking to non-research professionals. Most people will get what “testing” means. The idea of putting an actual artifact in front of someone and figuring out if it works as expected, is pretty straight froward. Plus, most of us can associate the concept of asking and answering questions to testing. But there’s more to research than testing. How do you explain that to someone who has never done research?
I started a new job at Fidelity Investments the beginning of June. From a Designer/Researcher, who did everything from design facilitation, wire framing, visual design, and CSS, I switched into a UX Researcher, a specialist. So I’ve been thinking about this question a lot more.
One approach is to tie research to the kinds of questions we ask at each stage of the product workflow. Fidelity uses a 3 phase framework: Right Problem, Right Solution, and Done Right. Essentially, this approach breaks down the research into: “what do users need that we can solve for?”, “which of our possible solutions should we build?” and “is this thing we built working like it should?” If we translate it to the Service Design Model, the “discovery” stage is “right problem,” “exploration” is “right solution” and “testing” and “listening” are “done right.”
Now the Fidelity framework goes in more detail about what methods to use and it utilizes more detailed research questions, but this surface description suffices to show the value of my work. In fact, that is the very same reason why Fidelity uses the framework to democratize research. It takes away abstract research concepts and better aligns them with the design and development process. Designers and developers are focused on solving problems, and so are researchers.
Does this mean I will stop thinking about my work in terms of the Service Design model? No, not exactly. I still think the Service Design model has its place. Some people are comfortable with terms like discovery and exploration, and distinguishing between testing and listening has its value. However, having more than one way of explaining research is useful.